1524 – |
Verrazano explores the Jersey coast |
1609 – |
Hudson explores Newark Bay |
1660 – |
Bergen, now Jersey City, becomes the first permanent town in New Jersey |
1664 – |
The British take control of New Jersey from the Dutch |
1756 – |
Princeton University is established |
1758 – |
The Old Barracks in Trenton is built |
1766 – |
Rutgers University is founded |
1776 – |
N.J.’s first newspaper, the New Jersey Gazette, issues its first edition |
1776 – |
New Jersey adopts its first state constitution |
1783 – |
Princeton briefly serves as the nation’s capital |
1784 – |
Trenton briefly serves as the nation’s capital |
1787 – |
New Jersey is the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution |
1790 – |
New Jersey is the first state to sign the Bill of Rights |
1804 – |
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr have a famous duel in Weehawken |
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 |
1887 – |
Thomas Edison moves his laboratories to West Orange |
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 |
1935 – |
Scientist Albert Einstein establishes his home in New Jersey |
1942 – |
German U-boats attack shipping off the New Jersey coast |
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 |
1947 – |
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 |
1976 – |
The Meadowlands Sports Complex opens |
1978 – |
New Jersey scientists win Nobel Prize for finding the echo of the 13.7 billion year old “Big Bang.” |
1993 – |
Christine Todd Whitman is elected 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 |
2000 – |
The New Jersey population in the 2000 Census is 8,414,350 |
2000 – |
The New Jersey Devils win the Stanley Cup defeating the Dallas Stars. |
2001 – |
The U.S.S. New Jersey battleship becomes a museum |
2001 – |
New Jersey is home to more scientists and engineers per square mile than anywhere else in the world. |
2003 – |
New Jersey preserves a record 20,000 acres of farmland. |
2003 – |
The New Jersey Devils win the Stanley Cup defeating the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. |
2004 – |
New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act becomes law. |
2005 – |
A beluga whale swims up the Delaware River to Trenton, more than 100 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. |
2006 – |
New Jersey Constitution amended to create the Office of Lieutenant Governor to be elected in 2010. |
2006 – |
Lucy the Margate Elephant, a National Historic Landmark, is struck by lightning for the first time, but recovered. |
2006 – |
New Jersey Supreme Court rules that gay couples are entitled to the same legal rights and financial benefits as heterosexual couples. |
2006 – |
Rutgers University wins the inaugural Texas Bowl defeating Kansas State by a score of 37-10. |
2007 – |
Governor Corzine signs bill to eliminate the death penalty. |
2008 – |
Princeton astronomer, Alicia Soderberg, becomes first person to view a supernova, a star in the act of exploding. |
2008 – |
New Jersey has more millionaire residents than any other state in the nation. |