State of Delaware
 (Courtesy World Atlas)
 

The name Delaware came from Lord De La Warr, governor of Virginia in 1610. Pioneers from Sweden and Finland founded the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley in 1638 at what is now Wilmington. Swedish Delaware fell to the Dutch under Peter Stuyvesant in 1655.

 

Almost a decade passed when in 1664, Delaware first came under British rule. The ship that brought William Penn to Delaware in 1682 was simply called Welcome. In 1730, Andrew Justison commissioned the first survey for land that would later be Wilmington. Andrew Justison's son-in-law Thomas Willing gave the name to his tract of land called Willingtown, later to be called Wilmington.

 

Delaware later voted to separate from English domination on June 15, 1776. Caesar Rodney, Speaker of the Delaware Assembly, made his famous ride from Wilmington to Philadelphia on July 1 – 2, 1776 to declare Delaware independent from England. The three men from Delaware who signed the Declaration of Independence were Caesar Rodney, George Read and Thomas McKean. Delaware became the first state by ratifying the U.S. Constitution on December 7, 1787 now celebrated as Delaware Day.

 
1609 - Henry Hudson sails his ship, the Half Moon, up Delaware Bay, and became the first European to visit the area

1613 - The explorer, Cornelius Jacobsen May, arrives in the area and trades with local Indians

1638 - Swedish settlers on two ships (Kalmar Nyckel and Fogel Grip), led by Peter Minit, arrive in the Wilmington area, naming it Christina

1655 - The Governor of New York, Peter Stuyvesant, along with a large fleet, capture all of New Sweden, thus ending Swedish rule in the colonies

1682 - William Penn, the new owner of both Delaware and Pennsylvania, sails up the Delaware River on his way to Philadelphia

1704 - Becomes British Colony

1776 - Caesar Rodney, suffering from cancer, makes his famous ride from Wilmington to Philadelphia on horseback, and casts the deciding vote for the Declaration of Independence

1787 - Delaware ratified the U.S. Constitution and became the First State

1802 - du Pont gunpowder mill established

1812 - Delaware's Captain Thomas MacDonough's victory in the battle of Lake Champlain, during the War of 1812, becomes that war's turning point

1829 - Delaware Canal opens

1862 - At the Civil War battle of Antietam, half of the state's Continental Army soldiers were killed. Delaware troops were among the most effective soldiers of the Continental Army, distinguishing themselves in battle. Because of their reputation as fighters, they were called Blue Hens after the famous bluish cocks they took with them on their campaigns

1910 - U.S. Battleship Delaware commissioned

1935 - Nylon invented at du Pont Company

1951 - Delaware Memorial Bridge opens, connecting New Jersey

1978 - By order of the U.S. Supreme Court, Delaware began the busing of children from the inner-city neighborhoods of Wilmington to the more affluent suburbs, thus helping to establish busing across the nation
 

State of Delaware - A Brief History

Delaware Facts and Symbols

Answers.com - Delaware

Brandywine Hundred map 1961

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