| 1534 | - English Reformation begins.
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| 1609 | - Henry Hudson searches for Northwest Passage.
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| 1620 | |
| 1626 | - Manhattan Island purchased; New Amsterdam founded.
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| 1629 | - Massachusetts Bay Company receives royal charter.
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| 1630 | - John Winthrop leads Puritan settlers to Massachusetts Bay.
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| 1636 | - Rhode Island colony established.
- Connecticut colony founded.
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| 1636–1637 | |
| 1638 | - Anne Hutchinson excommunicated.
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| 1642 | - Puritan Revolution inflames England.
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| 1649 | - English Puritans win civil war.
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| 1656 | - Quakers arrive in Massachusetts and are persecuted.
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| 1660 | - Monarchy restored in England.
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| 1662 | - Many Puritan congregations adopt Halfway Covenant.
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| 1664 | - English seize Dutch colony, rename it New York.
- Colony of New Jersey created.
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| 1675–1676 | |
| 1681 | - Colony of Pennsylvania founded.
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| 1686 | - Dominion of New England created.
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| 1688 | - England’s Glorious Revolution.
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| 1689–1697 | |
| 1692 | |