Massachusetts Bay Colony Timeline of Events

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Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions of the U.S. states of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

Timeline of Events

1628

9.6.1628

Puritans settle Salem, which will later become part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1629

3.4.1629

The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter.

1630

3.22.1630

The Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.

1635

10.9.1635

Founder of Rhode Island Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident after he speaks out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land.

1636

10.28.1636

A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes the first college in what would become the United States, today known as Harvard University.

12.13.1636

The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.

1660

6.1.1660

Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1675

11.2.1675

A combined effort by the Plymouth, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonies attacks the Great Swamp Fort, owned by the Narragansetts during King Philip's War.

1679

9.18.1679

New Hampshire becomes a county of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1692

2.8.1692

A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony suggests that two girls in the family of the village minister may be suffering from bewitchment, leading to the Salem witch trials.