1524 - Verrazano explores the Jersey coast
1609 - Hudson explores Newark Bay
1660 - Bergen, now Jersey City, becomes the first permanent town in New Jersey
1664 -

The British take control of New Jersey from the Dutch
1756 -  Princeton University is established
1758 - The Old Barracks in Trenton is built
1766 - Rutgers University is founded
1776 - N.J.'s first newspaper, the New Jersey Gazette, issues its first edition
1776 - New Jersey adopts its first state constitution
1783 - Princeton briefly serves as the nation's capital
1784 - Trenton briefly serves as the nation's capital
1787 - New Jersey is the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution
1790 - New Jersey is the first state to sign the Bill of Rights
1804 - Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr have a famous duel in Weehawken
1824 - The first ferry service in the U.S. opens between Hoboken and Manhattan
1844 - New Jersey adopts its second state constitution
1858 - The first nearly complete dinosaur fossil is found in Haddonfield
1869 - The first intercollegiate football game is played in New Brunswick
1876 - Thomas Edison opens laboratories in Menlo Park
1879 - Edison invents a practical incandescent lamp
1882 - The first amusement pier over the ocean is built in Atlantic City
1883 - Roselle is the first U.S. town to be lighted by electricity
1887 - Thomas Edison moves his laboratories to West Orange
1912 - New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson is elected President of the U.S.
1918 - A German U-boat sinks six American ships off the coast of New Jersey
1921 - The first Miss America Pageant is held
1927 - The Holland Tunnel opens
1933 - The first drive-in movie theater in the U.S. opens in Camden
1935 - Scientist Albert Einstein establishes his home in New Jersey
1942 -   German U-boats attack shipping off the New Jersey coast  
1943 - The U.S.S. New Jersey battleship is put into active service
1947 - Larry Doby, from Paterson, becomes the second African American to play Major League Baseball
1947 - New Jersey adopts its third state constitution
1951 - The New Jersey Turnpike opens
1957 - The first New Jersey State Little League Baseball Tournament is played
1963 - Snowboarding pioneer Tom Sims of Haddonfield creates the "ski board," an early version of the snowboard
1976 - The Meadowlands Sports Complex opens
1978 -   New Jersey scientists win Nobel Prize for finding the echo of the 13.7 billion year old "Big Bang." 
1993 - Christine Todd Whitman is elected New Jersey's first female governor
1995 - The New Jersey Devils win the Stanley cup, becoming the first New Jersey team to win a major league professional sports championship
1998 - The Toms River East Little League team wins the Little League World Series
2000 - The New Jersey population in the 2000 Census is 8,414,350
2000 -   The New Jersey Devils win the Stanley Cup defeating the Dallas Stars. 
2001 - The U.S.S. New Jersey battleship becomes a museum
2001 -   New Jersey is home to more scientists and engineers per square mile than anywhere else in the world. 
2003 -   New Jersey preserves a record 20,000 acres of farmland. 
2003 -   The New Jersey Devils win the Stanley Cup defeating the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. 
2004 -   New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act becomes law.  
2005 -  A beluga whale swims up the Delaware River to Trenton, more than 100 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. 
2006 -  New Jersey Constitution amended to create the Office of Lieutenant Governor to be elected in 2010.  
2006 -   Lucy the Margate Elephant, a National Historic Landmark, is struck by lightning for the first time, but recovered.  
2006 -  New Jersey Supreme Court rules that gay couples are entitled to the same legal rights and financial benefits as heterosexual couples.  
2006 -   Rutgers University wins the inaugural Texas Bowl defeating Kansas State by a score of 37-10. 
2007 - Governor Corzine signs bill to eliminate the death penalty. 
2008 -   Princeton astronomer, Alicia Soderberg, becomes first person to view a supernova, a star in the act of exploding. 
2008 -   New Jersey has more millionaire residents than any other state in the nation.