20,000 BC
Small bands of Ice Age hunters cross the Bering Land Bridge from Asia.
7000–1000 BC
Tribes of the Puget Sound region become dependent on fishing.
A tribal mask of Goomokwey, master of the deep.
Seattle Art Musuem
1592
Spanish ships visit the region.
1790
Chief Sealth – also known as Chief Seattle – is born in the Puget Sound area.
1792
English navigator Captain George Vancouver lands near present-day Everett, north of Seattle. His expedition explores Puget Sound, named for Peter Puget, a lieutenant on Vancouver’s crew.
1820s
The Hudson’s Bay Company expands its operations in the Pacific Northwest, based in Fort Vancouver, at the mouth of the Columbia River.
1833
The Hudson’s Bay Company establishes Fort Nisqually in present-day Tacoma.
1851
David Denny and a group of settlers arrive at Alki Point, in what is now West Seattle. They name their settlement Alki-New York for Denny’s home city.
1852
Disappointed by Alki Point’s severe weather and poor port potential, Denny and his crew shift north to Elliott Bay, near present-day Seattle.
1853
The relocated settlement is laid out and named for Chief Sealth (Seattle) – the leader of the Duwamish, Suquamish, and other Puget Sound tribes – and a friend of the settlers.
1854
A hastily drawn-up treaty with the local tribes provides for the newcomers to ‘buy’ Indian land.
1855
Chief Seattle signs the Port Elliott treaty, giving away Indian land and establishing a reservation.
1856
Some Indians rebel against the treaty, but the rebellion is quickly quenched by the US Army.
1861
The University of Washington is established.
Wood engraving depiction of the construction of the first Transcontinental Telegraph.
Library of Congress
1864
The transcontinental telegraph connects Seattle with the rest of the United States.
1866
Chief Seattle dies at the Port Madison Reservation, Washington.
1882
Flamed by the economic depression, animosity against Chinese immigrants increases.
1883
The city of Tacoma is incorporated.
1886
Racial violence breaks out against Chinese residents. Five men are shot and Chinese stores and homes are destroyed. Two hundred Chinese are forced onto a San Francisco-bound ship.
1889
A handyman pours water onto a flaming pot of glue in a paint store. The resulting explosion and fire destroys the entire 60-block downtown area of Seattle.
1890
The population of Seattle reaches 50,000; the city erects a monument to Chief Seattle.
1893
The Great Northern Railway arrives, making Seattle a major rail terminus.
Heart of the Klondike, as written by Scott Marble.
Library of Congress
1897
The SS Portland sails into the city, carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gold from the Yukon’s Klondike. Seattle’s mayor resigns and heads north for the gold.
Late 1890s
Japanese laborers begin arriving.
1900
In Tacoma, Midwesterner Frederick Weyerhaeuser buys 900,000 acres (360,000 hectares) of timberland from Northern Pacific Railroad.
Early 1900s
Downtown hills are razed; the earth is used for harbor landfill. Ten surrounding cities are annexed by Seattle.
1909
The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition is held.
1910
The city’s population reaches 250,000.
1914
The Panama Canal opens, increasing Seattle’s importance as a Pacific port.
1916
The Lake Washington Ship Canal opens. William Boeing, a prosperous lumberman, incorporates the Pacific Aero Products Company.
1917
Pacific Aero Products Company is renamed the Boeing Airplane Company.
1919
The country’s first and longest general strike is held in Seattle; however, it becomes a tactical error as some of its supporters are targeted as Communists.
1928
Boeing becomes part of the United Aircraft & Transport Corporation, a merger of several aircraft manufacturers and airlines.
1934
Antitrust rules force United Aircraft & Transport to break up. Boeing emerges, as does United Airlines and United Aircraft.
1935
The B-17 Flying Fortress is first flown.
1941
The US entry into World War II invigorates Seattle’s importance, both in shipbuilding and in aircraft manufacturing.
1942
7,000 Japanese-Americans are moved from Seattle to Idaho internment camps. Jimi Hendrix is born in Seattle.
1950
An economic recession is squelched by the Korean War; Seattle builds B-47 bombers.
1958
The Boeing 707 commercial passenger jet is introduced for regular service.
1962
The Seattle World’s Fair introduces the city – and the Space Needle – to the world.
1965
Seattle’s population exceeds half a million.
1969
Boeing lays off 60 percent of its employees. The city’s economy heads into a tailspin.
1970
The Boeing 747 is put into service, with twice the carrying capacity of any previous passenger jet.
1971
The first branch of Starbucks coffee shops opens.
1979
Seattle’s SuperSonics win the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship.
Mount St Helens erupting in 1980.
United States Geological Survey
1980
Mount St Helens explodes south of Seattle.
1982
The so-called Green River Killer begins a 49-person murder spree.
1992
Seattle becomes a music center as grunge music – Nirvana, Pearl Jam – sweeps the world.
1993
Forbes magazine rates Microsoft chairman Bill Gates as the richest man in the world.
1998
Adobe moves into an office park under the Fremont Bridge.
1999
Safeco Field replaces the Kingdome to host Major League baseball; Canada and the US sign a salmon-fishing treaty. Protesters shut down the World Trade Organization conference; an antitrust trial involving Microsoft begins.
2001
The tech boom collapses and many people leave town. An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hits the area. Boeing moves its corporate headquarters to Chicago and many jobs are lost.
2002
Seahawks Stadium (now CenturyLink Field) opens for the NFL season. The US District Court conditionally approves a Microsoft antitrust settlement.
2003
Seattle-based Amazon.com turns its first profit after several years of trading.
2004
With women’s national basketball, the city wins its first national sports title since 1979.
2005
Voters pass the strictest smoking ban in the US.
2006
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sells the Seattle SuperSonics to a group of Oklahoma City businessmen; the Seahawks play their first Super Bowl; Seattle breaks a 73-year-old record for the most rain in a month.
2007
The Olympic Sculpture Park opens.
Bill Gates in 2017.
Getty Images
2008
Bill Gates steps down as Microsoft CEO to concentrate on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Washington Mutual collapses.
2009
Sound Transit light rail link begins service between Downtown and SeaTac Airport. Boeing’s long-awaited 787 Dreamliner makes its first test flight.
2010
Amazon begins moving into its enormous new campus in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.
‘Henry Hemp’, a proponent for legalizing marijuana, at a rally on Seattle’s waterfront in 2012.
iStockphoto
2012
Washington State voters approve same-sex marriage and the legalization of marijuana.
2013
Construction of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel begins, to be completed by 2019.
2014
Democrat Ed Murray becomes mayor; Seattle Seahawks football team wins Super Bowl.
2016
Light rail extended to Capitol Hill and Husky Stadium; First Hill tram line opens.
2017
Seattle files a lawsuit against President Trump and his administration over their threat to hold back federal grant money from ‘sanctuary cities’.