now sailing for the Dutch East India Company, discovered what was to become known as Delaware Bay.

1610 Delaware Bay and River. Samuel Argall, an English sea captain who led a supply mission to Jamestown, named the bay and river after Thomas West, the 3rd Baron De La Warr, and the first governor of the Virginia Colony.

1625 England. Charles I became King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Charles believed in the same principles his father, James I had espoused, i.e., that as King, he was the infallible interpreter of God’s will on earth. Soon after taking office, Charles began to note a large number of non-conformists among his subjects. Along with his Archbishop, William Laud, he began a campaign to purge his church of the largest group of non-conformists,the so-called Puritans, a militant Calvinist religious sect attempting to purify the Church of England. Unfortunately, Charles I took on a job that led to civil war in England as well as the loss of his head. But, his campaign can be credited as the main cause for the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England.

1631. Dutch colonists settled Zwaanendael, site of present-day Lewes, Delaware. After a year of constant Indian attacks, the colonists were all wiped out.

1632. The Maryland Charter was granted to Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore, by King Charles I.

1638. Peter Minuet led a group of Swedes to the Delaware and established Fort Christina (now Wilmington), the first permanent settlement on the Delaware and the founding of the New Sweden Colony.

1651. Peter Stuyvesant,