Queens Immigration Timeline
1600s
(
)Sept. 4, 1609
Henry Hudson sails into New York Harbor, discovering Rockaways.
(
)1614 – Adrian Block sails through Hell Gate into Long Island Sound. Astoria settled.
1637 – Bayside and Little Neck settled. Thomas Foster is the first settler in Bayside. Adrian Block makes maps of Little Neck.
By Mid-1650s – Dutch farmers obtain grants to land tracts in the Astoria, Hunters Point, and Dutch Kills areas of what is now Long Island City.
1657 – The Flushing Remonstrance is signed. It is the first-ever declaration of religious freedom in the New World and the foundation for the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
(
)Nov. 1, 1683 – Queens County is named for Queen Catherine of Braganza, and the county embraces all of present-day Nassau County, including towns of Hempstead and Oyster Bay.
1700s
1700 – African-Americans settle in Queens, most against their will, beginning a tradition that will find them occupying a steady 10-12 percent of Queens’ total population for the next 200 years.
1628 Flushing settled by the Dutch.
July 4, 1776 – Francis Lewis, resident of what was then part of Flushing, signs the Declaration of Independence for New York State.
1800s
1826 – Woodside settled.
1835 – Woodhaven settled.
1835 – Douglaston settled.
1839 – Astoria charter issued.
(
)1845 – Owing to a deadly combination of population explosion and potato famine in Ireland, major influx of Irish immigrants begins in New York.
(
)1852-1854 More than half a million Germans immigrate to New York.
(
)Jan. 1, 1898
Queens County joins Greater New York City. Borough of Queens carved out of the towns of Flushing, Newtown, Jamaica and the Rockaway peninsula. The eastern half of Queens County becomes a separate county (Nassau County) the next year.
()1903
First Korean immigrants to America arrive
(
)June 15, 1904
German communities of Glendale, Middle Village and Ridgewood were devastated by the sinking of the General Slocum, which burned on the East River and killed more than 1,000 people, predominantly German immigrants.
(
)1943 Chinese Exclusion Act repealed, which allows Chinese immigrants to begin making their way to the States.
(
)1960s
First major wave of South Asian immigrants to New York.
(
)Mid-1980s
Economic downturn in Mexico and Colombia attracts large numbers of Latino immigrants to New York seeking work.
1900s
1907
Sons of Israel Congregation opens its doors in Queens, attracting scores of Manhattan Jews to the borough.
1927
16 Greek families make the area that will become Little Athens their home.
(
)1930
The U.S. Census pushes Queens’ population over 1 million, more than double the mark set by the 1920 Census.
(
)1946
United Nations meets in New York City Building at Flushing Meadows.
()1990
Large numbers of West Indian immigrants move into Queens, tripling in number since 1940.
