|
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 colonists from Massachusetts. |
|
1634 |
First English arrive in Windsor. |
|
1635 |
Fort erected at Saybrook by Lion Gardiner. |
|
1635 |
Group from Dorchester, Massachusetts, joins Windsor settlement. |
|
1636 |
Thomas Hooker and company journey from Newtown (Cambridge), Massachusetts, to found Hartford. |
|
1637 |
Pequot War. |
|
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. |
|
1639 |
Henry Whitfield House, Guilford, oldest house in state, built. |
|
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 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 or unions of churches. |
|
1717 |
New Haven State House erected on the Green. |
|
1717 |
Collegiate School moves to New Haven; called Yale the next year. |
|
1740s |
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. |
|
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. |
|
1773 |
Old New-Gate Prison opens as Connecticut's first prison. |
|
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 results in massacre at Ft. Griswold. |
|
1781 |
Generals George Washington and comte de 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 establishes 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 African- Americans born after March 1784. In 1797 the age was lowered to 21. |
|
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 $1.2 million and the proceeds 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. |
|
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 manufacturers, especially of textiles, boom. |
| 1814 |
The British Raid on Essex results in the loss of over 25 American ships at Pettipaug Point. |
|
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 founds 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. |
| 1827 |
Old New-Gate Prison closed. After a brief period of returning to mining, it soon became a tourist attraction. |
|
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. |
|
1833-34 |
State Heroine Prudence Crandall opens school for young African-American girls. |
|
1835 |
Revolver patented by Samuel 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 legal case heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. |
|
1840s and 1850s |
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. |
|
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 serves as 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. |
|
1875 |
Hartford made sole capital city. |
|
1877 |
First telephone exchange in world opened in New Haven. |
|
1879 |
New Capitol building in Hartford completed; Richard M. Upjohn, architect. |
|
1881 |
Storrs Agricultural College founded (becomes University of Connecticut in 1939). |
|
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 adopts public accommodations act ordering full and equal service in all places of public accommodation. |
|
1907 |
The first Boy Scout Troop in Connecticut (Troop 1) is 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 I. |
|
1920 |
University of New Haven founded. |
|
1927 |
University of Bridgeport founded. |
|
1928 |
Igor Sikorsky purchases land in Stratford for new aviation factory; becomes Sikorsky Aviation Company. |
|
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 establishes Inter-Racial Commission, recognized as the nation's first statutory civil rights agency. |
|
1944 |
Ringling Brothers Circus tent fire in Hartford takes 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. |
|
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 serve in the armed forces during the Vietnam War era. |
|
1965 |
Constitutional Convention held; New Constitution approved by voters. |
|
1966 |
First elections held for reapportioned General Assembly under new Constitution. |
| 1966 |
Constance Baker Motley of New Haven, first African-American woman appointed to be a federal judge. |
|
1972 |
Under constitutional amendment adopted in 1970, General Assembly holds first annual session since 1886. |
|
1974 |
Ella T. 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. |
|
2001 |
9/11 Terrorist attacks on New York City kill 152 Connecticut citizens. |
|
2005 |
Connecticut first state to adopt civil unions for same-sex couples without being directed to do so by a court. |
|
2006 |
M. Jodi Rell becomes Connecticut's second female Governor elected in her own right. |
| 2008 |
Connecticut becomes one of the first three states to perform marriages of same-sex couples. |
