May 20 Dorchester MA, forms first school funded by local taxes

May 08 William Coddington founds Newport RI

May 20 Dorchester, Massachusetts funds the first school in the US from local taxes

Jan 06 Virginia is first colony to order surplus crops (tobacco) destroyed

Jan 06 Virginia is first colony to order surplus crops (tobacco) destroyed

Jan 14 Rodger Ludlow publishes"Fundamental Orders of Connecticut"

Jan 24 Connecticut colony organizes under Fundamental Orders

Feb 07 Académie Française begins the Dictionary of the French Language

Nov 24 The first observation of transit of Venus occurred (only 2, record event)

Sep 25 First printing press in America

Jun 10 The first American log cabin at Fort Christina (Wilmington Delaware)

Jun 06 Massachusetts grants 500 acres of land to erect a gunpowder mill

Dec 22 The birth of Jean Racine, French playwright

Mar 13 Cambridge College renamed Harvard for clergyman John Harvard