-
Roanoke Colony
The first English colony of Roanoke was founded in 1585. This Colony was run by Ralph Lane after Sir Richard Grenville, who had transported the colonists to Virginia, returned to Britain for supplies. When Sir Francis Drake put in at Roanoke, the entire colony returned with Drake to England, but when Drake picked up these colonists, he left behind 15 of his own men, who were never heard from again.
nationalcenter.org -
Jamestown, Virginia is founded
Jamestown is founded by colonists of the London company. Starvation and disease killed many of the settlers. Captain John Smith is captured by Native American Chef Powhatan and saved by by the chief's daughter, Pocahontas.
history.com -
Mayflower Compact signed
The Mayflower Compact is signed by 41 men on the ship Mayflower. It establishes a form of local government in which the colonists agree to abide by majority rule and to cooperate for the general good of the colony.
mayflowerhistory.com -
Plymouth Colony
In September 1620, during the reign of King James I, around 100 English men and women set sail for the New World aboard the Mayflower. The ship landed on the shores of Cape Cod, where they would form the first permanent settlement of Europeans in New England.
u-s-history.com -
Harvard College founded
Hardvard is the oldest higher education institution in the United States. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was named after John Harvard of Charlestown, who upon his death in 1638 left his library and half his estate to the institution.
harvard.edu -
Philadelphia founded
William Penn, a Quaker, founded Philadelphia to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony and a place of religious tolerance. During the American Revolution, Philadelphia played an important role as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States. It was the largest city in America at that time.
u-s-history.com -
James Oglethorpe founded Georgia
Oglethorpe and the first colonists arrived at South Carolina on the ship Anne in late 1732, and settled near the present site of Savannah, Georgia on 12 February 1733. The colonists included many Scots whose pioneering skills greatly assisted the colony, and many of Georgia's new settlers consisted of poor English tradesmen and artisans and religious refugees from Switzerland, France and Germany.
ourgeorgiahistory.com -
Boston Massacre
British Army soldiers killed five colonists and injured six others. The incident was heavily propagandized by patriots, such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, to fuel animosity toward the British authorities.
bostonmassacre.net -
Boston Tea Party
This famous act of American colonial defiance was a protest against taxation. Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. This resulted in the passage of the punitive Coercive Acts in 1774 and pushed the two sides closer to war.
bostonteapartyship.com -
The Declaration of Independence was signed
The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress. It announced that the thirteen American Colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire. They formed a new nation called the United States of America.
archives.gov
