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Jamestown, the first permanent settlement in America, is established by the London Company in southeast Virginia.
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L’Orfeo, written by Claudio Monteverdi, was one of the first operas ever written, published and performed. The play drew heavily from Greek mythology and musical practices.
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The Mayflower sails from England and lands in Massachussets, where pilgrims establish the Plymouth Colony.
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Manuel Rodrigues Coelho releases his Flores de Musica (Flowers for Music), in Lisbon. This piece is Portugal’s oldest known surviving printed keyboard music.
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The English seize New Amsterdam from the Dutch and rename it New York.
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Johann Heinrich Schmelzer releases Sonatae Unarum Fidium, the earliest known German sheet music of a sonata for violin and continuo.
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Britain and American Colonies switch from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar.
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George Frederic Handel undergoes his infamous eye surgery at the hands of the fraud John Taylor, who botches the surgery, eventually leading to Handel’s death.
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A war fought between Britain and France for control over eastern North America. Britain won the war and furthered the colonial region.
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Ferdinand Ríes was born this year, who would grow up to be a composer as well as a good friend and peer to Beethoven.
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Ballet is performed for the first time in Oslo by a performer named Madame Stuart
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British soldiers open fire on a group of colonial protesters, sparking a violent riot and inciting future conflict.