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Walt Crowley, et al - Seattle & King County Timeline

This slim volume contains many fine photographs and discussions of historic events. I've noted a few items from the timeline that seem relevant to this project.

12,000 BCE-1850: When Worlds Collide

• 1848 - Oregon Territory established. California gold rush spurs western migration.

1851-1860: New York Alki

• 1851 - First white settlers arrive in Seattle in late summer. The Denny party arrived on November 13.
• 1852 - Henry Yesler builds Puget Sound's first steam powered sawmill.
• 1853 - Washington Territory established.
• 1860 - Military Road is completed between Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River and Seattle.

1861-1880: Settling In

• 1861 - Territorial University (University of Washington) opens.
• 1863 - Seattle Gazette (1st newspaper) is published.
• 1864 - Congress charters Northern Pacific line and provides land grants along its right-of-way to lure private capital.
• 1873 - Northern Pacific Railroad announces selection of Tacoma for its Puget Sound terminus.

1881-1900: Golden Phoenix

• 1881 - Weekly Intelligencer combines with The Post to become Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
• 1883 - First telephone exchange built in Seattle.
• 1884 - Spur railroad built between Tacoma and Seattle.
• 1885 (circa) - Canadian Pacific transcontinental railroad completed.
• 1886 - First electric lightbulb switched on in Seattle.
• 1889 - Great Seattle Fire.
• 1889 - Washington becomes 42nd state in the Union.
• 1893 - Great Northern Railway completes direct transcontinental line to Seattle.
• 1893 - National economic "Panic of 1893" begins four year depression.
• 1893 - Telephone service established to Spokane and Portland.
• 1896 - Seattle Daily Times begins publication.
• 1897 - Klondike gold rush begins.
• 1899 - Mt Rainier National Park established.
• 1900 - James Hill takes control of Northern Pacific Railway and sells 900,000 acres of forested land grant property to Frederick Weyerhaeuser.

1901-1920: High and Dry

• 1905 - First automobile drives over Snoqualmie Pass.
• 1906 - The Mountaineers club is formed in Seattle.
• 1909 - Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition opens on U.W. campus.
• 1910 - Train disaster at Wellington kills 96 people.
• 1910 - Washington state women win the vote.
• 1915 - Prohibition of alchohol takes effect in Washington. (The 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920.)
• 1916 - William E. Boeing builds his first airplane at Lake Union.
• 1917 - United States enters World War I on April 6.
• 1919 - America's first general strike paralyzes Seattle from February 6-11. Seattle School Board member [and Washington Alpine Club founder] Anna Louise Strong was among the strike organizers.
• 1920 - First radio station in Western Washington starts broadcasting at Garfield High School.

1921-1940: Boom and Gloom

• 1921 - William Randolph Hearst buys Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
• 1924 - U.S. citizenship is granted to all American Indians.
• 1924 - Gorge Dam on Skagit River begins generating power for Seattle.
• 1928 - Don Ibsen invents waterskis on Lake Washington.
• 1929 - Stock market crashes on "Black Tuesday," October 29.
• 1930 - Diablo Dam is dedicated on Skagit River.
• 1931 - Hooverville shantytown is established in Seattle.
• 1933 - Boeing 247, world's first modern airliner, makes first flight.
• 1933 - Prohibition ends.
• 1939 - Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1 triggers World War II in Europe.
• 1940 - First Lake Washington floating bridge constructed.
• 1940 - First peacetime draft takes effect.

1941-1960: Hot and Cold Wars

• 1941 - Hoverville burns down.
• 1941 - War declared against Japan on December 8.
• 1942 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, mandating internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast.
• 1943 - Seattle ranks in top three U.S. cities receiving war contracts per capita. Washington is one of the top two states. Airplane and ship contracts in 1943-44 were valued at three times the total of all manufacturing in the state in 1939.
• 1945 - V-E Day, victory in Europe, on May 8.
• 1945 - V-J Day, victory in Japan, on August 14.
• 1947 - Un-American Activities Committee established by Washington state legislature.
• 1948 - Broadcast TV comes to Puget Sound area.
• 1949 - Ross Dam is completed on Skagit River.
• 1950 - Korean War begins on June 25.
• 1956 - President Eisenhower lauches interstate highway system.

1961-1970: Changing Times

• 1962 - Century 21 World's Fair in Seattle.
• 1963 - Jim Whittaker becomes first American to summit Mt Everest.
• 1964 - Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7 marks active involvement of U.S. in Vietnam war.
• 1967 - Interstate 5 completed from Everett to Tacoma.

1971-2002: A Global Village

• 1980 - Mount St Helens erupts on May 18.

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