Timeline of Memphis, Tennessee

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

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Prior to 19th century

• 1739 – Fort Assumption built by French.
• 1740 – Fort Assumption abandoned.
• 1795 -1797 – Spanish Fort San Fernando De Las Barrancas.
• 1797 – U.S. fort built.^[1]

19th century

The original plan for Memphis, as surveyed in 1819.

• 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: First 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.

Historic aerial view of Memphis (1870)

• 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]

Plan of the Memphis sewer system in 1880

• 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]

20th century

1900s–1940s

Mississippi riverboats (1906)

• 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]

Map of Memphis in 1911

• 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.

Lorraine Motel, site of the 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination

• 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
  • National Civil Rights Museum and Pyramid Arena open.
  • Willie Herenton becomes mayor.^[38]
• 1996 – City website online.^[39][40]

21st century

Memphis skyline as seen from Poplar Avenue (2010)

• 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 – Steve Cohen becomes 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]

See also

• 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