1674 England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.
1683 The British crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.
1776 The Battle of Long Island: in what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.
1777 Vermont declares its independence from New York.
1777 American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.
1778 Cherry Valley Massacre: Loyalists and Seneca Indian forces attack a fort and village in eastern New York during the American Revolutionary War, killing more than forty civilians and soldiers.
1788 New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States.
1799 New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state.
1802 At West Point, New York the United States Military Academy opens.
1845 The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York.
1865 The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
1869 Woman's suffrage: in New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman's Suffrage Association.
1871 The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.
1891 A new immigration depot is opened on Ellis Island, New York.
1901 New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates. thumb
1904 The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in New York, New York.
1909 Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
1913 New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller.
1927 Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli disappeared after taking off aboard ''The White Bird'' biplane.
1927 At 07:52 Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He touched down at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 22:22 the next day.
1927 The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.
1931 The George Washington Bridge linking New Jersey and New York opens.
1935 In one of the biggest upsets in championship boxing, the 10 to 1 underdog James J. Braddock defeats Max Baer in Long Island City, New York, and becomes the heavyweight champion of the world.
1935 Edwin Armstrong presents his paper "A Method of Reducing Disturbances in Radio Signaling by a System of Frequency Modulation" to the New York section of the Institute of Radio Engineers.
1938 The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500-700 people.
1948 At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York.
1955 Lux Radio Theater signs off the air permanently. The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.
1957 United States Marine major John Glenn flies a F8U Crusader supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds, setting a new transcontinental speed record.
1958 The Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian Institution by New York diamond merchant Harry Winston.
1961 The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.
1962 American Airlines Flight 1 crashes on take off in New York.
1965 Becoming the first Pope to ever visit the United States of America and the Western hemisphere, Pope Paul VI arrives in New York.
1966 A fire at a building in New York, New York kills 12 firefighters, the New York City Fire Department's deadliest day until the September 11, 2001 attacks.
1970 Two passenger jets bound from Europe to New York are simultaneously hijacked by Palestinian terrorist members of PFLP and taken to Dawson's Field in Jordan.
1971 State police and National Guardsmen storm New York's Attica Prison to end a prison revolt.
1974 The ''SR-71 Blackbird'' sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London in the time of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds.
1975 A fire breaks out in the World Trade Center in New York City, New York.
1975 An Eastern Air Lines Boeing 727 crashes at John F. Kennedy Airport, New York. 113 people die.
1980 Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's murderer, leaves for New York from his home in Hawaii.
1985 1985 United States-Canadian tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.
1988 Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat gives a speech at the UN general assembly in the Austrian city of Geneva after the US authorities refused to give him a visa to enter New York.
1990 Avianca Flight 52 crashes into the village of Cove Neck, New York after running out of fuel, killing 73 people.
1992 In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
1998 The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York.
2004 In New York state, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.