var textnumber = 60 ; var randomnumber = Math.random() ; var rand1 = Math.round( (textnumber-1) * randomnumber) + 1 ; text = new Array text [1] ="982-985 - The Norseman Eric the Red founds a colony in western Greenland; the settlement lasts until the fourteenth or fifteenth century. " text [2] ="c. 1000 - Leif Ericsson, returning to Greenland from Norway, is driven onto the North American coast, which he explores and tries unsuccessfuly to settle. " text [3] ="1555 - Abdication of Charles V in favor of his son Philip and brother Ferdinand; Philip II inherits control over the Low Countries" text [4] ="1566 - Beeldenstorm: Iconoclastic fury. Calvinist destruction of Catholic images begins in Flanders " text [5] ="1568 - Dutch nobles Egmont and Hoorn beheaded at Brussels; the Dutch revolt against Spain begins" text [6] ="1572 - Capture of Den Briel, strategic city at the mouth of the Rhine, by Dutch 'Sea Beggars'" text [7] ="1573 - Dutch defeat Spanish fleet at battle of Zuiderzee" text [8] ="1574 - Relief of Leiden, lifting of the Spanish siege" text [9] ="1575 - Founding of Leiden University" text [10] ="1577-1640 - Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter" text [11] ="1579 - Union of Utrecht; mutual defensive pact of seven northern provinces against Spain" text [12] ="1579-1584 - Willem I, prince of Orange-Nassau, serves as first stadholder" text [13] ="1581 - Act of Abjuration: representatives of the United Provinces abjure their oath of allegiance to Philip II at The Hague" text [14] ="1584 - Willem I, prince of Orange-Nassau, assassinated at his home in Delft" text [15] ="1584-1625 - Prince Maurits of Orange-Nassau assumes the inherited stadholdership" text [16] ="1588 - Spanish Armada defeated" text [17] ="1599-1641 - Anthony van Dyck,, Flemish painter" text [18] ="1602 - United East India Company chartered by the States General of the United Provinces" text [19] ="1606-1669 - Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch painter" text [20] ="1607 - Dutch defeat Spanish fleet at Gibraltar" text [21] ="1609 - Twelve years' truce with Spain; founding of the bank of Amsterdam; Henry Hudson, in command of the East India Company ship Halve Maen, explores from Delaware Bay to the upper Hudson as far as present-day Albany" text [22] ="1614 - The name New Netherland first appears in an official document; New Netherland Company licensed by the States General; fur trading post Fort Nassau established on Castle Island, present day Port of Albany" text [23] ="1618 - Synod of Dordrecht; beginning of Thirty Years' War in Germany" text [24] ="1619 - Beheading of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, leader of the peace party, at the Hague" text [25] ="1621 - End of the Twelve years' truce with Spain; chartering of the West India Company [WIC] by the States General" text [26] ="1624 - First colonists arrive in New Netherland where they are settled at Fort Orange (Albany), the mouth of the Connecticut River, and on High Island (Burlington Island) in the Delaware River; Cornelis May, as senior skipper, becomes first director of New Netherland" text [27] ="1625-1647 - Prince Frederik Hendrik becomes stadholder upon death of Prince Maurits" text [28] ="1625 - Publication of De Jure Belli et Pacis, by the Dutch statesman and jurist Hugo Grotius, lays foundation for the science of international law. Willem Verhulst arrives as director of New Netherland" text [29] ="1626 - Daniel van Crieckenbeeck, commander at Fort Orange, killed while supporting a Mahican war party against the Mohawks" text [30] ="1626 - Peter Minuit replaces Verhulst as director; purchases Manhattan Island; moves settlers from Fort Orange, Connecticut, and Delaware to Manhattan" text [31] ="1628 - Piet Heyn captures Spanish silver fleet for the WIC" text [32] ="1629 - 'Freedoms and Exemptions', establishing the patroonship plan of colonization, approved by the WIC" text [33] ="1631 - Patroonships of Rensselaerswijck (upper Hudson), Pavonia (Jersey City), Swaenendael (Lewes, Delaware), among others, founded in New Netherland" text [34] ="1632 - Minuit removed as director of New Netherland, replaced by Bastiaen Jansz Crol; Swaenendael destroyed by Indians" text [35] ="1632-1675 - Jan Vermeer, Dutch painter" text [36] ="1633-1638 - Wouter van Twiller, director of New Netherland" text [37] ="1638 - Peter Minuit hired, by Swedish South Company, establishes New Sweden on the Delaware River (Wilimington, Delaware); Minuit lost at sea while returning to Sweden" text [38] ="1638-1647 - Willem Kieft, director of New Netherland" text [39] ="1639 - WIC opens fur trade to everyone" text [40] ="1642-1654 - Johan Printz, governor of New Sweden" text [41] ="1643-1645 - Kieft's war with the Indians around Manhattan Island" text [42] ="1647-1650 - Prince Willem II as stadholder" text [43] ="1647 - Petrus Stuyvesant becomes director general of New Netherland, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, and other dependencies in the Caribbean; WIC ship Princess Amalia lost in Bristol Bay, former Director Kieft and Domine Evardus Bogardus drowned with 82 others" text [44] ="1648 - Peace of Westphalia, settling Eighty Years' War with Spain; end of Thirty Years' War" text [45] ="1649 - Swedish relief ship Kattan (The Cat) bound for New Sweden lost off Puerto Rico" text [46] ="1650 - States General, opposing authority of princes of the house of Orange, assume control over Dutch general policy; Hartford Treaty, settling boundary dispute between New Netherland and New England" text [47] ="1651 - Stuyvesant abandons Fort Nassau (Gloucester, New Jersey); replaces it with Fort Casimir (New Castle, Delaware) below Swedish Fort Christina" text [48] ="1652-1654 - First Anglo-Dutch War" text [49] ="1653 - Construction of defensive wall across Manhattan Island (Wall Street) after threat of invasion from New England" text [50] ="1654 - Swedes under new governor, Johan Rising, capture the Dutch post Fort Casimir on Trinity Sunday, rename it Fort Trefaltighet (Fort Trinity)" text [51] ="1655 - Stuyvesant conquers New Sweden in the Delaware Valley; Indians around Manhattan attack New Amsterdam, Pavonia, and Staten Island in a conflict called the Peach War" text [52] ="1656 - Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish parentage, exponent of pantheism, is excommunicated from the synagogue" text [53] ="1658-1663 - Esopus Indian War in New Netherland" text [54] ="1664 - English naval force funded by the duke of York and Albany captures New Netherland in a surprise attack during peace time" text [55] ="1665-1667 - Second Anglo-Dutch War" text [56] ="1665 - Admiral Michiel Adriaansz de Ruyter retakes most of the WIC trading posts lost previous year to English in Africa; De Ruyter's plans to retake New Netherland aborted" text [57] ="1667 - Admiral Abraham Crijnsen retakes former Dutch colonies in the Guianas (Wild Coast of South America) seized by the English" text [58] ="1672-1674 - Third Anglo-Dutch War" text [59] ="1673 - New York captured by Dutch naval force; New Netherland restored as a Dutch colony " text [60] ="1674 - New Netherland becomes New York again as a result of the peace of Westminster" var mytext = text[rand1]