New York City Overview

A Timeline of New York City until the Revolution

• From Antiquity - Munsee (Lenape) Indians Inhabit Mannahatta
• 1609 - An Englishman, Henry Hudson, commanding the Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship De Halve Maen (The Half Moon) explores the East Coast from Delaware to the Upper Hudson. He returned to Amsterdam with word of the possibilities of fur trade with the Munsee of Mannahatta.
• 1614 - Fur trading post (mostly beaver pelts for the popular beaver hats in Europe) established by the VOC at what is today Albany, NY
• 1624 - Fort Orange built in Albany
• 1626 - Peter Minuit, a frenchman, becomes director of New Netherland. Mannahatta purchased from Indians who have no concept of land ownership and Dutch Settlers start removing there.
• 1626 – Chattel slavery introduced to North America with the unloading of 11 Africans.
• 1643 – Kieft's War between Lenape or Wappinger and Dutch colonists.
• 1647 - Peter Stuyvesant becomes Director General of New Netherlands
• 1652 – City of New Amsterdam incorporated
• 1654 – Sephardi Jews arrive from the Iberian peninsula form Congregation Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in the U.S.
• 1664 – September 24 – New Amsterdam is ceded by Peter Stuyvesant to England who renamed it New York after James, Duke of York
• 1672 - Boston Post Road Constructed
• 1674 – The Dutch cede New York permanently to England after the Third Anglo-Dutch War, per Treaty of Westminster
• 1684 - Dongan Charter establishes 5 inner wards (North, South, East, West and Dock) as well as an Out ward
• 1697 - First Trinity Church erected
• 1702 - Yellow fever epidemic
• 1703 - 42% of households own slaves, second only to Charleston
• 1711 - Slave market established at the corner of Wall Street and the East River
• 1712 - The Slave Revolt
• 1731 - The Montgomerie Charter adds the Montgomerie Ward to the existing six wards
• 1754 - King's College, later Columbia, established
• 1754 - 1763 - French and Indian War brings great prosperity to New York provisioning British troops
• 1765 - Stamp Act Congress meets in the city
• 1766 - Parliament repeals the Stamp Act
• 1767 - John Street Theatre opens
• 1767 - Parliament passes the Townshend Acts, taxes on imports
• 1768 - Non-importation adopted enthusiastically by artisans, reluctantly by merchants in the Colonies
• 1769 - Bernard Ratzer draws up a map of the city
• 1770 - Battle of Golden Hill, one of the first violent clashes between British troops and the colonists
• 1770 - Repeal of the Townshend Acts taxes with the exception of the tea tax
• 1770 - Founding of the Moot Club
• 1771 - William Tryon becomes 39th Governor of New York
• 1771 - New York Hospital founded
• 1773 - Tea Act passed, giving the British East India Company a monopoly on tea, leading to the Boston and New York tea parties
• 1773 - Governor Tryon's House in Fort George burns down in a mysterious fire
• 1774 - Parliament passes the "Coercive" or "Intolerable" Acts
• 1774 - Governor Tryon travels to England, Cadwallader Colden becomes Acting Governor
• 1775 (Apr) - "The short heard round the world" at the Battles of Lexington and Concord signals the beginning of the Revolutionary War
• 1775 (Jun) - British suffer massive casualties at the Battle of Bunker Hill
• 1775 (Jun) - Governor Tryon returns from England
• 1775 (Oct) - Governor Tryon forced to take ship aboard The Duchess of Gordon to avoid the Sons of Liberty
• 1776 (Jan) - Common Sense published by Thomas Paine
• 1776 (Feb) - David Mathews appointed Mayor of New York by Governor Tryon
• 1776 (Mar) - Boston is liberated by the Continental Army. The Army marches to New York City
• 1776 (Apr) - General Washington arrives in New York, makes his headquarters at 1 Broadway

Type

Large town

Included Locations

• Hell Gate
• New York City Almshouse
• The Dock Ward
• The East Ward
• The Montgomerie Ward