District of Columbia: A Historical Timeline

Prior to 1650 Pre-European Settlement
4000 BCE	Archaeological evidence indicates Native Americans settle in the area now known as Washington, D.C.
1608 CE	Captain John Smith explores the region. At the time, the Patawomeck live on the Virginia side, and the Piscataway reside on the Maryland side. Native settlements within the District of Columbia also include the Nacostines and Nacotchtank.
1651–1849 The District of Columbia
1651	Georgetown is founded. It is the farthest point upstream to which oceangoing boats can navigate the Potomac River. It becomes a thriving port town, facilitating trade and shipments of tobacco and goods from colonial Maryland.
1788	(December 23) Maryland votes to cede a 100-square mile area for the creation of the seat of the national government. About two-thirds of the area becomes the District of Columbia.
1790	(July 16) The District of Columbia is established as the seat of the United States government.
1791	(March 29) President George Washington and French architect Pierre Charles l'Enfant examine a site along the Potomac River that will become the U.S. Capitol.
1792	(July 12) The U.S. government purchases property for the future site of the U.S. Mint. The $4,266.67 purchase represents the first money appropriated by Congress for a building to be used for a public purpose. (July 31) The foundation stone is laid for the U.S. Mint. (October 13) The cornerstone of the executive mansion is laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia. It is known as the "President's House" until it becomes the "White House" during the Roosevelt administration.
1800	(June 4) The White House is completed and President John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams establish residence there. (December 12) The city of Washington in the District of Columbia becomes the official capital of the United States.
1801	(February 27) The District of Columbia is placed under the jurisdiction of Congress. (March 4) Thomas Jefferson becomes the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
1802	(May 3) Washington, D.C., is incorporated as a city, with the mayor appointed by the president and the council elected by property owners.
1814	(August 24) The War of 1812 rages. Five thousand British troops march into Washington after defeating an American force at Bladensburg, Maryland. In retaliation for the American burning of the parliament building in York, the capital of Upper Canada (now present-day Toronto), the British burn down the White House, the Capitol, and almost every public building in the city before a downpour extinguishes the fire. President James Madison and his wife Dolly flee, but not before Dolly Madison saves the famous Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington.
1815	Congress appropriates funds for the restoration of the White House and hires James Hoban, the original designer and builder, to do the work.
1817	President James Monroe moves back into the restored White House.
1835	(January 31) Richard Lawrence misfires at President Andrew Jackson during funeral services for Congressman Warren Davis. Jackson isn't injured, and courts find Lawrence, who believes he is the King of England, to be insane.
1844	(May 24) Before a crowd of dignitaries in the chambers of the Supreme Court, Samuel Morse taps out the message "What hath God wrought?" on the telegraph to his partner in Baltimore, Alfred Vail. Electrical telegraphy becomes the first instantaneous form of communication.
1846	(August 10) President James Polk signs a measure establishing the Smithsonian Institution. It is named after English scientist James Smithson, whose bequest of $500,000 makes it possible.
1848	(July 4) President Polk lays the cornerstone of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. Each state of the union is invited to donate a memorial stone. The white marble obelisk is 555 feet tall and 55 feet square at the base. It is completed in 1884, and at the time it is the tallest structure in the world.
1850–1899 THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION ERAS
1850	(September 20) Washington, D.C.'s slave trade is abolished as a provision of the Compromise of 1850. Although the slave trade is now illegal, slavery is still legal. By 1860 free African Americans outnumber slaves by nearly 4 to 1 in the area.
1851	(December 24) Fire devastates the Library of Congress, destroying about 35,000 printed volumes.
1859	Northern and Southern leaders socialize together for the last time at the Napier Ball in the Willard Hotel before The Civil War is declared.
1861	(April 18) The Kansas Frontier Guards set up camp in the East Room of the White House with the mission to protect President Abraham Lincoln from a feared rebel attack on Washington. As additional Union troops enter the city, the Frontier Guard is dismissed from the White House. (October 23) President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C., for all military-related cases.
1862	(April 3) Slavery is abolished in Washington, D.C.
1864	(July 11) Confederate forces arrive in Silver Spring, Maryland, on the outskirts of the District of Columbia and begin to probe the Union line. President Lincoln becomes the first standing president to witness a battle as Union forces repel the Confederate army. Congress authorizes the Columbia Institution for the Deaf to grant and confirm college degrees. It becomes the world's first school for the advanced education of the deaf and hard of hearing, and later is renamed Gallaudet University. Today is remains the world's only university in which all programs and services are designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students.
1865	(April 14) On the evening of Good Friday, just after 10pm, President Lincoln is shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. Southern sympathizer Booth bursts into the presidential box and shoots Lincoln behind the ear. Lincoln remains unconscious until his death at 7:22 the following morning.
1867	(January 8) African-American males are granted the right to vote in local elections. (September 25) Congress creates the first all African-American university, Howard University, in Washington, D.C.
1877	(December 6) The Washington Post publishes its first edition; it is now the city's oldest newspaper still in operation.
1888	(January 27) The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C. Today, it is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world.
1893	(September 9) Frances Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland, gives birth to a daughter, Esther, in the White House. It is the first time a president's child is born in the executive mansion.
1895	Georgetown becomes part of Washington, D.C.
1900–1929 EARLY 20TH CENTURY
1901	(October 28) Race riots, sparked by African-American educator and activist Booker T. Washington's visit to the White House, kill 34 in the district.
1912	(March 27) The district's first cherry blossom trees, a gift from Japan, are planted. The Japanese government gifts 3,020 trees to the U.S. government to be planted along Washington's Potomac River. They have since become an iconic symbol of the district.
1919	(July 24) Resulting from postwar tensions of racism, unemployment, and inflation, a race riot leaves six Washingtonians dead and 100 wounded.
1922	(May 30) The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated. The 36 Doric columns in the memorial represent the number of states in the Union at the time of Lincoln's assassination.
1924	(February 22) Calvin Coolidge gives the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House as he addresses the country over 42 stations.
1925	The first national congress of the Ku Klux Klan opens, and 200,000 members march in Washington, D.C.
1930–1949 THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND WORLD WAR II
1932	(June 17) Over 10,000 World War I veterans march on Washington, D.C., demanding their bonuses for service in the war. (July 28) Under orders from President Herbert Hoover, shacks built in the shadow of the Capitol by protesting veterans are burned, and U.S. troops force the veterans to evacuate. One veteran is killed and 50 veterans and police are injured in the melee. In May of the following year, President Franklin Roosevelt allows 25,000 veterans to enroll in the Citizens' Conservation Corps in lieu of getting bonuses.
1939	(November 15) President Franklin Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. It is completed in 1943.
1944	(August 21) The U.S., Britain, the Soviet Union, and China open the Dumbarton Oak conference in Washington, D.C. The meeting lays the foundation for the establishment of the United Nations.
1947	(September 18) The Central Intelligence Agency is formed to collect information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, as well as to advice public policymakers.
1950–PRESENT MODERN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
1951	The U.S. Supreme Court bans segregation in Washington, D.C., restaurants.
1954	The district's public schools are desegregated. Depicting the raising of the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima, a World War II memorial to U.S. Marines is dedicated next to Arlington National Cemetery.
1961	(March 29) Residents of the district are granted the right to vote for U.S. president and vice-president when the 23rd Amendment is ratified. (May 4) A group of civil rights activists, dubbed "Freedom Riders," leave Washington, D.C., for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation on buses and in bus terminals.
1962	(November 17) President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington's Dulles International Airport. Actually located in the greater metropolitan area on Virginia soil, the airport now sees 1,000 to 1,200 daily flight operations.
1963	(August 28) The Civil Rights March on Washington draws 200,000 to 250,000 demonstrators. During the march, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his historic "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
1965	(April 17) The activist group Students for a Democratic Society holds its first anti-Vietnam War protest rally in Washington, D.C. On November 27, 15,000–25,000 protestors demonstrate against the war. Student protests become a regular occurrence in the district during the tumultuous Vietnam War era.
1968	(June 19) More than 50,000 people march on Washington to support the Poor People's Campaign for reforms in welfare, employment, and housing policies. Reverend Jesse Jackson preaches "I Am Somebody" at Resurrection City, a tent city set up in front of the White House. Authorities shut down the tent city on June 24.
1969	(November 15) A quarter of a million protesters stage a peaceful demonstration against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C.
1972	(June 17) The Watergate Scandal begins to unravel when five men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee office at the Watergate Hotel at 1:52 a.m. The five burglars are soon linked to President Richard Nixon's Committee for the Re-election of the President, and Nixon conspires to obstruct an FBI investigation of the incident.
1973	(December 24) The U.S. Congress passes the Home Rule Act, which allows residents of Washington, D.C., to elect a mayor.
1974	(March 1) A grand jury concludes that President Nixon is involved in the Watergate cover-up. Rather than face impeachment, Nixon chooses to resign from office. (August 9) Nixon and his family leave the White House.
1976	The 100-mile metro system in Washington, D.C., is completed.
1977	(March 9) About a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invade three buildings in Washington, killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The siege ends two days later after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join the negotiations.
1979	(October 14) One hundred thousand gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and their supporters march in celebration of gay pride and to demand equal rights for homosexuals under the law.
1981	(March 30) John W. Hinckley shoots and wounds President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington, D.C., hotel. The president recovers, but his press secretary, James Brady, is permanently disabled in the attack. The incident inspires Brady to fight for stricter gun control laws. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act is named in his honor. (August) Oliver North is assigned to White House duty as Chief Middle East arms-sales adviser to the secretary of defense. He is fired on November 25, 1986, for selling arms to Iran and for diverting illegal Iran arms sales profits to Nicaraguan contras. The events spark the Iran Contra Affair of November 1986, in which other senior officials of the Regan Administration are revealed to have done the same.
1982	The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is opened to visitors. Designed by Maya Lin, it includes the names of all military personnel who died in the war or remain missing in action.
1987	(October 11) Two hundred thousand gay rights activists march through Washington, D.C., to demand protection from discrimination and more federal money for AIDS research and treatment. The AIDS Memorial Quilt has its inaugural presentation.
1990	(January 18) Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for crack cocaine use and possession during a sting operation at the Vista Hotel. Barry is convicted of one count criminal possession in October and chooses not to run for November reelection. He is sentenced to a six-month federal prison term a year later.
1992	The U.S. House of Representatives approves statehood for the District of Columbia, but the Senate does not.
1994	(January 2) Marion Barry reassumes the office of mayor after being reelected. He serves until 1991.
1995	(October 16) In an effort to encourage African-American unity, more than 800,000 African-American men gather in Washington, D.C., for the "Million Man March" led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
2001	(September 11) Letters containing highly lethal anthrax spores are mailed to several news media offices and two Democratic U.S. Senators shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Five people are killed and 17 others are infected. Traces of anthrax are found in three Capitol Hill buildings.
2007	(January 27) Tens of thousands of people converge on the National Mall to oppose President George W. Bush's plan for troop increases in Iraq.
2009	(January 20) Two million people converge on the National Mall to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first African-American U.S. president.