Salem is first settled by Europeans.

(Sept.) Originally Naumkeag (“comfort haven”), it is settled by Roger Conant and members of the Dorchester Company who abandoned a fishing camp on Cape Ann. Enlarged by the arrival of more members of the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1628,* the town adopts its current name in 1629 and is incorporated as a town on March 4, 1635, and as a city in 1836.