1641

1 in 4 business premises sell liquor and beer. At corner of Whitehall and Stone Street, 1st official tavern is At the sign of the Wooden Horse. When serving in the militia, its owner had been sentenced to carry a pitcher of beer and a sword while riding a sharp-spined wooden horse on parade. James Bronck, a Dane who had arrived in July 1939, purchases 500 acres between the Harlem River and the Aquahung River, soon known as Bronck's River; hence borough's name.

April 11
Drinking on Sunday during church hours is outlawed. Residents ignore this (a stronger law is passed 15 years later). Army detachment investigates theft of a pig, stolen by Dutch criminals en route to Delaware. Kieft's troops think Raitan Indians guilty and attack them, launching Governor Kieft's War, a struggle between Europeans in the northeast and various local tribes - tribes that are often at war with one another. 11 tribes attack the small settlement in Manhattan. Native Americans of Long Island, Hackensack and Westchester, once friendly, kill isolated farmers and take wives and children as captives. In September, when Raritan Indians attack Dutch settlements along Hackensack River and on Staten Island, the Dutch abandon these. Semptember - Annual livestock fairs to begin in Manhattan.

Hanging Spectacle 
City's 1st public hanging in Hanover Square: Dutch West India Company slaves who had killed a slave are threatened with torture if they do not name killer. All confess, assuming company will not want to lose 9 slaves. Governor Kieft orders them to draw straws. Gerrit loses. Many come to see this huge man hang but when the ladder is pulled away, both ropes break and he falls to the ground in agony. Gerrit is released. 3 years later he is emancipated and becomes one of the earliest landowners in Greenwich Village.

Kieft states: "A great deal of bad seawant (wampun) .. imported from other places - is in circulation, while the good, splendid seawant is out of sight or exported., which must cause the ruin of the country".

New Council of Twelve is chosen by male heads of households to advise Director General.