Timeline |
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before 1820s |
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1762 | Standing Peachtree, Native American trading post first mentioned |
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1820 |
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1821 | Creek Indians cede land that is now Metro Atlanta |
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1822 | Decatur founded |
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1830 |
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1830 | Whitehall Tavern built at today's West End |
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1836 | Western and Atlantic Railroad approved |
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1839 | John Thrasher builds settlement at terminus |
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1840 |
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1842 | Incorporated as Marthasville; Georgia Railroad arrives from Augusta |
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1846 | Macon & Western RR connects Atlanta with port of Savannah |
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1847 | Atlanta incorporated |
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1850 pop. 2,572 |
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1850 | Oakland Cemetery founded |
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1851 | W&A RR connects Atlanta to The Midwest |
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1854 | Atlanta & La Grange RR connects Atlanta towards the southwest; Atlanta becomes rail hub for entire South |
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1860 pop. 9,554 |
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1861-1865 | American Civil War |
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1864 | Civil War Atlanta Campaign, burning of Atlanta |
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1865 | Civil War ends; slaves freed; Atlanta University, 1st Atlanta black college, founded |
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1870 pop. 21,879 |
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1871 | Horse-drawn streetcars appear, enabling city expansion |
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1880 pop. 37,409 |
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1880 | Atlanta surpasses Savannah as Georgia's largest city |
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1881 | International Cotton Exposition |
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1885 | Georgia Tech founded |
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1886 | Atlanta goes "dry"; Coca-Cola first sold; Henry Grady's "New South" speech in New York |
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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 |
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1890 pop. 65,533 |
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1895 | Cotton States Expo; Booker T. Washington gives "Atlanta Compromise" Speech |
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1900 pop. 89,872 - metro 419,375 |
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1906 | Atlanta Race Riot kills 27; Black businesses move to Sweet Auburn and west side |
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1910 pop. 154,839 - metro 522,442 |
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1910 | Restaurants segregated; other Jim Crow laws follow |
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1913 | Leo Frank lynching; Georgia Tech starts "evening college", now Georgia State |
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1914 | Coca-Cola president Asa Griggs Candler donates land for Emory University campus in Druid Hills |
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1917 | Great Atlanta fire |
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1920 pop. 200,616 - metro 622,283 |
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1923 | Spring Street Viaduct opens, downtown rises above train tracks |
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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 |
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1939 | Gone with the Wind premiere draws 300,000 to streets |
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1940s |
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1946 | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) founded |
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1949 | Last streetcar line converted to trolleybus |
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1950 pop. 331,314 - metro 997,666 |
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1950 | Transit strike, Atlanta Transit Co. takes over transit from Georgia Railway and Power |
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1952 | Buckhead annexed |
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1958 | Racist terrorists bomb "The Temple", believing Jews support black Civil Rights |
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1959 | Trolleybuses, buses, public library desegregated; Lenox Square mall opens Metro population hits 1 million |
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1960 pop. 487,455 - metro 1,312,474 |
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1960 | Civil Rights sit-ins at Rich's, lunch counters |
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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 |
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1962 | 106 Atlanta art patrons die in Paris air crash |
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1963 | Trolleybuses converted en masse to buses |
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1968 | Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated |
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1969 | Perimeter freeway opens |
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1970 pop. 496,973 - metro 1,763,626 |
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1973 | Maynard Jackson becomes first black mayor |
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1979 | MARTA opens first rail rapid transit line; Child murders begin |
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1980 pop. 425,022 - metro 2,233,324 |
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1980 | CNN launches, Turner empire takes off |
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1982 | Andrew Young becomes mayor |
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1988 | Democratic Convention |
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1990 pop. 394,017 - metro 2,959,950 |
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1992 | Bank of America Plaza completed, tallest US building outside of NYC and Chicago |
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1996 | Summer Olympics |
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2000 pop. 416,474 - metro 4,112,198 |
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2005 | Airport becomes world's busiest; BeltLine plan adopted, adding 40% to city's green space |
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2008 | Delta becomes world's largest airline; Downtown tornadoes |
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2010 pop. 420,003 - metro (CSA) 5,729,304 |
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2011 | Atlanta first US city to demolish all public housing projects |
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2013 | Atlanta Public Schools supervisor Beverly Hall convicted in cheating scandal |
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