A Royal Colony Gets Undone, and AC's First Election

May 1

1707 The treaty of unification between Scotland and England became effective, making New Jersey a royal colony of Great Britain.

 1778  In a rollicking May Day celebration at Valley Forge, the men of General William Maxwell’s Continental Army New Jersey Brigade, some dressed as Indians and well fortified with whiskey, their hats adorned with cherry blossoms, marched with “mirth and Jollity” in honor of “King Tammany.”

1854 The first election was held in Atlantic City. Eighteen votes were deposited in a ballot container fashioned out of an empty cigar box.