| Timeline |
|---|
| before 1820s |
|---|
| 1762 | Standing Peachtree, Native American trading post first mentioned |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| 1820 |
|---|
| 1821 | Creek Indians cede land that is now Metro Atlanta |
|---|
| 1822 | Decatur founded |
|---|
| 1826 | Archibald Holland receives grant for land that is now downtown Atlanta |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| 1830 |
|---|
| 1830 | Whitehall Tavern built at today's West End |
|---|
| 1833 | Archibald Holland leaves land that is now downtown Atlanta |
|---|
| 1836 | Western and Atlantic Railroad approved |
|---|
| 1839 | John Thrasher builds settlement at terminus |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| 1840 |
|---|
| 1842 | Incorporated as Marthasville; Georgia Railroad arrives from Augusta |
|---|
| 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 and La Grange Railroad 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 |
|---|
| 1868 | Atlanta made state capital |
|---|
|
|
|---|
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 City |
|---|
| 1887 | Piedmont Exposition; Inman Park, first garden suburb, founded; Coca-Cola invents the coupon |
|---|
| 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 |
|---|
| 1923 | Spring Street Viaduct opens, downtown rises above train tracks |
|---|
|
|
|---|
1930 pop. 270,366 - metro 715,391 |
|---|
| 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 |
|---|
| 2013 | Atlanta Public Schools supervisor Beverly Hall convicted in cheating scandal |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|