Timeline of Connecticut History

The following Timeline of Connecticut History represents selected dates and events from the early discovery by the Dutch through the current day.   (Updated June 2005)

DATE	Event Description
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.
1633	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.
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.
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 Fort 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.
1840s-50s	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.
1858	Famous Charter Oak tree felled in a storm.
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.
1968	Connecticut Society of Genealogists established to preserve the rich genealogical heritage of Connecticut and surrounding states.
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.

Source: Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism