History of New Jersey

Native Americans moved into New town reversal of the Younger Dryas; before then an ice sheet hundreds of feet thick had made the area of northern New Jersey uninhabitable.

[citation needed] In the 1960s, New Jersey became the site of several race riots and of the Glassboro Summit Conference (1967), between American President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin.

The Hopewell tradition summarizes the common aspects of the Native American culture that flourished along rivers in the northeastern United States from 200 BCE to 500 CE.

[4] In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano, sailing in the service of France, explored the Jersey Shore including Sandy Hook and The Narrows, now the site of the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge.

Located at Paulus Hook, it was part of the patroonship of Pavonia, formed from land owned by Michiel Pauw, a Dutch businessman and patroon who had bought the tract from the Lenape.

Printz helped to improve the military and commercial status of the colony by constructing Fort Nya Elfsborg, near present-day Salem.

Insisting that John Cabot had been the first to discover North America, the British granted the land that now encompasses New Jersey to the Duke of York (later James II & VII), who ordered Colonel Richard Nicolls to take over the area.

[11] After capturing the colony, Nicolls became deputy-governor of New Amsterdam and the rest of New Netherland, and guaranteed colonists' property rights, laws of inheritance, and the enjoyment of religious freedom.

In 1746, the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) was founded in Elizabethtown by a group of Great Awakening "New Lighters" that included Jonathan Dickinson, Aaron Burr Sr. and Peter Van Brugh Livingston.

The New Jersey Constitution of 1776 allowed "all inhabitants of this Colony, of full age, who are worth fifty pounds proclamation money" to vote, including non-whites and widows; married women could not own property under the common law.

The Battles of Trenton and Princeton are collectively referred to as the Ten Crucial Days because these desperately needed victories bolstered the morale of the nation.

On the night of December 25–26, 1776, the Continental Army, commanded by General George Washington, made the famous crossing of the Delaware River.

In the Battle of Trenton which followed the crossing, the American soldiers surprised the Hessians, capturing nearly 900 prisoners in 90 minutes and taking supplies that had been meant for the British army.

Furthermore, the "Market Revolution" was well underway, as industrialization and upgraded transportation networks made the larger picture more important than the local economy, and entrepreneurs and politicians became leaders in speeding up the changes.

[27] New Jersey remained a Democrat state during the Gilded Age, voting Republican only in the 1872 presidential election, and had the notorious reputation of being under boss control, as the powerful political machines in Essex County (Newark) and Hudson County (Jersey City) worked closely with business leaders to control state and local politics.

[28] By January 1910, Wilson had drawn the attention of James Smith Jr. and George Brinton McClellan Harvey, two leaders of New Jersey's Democratic Party, as a potential candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

Party leaders believed that Wilson's academic reputation made him the ideal spokesman against trusts and corruption, but they also hoped his inexperience in governing would make him easy to influence.

[33] Working closely with George Record, the intellectual leader of Progressivism in the state, Wilson began formulating his reformist agenda.

[36] Wilson and his allies quickly won passage of the Geran bill, which undercut the power of the political bosses by requiring primaries for all elective offices and party officials.

[37] For his success in passing these laws during the first months of his gubernatorial term, Wilson won national and bipartisan recognition as a reformer and a leader of the Progressive movement.

[40] A new State Board of Education was set up "with the power to conduct inspections and enforce standards, regulate districts' borrowing authority, and require special classes for students with handicaps.

"[41] Before leaving office Wilson oversaw the establishment of free dental clinics and enacted a "comprehensive and scientific" poor law.

The incidents occurred during a deadly heat wave and polio epidemic in the Northeastern United States that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore.

[48] Under the Works Progress Administration, part of the Second New Deal by FDR, many new jobs were provided in order to support the poor, including the expansion of Fort Dix, Roosevelt Park in Edison, and Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway.

Many people had believed the bulletin to be real, causing them to flee the New Jersey area or to blockade their homes to ensure safety from the reported monsters.

Questions and controversy surround the accident to this day: theories for the sudden burst of flames include sabotage against the German Nazis, static build-up, and flammable fabric.

In addition, Seabrook Farms took advantage of Japanese-American labor to increase productivity when the government allowed small groups of people from the internment camps to work there.

During the 1960s, many African Americans felt disenfranchised, feelings exacerbated by poor urban conditions, declining industrial jobs, and biased police forces with little minority representation.

Fourteen Nike anti-aircraft missile batteries in two groups were constructed in New Jersey to protect the metropolitan areas around Philadelphia and New York City.

Former Governor James E. McGreevey resigned on November 15, 2004, after charges of pay-to-play and extortion scandals involving the impropriety of the appointment of an unqualified long-rumored homosexual love interest.