Connecticut Historical Events

Date

Event

1614	Adriaen Block, a Dutch mariner, sails up the Connecticut River.
1633-1636	Settlements at Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford are established by colonists from Massachusetts.
1635	The Saybrook colony is founded by a group of English settlers.
1637	The Pequot War is fought between settlers and the Pequot tribe of Native Americans, who are defeated and nearly eliminated.
1638	The New Haven colony is founded by English Puritans.
1639	Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor unite to form the Connecticut colony. The Fundamental Orders are adopted.
1644	The Saybrook colony is purchased by the Connecticut colony.
1662	John Winthrop secures a charter for the Connecticut colony from Charles II.
1665	The Connecticut and New Haven colonies are officially merged.
1687	According to tradition, colonists hide the royal charter in Charter Oak to keep it from Sir Edmund Andros, governor of the Dominion of New England.
1701	Yale University is founded as the Collegiate School.
1788	Connecticut becomes the fifth state to ratify the United States Constitution (January 9).
1818	A new state constitution is adopted, separating church and state for the first time.
1875	Hartford is chosen as the sole capital of Connecticut.
1965	A new state constitution is adopted.
1974	Ella T. Grasso is elected governor, the first woman to win that office in her own right in U.S. history.