LI History Timeline

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1900
- Long Island's first automobile race held along Merrick Avenue by the Automobile Club of America

1896
- James Foulis wins first U.S. Open played at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

1891
- Nation's first Golf Club opens at Shinnecock Hills

1884
- Earthquake rocks Amityville

1883
- Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery opens
- P.T. Barnum founds the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company

1881
- The telephone comes to Long Island

1879
- Fishers Island becomes part of Suffolk County
- St. Paul's School built in Garden City

1868
- Huntington Station LIRR Station opens

1844
- LIRR stretches to Greenport

1839
- Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Co. founded by the Jones Brothers

1838
- Poet Walt Whitman founds weekly newspaper "The Long Islander" in Huntington

1834
- Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) lays it's first tracks

1827
- Long Island's first milk delivery service begins

1794
- Long Island's first Post Offices open

1791
- Long Island's first newspaper, the "Long Island Herald", is published

1789
- Sag Harbor named New York State's first Port of Entry

1783
- Long Island liberated from British Occupation at the end of the Revolutionary War

1776
- Patriot Nathan Hale lands in Huntington Bay

1773
- Nation's first Paper Mill opens in Roslyn

1683
- Suffolk County formed

1672
- Original Milleridge Inn building constructed in Jericho

1658
- Nation's First Cattle Ranch (Deep Hollow Ranch) established in Montauk

1657
- Long Island's First Recorded Shipwreck occurred when the "Prince Maurice" ran aground on Fire Island.

1653
- Huntington was purchased from the Matinecock Indians by a group of English settlers

1639
- First English Settlement in New York on Long Island by Lion Gardiner (Gardiners Island)

1614
- Dutch explorer Adrian Block explores Long Island Sound

20,000 B.C.
- Wisconsinin Glacier forms Long Island

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1940
- Earthquakes shake up Long Island
- Roosevelt Raceway opens in Westbury

1939
- Pan Am begins transatlantic flights from Manhasset Bay in Port Washington

1938
- Long Island's first Drive-In Movie Theatre opens in Valley Stream
- The "Long Island Express" Category 3 Hurricane devastates Long Island

1936
- Long Island National Cemetery established in Farmingdale

1935
- Hofstra University founded

1934
- Meadowbrook State Parkway opens

1931
- Pilgrim State Hospital, world's largest psychiatric hospital (at the time), opens in Brentwood

1930
- Long Island's only all-boys Catholic school, Chaminade High School, is founded in Mineola

1929
- Jones Beach State Park opens

1927
- Charles A. Lindbergh takes off in "The Spirit of St. Louis" from Roosevelt Field, making the first solo transatlantic flight in history

1926
- Family Service League founded in Huntington
- Gurney's Inn opens
- Institute of Philosophy opens in Lloyd Harbor
- Long Island Association (LIA) founded as the Long Island Chamber of Commerce
- Long Island University (LIU) establishes its first residential campus in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Campus)
- Louise Eldridge is elected mayor of Saddle Rock, becoming the first female mayor in New York State, and one of the first in the nation
- Sayville Opera House closes

1925
- Nassau Country Police Department established
- Water skis invented in Huntington by inventor Fred Waller

1924
- Long Island's first radio station, WGBB in Freeport, begins broadcasting

1923
- Patchogue Theatre opens

1922
- Walker Cup played for the first time in Southampton

1920
- Heckscher Museum of Art opens in Huntington

1919
- First Nassau County Girl Scout Troop forms in Lynbrook
- Oheka Castle is built by financier and philanthropist Otto Hermann Kahu

1917
- Boy Scouts form in Nassau County

1909
- Long Island's first Airport (Mineola Flying Field) opens

1908
- Fire Island State Park (now Robert Moses State Park) becomes Long Island's first state park

1905
- Belmont Park Race Track opens in Elmont
- Long Island's first reported traffic jam

1904
- First Vanderbilt Cup Race held

1901
- Sayville Opera House opens

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1970
- African American Museum of Nassau County (AAM) opens in Hempstead
- Long Island celebrates the first "Earth Day", a celebration of the environmental preservation movement
- Old Bethpage Village Restoration opens

1969
- Long Island's first pet hotel, the Willow Pet Hotel, opens in Deer Park
- "Love Story" filmed at Old Westbury Gardens
- Smith Haven Mall opens in Lake Grove

1968
- Bill Hoest creates "The Lockhorns" cartoon (originally entitled "The Lockhorns of Levittown")
- Dowling College established
- New York Jets Training Camp moves to Hofstra University in Hempstead
- Rock group Iron Butterfly records "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" at UltraSonic Studios in Hempstead
- Ronzoni Spaghetti Sauce Factory opens in Hicksville
- Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts opens in Wheatley Heights

1967
- DDT was legally banned in Suffolk County
- Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) founded on Long Island, with naturalist Dennis Puleston serving as the founding chair

1966
- Suffolk County bans pesticide DDT voluntarily

1965
- New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) opens Old Westbury Campus
- SUNY College at Old Westbury founded

1964
- Madeline Kahn graduates from Hofstra University
- Robert Moses Causeway opens

1963
- Ellio's Frozen Pizza founded in Great Neck
- Southampton College founded

1962
- First shopping mall in Suffolk County, Walt Whitman Mall, opens on Route 110 in Huntington Station

1961
- First Dairy Barn opens in Massapequa

1960
- First commercial flights begin at MacArthur Airport
- Hurricane Donna's fury hits Long Island
- LIRR launches bar car service
- Long Island Lutheran Junior/Senior High School (LuHi) opens in Brookville
- Suffolk County Community College opens
- Suffolk County Police Department founded

1959
- Long Island Ducks (minor league ice hockey team) hits the ice, and plays until 1973

1958
- The world's first video game ("Tennis-for-Two") invented by physicist William A. Higinbotham at Brookhaven National Laboratory

1957
- Diocese of Rockville Centre created by Pope Pius XII to serve Long Island's growing number of Catholics

1956
- Green Acres Mall opens in Valley Stream
- Manhasset Shopping Center (now Americana Manhasset) opens
- Mid-Island Shopping Plaza (now Broadway Mall) first opens in Hicksville
- Westbury Music Fair opens

1955
- Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) holds "End of Steam" ceremony in Hicksville, retiring it's last steam locomotives
- Molloy College opens in Rockville Centre

1954
- Captree Bridge opens, connecting the mainland with Captree Island and Ocean Parkway
- Long Island University (LIU) opens its C.W. Post Campus in Brookville
- Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) established on Plum Island by the U.S. Department of Agriculture

1953
- Publishers Clearing House founded in Port Washington

1952
- Jones Beach Amphitheater opens

1951
- Frank Mundus creates "Monster Fishing" in Montauk
- Roosevelt Airfield (nicknamed "the cradle of American aviation") closes

1950
- Lollipop Farm opens in Syosset

1949
- Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) established to preserve his birthplace

1948
- United Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County, Inc. (ucpn) incorporates

1947
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) founded in Upton
- Webb Institute moves to Glen Cove

1946
- Robert Moses creates Long Island State Park Police
- William Levitt builds prototype homes in Carle Place

1945
- Long Islanders celebrate the end of World War II
- Zahn's Airport opens

1943
- U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) opens at Kings Point

1942
- Long Island MacArthur Airport opens in Ronkonkoma

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1990
- Avianca Flight 52 crashes after running out of fuel in Cove Neck

1988
- Dolan DNA Learning Center (DNALC) is established
- Roosevelt Raceway closes

1986
- Debbie Gibson lands record deal with Atlantic Records
- John McEnroe weds Tatum O'Neil in Oyster Bay
- Long Island's first bison ranch (Tuccio's North Quarter Farm) established in Riverhead
- Long Island's first skydiving dropzone (Skydive Long Island) opens in East Moriches
- Ronald McDonald House of Long Island opens in New Hyde Park

1985
- First Corporate Challenge Race is run at Jones Beach
- Hurricane Gloria hits Long Island
- Progressive School of Long Island (PSOLI) founded in Merrick

1984
- Long Island Flag Football League (LIFFL) is created by George Higgins

1983
- First Christmas Tree lights up EAB Plaza (now RexCorp Plaza)
- First Oyster Festival held in Oyster Bay
- IMAC (Inter-Media Art Center) opens in Huntington
- New York Islanders win their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup after sweeping the Edmonton Oilers four games

1982
- Seacrest Diner Horror as 80 people inside are robbed and terrorized by 5 gun-wielding thugs
- New York Islanders win their third and third straight Stanley Cup after dominating the Vancouver Canucks

1981
- New York Islanders win their second Stanley Cup with a victory over the Minnesota North Stars

1980
- Friends of the Arts (FOTA) held the first annual Beethoven Festival at the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay
- New York Islanders win their first Stanley Cup by beating the Philadelphia Flyers
- Zahn's Airport closes

1979
- East Side Comedy Club opens in Huntington
- Harry Chapin helps found the Long Island Philharmonic
- Long Island's largest vineyard (Pindar Vineyards) founded
- Malibu Nightclub opens in Lido Beach

1978
- Calverton National Cemetery, the nation's largest national cemetery, established on Long Island
- Long Island Convention & Visitors Bureau and Sports Commission (LICVB&SC) is founded
- The Barefoot Contessa opens in Westhampton Beach
- Tollbooths close on the Southern State Parkway

1977
- Book Revue opens in Huntington Village
- First "Around Long Island Regatta" Sailboat Race held
- First "Great Cow Harbor 10K Run"
- Long Island Pine Barrens Society (LIPBS) founded
- Right turns on red lights legalized for Nassau and Suffolk County drivers
- Roosevelt Raceway Flea Market opens in Westbury
- "The Amityville Horror - A True Story", best-selling book written by Jay Anson, was published

1976
- George Foreman and Joe Frazier fight at Nassau Coliseum

1975
- Lollipop Farm closes

1974
- 55 MPH speed limit set on Long Island highways
- Long Island faces severe gas shortage
- Long Island High School for the Arts (formerly the Cultural Arts Center) opens
- Woodbury Common opens

1973
- First "Long Island Marathon" held on Long Island
- Long Island's first commercial vineyard (Hargrave Vineyard) founded in Cutchogue
- New Community Cinema (renamed Cinema Arts Centre in 2000) established in Huntington by film buffs Vic Skolnick and Charlotte Sky
- Secretariat wins Triple Crown at Belmont Park in Elmont
- Sunrise Mall opens in Massapequa

1972
- Long Island Expressway (LIE) completed to Riverhead
- Long Island Iced Tea invented by Oak Beach Inn (OBI) bartender named Robert C. "Rosebud" Butt
- Long Island's first Hockey Game, between the Islanders and the Rangers, played at Nassau Coliseum

1971
- Adelphi University and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) launch nation's first commuter classroom program, called "Adelphi-on-Wheels"

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2011
- Nassau County Police Officer Michael Califano was killed while conducting a routine traffic stop on the Long Island Expressway when the driver of a flatbed truck collided into his parked police cruiser

2010
- Long Island shaken by 3.9-magnitude earthquake... Did you feel it?
- Long Island's last Roy Rogers restaurant closes in Shirley

2009
- "Brangelina" sightings on North Shore, as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are living on Long Island while Jolie films CIA espionage thriller "Salt"
- IMAC (Inter-Media Art Center) in Huntington closes
- Nassau County homeowners pay second-highest property taxes in America
- Suffolk County homeowners pay eleventh-highest property taxes in America

2008
- Frank Mundus, legendary shark hunter and famed Montauk fisherman, dies of a heart attack at age 82
- Long Island gas prices hit historic highs
- "Montauk Monster", unidentified creature which allegedly washed ashore dead on a beach in Montauk, creates buzz
- Pat Benatar inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame
- Tanger Outlets At The Arches opens in Deer Park

2007
- American Home Mortgage files for bankruptcy
- Long Island twins, Jim and Bill Germanakos, win big on "The Biggest Loser"
- Miss New York Pageant held in Huntington at the Dix Hills Center for the Performing Arts

2006
- First annual Long Island Comedy Festival
- Guitar legend Leslie West is inducted into Long Island Music Hall of Fame

2005
- Children's Museum of the East End (CMEE) opens in Bridgehampton
- Sayville resident, Tom Westman, is $1 million winner on "Survivor" reality TV show
- Southampton College closes, and moves its undergraduate programs to Long Island University's C.W. Post campus in Old Brookville

2004
- First annual Long Island 2-Day Breast Cancer Walk (LI2DAY) was held
- Long Island MacArthur Airport unveils $55 million expansion, funded by Southwest Airlines

2003
- Long Island grinds to a halt during the Northeast Blackout of 2003

2002
- Cradle of Aviation Museum opens
- LIRR introduces new M-7 electric train cars
- Sarah Hughes of Great Neck captures the gold medal for ladies figure skating at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah
- Tiger Woods wins U.S. Open at "Bethpage Black" (the Black Course at Bethpage State Park)
- Wölffer Estate Vineyard releases Long Island's first $100 bottle of wine

2001
- "9-11" - Never Forget
- "Lizzie" Grubman backs her SUV into a crowd outside a nightclub in the Hamptons, injuring 16 people, after being asked by security guards to remove her Mercedes from a fire lane
- Long Island's first Krispy Kreme doughnut shop opens in East Meadow
- The Long Island Lizards, Long Island's own Major League Lacrosse (MLL) team, was formed

2000
- American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport opens
- Atlantis Marine World opens in Riverhead
- Long Island Ducks played their opening baseball game in Central Islip

1999
- Blue Point Brewing Company (Long Island's first microbrewery) established in Patchogue
- LIRR bar car service ends
- Suffolk County gets a new Area Code (631)

1998
- Bay Shore based Entenmann's celebrates its 100th anniversary by baking the largest crumb cake in the world
- Goodwill Games held on Long Island
- Long Island's last Drive-In Movie Theatre (Westbury Drive-In) closes
- Peapod begins grocery deliveries on Long Island
- Tornado strikes Lake Ronkonkoma and Selden

1997
- Long Island's first dinosaur fossil discovered by Glenn Magee of Roanoke Landing

1996
- Culinary Academy of Long Island opens
- Malibu Nightclub in Lido Beach closes
- TWA Flight 800 explodes in mid-air off the coast of East Moriches

1995
- Fires raged through the Pine Barrens for 13 days, charring more than 6,800 acres of forest
- First annual July 4th Fireworks Celebration held at Jones Beach
- Roosevelt Raceway Flea Market closes
- The last military airplane built on Long Island, an E-2C Hawkeye advance warning and control plane, flies out of Northrop Grumman's Calverton facility
- TheCelebrityCafe.com founded on Long Island by Dominick Miserandino

1994
- Grumman acquired by Northrop, and the Northrop Grumman Corporation was born
- HOV (High-Occupancy Vehicle) Lanes open on the Long Island Expressway (LIE)
- Tanger Outlet Center opens in Riverhead

1993
- Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger Wedding in East Hampton
- Colin Ferguson kills 6 and injures 19 during the "Long Island Railroad Massacre"
- First Annual Long Island Fall Festival held in Huntington
- Long Island Children's Museum opens
- The Hain Celestial Group, a natural, specialty and snack food company, is founded in Melville

1992
- 1st Annual East Hampton SandCastle Contest is held
- East Meadow mom Joy Mangano markets her "Miracle Mop" on QVC
- Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) founded
- "Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher shoots Mary Jo in the face after having affair with her husband Joey Buttafuoco

1991
- 106th Rescue Wing of the Air National Guard performs rescue during the "Perfect Storm"
- Bay Street Theatre founded on Long Wharf in Sag Harbor
- First Long Island Pride Parade held in Huntington
- Splish Splash Water Park opens in Riverhead

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Credit for timeline: http://www.long-island-portal.com/lo...nd_history.htm