1789 - New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights

1790 - Trenton selected as state capital; there are 14,185 slaves in the state, approximately eight percent of population

1791 - Governor William Paterson signed charter for the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures

1792 - New Jersey State House is built by Jonathan Doane; it is the second oldest state capitol in continuous use

1804 - The Associates for the Jersey Company was founded by Alexander Hamilton; Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery (1804) allowed for emancipation of slaves born after July 4 and only when the male reaches the age of 25 and the female age 21; Hamilton -Burr duel at Weehawken (July 11)

1805 - Robert Fulton built the first ship dry-dock in US in Jersey City

1807 - Legislation passed that limited the franchise to "free, white, male citizens"

1811 - Steam ferry service begun between Hoboken and New York

1813 - Captain James Lawrence (Burlington) and War of 1812

1816 - Proposal for a colony to be established "in Africa or elsewhere" for free blacks

1824 - Decision on Gibbons v. Ogden regulation of interstate commerce

1825 - Construction for Morris Canal begun; Queen's College is renamed Rutgers College after Col. Henry Rutgers who donated $5000 and a bell to the college

1827 - Joseph Dixon Crucible Company founded in Jersey City

1830 - Camden and Amboy RR and Delaware and Raritan Canal chartered; of the 3,568 blacks in the North who remain slaves, two-thirds were in New Jersey

1831 - The Morris Canal opened

1832 - New Jersey's first daily newspaper, The Newark Daily Advertiser, started

1833 - Camden and Amboy Line, state's first railroad, began service using locomotive "John Bull"

1834 - The Delaware and Raritan Canal completed

1835 - A six-month strike at Paterson cotton mills

1836 - Morris Canal extension to Jersey City completed

1837 - The first locomotive in state built in Paterson

1838 - F.B. Morse and Alfred Vail demonstrated first negative telegraph near Morristown

1839 - New Jersey's first Compulsory (required) Education Act was passed

1840 - Cranberries first cultivated in the state