1000
The planting of beans and maize begins (highly conjectural).
1460
England
The approximate date the characters fools of Gotham begin appearing
in the mystery plays at Wakefield.
1524
Jan 17
Giovanni da Verrazano, commissioned by France's Francis I, sails
from the Madeiras, in la Dauphine, for the New World,
probably accompanied by Jacques Cartier.
Apr 17
Verrazano discovers, enters New York bay. He meets a party of
natives; relations are amicable.
Jul 8
Verrazano arrives back in France. He writes to his sponsor Francis
I, telling of the friendly reception he and his crew received
from the Indians around New York bay.
1525
State
Black Portuguese navigator Estéban Gomez sails up the Hudson
River (naming it the Deer River) decides it doesn't lead to China
and sails back out again.
1535
French explorer Jacques Cartier hears of curative waters to be
found in the future Saratoga Springs area, while exploring the
St. Lawrence River. He may also hear of a great falls (Niagara)
to the west.
1540
State
Traditional date the French abandon a small fort at what is now
Albany.
1558
England
The Rochester Family is granted the use of a family coat of arms.
1565
The approximate date the joke book Merie Tales of the mad men
of Gotam is published, popularizing the story of a town of
shrewd fools which will form the basis for the imaginary name
Gotham.
State
The approximate date the Seneca in the western Finger Lakes begin
branching off, migrating both to the northeast and the northwest.
1570
State
The Huron prophet and philosopher Deganawidah, assisted by Ha-yo-went'-ha
(Hiawatha), unites the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca
tribes into the Iroquois Confederacy.
1600
State
Population of Algonkin (Algonquin) tribes is about 6,000. ** The
approximate total population of Long Island's Metoac tribes is
10,000. A total of 13 tribes live on the island. ** The population
of the five nations of the Iroquois is somewhere under 20,000.
1603
Champlain hears of a great waterfall (Niagara) at the western
end of Lake Ontario.
1604
France
King Henry of Navarre grants a favorite all North American lands
north of the 40th parallel (New France).
1606
Apr 10
Charters for the London Company and the Virginia Company of Plymouth
(Council for New England) are issued by James I, to Ferdinando
Gorges and John Popham, to settle the American coast between Cape
Fear and mid-Maine. This is the area Henry of Navarre, the French
king, had claimed two years previously. The colonies of Virginia
and New England are to remain 100 miles apart. The region in between
can only be colonized if no other European nation lays claim to
it.
1609
Apr 4
Henry Hudson departs from Amsterdam in his three-masted Dutch
carrack the Half Moon .
Apr 6
Hudson sails from Texel Island.
May
When the Half Moon becomes blocked by ice and fog the crew
becomes mutinous. Hudson turns west and travels along the coast
of Norway.
Jun 15
A storm strikes the Half Moon about midpoint between Scotland
and Nova Scotia. The ship's foremast is lost.
July
Hudson reaches Maine, sets out down the coast from Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Jul 9
The Half Moon nears today's Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Jul 12
The explorers sight land, but heavy fog obscures the view
Jul 14
Possible date Samuel de Champlain enters the lake that will bear
his name.
Jul 29
Champlain, accompanied by two other Frenchmen, including his teen-aged
servant Etienne Brulé, and 60 Algonquins and Hurons, defeats
a band of Iroquois Indians near the future Ticonderoga, beginning
a long period of French/Iroquois enmity.
Sep 2
Hudson anchors the Half Moon in the lower end of New York
harbor. He explores the area for the next ten days.
Sep 3
Hudson enters the Narrows.
Sep 4
Hudson anchors off southwestern Brooklyn, names the bay Gravesend.
Indians in canoes come out to see the Half Moon.
Sep 5
Hudson sends a party ashore on Long Island, where they meet with
friendly natives and invite them for a visit aboard to trade.
Sep 6
Hudson sends a small crew ashore on Long Island to explore. On
their return to the ship hey are attacked by two canoes full of
natives. Crewman John Colman is killed, two others injured. The
survivors can't find the Half Moon in the dark. Colman
becomes the first recorded victim of violence in the area of the
future New York City.
Sep 7
Colman is buried near today's Coney Island. Hudson takes two hostages.
Sep 11
Hudson anchors in the Bay.
Sep 12
Hudson crosses upper New York Bay, purchases oysters and beans
from the natives on Manhattan Island, and heads north into the
Hudson River.
Sep 13
Henry Hudson anchors his Half Moon off the Yonkers area.
Sep 14
Hudson anchors off the West Point area. Two Indian hostages escape.
Sep 15
Hudson arrives in the Kingston area.
Sep 16
Hudson arrives in the Hudson area.
Sep 17
Hudson arrives in the Castleton area.
Sep 19
Hudson arrives in the Albany area.
Sep 23
Hudson leaves the Albany area.
Sep 24
The Half Moon runs aground in the Castleton area.
Oct 1
The Half Moon is attacked by Indians in Haverstraw Bay. The crew
kills two.
Oct 4
Hudson sails for England.
1610
January
The Dutch summon Henry Hudson to report but the English will not
let him comply.
State
The approximate date Etienne Brulé, sent west by Champlain
with furs traded from the Huron, passes through the Genesee River
area and is captured by Senecas and tortured, saved only when
a thunderstorm frightens them and they release him. He winters
over in western Ontario. ** A Dutch ship belonging to private
merchant-traders travels up the Hudson River to trade for furs
with the Mahicans.
Netherlands
The approximate date Peter Stuyvesant is born in Peperga.
1611
City
Former Dutch lawyer Adrian Block explores Manhattan Island in
the ship Tiger . He returns to Europe with a cargo of furs and
two kidnaped Indians, who he names Orson and Valentine.
1612
Samuel de Champlain, working from notes made by his scout Etienne
Brule, makes the first map of Lake Ontario, showing the Genesee
River.
1613
Mar 27
Dutch merchants send the ship Fortuyn, captained by German explorer
Hendrick Christaensen (Christiaenszoon, Christiaensen, Corstiaensen),
and the Tyger, commanded by Adriaen Block, along with three other
vessels, to the Mauritius (Hudson) River.
Apr 21
The Iroquois sign the Treaty of Taagonshi with the Dutch, agreeing
to treat each other as brothers. The Two Row wampum belt is made
to symbolize the pact.
May
Christaensen and Block arrive off Manhattan. Block will sail along
Long Island Sound, collecting and trading. Christaensen will sail
up the Hudson to the Albany area, where he builds Fort Nassau,
then returns downriver, erecting a few huts on Manhattan and preparing
to winter over.
November
English captain Samuel Argall stops at Manhattan Island, forces
Christaensen to lower the Dutch flag and raise the English one.
** Block returns to Manhattan Island in the Tyger, which is destroyed
in a fire off the southern tip. He and Hendrick Christaensen establish
a Dutch fur-trading post on Manhattan Island. Over the coming
winter they build the 42-foot ship Onrust (Restless). They also
complete "A Figurative Map on Vellum" this year.
1614
Mar 20
The Netherland states of Holland and West Vriesland make a joint
resolution to give four-voyage monopolies (rather than the six
requested) to those discovering new rivers and other trading sites
in the New World.
Mar 27
The Ordinance of 1614 is passed. The Dutch Congress promises a
trade monopoly to discoverers of new countries.
Oct 1
Adrian Block and Hendrick Christiaensz return to the Netherlands
in the Onrust.
Oct 11
The United New Netherland Company is chartered by the States-General,
giving merchants a three-year fur-trading monopoly.
City
Adrien Block explores the East River and Long Island Sound in
the Onrust. He leaves Jan Rodriguez, a Santo Domingo mulatto,
behind on Manhattan to trade with the natives, goes on to explore
the lower reaches of the Connecticut River. He will prepare a
manuscript map.
State
Block settles Fort Van Nassoueen (Nassau, later Fort Orange, then
Albany) on Castle Island. ** The Dutch build a trading post at
Flatbush, in the future Ulster County.
New Jersey
Dutch explorer Cornelius Jacobsen Mey sails into Delaware and
New York bays and names Cape May.
1615
Oct 8
Samuel de Champlain discovers Oneida Lake.
Champlain, accompanying Etienne Brulé, traces the Ottawa River to Lake Huron, becomes the first white to discover the Great Lakes. When he returns to the New York State area he accompanies a band of Hurons on an attack against the Iroquois near Oneida Lake and is wounded. He winters over with the Hurons. Father Joseph Le Caron, of Champlain's party, splits from the others, reaches Lake Huron, independently. Champlain and Le Caron discover Lake Ontario.
1616
Adriaen Block publishes his map of New York Harbor and Long Island.
England
First-generation-American Samuel Corning is born in Belstone,
Devonshire, into a family of ten children.
1617
State
Fort Nassau (Albany) is destroyed by a flood. ** The charter of
the United New Netherland Company expires, beginning a new round
of competition.
1618
Jan 1
The charter of United New Netherland Company expires; they are
unable to renew it.
State
After arranging a peace between the Mahicans and the Mohawks,
the Dutch rebuild Fort Nassau on the east side of the Hudson.
** Spring floods destroy the trading post on Castle Island, below
Albany. ** The Dutch acquire land from the tribes around Albany
at the treaty of Tawasentha, signed at Norman's Kill.
1619
State
The Dutch settle Fort Nassau (later Fort Orange, then Albany)
on Castle Island, under the command of navigator Hendrick Christaensz.
Christaensz is murdered later in the year while anchored in the
Hudson River aboard the Swarte Beer, by Orson, an Indian he'd
taken to Holland and back.
1620
Pilgrims arrive in Massachusetts.
© 2004 David Minor / Eagles Byte