Timeline Delaware
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Local History Network: http://www.rootsquest.com/~amhisnet/de/de.html
Delaware Timeline: http://www.rootsquest.com/~amhisnet/de/detl.html
Facts: http://www.50states.com/delaware.htm
Lycos: http://infoplease.lycos.com/ipa/A0108194.html
Map: http://www.udel.edu/delaware/map.html
Wilmington News Journal: http://www.delawareonline.com/
Sussex County: http://www.sussexcountydelaware.com/
1609 Aug 28,
Henry Hudson discovered Delaware Bay.
(AP, 8/28/97)
1637 Nov 20, Peter Minuit &
1st Dutch and Swedish immigrants to Delaware sailed from Sweden. Peter
later purchased Manhattan Island for 60 guilders.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1638 Mar 29, The first permanent
white settlement was established in Delaware. Swedish Lutherans who
came to Delaware were the first to build log cabins in America. The
first English colonists did not know how to build houses from logs but
those who lived in the forests of Scandinavia, Germany and Switzerland
did. German pioneers who settled in Pennsylvania built the first log
cabins there in the early 1700s. The Scotch-Irish immigrants who
settled in the Appalachian highlands after 1720 made the widest use of
log cabins and by the time of the American Revolution, log cabins were
the mainstay among settlers all along the western frontier.
(HNQ, 9/15/99)(AP, 3/29/08)
1639 Jun 10, The 1st American log
cabin at Fort Christina (Wilmington, Delaware).
(MC, 6/10/02)
1655 Sep 26, Peter Stuyvesant
recaptured Dutch Ft. Casimir from Swedish in Delaware.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1669 Dec 20, The 1st American jury
trial was held in Delaware. Marcus Jacobson was condemned for
insurrection and sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1682 Aug 24, Duke James of York
gave Delaware to William Penn.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1682 Oct 26, William Penn accepted
the area around the Delaware River from Duke of York.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1728 Oct 7, Caesar Rodney
(d.1784), Delaware, judge and signer (Declaration of Independence), was
born in Dover, Delaware. He led opposition to British laws for many
years while serving in the provincial assembly. He was elected to the
Continental Congresses of 1774 and 1775. In 1777, he commanded the
Delaware militia, and the next year he was elected president of the
state for a three-year term. Rodney on horseback represents Delaware,
the first of the original 13 states to ratify the Constitution, on a
new .25-cent piece.
(HNQ, 2/24/99)(MC, 10/7/01)
1776 Jun 15, Delaware declared
independence from both England and Pennsylvania with whom it had shared
a royal governor.
(WSJ, 5/30/00, p.A24)
1776 Caesar Rodney rode 80 miles
from Dover to Philadelphia to vote for the Declaration of Independence.
In 1998 the ride was commemorated by the US mint on the back of a new
quarter.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A2)
1784 Jun
29, Caesar Rodney (b.1728), US judge, Delaware representative as a
signer of the Declaration of Independence, died. He was later depicted
on the Delaware state quarter
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_Rodney)
1787 Aug 22, Inventor John Fitch
demonstrated his steamboat on the Delaware River to delegates of the
Continental Congress.
(AP, 8/22/99)
1787 Dec 7, Delaware became the
first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
(AP, 12/7/97)
1787 John Dickinson served as
Delaware’s delegate to the Constitutional Convention.
(SFC, 11/2/02, p.D2)
1797 May 12, George Washington
addressed the Delaware chiefs and stated: “It is the duty of all
nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his
will, to be grateful for his benefits, and to humbly implore his
protection and favor.”
(WSJ, 6/26/01, p.A23)
1802 Eleuthere Irenee du Pont de
Nemours (d.1834), a French immigrant, set up a saltpeter mill in
Wilmington, Del., on the banks of the Brandywine River. In 8 years it
grew to become America's largest black-powder plant as it supplied
gunpowder to the US for the War of 1812.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)(SFC, 9/17/01, p.B2)
1818 The Epistles of John were
published by the American Bible Society in the language of the Delaware
Indians.
(WSJ, 8/7/98, p.W13)
1824 Jun 10, Caesar Augustus
Rodney (v.1772), US Attorney General (1807-1811) and nephew of US Judge
Caesar Rodney (1728-1784), died in Buenos Aires. He served as a US
Senator from Delaware (1822-1823).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_A._Rodney)
1829 Oct 17, Delaware River and
Chesapeake Bay Canal formally opened. The Chesapeake-Delaware Canal was
14 miles long.
(NG, Sept., 1939, p.379)(MC, 10/17/01)
1834 Eleuthere Irenee du Pont de
Nemours, founder of a large gun powder operation, died. The company was
re-charted as a partnership and then the French and original
stockholders were all bought out buy the family. General Henry du Pont,
the 2nd son of E.I. du Pont led the company till his death in 1899.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)
1861 Jan 3, Delaware rejected a
proposal that it join the South in seceding.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1861 Jun 5, Federal marshals
seized arms and gunpowder at Du Pont works in Delaware.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1891 Delaware State University was
established as the State College for Colored Students. In 2006 it had
about 3,690 students. The 400-acre campus is in the northern section of
Dover, across the street from the racetrack.
(AP, 9/21/07)
1893 Jan 17, A state record
temperature of 17F, -27C, was recorded in Millsboro, Delaware.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1903 Jun 22, George White, a black
resident of Delaware, was lynched.
(MC, 6/22/02)
1903 Du Pont established the
Experimental Station for research in Wilmington.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)
1907 Dec 7, The first Christmas
Seals to help the fight against tuberculosis were sold, in Wilmington,
Del. [Some sources say Dec. 9].
(AP, 12/7/07)
1907 Dec 9, US Christmas seals
went on sale for the first time, at the Wilmington, Del., post office.
Proceeds went to fight tuberculosis. The fists US Christmas seals were
issued by the Red Cross in a program founded by a Delaware woman to
support a TB sanitarium [see Dec 7].
(AP, 12/9/97)(SFC, 12/23/98, Z1 p.3)
1912 Oct 26, By an executive order
Delaware was represented by the first star and Delaware wais
represented by the top stripe of the American flag. Delaware was the
first of the 13 colonies to ratify the Constitution, on Dec. 7, 1787.
It was thus assigned the top of the 13 stripes and the first of the
then 48 stars by an executive order signed by President William Howard
Taft. Each subsequent stripe was then assigned to the colonies in the
order in which they ratified the Constitution. The first 13 stars (from
left to right) also represent the order in which the colonies ratified,
and are then followed by the rest of the states in the order in which
they were admitted into the Union.
(HNQ, 1/6/00)
1912 Louisa d’Andelot du Pont
Copeland spearheaded the founding of the Delaware Art Museum.
(WSJ, 7/10/00, p.A32)
1912 Du Pont was forced to give up
a big piece of its explosives business due to government trust busting
but kept its military line and became the chief supplier to the Allies
in WW I. The Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington tracked the
business history of the du Ponts.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A1)
1929 Louis R. Redding (d.1998 at
96) became the state’s first black lawyer and for 2 decades was the
state’s only black lawyer.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A21)
1939 Oct 24, Nylon stockings were
sold publicly for the first time, in Wilmington, Del.
(AP, 10/24/97)
1951 Louis Redding worked on a
suit filed on behalf of black schoolchildren in Delaware who had not
been allowed to enroll in white public schools. A court ruled in favor
of the suit in 1952 but the state appealed and the suit became part of
Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court suit of 1954.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A21)
1957 Oct 10, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower apologized to Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, the finance minister of
Ghana, after the official had been refused service in a Dover, Del.,
restaurant.
(AP, 10/10/97)
1972 Nov 7, Delaware elected
Joseph Biden (b.1942) as one of its US Senators. Biden was re-elected
in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996 and 2002.
(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A15)
1974-1981 Irving Shapiro (d.2001 at 85) led the Du
Pont Co. (DuPont).
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.B2)
1987 Sep 23, Delaware Sen. Joseph
Biden withdrew from the Democratic presidential race following
questions about his use of borrowed quotations and the portrayal of his
academic record.
(AP, 9/23/97)
1989 A tanker ran aground near
Claymont, Del., spilling 300,000 gallons of heating oil into the
Delaware River.
(AP, 11/28/04)
1992 Mar 14, Steven Brian Pennell
(34), serial killer, was executed. This was the 1st execution in
Delaware in 45 years.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/pennell.htm)
1992 Apr 10, Dwayne Weeks and
Arthur Govan broke into the Wilmington apartment of Weeks’ estranged
wife, Gwendolyn, and shot her and her boyfriend, Craig Williams, to
death. Weeks was convicted and executed in 2000.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.A2)
1996 Jun 27, Anne Marie Fahey
(30), the secretary of Gov. Thomas Carper, disappeared from Wilmington
after dining at a Philadelphia restaurant with Thomas Capano. Capano, a
prominent lawyer who had dated Fahey, was later accused of her murder
based on testimony from his two brothers, who had helped him dispose
the body. In 1998 Capano admitted that he disposed Fahey’s body but
insisted that her death was an accident. In 1998 Capano testified that
Fahey was shot accidentally by former mistress Deborah MacIntyre, who
denied the charge. Capano was convicted by a jury on Jan 17, 1999. On
Mar 16, 1999, Capano was sentenced to death.
(SFEC,12/14/97, p.A4)(SFEC, 10/5/98, p.A5)(SFC,
10/27/98, p.A2)(SFC, 12/22/98, p.A2)(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A2)(SFC, 3/17/99,
p.A2)
1998 Mar 9, In a case pitting
former high school sweethearts against each other, Brian Peterson
pleaded guilty in Wilmington, Del., to manslaughter in the death of his
newborn son in a Newark, N.J., motel and agreed to testify against the
mother, Amy Grossberg. A month later, Grossberg also pleaded guilty to
manslaughter; she ended up serving nearly two years of a 2 1/2-year
sentence; Peterson served 1 1/2 years of a two-year sentence.
(AP, 3/9/08)
1998 Apr 22, Amy Grossberg, a
young woman charged along with her high school sweetheart with
murdering their newborn at a Delaware motel, pleaded guilty to
manslaughter. Amy Grossberg ended up serving nearly two years of a 2
1/2-year sentence; Brian Peterson served 1 1/2 years of a two-year
sentence. Peterson had received a lesser sentence of two years because
he'd cooperated with authorities.
(AP, 4/22/03)(AP, 4/22/08)
1998 Jul 9, Former high school
sweethearts Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson were sentenced in
Wilmington, Del., to prison for killing their newborn son at a motel.
Grossberg received 2 1/2 years; Peterson, who cooperated with
prosecutors, got two years. Grossberg ended up serving nearly two
years; Peterson, 1 1/2 years.
(AP, 7/9/08)
1999 Jan 4, The US mint began
distributing a new series of commemorative state quarters. The first
one from Delaware marked the 1776 ride of Caesar Rodney from Dover to
Philadelphia to vote for the Declaration of Independence. Rep. Michael
Castle of Delaware dreamed up the program in 1996.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A2)(WSJ, 12/29/03, p.A4)
1999 Aug 5, Gov. Thomas Carper
declared a drought emergency and mandatory water restrictions for
two-thirds of the state.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.D6)
2001 Jan 3, In Delaware a fire at
an Oak Orchard rural home killed 11 Wright-Shelton family members
including 7 children.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.C12)(AP, 1/3/02)
2002 Nov, Delaware’s 2002 Pumpkin’
Chunkin’ contest was won by the 2nd Amendment team from Michigan.
(DC, 2/9/03)
2003 Dec 13, William Roth Jr.
(82), former Delaware Senator, died. He was 1st elected to Congress in
1966 and served 5 terms as a senator. He helped created the popular
Roth retirement account. His wrote the book "The Power to Destroy"
(1999), a look at the IRS.
(SFC, 12/15/03, p.A2)
2004 Feb 6, Delaware Agriculture
Secretary Michael Scuse said that the bird flu strain, identified as
H7, is different from the one that has swept Asia, and isn't a threat
to human health. The state has ordered the slaughter of some 12,000
chickens.
(AP, 2/8/04)
2004 Nov 2, Ruth Ann Miller (D)
was elected governor of Delaware.
(SFC, 11/4/04, p.A18)
2004 Nov 26, A Cyprus-registered
tanker spilled 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River
between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, creating a 20-mile-long
slick that killed dozens of birds and threatened other wildlife.
(AP, 11/28/04)
2005 Apr 7, In Delaware police
arrested Allison L. Norman (22) after he killed 2 people and wounded 4
others during a rampage.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.A3)
2005 Oct 15, Marcia and Ken
Powers, a husband-and-wife team, reached the Pacific Ocean on after a
4,900-mile cross-country hike, becoming the first to backpack the
transcontinental American Discovery Trail in one continuous trek. They
had started Feb. 27 at Cape Henlopen in Delaware.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2007 Jan 31, Delaware Sen. Joe
Biden formally launched his bid for the Democratic presidential
nomination.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2007 Mar 16, In Wilmington, Del.,
Rachel L. Holt (35), who had pleaded guilty to second-degree rape, was
sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with a 13-year-old
student.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Apr 13, In Delaware a special
committee of the board of directors of Computer Associates accused
founder and former chairman Charles Wang of directing and participating
in fraudulent accounting during the 1980s and 1990s, which the US
government had described as totaling $2.2 billion.
(WSJ, 4/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 10, Delaware Gov. Ruth
Ann Minner signed a law abolishing the state’s 2-year state of
limitations on personal injury lawsuits for victims of child sex abuse.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A3)
2007 Jul 12, Robert Quill (52) of
Florida filed a federal lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by Rev. Francis
G. DeLuca, who worked for the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware,
for 35 years. The suit alleged that church officials knew DeLuca was
abusing boys as early as 1958.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 21, One student was
mortally wounded, another injured, at Delaware State University, and
the campus was locked down as police searched for a gunman. On Sep 24
police arrested Loyer Braden (18), a DSU freshman on charges of
attempted murder. He was later indicted on a second-degree murder
charge.
(SFC, 9/25/07, p.A6)(AP, 9/21/08)
2008 Aug 23, Democrats coalesced
around Barack Obama's selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden (b.1942)
as his running mate while Republicans quickly seized on the Delaware
senator's past criticism of the presidential candidate's inexperience.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Oct 2, US vice presidential
candidates held their only debate prior to elections. Alaska’s Gov.
Sarah Palin often spoke in generalities. Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was
generally focused and forceful, and seemed to take painstaking care not
to appear disrespectful in the least.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Nov 24, Delaware’s Gov. Ruth
Ann Miner named Edward Kaufman, a former aide to Sen. Joe Biden, to
fill the Senate seat Biden was leaving for the vice presidency.
(SFC, 11/25/08, p.A14)
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