Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.

The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was an English colony on the eastern coast of North America, founded in 1636 on former land of the Narragansett tribe by Puritan minister Roger Williams, at a settlement he originally called Providence Plantations, after his exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Joined by three other settlements soon founded on Narragansett Bay, the colony became a haven for religious dissenters and was known for its commitment to religious freedom and self-governance.