Rhode Island Important Dates

• 1614 Dutch explorer Adriaen Block visited the island now named for him.
  
  
• 1634 William Blackstone was the first Rhode Island settler.
  
  
• 1636 Providence was founded by Roger Williams and a group of religious dissenters.
  
  
• 1638 The Portsmouth compact was signed.
  
  
• 1639 The Newport Compact, which formed the basis of the settlement, was signed by John Clarke, William Coddington, William Dyer, Nicholas Easton, John Coggeshall, William Brenton, Henry Bull, Jeremy Clarke and Thomas Hazard.
  
  
• 1643 Samuel Gorton founded Shawomet, Rhode Island's fourth settlement. The town was later named Warwick in honor of the Earl of Warwick.
  
  
• 1643 - 1644 Name of Aquidneck changed to "the Isle of Rhodes," or Rhode Island.
  
  
• 1663 The United Colony of Rhode Island was created when Charles II granted the Charter of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations. It remained the constitution until 1842.
  
  
• 1675 The decisive battle in King Philip's War was fought against the Narragansett Indians.
  
  
• 1747 Rhode Island gained towns
  
  
• 1772 British trade restrictions angered the colonists. They burned the British revenue cutters Liberty and Gaspee.
  
  
• 1776 The colony declared its independence.
  
  
• 1776 - 1779 Newport was occupied by the British. British forces evacuated Rhode Island in October, 1779.
  
  
• 1780 - 1781 French troops under General Rochambeau were stationed in RI.
  
  
• 1784 Emancipation act passed providing for gradual abolition of slavery. All children born after March 1, 1784, were free.
  
  
• 1786 Farmers struck against merchants who refused to accept the depreciated paper money.
  
  
• 1790 Rhode Island becomes a state - They were the last of the original 13 states to ratify the Constitution.
  
  
• 1790 The first successful U.S. cotton mill established by Samuel Slater and David Wilkinson.
  
  
• 1812 Rhode Island refused to participate in the War of 1812.
  
  
• 1830's - 1840's Factory system develops.
  
  
• 1840 Population over 100,000.
  
  
• 1842 Dorr's Rebellion in Rhode Island forces the state's conservatives to abolish the Charter of 1663 and expand suffrage.
  
  
• 1862 Exchange of towns with Massachusetts changes state boundaries.

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