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before 1820s |
|
1762 |
Standing Peachtree, Native American trading post first mentioned |
|
1820 |
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1821 |
Creek Indians cede land that is now Metro Atlanta |
|
1822 |
Decatur founded |
|
1830 |
|
1830 |
Whitehall Tavern built at today's West End |
|
1836 |
Western and Atlantic Railroad approved |
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1839 |
John Thrasher builds settlement at terminus |
|
1840 |
|
1842 |
Incorporated as Marthasville;
Georgia Railroad arrives from Augusta |
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1846 |
Macon & Western RR connects Atlanta with port of Savannah |
|
1847 |
Atlanta incorporated |
1850
pop. 2,572 |
|
1850 |
Oakland Cemetery founded |
|
1851 |
W&A RR connects Atlanta to The Midwest |
|
1854 |
Atlanta & La Grange RR connects Atlanta towards the southwest; Atlanta becomes rail hub for entire South |
1860
pop. 9,554 |
|
1861-1865 |
American Civil War |
|
1864 |
Civil War Atlanta Campaign, burning of Atlanta |
|
1865 |
Civil War ends; slaves freed;
Atlanta University, 1st Atlanta black college, founded |
1870
pop. 21,879 |
|
1871 |
Horse-drawn streetcars appear, enabling city expansion |
1880
pop. 37,409 |
|
1880 |
Atlanta surpasses Savannah as Georgia's largest city |
|
1881 |
International Cotton Exposition |
|
1885 |
Georgia Tech founded |
|
1886 |
Atlanta goes "dry";
Coca-Cola first sold;
Henry Grady's "New South" speech in New York |
|
1887 |
Piedmont Exposition;
Inman Park, first garden suburb, founded;
Coca-Cola invents the coupon |
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1889 |
First electric streetcars enable further expansion of city;
State Capitol building opens |
1890
pop. 65,533 |
|
1895 |
Cotton States Expo; Booker T. Washington gives "Atlanta Compromise" Speech |
1900
pop. 89,872 - metro 419,375 |
|
1906 |
Atlanta Race Riot kills 27;
Black businesses move to Sweet Auburn and west side |
1910
pop. 154,839 - metro 522,442 |
|
1910 |
Restaurants segregated; other Jim Crow laws follow |
|
1913 |
Leo Frank lynching;
Georgia Tech starts "evening college", now Georgia State |
|
1914 |
Coca-Cola president Asa Griggs Candler donates land for Emory University campus in Druid Hills |
|
1917 |
Great Atlanta fire |
1920
pop. 200,616 - metro 622,283 |
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1923 |
Spring Street Viaduct opens, downtown rises above train tracks |
1930
pop. 270,366 - metro 715,391 |
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1936 |
William B. Hartsfield elected mayor;
Techwood Homes built, first public housing in US |
|
1939 |
Gone with the Wind premiere draws 300,000 to streets |
|
1940s |
|
1946 |
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) founded |
|
1949 |
Last streetcar line converted to trolleybus |
1950
pop. 331,314 - metro 997,666 |
|
1950 |
Transit strike, Atlanta Transit Co. takes over transit from Georgia Railway and Power |
|
1952 |
Buckhead annexed |
|
1958 |
Racist terrorists bomb "The Temple", believing Jews support black Civil Rights |
|
1959 |
Trolleybuses, buses, public library desegregated;
Lenox Square mall opens
Metro population hits 1 million |
1960
pop. 487,455 - metro 1,312,474 |
|
1960 |
Civil Rights sit-ins at Rich's, lunch counters |
|
1961 |
Ivan Allen, Jr. becomes mayor;
Public schools begin token desegregation;
Rich's desegregates restaurant;
John Portman opens Merchandise Mart, kicking off transformation of downtown |
|
1962 |
106 Atlanta art patrons die in Paris air crash |
|
1963 |
Trolleybuses converted en masse to buses |
|
1968 |
Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated |
|
1969 |
Perimeter freeway opens |
1970
pop. 496,973 - metro 1,763,626 |
|
1973 |
Maynard Jackson becomes first black mayor |
|
1979 |
MARTA opens first rail rapid transit line;
Child murders begin |
1980
pop. 425,022 - metro 2,233,324 |
|
1980 |
CNN launches, Turner empire takes off |
|
1982 |
Andrew Young becomes mayor |
|
1988 |
Democratic Convention |
1990
pop. 394,017 - metro 2,959,950 |
|
1992 |
Bank of America Plaza completed, tallest US building outside of NYC and Chicago |
|
1996 |
Summer Olympics |
2000
pop. 416,474 - metro 4,112,198 |
|
2005 |
Airport becomes world's busiest;
BeltLine plan adopted, adding 40% to city's green space |
|
2008 |
Delta becomes world's largest airline;
Downtown tornadoes |
2010
pop. 420,003 - metro (CSA) 5,729,304 |
|
2011 |
Atlanta first US city to demolish all public housing projects |
