New Jersey History Timeline

Important Dates, Events, and Milestones

Offers a chronological timeline of important dates,   events, and milestones in New Jersey history.

16th Century

• 1524 - Verrazano explores the Jersey coast

17th Century

• 1609 - Hudson explores Newark Bay
• 1638 - A Swedish colony is established along the Delaware River (but it was taken over by the Dutch in 1655).
• 1660 - Dutch establishes Bergen, now Jersey City, becomes the first permanent town in New Jersey
• 1664 - The British take control of New Jersey from the Dutch
• 1676 - New Jersey Colony is divided into East Jersey and West Jersey

18th Century

• 1702 - East and West Jersey combined into one colony
• 1721 - William Trent started a village called "Trent's Town," which eventually became Trenton in 1790 and the state's capital city.
• 1738 - Lewis Morris became the first governor of New Jersey.
• 1746 - Princeton University is founded
• 1758 - The Old Barracks in Trenton is built
• 1766 - Rutgers University is founded
• 1774 - The Greenwich Tea Burning
• 1776-1783 -Since more than 100 Revolutionary War battles took place in New Jersey, our state was often known as "The Crossroads of the Revolution."
• 1776 - 
  • NJ's first newspaper, the New Jersey Gazette, issues its first edition
  • July 2 - New Jersey adopts its first state constitution
  • December 25 - Washington made his famous overnight crossing of the Delaware River from Pennsylvania to surprise the British in New Jersey. He defeated the British forces in the Battle of Trenton, changing the course of the war.
• 1777 - Winter - Washington made his headquarters in Morristown
• 1778 - June 28 - Another significant victory was gained at the Battle of Monmouth.
• 1783 - Princeton briefly serves as the nation's capital
• 1784 - Trenton briefly serves as the nation's capital
• 1787 - December 12,- New Jersey became the third state to join the union by ratifying the U.S. Constitution.
• 1789 - New Jersey was also the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights
• 1790 -
  • New Jersey is the first state to sign the Bill of Rights
  • Trenton became the capital
• 1791 - Alexander Hamilton built the country's first planned industrial city in present-day Paterson, by the Passaic River's 77-foot Great Falls. By the late 1880s, Paterson became so well known for silk manufacturing that it was called "Silk City."

19th Century

• LATE 1800s - The genius of New Jersey's inventors helped New Jersey grow in new directions. One of the most famous inventors was Thomas A. Edison, who invented the incandescent light bulb, movie camera, and phonograph in his West Orange and Menlo Park labs.
• 1804 -
  • Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr have a famous duel in Weehawken
  • New Jersey became the last state in the Northeast to free slaves as it had more slaves than any other Northern state.
• 1807 - Women lose the right to vote
• 1824 - The first ferry service in the U.S. opens between Hoboken and Manhattan
• 1844 - New Jersey adopts its second state constitution
• 1858 - The first nearly complete dinosaur fossil is found in Haddonfield
• 1869 - The first intercollegiate football game is played in New Brunswick
• 1876 - Thomas Edison opens laboratories in Menlo Park
• 1879 - Edison invents a practical incandescent lamp
• 1882 - The first amusement pier over the ocean is built in Atlantic City
• 1883 - Roselle is the first U.S. town to be lighted by electricity
• 1884 - Grover Cleveland becomes the 22^nd President of the United States
• 1887 - Thomas Edison moves his laboratories to West Orange

20th Century

• 1912 - New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson is elected President of the U.S.
• 1918 - A German U-boat sinks six American ships off the coast of New Jersey
• 1921 - The first Miss America Pageant is held
• 1927 - The Holland Tunnel opens
• 1933 - The first drive-in movie theater in the U.S. opens in Camden
• 1939-1945 - World War II, More than 500,000 New Jersey residents joined in the war effort. The state produced battleships, heavy cruisers, aircraft engines, along with destroyers for the U.S. Navy.
• 1943 - The U.S.S. New Jersey battleship is put into active service
• 1947 -
  • Larry Doby, from Paterson, becomes the second African
  • American to play Major League Baseball
  • New Jersey adopts its third state constitution
• 1951 - The New Jersey Turnpike opens
• 1957 - The first New Jersey State Little League Baseball Tournament is played
• 1963 - Snowboarding pioneer Tom Sims of Haddonfield creates the "ski board," an early version of the snowboard
• 1967 - Riot in Newark kills 26 and causes $10 million in damage
• 1976 -
  • New Jersey organizes a state income tax
  • The Meadowlands Sports Complex opens
• 1978 - Gaming became legalized in Atlantic City and the Resorts International Hotel became the city's first casino.
• 1993 - Christine Todd Whitman becomes New Jersey's first female governor
• 1995 - The New Jersey Devils win the Stanley cup, becoming the first New Jersey team to win a major league professional sports championship
• 1998 -
  • The Toms River East Little League team wins the Little League World Series
  • The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that most of
    Ellis Island (24 acres)-located in the Hudson
    River next to the Statue of Liberty-is part of New Jersey.

21th Century

• 2000 - The New Jersey population in the 2000 Census is 8,414,350
• 2001 - The U.S.S. New Jersey battleship becomes a museum