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Fur trade
Connecticut was originally settled by Dutch fur traders in 1614. They sailed up the Connecticut River and built a fort near present-day Hartford. The first English settlers arrived in Connecticut in 1633 under the leadership of Reverend Thomas Hooker. -
Founded Hartford
One of the most famous early Connecticut Settlers, the Reverend Thomas Hooker, traveled from Massachusetts with a group of colonists. They founded the town of Hartford, which soon became an important center of government and trade. -
Trouble began between the settlers and the Pequot Indians
The main events surrounding the Pequot War occurred between 1637 and 1638. The parties involved were the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies along with Native Americans from the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes against the Pequot tribe. The Connecticut colony was also involved. -
Connecticut participated in King Philip's War
King Philip's War was fought between colonists in Massachusetts and Connecticut and the Wampanoag Indians led by Metacom and their allies, the Nipmuck and Narragansett Indians. Metacom was called King Philip by the colonists. -
Height of religious "Great Awakening."
The Great Awakening (Second Turning, 1727-1746) began as a spiritual revival in the Connecticut Valley and reached an hysterical peak in the northern colonies (in 1741) with the preaching of George Whitefield and the tracts of Jonathan Edwards. -
Connecticut Gazette of New Haven, the Colony's first newspaper, printed by James Parker at New Haven
The French and Indian War was the greatest military challenge faced by the Connecticut colony between the time of King Philip’s uprising and the American Revolution. The war had a profound impact on the colony because it severely taxed economic, political, and manpower resources and set in motion forces that caused Connecticut and Britain’s other original North American colonies to rise in rebellion a dozen years after the war ended. -
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was the greatest military challenge faced by the Connecticut colony between the time of King Philip’s uprising and the American Revolution. The war had a profound impact on the colony because it severely taxed economic, political, and manpower resources and set in motion forces that caused Connecticut and Britain’s other original North American colonies to rise in rebellion a dozen years after the war ended. -
Sharp opposition to Stamp Act
Despite protests from all the colonies, Parliament in 1765 passed the Stamp Act, which levied a tax on items such as pamphlets, newspapers, almanacs, calendars, tavern licenses, advertisements, playing cards, dice, bills of lading, and most legal documents. A group called the Sons of Liberty arose in vigorous opposition to the act. Composed of some of the most prominent figures in the colony, the organization pledged to work for the act’s repeal. -
British troops under General Tryon road to Danbury
British troops under the command of General William Tryon attack the town of Danbury, Connecticut, and begin destroying everything in sight. Facing little, if any, opposition from Patriot forces, the British went on a rampage, setting fire to homes, farmhouse, storehouses and more than 1,500 tents.The British destruction continued for nearly a week before word of it reached Continental Army leaders, including General Benedict Arnold, who was stationed in nearby New Haven. -
Connecticut becomes the 5th state
On this day January 9th, in 1788, Connecticut becomes the 5th state of the United States. Connecticut is bordered by New York to the West, Massachusetts to the North, and Rhode Island to the east. Connecticut is blessed with having variation in its land with mountains, farms, and even beaches. -
Connecticut's Old State House host a meeting
The construction of Connecticut’s Old State House was completed in 1796. In 1814, it hosted the Hartford Convention, a meeting of Federalist leaders in which the adoption of seven proposed amendments to the Constitution was considered by many to be treasonous. -
Reformers defeated Federalists in political revolution; school for deaf founded in Hartford
The American School for the Deaf (ASD) is the oldest permanent school for the deaf in the United States. It was founded April 15, 1817, in West Hartford, Connecticut, by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, Dr. Mason Cogswell, and Laurent Clerc and became a state-supported school later that year. -
New Constitution adopted by convention in Hartford and approved by voters; ends system of established church
Before the adoption of the Fundamental Orders,Windsor,Hartford and Wethersfield cooperated under a simple form of government composed of magistrates and representatives from each town,but the towns had no formal instrument of government. The document consisted of a preamble and 11 orders or laws. The preamble was a covenant which bound the three towns to be governed in all civil matters by the Orders. -
Washington College (now Trinity) founded in Hartford
Approximately 2,100 students are enrolled at the college. Trinity College was founded in Hartford as Washington College in 1823; it was the first Episcopal college in New England. Classes were first held in 1824 in the basement of a church. -
Wesleyan University founded in Middle town
Wesleyan University was founded in 1831 by Methodist leaders and Middle town citizens. Instruction began with 48 students of varying ages, the president, three professors, and one tutor; tuition was $36 per year. -
Revolver patented by Colt
Connecticut-born gun manufacturer Samuel Colt(1814-62)received a U.S. patent for a revolver mechanism that enabled a gun to be fired multiple times without reloading. Colt founded a company to manufacture his revolving-cylinder pistol; however, sales were slow and the business floundered. -
Music Vale Seminary, first American music school, founded at Salem by Oramel Whittlesey.
Whittlesey was born Nov. 1, 1801.The family lived on a farm about a half-mile south of the Salem town green. His father, the Rev. John Whittlesey, manufactured piano keys. Oramel and his brothers, John and Henry Whittlesey, made pianos. John Whittlesey objected to Oramel's learning music, but Oramel persisted. He became well known and soon began giving piano lessons at home. Students came from as far away as the West Indies and Canada. -
Mexican war
Then in 1846, with the Mexican War(1846-48)under way, the U.S. government ordered 1,000 Colt revolvers. In 1855, Colt opened what was the world’s largest private armament factory, in which he employed advanced manufacturing techniques such as interchangeable parts and an organized production line. -
Hartford became capital city
Hartford, capital of Connecticut and city coextensive with the town (township) of Hartford, Hartford county, U.S., in the north-central part of the state. It is a major industrial and commercial centre and a port at the head of navigation on the Connecticut River, 38 miles (61 km) from Long Island Sound. -
First American state law regulating automobile speeds
Connecticut Sets First Speed Limit at 12 MPH. The first speed-limit law in the United States, which applied to automobiles like this circa-1900 electric from Riker, also included mandates for how cars behaved near horse-drawn carriages. -
University of New Haven founded
The University of New Haven was founded in 1920 as the New Haven YMCA Junior College, a division of Northeastern University, which shared buildings, laboratories, and faculty members at Yale University, for nearly forty years. -
University of Bridgeport founded
University of Bridgeport is a private institution that was founded in 1927. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 3,129, its setting is urban, and the campus size is 86 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. -
St. Joseph College founded in West Hartford.
The University of Saint Joseph is a Roman Catholic comprehensive institution of higher education and an undergraduate coeducational university with graduate programs. It is located in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States and was founded in 1932 by the Sisters of Mercy of Connecticut. -
Floods cause enormous damage in Connecticut River Valley.
People are marveling at the sight of large chunks of ice floating down the Connecticut River in recent days, but that was not the emotion felt in 1936. When the level of the Connecticut River first began to rise in Springfield on March 15, 1936, people flocked to see the swollen river with huge ice chunks, some the size of cars, heading downstream and sometimes causing damage. Five days later, when the river finally crested, Western Massachusetts was hit with one its greatest natural disasters.
