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At Cape Henry, Virginia, the first Anglican church in the American Colonies was established.
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The Mayflower left Plymouth, England with 102 pilgrams abroard. The Ship would arrive at Povincetown on November 21st and then at Plymouth on December 26th. They came with the reliogn of puritans.
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Samuel Skelton was elected the first pastor of Salem, Massachusetts. The church covenant created by Skelton made his congregation the first non-separating congregational Puritan Church in New England.
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Roger Williams first arrived in North America. He would soon question the rigid religious policies in the Massachusetts colony, leading to his being banished to Rhode Island five years later. There he would create the first Baptist church in America.
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Harvard College (later University) was founded by the Massachusetts Puritans at New Towne. It was the first institution of higher learning established in North America, and was originally created to train future ministers.
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The first Quakers (Mary Fisher and Ann Austin) to arrive in Boston are arrested. Five weeks later they were deported back to England.
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Massachusetts passed a law that required church doors to be locked during services - evidently to keep people from leaving before the long sermons were finished.
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John Bunyan's famous book Pilgrim's Progress was published.
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William Penn, an English Quaker, received a charter from Charles II which made him the sole proprietor of the colonial American territory of Pennsylvania.
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The Salem Witch Trials began when Tituba, the female slave of the Reverend Samuel Parris, Sarah Goode, and Sarah Osborne were all arrested and accused of witchcraft.
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The Salem Witch Trials in the Massachusetts colony were officially launched with the conviction of Tituba, the West Indian slave of Rev. Samuel Parris.
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Bridget Bishop became the first of twenty people executed for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.
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In Massachusetts, Increase Mather published his "Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits," effectively ending the Salem Witch Trials which had begun earlier that year.
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Quaker leader William Penn began a series of monthly meetings for blacks advocating emancipation from slavery.
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The colony of South Carolina passed a "Sunday Law" which required everyone to attend church each Sunday and to refrain from both skilled labor and traveling by horse or wagon beyond what was absolutely necessary. Violators received a fine and/or a two hours in the village stocks.
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French Ursuline nuns first arrived at New Orleans and establish the first Catholic charitable institution in America, consisting of orphanage, a hospital and a school for girls.
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Jonathan Edwards was dismissed from his post as minister of the Congregational church in Northampton, MA. He had been there fore 23 years, but his ultra-conservative theology never wavered and over time both it and his inflexibility on administrative matters had become too much for the congregation.
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Richard Allen, the first black ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, was born a slave in Philadelphia.
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Thomas Coke was consecrated as the first "bishop" in the Methodist Episcopal Church by the founder of Methodism, John Wesley. Coke was later instrumental in the development and growth of Methodism in North America.
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The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church consecrated Richard Allen as its first bishop.
