Timeline of New York City events

Below is a timeline of major events in New York City history.

Events

Chrysler Building.

Notable annual events

• Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks show (along the East River)
• Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (along Central Park West and Broadway)
• Puerto Rican Day Parade (along Fifth Avenue)
• Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting
• St. Patrick's Day Parade (along Fifth Avenue)
• San Gennaro Festival (in Little Italy)
• Times Square Ball Drop (on New Year’s Eve)
• Von Steuben Day Sept.17 -Celebration of German-Americans

Historic events

Exploration and colonization

• 1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European to see New York Harbor arrives and names it Nouvelle-Angoulême.
• 1625 – New Amsterdam is founded by the Dutch West India Company.
• 1664 September 24 – New Amsterdam is ceded by Peter Stuyvesant to England who renamed it New York after James, Duke of York.
• 1673 – The Dutch regain New York, renaming it "New Orange."
• 1674 – The Dutch cede New York permanently to England after the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

Early America

• 1776 August 27 – Continental Army routed by British troops in the Battle of Long Island, aka the Battle of Brooklyn.
• 1776 September 15 – British troops capture lower Manhattan following the Landing at Kip's Bay.
• 1776 September 15 – American troops stand off British troops in Battle of Harlem Heights.
• 1776 September 21 – The Great Fire destroys approximately a quarter of city structures.
• 1776 September 22 – Execution of Nathan Hale.
• 1783 – New Yorkers celebrate Evacuation Day, the day George Washington returned to the city and the last British forces left the United States.
• 1798 – The "great epidemic", a major yellow fever epidemic kills 2086 people from late July to November.
• 1805 – Yellow fever epidemic, during which as many as 50,000 people are said to have fled the city.
• 1821 September 3 – The Norfolk and Long Island Hurricane causes a storm surge of 13 ft in one hour, leading to widespread flooding south of Canal St.
• 1853 – Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations (1853)
• 1863 July 13 – 17 – New York Draft Riots
• 1867 – The first elevated transportation line was constructed by the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway Company along Greenwich Street and Ninth Avenue.
• 1888 – Great Blizzard of '88
• 1898 – Consolidation of what are now the five boroughs into Greater New York

20th century

• 1909 – Hudson-Fulton Celebration (1909)
• 1911 March 25 – 145 employees, mostly women, are killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
• 1939 – 1939 New York World's Fair exhibits included:
  • The World of Tomorrow
  • Futurama
  • Trylon and Perisphere
• 1964 – 1964/1965 New York World's Fair
• 1965 – Northeast Blackout of 1965
• 1966 – New York City transit strike
• 1970 – The Knapp Commission begins its investigation of police corruption
• 1973 – The World Trade Center's Twin Towers become the tallest buildings in the world
• 1977 – Blackout of 1977
• 1993 February 26 – six people were killed, and thousands of others injured, in the World Trade Center bombing of Tower One.
• 1996 – Blizzard of 1996

21st century

• 2001 – September 11 attack Osama Bin Laden attacks with others hijacking plane/flights
• 2001 November 12 – American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens, killing all 260 people on board and five others on the ground.
• 2003 February 15 – Between 300,000 and 400,000 people participate in the New York February 15, 2003 anti-war protest
• 2003 – Northeastern U.S.-Canada Blackout
• 2005 – New York City transit strike
• 2006 – Blizzard of 2006
• 2006 – Queens blackout of 2006
• 2006 – A small plane, piloted by New York Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle crashes into an apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan killing both Lidle, and his flight instructor, Tyler Stanger. October 11, 2006 New York City plane crash
• 2011-WTC opens