IMPORTANT DATES IN
CONNECTICUT'S HISTORY

1614--Adriaen Block, representing the Dutch, sails up the Connecticut River.

1633--The Dutch erect a fort, the House of (Good) Hope, on the future site of Hartford.

1633--John Oldham and others explore and trade along the Connecticut River.
Plymouth Colony sends William Holmes to found a trading post at Windsor.

1634--Wethersfield founded by people from Massachusetts.

1634--First English arrive in Windsor.

1635--Fort erected at Saybrook by Lion Gardiner.

1635--Group from Dorchester, Massachusetts join Windsor settlement.

1636--Thomas Hooker and company journey from Newtown (Cambridge),
Massachusetts to found Hartford.

1637--Pequot War. Captain John Mason leads colonists to decisive victory.

1638--New Haven Colony established by John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton.

1639--Fundamental Orders of Connecticut adopted by Freemen of Hartford,
Wethersfield and Windsor; John Haynes chosen first Governor.

1643--Connecticut joins in forming the New England Confederation.

1646--New London founded by John Winthrop, Jr.

1650--Code of laws drawn up by Roger Ludlow and adopted by legislature.

1662--John Winthrop, Jr. obtains a charter for Connecticut.

1665--Union of New Haven and Connecticut Colonies completed.

1665--The first division of any Connecticut town--Lyme's separation from
Saybrook.

1675-76--Connecticut participates in King Philip's War which was fought in
Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

1687--Andros assumes rule over Connecticut; Charter Oak episode occurs.

1689--Connecticut resumes government under charter.

 

1701--Collegiate School authorized by General Assembly.

1708--Saybrook Platform permits churches to join regional consociations.

1717--New Haven State House erected on the Green.

1717--Collegiate School moves to New Haven; called Yale the next year.

1740--Manufacture of tinware begun at Berlin by Edward and William Pattison.

1740's--Height of religious "Great Awakening".

1745--Connecticut troops under Roger Wolcott help capture Louisburg.

1755--Connecticut Gazette of New Haven, the Colony's first newspaper, printed
by James Parker at New Haven.

1763--Brick State House erected on New Haven Green.

1764--Connecticut Courant, the oldest American newspaper in continuous
existence to the present, launched at Hartford by Thomas Green.

1765--Sharp opposition to Stamp Act.

1766--Governor Thomas Fitch who refused to reject the Stamp Act defeated by
William Pitkin.

1767--Thomas and Samuel Green launch newspaper which after many changes
becomes New Haven Journal-Courier.

1774--Connecticut officially extends jurisdiction over Susquehanna Company
area in Northern Pennsylvania.

1774--Silas Deane, Eliphalet Dyer, and Roger Sherman represent Connecticut at
First Continental Congress.

1775--Several thousand militia rush to Massachusetts in "Lexington Alarm."

1775--Connecticut men help plan and carry out seizure of Ft. Ticonderoga.

1775--First gun powder mill in Connecticut started in East Hartford.

1776--Samuel Huntington, Roger Sherman, William Williams and Oliver Wolcott
sign the Declaration of Independence; large majority of Connecticut
people under Governor Jonathan Trumbull support the Declaration.

1777--British troops under General Tryon raid Danbury.

1779--British troops under General Tryon raid New Haven, Fairfield and Norwalk.

1781--Benedict Arnold's attack upon New London and Groton involves massacre
at Ft. Griswold.

1781--Washington and Rochambeau confer at Webb House in Wethersfield.

1783--Meeting of 10 Anglican clergy at Glebe House, Woodbury, leads to
consecration of Bishop Samuel Seabury and beginning of Protestant
Episcopal Church in United States.

1784--Tapping Reeve established the first law school in the United States in
Litchfield.

1784--Earliest Connecticut cities incorporated--Hartford, Middletown, New
Haven, New London and Norwich.

1784--Governor Trumbull retires from governorship.

1784--Connecticut relinquishes Westmoreland area to Pennsylvania.

1784--Act passed providing for emancipation at age of twenty-five of all
Negroes born after March 1784.

1785--First Register and Manual published.

1787--Oliver Ellsworth, William Samuel Johnson and Roger Sherman serve as
Connecticut's representatives at Philadelphia Constitutional Convention.

1788--Convention at Hartford approves Federal Constitution by 128-40 vote.

1789--Oliver Ellsworth and William Samuel Johnson begin service as first
United States Senators from Connecticut.

1792--First turnpike road company, New London to Norwich, incorporated.

1792--First banks established at Hartford, New London and New Haven.

1793-96--Old State House, Hartford, erected; designed by Charles Bulfinch.

1795--Connecticut Western Reserve lands (now Northeastern Ohio) sold for
$1,200,000 and the proceeds were used to establish the School Fund.

1795--First insurance company incorporated as the Mutual Assurance Company of
the City of Norwich.

1796--Thomas Hubbard starts Courier at Norwich. In 1860 paper merges with the
Morning Bulletin and continues as Norwich Bulletin to present.

1799--Eli Whitney procures his first Federal musket contract; within next
decade develops a system of interchangable parts, applicable to industries.

1802--Brass industry begun at Waterbury by Abel Porter and associates.

1806--First important English dictionary in United States published by Noah Webster.

1810--Hartford Fire Insurance Company incorporated.

1812--Joseph Barber starts Columbian Register at New Haven. In 1911 combined
with New Haven Register and continues as Register to present.

1812-14--War of 1812 unpopular in Connecticut; new manufactures,
especially textiles, boom.

1814--Hartford Convention held in Old State House.

1815--First steamboat voyage up the Connecticut River to Hartford.

1817--Federalists defeated by reformers in political revolution.

1817--Thomas Gallaudet found school for the deaf in Hartford.

1817--Hartford Times founded by Frederick D. Bolles and John M. Niles.

1818--New Constitution adopted by convention in Hartford and approved by
voters; ends system of established church.

1820--Captain Nathaniel Palmer of Stonington discovers the continent of Antarctica.

1822--Captain John Davis of New Haven becomes first man to set foot on the
Antarctic Continent.

1823--Washington College (now Trinity) founded in Hartford.

1827--"New" State House erected in New Haven; Ithiel Town, architect.

1828--Farmington Canal opened.

1831--Wesleyan University founded in Middletown.

1831--Mutual Insurance Company of Hartford founded.

1832--First Connecticut railroad incorporated as the Boston, Norwich and New London.

1835--Revolver patented by Colt.

1835--Music Vale Seminary, first American music school, founded at Salem by
Oramel Whittlesey.

1838--Railroad completed between New Haven and Hartford.

1839-41--The Amistad affair.

1840's and 1850's--Peak of whaling from Connecticut ports and especially
from New London.

1842--Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, first public art museum, established.

1843--Charles Goodyear develops vulcanizing process for rubber.

1843--Civil rights of Jews protected through act guaranteeing equal privileges
with Christians in forming religious societies.

1844--Dr. Horace Wells uses anesthesia at Hartford.

1846--Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, the first life insurance
company, chartered in Connecticut.

1847--First American agricultural experiment station--at Yale.

1848--Slavery abolished in Connecticut.

1849--First teachers' college founded at New Britain (now Central Connecticut
State University).

1851--Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company started (under another name) in
Hartford.

1853--Aetna Life Insurance Company started in Hartford.

1860--Lincoln speaks in several Connecticut cities.

1861-65--Approximately 55,000 men serve in Union Army; William Buckingham
wartime governor.

1864--Travelers Insurance issues its first policy.

1865--Connecticut General Life Insurance Company founded.

1868--Land at Groton given by Connecticut to U.S. Navy for a naval station; in
April.

1875--Hartford made sole capital city.

1877--First telephone exchange in world opened in New Haven.

1879--New Capitol building in Hartford completed; Richard Upjohn, architect.

1881--Storrs Agricultural College founded (became University of Connecticut in
1939).

1890--Disputed election causes Morgan Bulkeley to continue two extra years as
governor (1891-93).

1897--Manufacture of automobiles begun by Pope Manufacturing Company of
Hartford.

1900--First United States Navy submarine, Holland, constructed by Electric Boat Co.

1901--First American state law regulating automobile speeds.

1902--Constitutional Convention held; proposed new constitution defeated in a
statewide referendum.

1905--General Assembly adopted public accommodations act
ordering full and equal service in all places of public accommodation.

1907--The first Boy Scout Troop in Connecticut (Troop 1) was established in
East Hartford.

1910--U.S. Coast Guard Academy moves to New London.

1911--Connecticut College for Women founded at New London.

1917--U.S. Navy Submarine School formally established at New London Naval
Base, Groton.

1917- 18--Approximately 67,000 Connecticut men serve in World War 1.

1920--University of New Haven founded.

1927--University of Bridgeport founded.

1932--St. Joseph College founded in West Hartford.

1936--Floods cause enormous damage in Connecticut River Valley.

1938--Hurricane and floods produce heavy loss of life and property.

1938--First section of Merritt Parkway opened.

1939--First section of Wilbur Cross Parkway opened.

1941-45--Approximately 210,000 Connecticut men serve in World War II.

1943--General Assembly established Inter-Racial Commission, recognized as the
nation's first statutory civil rights agency.

1944--Ringling Brothers Circus tent fire in Hartford took 168 lives.

1947--Fair Employment Practices Act adopted Outlawing job discrimination.

1950-52--Approximately 52,000 Connecticut men serve in Korean War,

1954--Nautilus, world's first atomic-Powered submarine, launched at Groton.

1955--Serious floods cause heavy damage and loss of life.

1955--Shakespeare Memorial Theater opened at Stratford.

1957--University of Hartford founded.

1957--Ground broken for first building in New Haven's Oak Street redevelopment
area.

1958--129-mile Connecticut Turnpike opened.

1959--General Assembly votes to abolish county government (effective 1960); also to
abolish local justice courts and establish district courts.

1960--Ground broken for first building in Hartford's Front Street redevelopment area;
now known as Constitution plaza.

1961--New state circuit court system goes into effect.

1962-75--Approximately 104,000 Connecticut men and women served in the armed
forces during the Vietnam War era.

1964--General Assembly creates six Congressional districts reasonably equal in
population.

1965--Constitutional Convention held. New Constitution approved by voters.

1966--First elections held for reapportioned General Assembly under new
Constitution.

1972--Under constitutional amendment adopted in 1970, General Assembly held
first annual session since 1886.

1974--Ella Grasso, first woman elected Governor in Connecticut.

1978--Common pleas and juvenile courts become part of the superior court.

1982--Appellate Court created by Constitutional Amendment (Effective July 1,
1983.)

1990--Eunice S. Groark, first woman elected lieutenant governor in Connecticut.

2001--Reapportionment Commission creates five Congressional districts due to
national population shifts identified in the 2000 census.