istoryworld
Events relating to north america
The Massachusetts town of Salem is gripped by witch-hunting hysteria
Twenty people convicted of witchcraft are hanged in Salem, and one is pressed to death
Boston merchant Samuel Sewall publishes The Selling of Joseph, a very early anti-slavery tract
The Iroquois League becomes known as the Six Nations, after the Tuscarora join the group
16-year-old Benjamin Franklin contributes the 'Dogood Papers', essays on moral topics, to a Boston journal, The New England Courant
The Danish explorer Vitus Bering sails into Arctic seas through the strait between Asia and America known now by his name
Benjamin Franklin prints, publishes and largely writes the weekly Pennsylvania Gazette
Benjamin Franklin sets up a subscription library, the Library Company of Philadelphia
Georgia is granted to a group of British philanthropists, to give a new start in life to debtors
Benjamin Franklin establishes the most successful of America's almanacs, publishing it annually until 1758
A revivalist movement in America, led by Jonathan Edwards, becomes known as the Great Awakening
John Peter Zenger, editor of the Weekly Journal, is acquitted of libelling the governor of New York on the grounds that what he published was true
The American Magazine and the General Magazine both begin a short-lived existence
American revivalism is inflamed by Jonathan Edwards' vivid sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Benjamin Franklin drafts in Philadelphia the founding document for the American Philosophical Society
Franklin publishes his design for an improved stove in Account of the New Invented Pennsylvania Fire Place
New England militiamen achieve an unexpected success in capturing the fortress of Louisbourg from the French
A French official travels down the Ohio valley, placing markers to claim it for France
The French seize or evict every English-speaking trader in the region of the upper Ohio
Benjamin Franklin flies a kite into a thunder cloud to demonstrate the nature of electricity
George Washington undertakes a difficult and ineffectual journey to persuade the French to withdraw from the Ohio valley
In Freedom of Will American evangelist Jonathan Edwards makes an uncompromising defence of orthodox against liberal Calvinism
Benjamin Franklin's chopped-up snake, urging union of the colonies with the caption 'Join or Die', is the first American political cartoon
Quaker minister John Woolman publishes the first part of Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes, an essay denouncing slavery
