Timeline of Seattle
City history timeline
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Seattle, Washington, USA.
Before the 19th century
- Native Americans explore and settle throughout the Puget Sound region which includes the Seattle area.[1]
19th century
- 1851
- September 14: The Collins Party led by Luther Collins finds a settlement in present-day Georgetown. Scouts from the Denny Party arrive at Alki shortly after.[1]
- November 13: The remainder of the Denny Party arrives at Alki Point to spend a rainy winter.[1]
- 1852 – The Denny Party moves to present day Downtown Seattle in April.
- 1853 – Seattle becomes seat of King County, Washington Territory.[2]
- 1854 – School opens.[3]
- 1855 – Population: 300.[2]
- 1856 – Hostile Native American tribesmen attack Seattle in a single-day battle.
- 1858 – The arrival of Manuel Lopes, the city's first Black resident.
- 1861 – Washington Territorial University is established.[4] This becomes the University of Washington.
- 1863 – Washington Gazette newspaper begins publication.[5]
- 1864 – May 16: The Mercer Girls arrive.[3]
- 1867 – Weekly Intelligencer newspaper begins publication, later becoming the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.[5][6][7]
- 1868 – The Seattle Library Association is founded.[8]
- 1869 – Henry A. Atkins becomes mayor.
- 1870
- 1873 – Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad is organized.[3]
- 1874 – Gas street lamps are installed.[3]
- 1875
- 1878 – Seattle Daily Post begins publication.[5]
- 1879 – Squire opera house is built.[3]
- 1880
- 1883 – Telephone[9] and Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad[3] begins operating.
- 1885 – Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway is organized.[2]
- 1886 – February: Most Chinese are expelled by White mobs.[10]
- 1888
- Rainier Club is established.[citation needed]
- Seattle Athletic Club is organized.[11]
- 1889
- Seattle Federation of Women's Clubs is organized.[12]
- June 6: Great Seattle Fire.[2]
- Seattle Fire Department is established.[13]
- Electric streetcar begins operating.[14]
- City becomes part of the new U.S. State of Washington.
- 1890
- 1891
- Seattle Public Library opens.
- The Seattle Times is founded as the Seattle Press-Times.[16]
- The Seattle Standard is founded as Seattle's first Black newspaper.[17]
- 1892 – Pioneer Building is constructed.
- 1893
- Great Northern Railway begins operating.[3]
- Seattle Theatre opens.[18]
- Curtis & Guptil photographers are in business.[19]
- 1894
- The Argus newspaper begins publication.
- The Seattle Republican begins publication, becoming Seattle's first successful Black-owned newspaper.[20]
- 1895 – Seattle General Hospital is established.
- September 4: The University of Washington moves to its current location in Montlake.[21]
- 1898 – U.S. assay office opens.[22]
- 1899
- The Seattle Star newspaper begins publication.[5]
- Tlingit totem pole is installed in Pioneer Place.
- 1900
- Population: 80,671.[2]
- Seattle General Hospital re-opens in a new building.
20th century
1900s–1940s
- 1901 – Renton Hill Community Improvement Club is organized.[23]
- 1903
- July 30: Semi-centennial of founding of Seattle.[24]
- City hires Olmsted Brothers to design public parks.[25]
- 1905
- South Seattle becomes part of the city.[2]
- Seattle Fine Arts Society is established.
- 1906
- The Mountaineers (club) is formed.
- Public Library building opens.[26]
- King Street Station opens.
- 1907
- City expands, annexing Atlantic City, Ballard, Columbia, Dunlap, Rainier Beach, Ravenna, South-East Seattle, South Park, and West Seattle.[2]
- St. James Cathedral is built.
- August 17: Pike Place Market opens.[22][27]
- 1908 - The Great White Fleet visits Seattle and Puget Sound area.[28]
- 1909
- June 1: Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition opens.[29]
- Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad begins operating.[3]
- 1910
- Georgetown becomes part of the city.[3]
- Municipal League of Seattle is founded.[30]
- Population: 237,194.[2]
- 1911 – Port of Seattle is established.[31]
- 1913
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People branch is established.[32]
- 20th Avenue NE Bridge opens.
- 1914 – Smith Tower is built.[33]
- 1916
- Seattle Audubon Society is established.[12]
- Coliseum Theater opens.[18]
- July 15: William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products Co. This becomes the Boeing Company.[34]
- 1918 – Bessaroth Synagogue is dedicated.[35]
- 1919 – February: Seattle General Strike.[36]
- 1920 – Seattle Northwest Enterprise newspaper begins publication.[32]
- 1922 – The first Miss Seattle is crowned.
- 1923
- Seattle Goodwill Industries is established.[37][38]
- Mountaineers Players (theatre troupe) is active.[39]
- 1924
- September 28: First aerial circumnavigation of the world lands at Sand Point.[40]
- Seattle Camera Club is founded.
- 1925
- Sears, Roebuck store opens.
- Eagles Auditorium Building is constructed.
- Seattle Planning Commission is established.[41]
- 1926
- U.S. Naval Air Station is established at Sand Point.
- Bertha Knight Landes is elected mayor, the first woman elected to head a major US city.[42]
- 1928 – Civic Auditorium and Paramount Theatre[18] opens.
- 1929 – Seattle Urban League is founded.
- 1930
- Pike Place Fish Market and Japanese American Citizen's League[32] are established.
- Exchange Building is constructed.
- 1932 – Grace Hospital is established.
- 1933 – Seattle Art Museum opens.[43]
- 1938 – Vedanta Society of Western Washington is founded.[44][45]
- 1940
- Population: 368,302.[46]
- April 28: Seattle trolleybus system opens.
- 1941 - April 12: Last streetcar line closes.
- 1946 – Seattle Foundation is established.
- 1947
- Memorial Stadium opens.
- September 1: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (popularly known as Sea-Tac) begins operation.[47]
- 1949 – Free port opens.[46][31]
1950s–1990s
- 1950
- 1957 – Sister city relationship is established with Kobe, Japan.[48]
- 1959 – City joins Puget Sound Governmental Conference.[49]
- 1960 – Population: 557,087.[50]
- 1961
- Space Needle is built.[51]
- American Institute of Architects Seattle chapter becomes active.[52]
- 1962
- Alweg Monorail begins operating.
- April 21 – Seattle World's Fair opens.
- Congress of Racial Equality chapter is established.[53]
- Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church is built.[35]
- 1963
- Seattle Opera and Seattle Repertory Theatre[54] is founded.
- Martin Cinerama opens.[18]
- 1964 - August 21: The Beatles performs at the Seattle Center Coliseum; they would perform again just over two years later.
- 1965
- April 29: The 6.7 Mw Puget Sound earthquake affects western Washington with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing seven deaths and $12.5–28 million in financial losses in the Puget Sound region.
- ACT Theatre is founded.
- 1967
- November: Radical Women is founded.Seattle Radical Women, one of first women's liberation groups in the United States, forms in November 1967.
- Allied Arts of Seattle is founded.
- Sister city relationship is established with Bergen, Norway.[48]
- 1969
- Seafirst Building is constructed. This is Seattle's tallest building for the next 16 years.[4]
- 1970 – Seattle Marathon, and negative income tax program[55] begins.
- 1971
- Mayor's Arts Festival begins (later known as Bumbershoot).
- Starbucks opens its first store near the Pike Place Market.[56]
- Seattle voters approve the "Let's Keep the Market" initiative, preserving the Pike Place Market[57]
- 1972
- Pacific Northwest Dance Association is established.
- Intiman Theatre Festival begins.
- 1973 – Sister city relationship is established with Tashkent, Uzbekistan.[48]
- 1974 – Seattle Seahawks franchise is established, beginning play in 1976.[58]
- 1976 – Daybreak Star Cultural Center opens.[59]
- 1977
- Seattle Mariners baseball team is formed.[60]
- Sister city relationship is established with Beersheba, Israel.[48]
- 1978 – Central Co-op is established.[61]
- 1979
- P-Patch Advisory Council is established.[62]
- Music Magazine The Rocket begins publishing.[63]
- June 1: Seattle SuperSonics basketball team wins NBA Finals.[4]
- Sister city relationship is established with Mazatlán, Mexico.[48]
- 1980
- Subterranean Pop fanzine begins publication.[63]
- Sister city relationship is established with Nantes, France.[48]
- The last Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad train leaves Seattle before abandonment.
- 1981 – Sister city relationship is established with Christchurch, New Zealand; and Mombasa, Kenya.[48]
- 1982 – Market Park is landscaped.
- 1983 – Sister city relationship is established with Chongqing, China.[48]
- 1984
- 911 Media Arts Center and Weird Science Salon[64] is founded.
- Sister city relationship is established with Limbe, Cameroon.[48]
- 1985
- Seattle Municipal Archives are established.
- The 76-story Columbia Seafirst Center is built and becomes the city's tallest building. In response, the Citizen Alternative Plan (CAP) advocates for height limits in Downtown.
- 1986 – Sister city relationships is established with Galway, Ireland; and Reykjavík, Iceland.[48]
- 1988
- Washington State Convention Center and Telephone Museum both open.
- Nirvana issues its first release, a 7" with Love Buzz and Big Cheese on Seattle's SubPop Records.[65]
- 1989
- Jim McDermott becomes U.S. representative for Washington's 7th congressional district.[66]
- Sister city relationship is established with Daejeon, South Korea.[48]
- 1990
- September 15: Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel opens.
- October: Pearl Jam plays its first concert ever in Seattle's Off Ramp Café.
- Norm Rice becomes mayor.
- Population: 516,259.[50]
- 1991
- Sustainable Seattle nonprofit is established.
- Washington Hemp Expo begins.
- Seattle Art Museum is rebuilt.[43]
- Sister city relationships is established with Cebu, Philippines; and Kaohsiung, Taiwan.[48]
- 1992 – Sister city relationship is established with Pécs, Hungary; and Surabaya, Indonesia.[48]
- 1993
- Seattle Knights jousting acting troupe is founded.
- Fictional movie Sleepless in Seattle is released.[67]
- Sister city relationships is established with Gdynia, Poland; and Perugia, Italy.[48]
- 1994
- Amazon.com is established.
- Seattle Asian Art Museum opens.[43]
- City Public Access Network goes online.[68][69][70]
- 1996 – Sister city relationship is established with Haiphong, Vietnam.[48]
- 1997
- Seattle Internet Exchange and Seattle Channel[71] are established.
- Jet City Maven newspaper begins publication.
- 1998 – Paul Schell becomes mayor.
- 1999
- November 30: Anti-globalization protests during World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference.[72]
- Town Hall Seattle opens.
- Sister city relationship is established with Sihanoukville, Cambodia.[48]
- 2000
- Experience Music Project opens.[73]
- Music Magazine The Rocket ceases publishing.[74]
21st century
- 2001
- February 27: Seattle Mardi Gras Riots
- February 28: Nisqually earthquake
- September: Boeing relocates its corporate headquarters to Chicago, Illinois.
- 2002 - July 28: The first sporting event at Seahawks Stadium, a Seattle Sounders soccer match, is held
- 2004
- Seattle Central Library building opens.
- Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project is founded.
- Rat City Rollergirls (rollerderby league) is founded.
- 2006
- Seattle Metropolitan begins publication.
- Kavana Cooperative is founded.[45][75]
- 2007 - December 12: South Lake Union Streetcar line opens.[76]
- 2008
- Tilted Thunder Rail Birds (rollerderby league) is formed.
- Seattle SuperSonics move to Oklahoma City
- 2009
- July 18: Central Link light rail begins service between Westlake and Tukwila.[77]
- December 19: Central Link is extended to SeaTac Airport.[78]
- InvestigateWest news is headquartered in Seattle.[79]
- Upping Technology for Underserved Neighbors[80] and Jigsaw Renaissance[64] is founded.
- CondoInternet is established.[81]
- 2010
- Northwest Chocolate Festival begins.
- Michael McGinn becomes mayor.
- Population: 608,660;[82] metro 3,439,809.[83]
- 2011
- 2012
- Ban against plastic shopping bags goes into effect.[86]
- Chihuly Garden and Glass and Living Computer Museum opens.
- 2013
- Construction of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel by the tunnel-boring machine Bertha begins.
- Population: 652,405.[87]
- 2014
- January: Ed Murray becomes mayor.
- February: Seattle Seahawks win Super Bowl football contest.[88]
- May: City minimum wage hike is announced.[89][90]
- 2015
- May: A large kayak protest against Arctic oil drilling is held on Elliott Bay in response to a Shell oil platform arriving at the Port of Seattle.[91]
- September: School teachers strike[92]
- 2016
- January 23: First Hill Streetcar line opens.[93]
- March 19: University Link Tunnel extends light rail to Capitol Hill and Husky Stadium.
- 2020
- Beginning in March: During the week, in response to the COVID pandemic across Washington, 3 counties in the Seattle metropolitan area issued directives for residents to shelter-in-place until at least the 7th of April.
- Beginning in May: George Floyd protests in Seattle begin.
- Population: 737,015;[94] metro: 3,433,000[95]
- 2023 - February 21: Seattle becomes the first city in the United States to ban discrimination based on caste.[96]
- 2025 - Official reopening of Waterfront Park and Pier 58 after years of renovation following the removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.[97]
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