New York Time Line

1524	Giovanni da Verrazano becomes the first European to enter New York Harbor
1609	Henry Hudson becomes the first European to sail up the Hudson River
1613	Captain Adriaen Block and the crew of the Tyger construct the first European dwellings on Manhattan Island

NEW AMSTERDAM

1624	Birth of New York. Thirty Walloon and Flemish families arrive on the Nieu Nederland and establish the first European settlement of New York on Governors Island. Captain Cornelius Mey becomes the first director of the colony of New Netherland
1625	Dutch under Willem Verhulst establish the first permanent European settlement on Manhattan Island and work begins on Fort Amsterdam
1626	Peter Minuit, 3rd director of New Netherland, purchases Manhattan Island from the Lenape Indians for trinkets worth $24
1633	First church erected on Pearl Street
1647	Peter Stuyvesant becomes director-general of New Netherland
1653	New Amsterdam becomes the first legally chartered city in America. Wall is built to protect New Amsterdam against attack from the north
1655	Peach War

COLONIAL NEW YORK

1664	New Amsterdam is handed over to the British and renamed New York
1693	New York’s first printing press set up on Pearl Street by William Bradford
1698	First Trinity Church dedicated
1700	First Federal Hall built on Wall Street
1720	First shipyard opened on East River
1725	New York’s first newspaper, the New York Gazette, is printed by William Bradford
1732	New York’s first theater opens on Nassau Street
1733	Bowling Green opens as New York’s first park
1735	John Peter Zenger’s trial establishes freedom of the press
1754	King’s College (later Columbia University) founded
1765	Sons of Liberty formed. Protests in New York against the Stamp Act
1766	Stamp Act repealed. George III statue erected in Bowling Green. St. Paul’s Chapel completed
1776	Statue of George III toppled. Battle of Harlem Heights. Washington retreats from New York, which becomes British headquarters during Revolution
1783	United States wins independence with Treaty of Paris. November 25, Evacuation Day, Washington reenters New York, and the British leave for the last time. December 4, Washington bids farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern

NEW YORK

1784	Alexander Hamilton founds Bank of New York
1785	New York named U.S. capital. New York’s first Catholic church, St. Peter’s, opens on Barclay and Church Streets
1789	March 4, First U.S. Congress meets at Federal Hall. April 30, George Washington inaugurated as first U.S. president at Federal Hall. September 25, Bill of Rights adopted at Federal Hall
1790	Capital moves to Philadelphia. Fort George (Fort Amsterdam) demolished
1792	New York Stock Exchange formed

19TH-CENTURY NEW YORK

1801	Alexander Hamilton founds New-York Evening Post
1804	Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton in duel
1807	Robert Fulton launches first steamboat on Hudson River
1811	Commissioners Grid Plan for Manhattan commenced. Castle Clinton constructed and forts built on Harbor Islands in preparation for war with Britain. City Hall opens
1812	War of 1812
1815	New York’s first cathedral, Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, opens on Mulberry
1822	Yellow fever outbreak. Many flee to Greenwich Village
1823	New York becomes largest city in the United States
1824	New York’s first tenement opens on Mott Street
1825	Erie Canal opens
1827	Slavery abolished in New York
1834	Henry Brevoort builds house on Fifth Avenue at Ninth Street
1835	Great Fire of New York
1837	Samuel Morse sends first telegraph signal
1842	Croton Aqueduct opens. New York Philharmonic plays its first concert at the Apollo Rooms on Broadway
1845	New York Knickerbockers chartered as first baseball team
1846	Present Trinity Church dedicated. America’s first department store, A.T. Stewart’s Marble Palace, opens on Broadway
1847	New York’s oldest bar, the Bridge Café, opens on Water Street
1849	Astor Place riots
1851	New York Times launched. Brevoort Hotel, first hotel on Fifth Avenue, opens at Eighth Street
1853	New York hosts World’s Fair
1857	Haughwout Building, first commercial building in the world to feature passenger elevators, opens on Broadway
1859	Central Park opened to the public. John Jacob Astor III builds house on Fifth Avenue at No. 350
1860	Lincoln gives his famous speech at Cooper Union
1863	New York Draft Riots, largest civil insurrection in American history, against corrupt draft system for Civil War
1866	First Broadway musical premieres at Niblo’s Garden
1868	First elevated railroad opens on Greenwich Street
1870	Standard Oil founded by J. D. Rockefeller. Equitable Building, first office block in the world to feature passenger elevators, opens on Broadway
1871	Grand Central Depot opens. Tammany Hall’s “Boss” Tweed imprisoned
1872	Bloomingdale’s opens
1879	St. Patrick’s Cathedral completed
1880	First street-lighting on Broadway. Dakota Building begins construction on Upper West Side. Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) opens on Fifth Avenue
1882	W. K. Vanderbilt builds grand mansion at 660 Fifth Avenue
1883	Brooklyn Bridge completed
1886	Statue of Liberty unveiled
1889	New York’s first “skyscraper,” the Tower Building, completed at 50 Broadway
1892	Ellis Island immigration center opens. Cathedral of St. John the Divine begun
1894	World’s first cinema, Holland Brothers Kinetoscope Parlor, opens at 1155 Broadway
1895	First moving picture to be shown on a screen in front of a paying audience shown at 153 Broadway. Olympia Theater opens on Longacre Square (later Times Square)
1897	World’s largest hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria, opens. America’s first pizza parlor, Lombardi’s, opens in Little Italy
1898	Five boroughs merge to form Greater New York, the world’s second largest city

20TH-CENTURY NEW YORK

1900 Construction of New York’s first subway begins

1902 Flatiron opens on Broadway. The world’s largest store, Macy’s, opens on Broadway

1903 Lyceum Theater, oldest Broadway theater still in use, opens

1904 New York Times moves to Longacre Square, which is renamed Times Square. General Slocum disaster

1907 Plaza Hotel opens

1908 First time ball drops in Times Square

1910 Pennsylvania Station opens

1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. New York Public Library opens

1913 Woolworth Building opens on Broadway

1916 New York adopts zoning regulations requiring setbacks in tall buildings

1925 New Yorker magazine launched

1927 Holland Tunnel opens. America’s first cappucino served in Greenwich Village. The Jazz Singer, the first “talkie,” premieres at the Warners’ Theater on Broadway

1928 The first talking cartoon, Disney’s Steamboat Willie, premieres at the Colony Theater on Broadway

1929 Stock market crash

1930 Chrysler Building completed as tallest building in the world

1931 Empire State Building opens as tallest building in the world

1939 Rockefeller Center completed. New York hosts World’s Fair

1946 United Nations Headquarters opens

1959 Lincoln Center construction begins. Guggenheim Museum opens

1963 Pennsylvania Station demolished

1964 Verrazano Narrows Bridge opens. The Beatles play Shea Stadium

1967 Singer Building becomes tallest building ever to be demolished. Hair opens at Public Theater

1969 Stonewall riots

1973 World Trade Center completed

2001 Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center

2012 Hurricane Sandy hits New York

2013 One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower) completed to a height of 1,776 ft (541 m)