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Timeline of New York City

This article is a of the history of New York City in the U.S. state of New York.

Prior to 1700s

  • 1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European to see New York Harbor arrives and names it Nouvelle-Angoulême.
  • 1613 – Juan (Jan) Rodriguez became the first documented non-Native American to live on Manhattan Island. He is considered the first immigrant, the first person of African heritage, the first person of European heritage, the first merchant, the first Latino, and the first Dominican to settle in Manhattan.
  • 1614 – Dutch settle on Manhattan Island.
  • 1624 – New Amsterdam is founded by the Dutch West India Company. In May 1624, the first settlers in New Netherland arrived on Noten Eylandt (Nut or Nutten Island, now Governors Island).
  • 1625 – Dutch Fort Amsterdam built.
  • 1626
  • Lenape sell Manhattan Island to Dutch.
  • Chattel slavery introduced to North America with the unloading of 11 Africans.
  • 1639 – Jonas Bronck, a Swedish settler bought 500 acres of land from the Lenape tribe, creating a settlement called "Bronck's Land", soon after this settlement would be known as The Bronx.
  • 1643 – Kieft's War between Lenape or Wappinger and Dutch colonists. Events partially took place within what would become the five boroughs.
  • 1648 – First fire wardens (Martin Krieger, Thomas Hall, Adrian Wyser, and George Woolsey) appointed by Peter Stuyvesant
  • 1650 – Population: approximately 1,000
  • 1652 – City of New Amsterdam incorporated.
  • 1653 – "Burgher government" established.
  • 1654 – Sephardi Jews arrive from the Iberian Peninsula form Congregation Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in the U.S.
  • 1656 – Streets laid out.
  • 1657 – Flushing Remonstrance signed laying foundation of religious freedom in America.
  • 1659 – Labor strike by bakers.
  • 1664 – September 24 – New Amsterdam is ceded by Peter Stuyvesant to England. It is renamed "New York" after James, Duke of York.
  • 1665
  • June 12: Thomas Willett was appointed as the city's first mayor.
  • Wallabout Bay in Brooklyn location of first recorded murder trial - Albert Wantanaer accused of killing Barent Jansen Blom.
  • 1666 – Thomas Delavall was appointed as the city's second mayor.
  • 1667
  • Town becomes part of England per Treaty of Breda (1667).
  • Thomas Willett became mayor for the second time, and only the third overall mayor of the city.
  • 1668
  • First yellow fever epidemic in the city.
  • Cornelius Van Steenwyk was appointed as the fourth mayor of the city.
  • 1672 – Boston Post Road constructed.
  • 1673 – The Dutch regain New York, renaming it "New Orange" (from February 1673 to November 1674).
  • 1674 – The Dutch cede "New York" permanently to England after the Third Anglo-Dutch War, per Treaty of Westminster (1674).
  • 1678 – Thomas Delavall was reappointed as mayor for the third and last time, and 11th overall.
  • 1691 – Fish market established.
  • 1696 – King's Arms coffee house in business.
  • 1697 – First Trinity Church erected.

1700s

1800s

1800s–1840s

1850s–1890s

1850s–1860s

1870s

  • 1870

1880s

1890s

1900s

1900s–1940s

1900s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s–1970s

1950s

1960s

1970s

  • February 18: Hometowners Kiss plays their first Madison Square Garden show, the first of what would be six such shows during that decade (three more were in Dec. 1977, all of these 1977 "Garden shows" were sold outs and two more afterwards in July 1979).
  • April 21: City premiere of musical Annie.
  • April 26: Grand opening in Manhattan of Studio 54.
  • May 16: A New York Airways helicopter idling at the helipad on the MetLife Building – then the PanAm Building – toppled over and its rotor blade sheared off. The blade killed four people on the roof and then fell over the edge and down 59 stories and a block over to Madison Avenue where it killed a pedestrian.
  • May 25: A fire at the Everard Baths at 28 West 28th Street in Manhattan killed 9 patrons.
  • July 13–14: New York City again loses electrical power in the blackout of 1977. Unlike the previous blackout twelve years earlier, this blackout is followed by widespread rioting and looting. Many neighborhoods, most notably Bushwick, were almost completely devastated.
  • August 10: David Berkowitz, the city's "son of Sam" serial killer, is captured outside his Yonkers apartment and brought back to the city for indictment and detention.
  • October 12: "Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning." During Game 2 of the 1977 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, a fire rages out of control at an abandoned elementary school near Yankee Stadium. The images and a dramatic statement on national television by sportscaster Howard Cosell is widely seen as the symbolic nadir of a dark period in city history. The story of 1977 in New York City is later featured in such works as the film Summer of Sam by Spike Lee, the best-selling book Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning, and the television drama The Bronx is Burning.
  • October 12: CitiCorp Center opens.
  • Drawing Center established.
  • Mainstream prominence of disco music confirmed with December 14 release of Saturday Night Fever (set in the Italian-American community of Brooklyn). Also that evening, city formed heavy metalers Kiss plays the first of their three night return gigs through the 16th at Madison Square Garden, all sold outs like their first such "Garden gig" that February 18.
  • Dean & DeLuca food shop, Big Apple Circus, Smith & Wollensky restaurant, and Christie's branch office in business.
  • I ♥ NY advertising campaign begins.
  • New York Yankees won their 21st World Series championship.
  • 1978
  • January 1: Ed Koch becomes the 105th mayor.
  • January 9: New newspaper – The Trib.
  • May ? David Berkowitz is sentenced to multiple 25 years-life terms for his 1976-1977 "Son of Sam" serial murders.
  • July 28: Woman gives birth at top of Empire State Building.
  • August–November: Multi-union strikes of the city's three major newspapers: The New York Times, New York Daily News and New York Post.
  • October 12: Rocker Sid Vicious allegedly stabs his girlfriend Nancy Spungen to death in their room in the Hotel Chelsea.
  • New York Yankees won their 22nd World Series championship.
  • December 14 City native Billy Joel plays the first of his first four Madison Square Garden shows; the other three on Dec. 15, 16 and 18.
  • 1979
  • February 13: The Guardian Angels are formed in Brooklyn by Curtis Sliwa.
  • May 25: Six-year-old Etan Patz vanishes after leaving his SoHo apartment to walk to his school bus alone. Despite a massive search by the NYPD the boy is never found, and was declared legally dead in 2001.
  • July 24–25 City's metallers Kiss return to Madison Square Garden, but this time to much thinner audiences than their four sold out 1977 shows.
  • September 16: Sugar Hill Gang releases "Rapper's Delight", introducing Hip hop to the country and the world.
  • October 2–3: Pope John Paul II visits city, gives speech at U.N. against all concentration camps and tortures in light of the then 40th anniversary of World War II's first establishing of both in his native Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and continuation afterwards by post-war Polish Communists.
  • New York Theatre Workshop founded.
  • Geraldine Ferraro becomes U.S. representative for New York's 9th congressional district.
  • New York Yankees come from behind to beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5–4, on a day when they buried their team captain Thurman Munson, with a game-winning 2-run hit by Bobby Murcer.
  • November 13: Ronald Reagan announces his candidacy for next year's presidential election.
  • Performance Space 122 opens.
  • Fulton John Sheen, aka Fulton Sheen, American Catholic bishop and television and radio broadcasting personality, dies at 84.

1980s–1990s

1980s

1990s

Contemporary history

2000s

2010s

2020s

  • 2020
  • Over 1.3 million people are registered with New York City's municipal identification card ("IDNYC") program.
  • February: Genomic analyses suggest that COVID-19 disease had been introduced to New York as early as Mid-February, and that most cases were linked to Europe, rather than Asia.
  • March 1: A 39-year-old health care worker who had returned home to Manhattan from Iran on February 25 became the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in New York.
  • March 15: all schools in the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) system closed until at least mid-April.
  • March 22: The city goes into a state of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • March 30: The arrived in New York City to assist in against the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • May 8: The Trump Death Clock website unveiled a companion billboard in Times Square. The Trump Death Clock is based on the claim that had measures been implemented one week earlier, 60% of American COVID-19 deaths would have been avoided.
  • May 25: The murder of George Floyd leads to a series of protests in New York City and throughout the world.
  • May 25: Christian Cooper was subjected to false accusations in the Central Park birdwatching incident. The first online Black Birders Week on May 31 to June 5, 2020, was created in response to the incident.
  • June: Bicyclists form Street Riders NYC, which held several protests through December 2020 to raise awareness about systemic racism and police brutality.
  • December 14: Sandra Lindsay, a Registered Nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, became the first recipient of the first dosage of the then only Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) approved COVID-19 vaccine - the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
  • Population: 8,804,190.
  • 2021
  • January 4: Registered Nurse Sandra Lindsay, received her second and final dosage of an EUA approved COVID-19 vaccine. With the second dosage, she is expected to have a 95% immunity to COVID-19.
  • February 5: SOMOS Community Care opened up Yankee Stadium as a COVID-19 vaccination "mega-site" operated by the SOMOS and the New York National Guard. Former Yankees Mariano Rivera participated in the opening of the site.
  • February 10: Citi Field is converted into a COVID-19 vaccination "mega-site" operated by the City of New York.
  • September 1: Hurricane Ida brings heavy rain and intense flooding in the city, crippling the New York City Subway and commuter rails.
  • November 10: Parents of students at P.S. 333 on W. 93rd Street on the city's Upper West Side express safety concerns regarding scaffolding on the school.
  • December 11: New York City FC wins the first MLS Cup in its own history.
  • 2022
  • January 1: Eric Adams became the 110th Mayor of New York City.
  • January 1: Mark Levine became the 28th Manhattan Borough President.
  • January 9: 17 people are killed in an apartment fire in the Bronx.
  • January 21: A shooting in Harlem killed one NYPD officer, Jason Rivera, instantly. His partner, Wilber Mora, dies four days later. The shooter, LaShawn McNeil, is killed by another officer.
  • April 12: A shooting on the N train, inside the 36th Street subway station in Sunset Park (Brooklyn), injured 29 people.
  • September 14: New York City FC wins the Campeonas Cup defeating Mexico's Atlas FC 2–0.
  • October 4: Aaron Judge hits his 62nd home run breaking the American League record, beating out Roger Maris' 61 home runs
  • 2023
  • April 16: The Phantom of the Opera closes after 35 years on Broadway, having set the record for longest-running Broadway show
  • April 18: A collapse in a parking garage in lower Manhattan leaves one dead and six injured
  • May 1: Killing of Jordan Neely
  • June 6: 2023 Central Canada wildfires cause dangerous air pollution and extreme smoke around the city. Many people consider it a serious health warning and take precautions by wearing a mask. Pedestrians experience trouble breathing and itching in the eyes, and damage to lungs.
  • June 28: Domingo German, of the New York Yankees, throws the 24th perfect game in MLB history against the Oakland Athletics, defeating them 11–0. German becomes the fourth Yankee to throw a perfect game.
  • July 14: Suspected Long Island Serial Killer Rex Heuermann is arrested in Midtown Manhattan as a suspect in the murders of three of "the Gilgo Four" victims, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, and Amber Costello.
  • August 4: Social Media influencer Kai Cenat incites extreme violence in Union Square, Manhattan. Cenat held a PlayStation 5 and gift card giveaway with Twitch streamer Fanum. More than a thousand of his followers appeared at the event. Some of the teenagers showed up, climbed on buses, broke car windows, and clashed with the NYPD. Cenat was later charged for the outburst.
  • August 23: Seventeen year old Noah Legaspi jumps off the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Columbus Circle after a breakup with his girlfriend. He falls 750 feet onto the glass awning and his body splits in half, while his arm lands on the other side of the street.
  • September 29: Tropical Storm Ophelia floods the city with 8 inches of rain, a record for the city. The rain causes wild scenes of buses flooded, submerged cars, and people wading knee deep through water. La Guardia Airport terminals are badly flooded, and many flights are delayed. A sea lion at Central Park Zoo escapes her pool enclosure due to the torrential rain, but is eventually returned to the facility's grounds safely.
  • October: Pro-Palestine and Pro-Israel rallies occur throughout the city, including Washington Square Park and near the United Nations, after the October 7 attacks against Israel. Governor Kathy Hochul eventually goes to Israel in support of the country, New York City has the highest population of Jewish people outside of Israel.
  • More than 95,000 migrants enter the city throughout the year. Many are housed throughout the five boroughs. The Roosevelt Hotel becomes a hot spot destination for new arrivals.
  • 2024
  • January 2: A very rare 1.7 Magnitude earthquake jolts residents in Roosevelt Island as well as Queens.
  • February 23: Flaco (owl) dies after colliding into an Upper West Side building. The Owl became famous after escaping the Central Park Zoo, due to damage by multiple trespassers to his enclosure. The owl escaped through a hole left by the vandals in the exhibit's stainless steel mesh. A memorial was held two days later, with hundreds attending and mourning.
  • March 6: Governor Hochul employs 1,000 National Guard (United States) on the subway platforms throughout the city to ensure safety, due to the uptick in crime in the subway systems. This is the first time since the 9/11 attacks that the National Guard has been employed.
  • March 25: NYPD officer Jonathan Diller is shot and killed in Far Rockaway, Queens after investigating an illegally parked car. One of the men inside the car took out a gun and shot Diller. He was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead. Former President Donald Trump attended his wake along with Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul.
  • March 27: Six people are stabbed at New Dawn Charter High School in Jamaica, Queens; they were all wounded, and five students were arrested.
  • April 5: An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.8 hits the city, originating in Lebanon, New Jersey. Many residents felt a sudden shake and objects falling around. It is believed to be one of the strongest East coast earthquakes in a century.
  • April 19: Max Azzarello, a conspiracy theorist, sets himself on fire outside of the courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial for his hush money charge to Porn Star Stormy Daniels. Azzarello dies from his injuries a day later.
  • May 23: Former President Donald Trump holds a rally in Crotona Park located in the South Bronx. Thousands of residents around the boroughs attend the event.
  • September 25: Eric Adams becomes the city's first sitting mayor to be indicted by a grand jury. He is charged with, conspiracy to receive campaign contributions from foreign nationals, bribery, and wire fraud. He denies any of the allegations at hand.
  • October 20: The New York Liberty win their first WNBA championship, defeating the Minnesota Lynx in five games. The finals MVP is awarded to Jonquel Jones, Mayor Adams awards them a parade throughout the city the following the week.
  • October 27: Donald Trump holds a rally at Madison Square Garden for his 2024 Presidential Campaign. Tens of thousands of residents around the city as well as the state attend the event.
  • October 30: New York Yankees lose game 5 of the 2024 World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers
  • December 4: UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson (businessman) is shot and killed. The shooting occurred in front of the New York Hilton Midtown, where UnitedHealth Group was hosting an investor event. The words "deny", "defend", and "depose", were found written on shell casings at the scene. Police believe this may indicate a motive, as they are similar to "delay, deny, defend", a popular insurance industry phrase about not paying out claims. Thompson's wife said that he had received threats in the past, citing lack of coverage as a possible reason for the threats.
  • December 22: An undocumented immigrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil immolates 57-year-old Debrina Kawam on a subway train in Brooklyn.
  • 2025
  • January 5: Congestion pricing in New York City goes into place.
  • April 10: A helicopter carrying a family of five from Spain crashes into the Hudson River. All of the members of the family die including the pilot.
  • May 17: Cuauhtémoc Brooklyn Bridge collision: Mexican Navy ship strikes the Brooklyn Bridge, killing 2 on board.
  • June 14: Over 200,000 people march in the June 2025 No Kings protests across the city.
  • July 28: 2025 Midtown Manhattan shooting: 27-year-old Shane Tamura kills 4 in an office building before committing suicide.
  • August 16: Three people were killed and 10 others were wounded in an alleged gang-related shooting at a lounge in Central Brooklyn.
  • September 13: New York City turns 400, leading to many events taking place.
  • October 18: Over 350,000 people march in the October 2025 No Kings protests across the city.
  • November 6: Zohran Mamdani elected mayor.

Annual events

New York Citys adds its going to do a re do of its Macy 4 July fireworks show tickets giveaway after Wednesday planned failed because the website was inaccessible.

The city adds it will reopen website at 10 am on Thursday. They will be given on first come first served basis. There is limit of 2 per person.

The mayor office posted about website issues on social media Wednesday.

Spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said almost 2000 people were able to select ticket Wednesday. The city had touted a 10,000 ticket giveaway it has 8000 left.

Evolution of the Manhattan map

19th century

20th century

21st century

Murders by year

See also

Borough specific

Outside of the city

References

Bibliography

Published in the 19th century

Published in the 20th century

  • Holli, Melvin G., and Jones, Peter d'A., eds. Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980 (Greenwood Press, 1981) short scholarly biographies each of the city's mayors 1820 to 1980. online; see index at p. 410 for list.

Published in the 21st century

External links