Connecticut Timeline
1614 Adriaen Block sailed up the Connecticut River. He claimed Connecticut as part of the New Netherland colony.
1633 The Dutch built a fort called the House of Hope on the present site of Hartford. The Dutch never permanently settled in Connecticut.
1633 The English founded a settlement in Windsor. It was the first permanent settlement in Connecticut.
1636 The British settlements of Hartford, New London, Saybrook, and Wethersfield. Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor formed the Connecticut Colony.
1637 The Pequot War took place between the settlements and the Indians.
1638 New Haven was formed as an independent colony.
1639 The Fundamental Orders, Connecticut's first constitution was adopted.
1643 Branford, Guilford, Milford, Stamford, and Southold, on Long Island joined the New Have Colony
1662 Connecticut received a royal charter.
December 1664 The New Have Colony agreed to unite with the Connecticut Colony.
April 1665 The unification process of the New Haven Colony and the Connecticut colony was completed.
1674 The English drove the Dutch out of the area.
1687 Sir Edmond Andros, who had been named the governor of several other New England Colonies by the king, came to Hartford and demanded Connecticut's charter. The colonists refused to give it to him.
1701 Yale University was founded.
1760s The British passed several laws which caused unrest in Connecticut. Some of the laws set up heavy taxes and restricted colonial trade.
14 June 1776 Connecticut passed a resolution favoring independence.
9 July 1778 Connecticut ratified the Articles of Confederation.
1787 The Connecticut delegates helped to work out the Great Compromise or the Connecticut Compromise during the Constitutional Convention.
9 January 1788 Connecticut ratified the United States Constitution.
1795 The Connecticut Land Company bought much of Ohio.
1808 Eli Terry of East Hartford became the first person to produce clocks using mass production.
1810 The First silk mill was built in Mansfield
1817 Thomas H. Gallaudet founded the first free American school for the deaf in Hartford.
1836 Samuel Colt of Hartford obtained a patent for the first successful repeating pistol. He made his pistols in a Hartford factory.
1839 Charles Goodyear of Goodyear found a way to vulcanize rubber. People from Connecticut pioneered in making bicycles, cigars, copper coins, nuts and bolts, pins and needles, silk thread, and rubber shoes.
1861-1865 Connecticut strongly supported the Union during the Civil War. Over 50,000 men joined the military.
1910 The U.S. Coast Guard Academy moved its headquarters to New London.
1917 The U.S. navy opened a submarine base in Groton.
1917 After the United States entered World War I many of the countries largest munitions factories opened in Connecticut.
1939-1945 Connecticut was an important supplier of war materials during World War II.
1954 The Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, was launched in Groton.
1955 The Connecticut legislature approved new laws that gave voters a direct vice in choosing candidates for state elections.
1960s Plants in Stratfords produced reentry vehicles for spacecrafts. Middletown factories made small tape recorders to send signals into outer space
1965 Connecticut reapportioned its legislative districts to provide representation based on population.
1965 Connecticut adopted its present constitution.
1968 A nuclear energy plant for the production of electric power opened at Haddam Neck.
1971 The state established a lottery.
1979 The state passed a law prohibiting the construction of additional nuclear power plants.
1982 A native of Starnford, Dr. Robert K. Jarvik, invented the first artificial heart
1991 The government adopted an individual income tax.
1992 Casino gambling became legal in the state.
Works Cited
Thomas R. Lewis and Barbara M. Tucker. "Connecticut." Worldbookonline.com.