Timeline of Memphis, Tennessee

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Memphis, Tennessee, US.

Prior to 19th century

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• 1739 – Fort Assumption built by French.
• 1740 – Fort Assumption abandoned.
• 1797 – U.S. fort built.^[1]

19th century

• 1819 – Town laid out.^[2]
• 1826 – Town incorporated.^[3]
• 1827
  • Memphis Advocate newspaper begins publication.^[4]
  • Marcus B. Winchester becomes mayor.
• 1836 – Memphis Enquirer newspaper begins publication.^[4]
• 1841 – The Appeal newspaper begins publication.
• 1843
  • New Orleans-Memphis telegraph begins operating.^[3]
  • Memphis Daily Eagle newspaper begins publication.^[4]
• 1844 – Calvary Episcopal Church consecrated.^[5]
• 1849 – Memphis incorporated as a city.^[1][2]
• 1850
  • Town designated a port of customs.^[3]
  • Population: 8,841.^[6]
• 1852 – Elmwood Cemetery established.
• 1853 – Congregation B'nai Israel founded.
• 1854 – Jones & Co. chemists in business.^[7]
• 1855 – German Benevolent Society formed.^[8]
• 1857 – Memphis & Charleston Railroad completed.^[3]
• 1858 –
  Memphis Daily Avalanche newspaper begins publication.^[4]
• 1860 –
  Population: 22,623.^[9][2]
• 1861 – Memphis and Ohio Railroad completed.[10]
• 1862
  • Tennessee capital relocated to Memphis from
    Nashville.^[3]
  • June 6:
    Battle of Memphis takes place on Mississippi River near town; Union forces take Memphis.^[3]
• 1864
  • August 21: Second Battle of Memphis.
  • First National Bank of Memphis established.^[7]
• 1866
  • May:
    Racial unrest
    .
  • Greenwood School established.^[11]
  • Memphis Post begins publication.

• 1868 – Peabody Hotel in business.^[5]
• 1870
  • Goldsmith's store in business.
  • Population: 40,226.^[9][2]
• 1871
  • LeMoyne Normal Institute^[12] and College of Christian Brothers^[2] established.
  • St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral
    consecrated.
• 1873 – Yellow fever epidemic.^[2]
• 1874 – Memphis Cotton Exchange founded.
• 1875 –
  Southwestern at Memphis (college) established.^[1]
• 1878 – Yellow fever epidemic.[3]^[2]
• 1879 – Yellow fever epidemic.^[2]

• 1880
  • Sewer system construction begins^[13]
  • Population: 33,592.^[9][2]
• 1882
  • Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church established.[14]
  • Chickasaw Cooperage Company incorporated.^[7]
• 1883 – Young Men's Christian Association chartered.^[8]
• 1885 –
  Peoples Grocery
  in business.
• 1887 – Memphis National Bank organized.^[7]
• 1890
  • Nineteenth Century Club formed.^[8]
  • Population: 64,589.^[9][2]
• 1891 – City chartered again.[2]
• 1892 – Frisco Bridge (a cantilevered through truss bridge) constructed.^[6][2]
• 1899 – Manassas High School established.
• 1900 –
  Population: 102,320.^[9][2]

• 1905 –
  Madison Hotel
  built.
• 1906 – Memphis Zoo^[15] and Overton Park established.
• 1909 – Bureau of Municipal Research active (approximate date).^{[citation needed]}
• 1910
  • Commission form of government begins.^[2]
  • Exchange Building constructed.
  • E. H. Crump becomes mayor.
  • Population: 131,105.^[9]

• 1911 –
  Urban League branch established.^[16]
• 1912 – Handy's The Memphis Blues (song) published.
• 1914 – Union Avenue United Methodist Church built.
• 1915 – Guthrie Elementary School founded.
• 1916
  • Harahan Bridge opens to West Memphis, Arkansas.
  • Memphis Brooks Museum of Art established.
  • Piggly Wiggly grocery in business.^[17]
• 1917
  • May 22: Lynching of Ell Persons.^[18]
  • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People branch established.^{[citation needed}
    ]
• 1919 – Citizens' Co-operative Stores incorporated.[19]
• 1920
  • City hosts Commission on Interracial Cooperation Women's Interracial Conference.^[20]
  • Population: 162,351.^[9]
• 1921
  • Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church established.[21]
• 1922
  • WREC radio begins broadcasting.^[22]
• 1923 – WMC radio begins broadcasting.^[22]
• 1924 – Lincoln American Tower built.
• 1925 – WHBQ and WMPS radio begin broadcasting.^[22]
• 1929 – Memphis Municipal Airport dedicated.^[23]
• 1930
  • Memphis Museum of Natural History and Industrial Arts opens.
  • Sterick Building constructed.
  • Population: 253,143.^[9]
• 1931
  • Memphis World newspaper begins publication.[11]
  • Cotton Carnival begins.^[3][24]
• 1932 – Memphis Times newspaper begins publication.^[4]
• 1936 – Memphis Academy of Art founded.
• 1937 – Firestone factory in operation in Hyde Park.^[25]
• 1938 – Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception built.
• 1939 –
  First Colored Baptist Church
  built.
• 1940 –
  Population: 292,942.^[9]
• 1941 – Mason Temple built.
• 1945 –
  Lorraine Motel
  in business.
• 1946
  • Douglass High School opens.
  • Tri-State Bank established.^[26]
• 1947 – WDIA radio begins broadcasting.
• 1948
  • WMCT (television) begins broadcasting.^[27]
  • 13 year old Elvis Presley moves to Memphis.

1950s–1990s

• 1950 –
  Population: 396,000.^[9]
• 1953 – WHBQ-TV (television) begins broadcasting.^[27]
• 1955 –
  WHER
  radio begins broadcasting.
• 1956 –
  • WREG-TV (as WREC-TV) (television) begins broadcasting.
  • Opera Memphis established.
• 1957 –
  Satellite Records
  in business.
• 1960
• 1961 – Thirteen African American first graders join Memphis City Schools
  • Henry Loeb becomes mayor.
  • Population: 497,524.^[9]
• 1965 – 100 North Main building and White Station Tower constructed.

• 1968
  • January: Henry Loeb becomes mayor again.
  • February 11: Memphis sanitation strike begins.^[28]
  • April 3: Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers I've Been to the Mountaintop speech.
  • April 4:
    Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.^[29]
  • April 8: March in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.[30]
• 1969 – Sesquicentennial Celebration
• 1970
  • Vollintine-Evergreen Community Association organized.^[31]
  • Population: 623,530.^[9]
• 1971 – Clark Tower built
• 1972 – National Bank of Commerce building constructed.
• 1973 – May: City hosts Rock Writers of the World Convention.^[32]
• Massive white flight occurs in Memphis City Schools.
• Desegregation busing begins in Memphis
• 1974 – Women's Resource Center founded.^[33]
• 1975 – Hyatt hotel opens.
• 1976 – Temple Israel built.
• 1977 – Memphis in May festival begins.
• 1978 – Muslim Society of Memphis founded.^[34]
• 1980 –
  Population: 646,356.^[9]
• 1985
  • Tall Trees (prison) privatised.^[35]
  • Morgan Keegan Tower
    built.
• 1988 - Memphis tanker truck disaster.^[36][37]
• 1990 –
  Population: 610,337.^[9]
• 1991
  • Pyramid Arena
    open.
  • Willie Herenton becomes mayor.^[38]
• 1996 – City website online.^[39][40]

21st century

• 2002 – June 8: Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson boxing match.
• 2003
  • Clark Opera Memphis Center opens.^[41]
  • July 22:
    Memphis Summer Storm of 2003
    , also known as "Hurricane Elvis".
  • December 18: Airplane crash.
• 2007 –
  U.S. representative for Tennessee's 9th congressional district.^[42]
• 2008 – February 5–6: Tornado outbreak.
• 2009
  • October: A C Wharton elected mayor.^[43]
  • City open government standard enacted.^[44]
• 2012 – Population: 655,155.
• 2015 – October 8: Jim Strickland elected mayor.^[45]
• 2016 – Raleigh Springs Mall is demolished
• 2023 – October 5:
  Paul Young elected mayor.^[46]

• History of Memphis, Tennessee
• List of mayors of Memphis, Tennessee
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Shelby County, Tennessee
• Timelines of other cities in Tennessee: Chattanooga, Clarksville, Knoxville, Murfreesboro, Nashville
• Timeline of Tennessee

References

Bibliography

See also: History of Memphis, Tennessee § Further reading

Published in 19th century

• "Memphis", Kimball & James' Business Directory for the Mississippi Valley, Cincinnati: Printed by Kendall & Barnard, 1844
• "Memphis". Tennessee State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1860–61. Nashville: John L. Mitchell. 1860.
• Denson's Memphis Directory, for 1865. A. Clark Denson. 1865.
• "Memphis". Commercial Directory of the Western States. St. Louis: Richard Edwards. 1867.
• "Mississippi River: Memphis". James' River Guide ... Mississippi Valley. Cincinnati: U.P. James. 1871.
• Tennessee Bureau of Agriculture (1874), "Shelby County; County Seat: Memphis"
  , Introduction to the Resources of Tennessee, vol. 2, Nashville: Tavel, Eastman & Howell
• William T. Avery (1876), City of Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee,
  OL 23355267M
• "Memphis". Tennessee State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1876-7. Nashville: R.L. Polk & Co. 1876.
• Commercial and Statistical Review of the City of Memphis, Reilley & Thomas, 1883
• Directory of the Taxing District of Memphis. Memphis, Tenn.: C.F. Weatherbe. 1883.
• "Memphis (2.)" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (9th ed.). 1883.
• J.M. Keating (1888). History of the City of Memphis Tennessee. Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co.
• Memphis, Merchants' Exchange of (1888), Annual Statement of the Trade and Commerce of Memphis, Tenn. ... Reported to the Memphis Merchants' Exchange
• James Phelan (1888), "Memphis", History of Tennessee, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin

Published in 20th century

• G.P. Hamilton (1908). Bright Side of Memphis: A Compendium of Information Concerning the Colored People of Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• "Memphis", United States (4th ed.), Leipzig: K. Baedeker, 1909,
  OCLC 02338437
• "Memphis (Tennessee)" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). 1910. p. 107.
• John Preston Young, ed. (1912), Standard history of Memphis, Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn: H.W. Crew,
  OL 6553910M
• hdl:2027/mdp.39015066068928{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link
  )
• Tennessee Historical Records Survey (1941), "Shelby County (Memphis)", Directory of Churches, Missions, and Religious Institutions of Tennessee, no. 79, Nashville
• Ory Mazar Nergal, ed. (1980), "Memphis", Encyclopedia of American Cities, New York:
  OL 4120668M
• ISBN 0252020006
• George Thomas Kurian (1994), "Memphis, Tennessee", World Encyclopedia of Cities, vol. 1: North America, Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO,
  OL 1431653M
  – via Internet Archive (fulltext)
• "The South: Tennessee: Memphis", USA,
  OL 24937240M

Published in 21st century

• Ernest Withers. Memphis Blues Again. Viking Studio, 2001.
• "Memphis: Mecca on the Mississippi", Ebony, October 2002
• Stephanie Gilmore (2003). "Dynamics of Second-Wave Feminist Activism in Memphis, 1971–1982: Rethinking the Liberal/Radical Divide". National Women's Studies Association Journal. 15 (1): 94–117.
  JSTOR 4316946
  .
• John Branston. Rowdy Memphis. Brentwood, Tennessee: Cold Tree Press, 2004.
• Richard Pillsbury, ed. (2006). "Memphis". Geography. New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Vol. 2. University of North Carolina Press. p. 176.
  OCLC 910189354
  .
• ISBN 978-1-4522-6553-7
  .
• Sharon D. Wright. Race, Power, and Political Emergence in Memphis. Taylor and Francis, 2007.
• Photographs from the Memphis World, 1949–1964. Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. 2008.
  ISBN 978-0915525102
  .
• Wanda Rushing (2009). "Memphis: Cotton Fields, Cargo Planes, and Biotechnology".
  doi:10.18737/M7MW37
  .
• Raj Chetty; Nathaniel Hendren (2015), City Rankings, Commuting Zones: Causal Effects of the 100 Largest Commuting Zones on Household Income in Adulthood, Equality of Opportunity Project, Harvard University, archived from the original on 2015-05-06, Rank #93: Memphis
• Gail Schmunk Murray (2017). "Taming the War on Poverty: Memphis as a Case Study". Journal of Urban History. 43.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of Memphis, Tennessee.

• "Memphis History: A Chronology". Memphis Public Library. Archived from the original on 2013-09-18.
• "Memphis Chronology". City of Memphis.
• "Memphis". Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. University of Tennessee Press.
• Digital Public Library of America. Items related to Memphis, TN, various dates
• Tennessee State Library and Archives. Memphis City Directories, various dates (digitized)
• Bibliography of Tennessee Bibliographies: Local History, Nashville: Tennessee Secretary of State

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