Maine Historical Events

Date

Event

1524	Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano arrives on the Maine coast.
1604	A French settlement is established on St. Croix Island.
1607	George Popham establishes a colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River.
1614	Captain John Smith explores and maps Maine's coastline.
1622	The Council for New England grants the land between the Merrimack and Kennebec rivers to John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges.
1629	Mason and Gorges divide their land holdings. Gorges takes the eastern part, which he calls the province of Maine.
1677	Massachusetts buys the title to Maine from Gorges's heirs.
1763	A treaty is signed to end the French and Indian War, ending battles between Maine settlements and Native Americans.
1775	Residents of Machias capture a British frigate during the Americn Revolution.
1779	British forces capture the town of Castine and control the Maine coast for the rest of the American Revolution.
1812-1815	The eastern part of Maine is controlled by the British in the War of 1812.
1820	Maine is admitted to the Union as part of the Missouri Compromise (March 15).
1851	The state legislature passes the nation's first prohibition act, the Maine Law.
1934	The state's prohibition law is repealed.
1954	Democrat Edmund Muskie is elected governor, ending Republican domination of state politics since the American Civil War.
1972	The Penobscot and Passamaquoddy peoples claim nearly two-thirds of the land area of Maine in a suit filed against the state.
1980	Settlement of the 1972 Native American lawsuit awards the two native groups $81.5 million.