William Penn Timeline of Events

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William Penn

William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Indians...

Timeline of Events

1681

3.4.1681

Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.

1682

8.24.1682

William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.

1683

6.23.1683

William Penn signs a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.

10.6.1683

William Penn brings 13 German immigrant families to the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first major immigration of German people to America.

1984

11.28.1984

Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.