American Experience | New Orleans | Timeline

Timeline: New Orleans

1682 - 1913 | 1921 - 2006

1682	April 9: French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, and a small party arrive at the mouth of the Mississippi River. La Salle claims the region and names it Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV of France.
1699	Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, establishes the French colony of Louisiana.
1718	Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, founds the city of New Orleans, then known as La Nouvelle-Orléans.
1723	New Orleans becomes the capital of the Louisiana colony.
1763	February 10: The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Seven Years' War and resulting in Spain taking possession of New Orleans from France.
1788	March 21: A large fire sweeps through New Orleans, destroying more than 850 buildings.
1800	October 1: After the signing of the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso, France reacquires Louisiana from Spain.
1803	April 30: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for about $15 million. The acquisition doubled the size of the United States.
1812	April 30: Louisiana is admitted to the Union.
1814	December: The Battle of New Orleans begins. By January 1815 General Andrew Jackson and his forces defeat the British.
1835	March 3: An act of Congress authorizes a U.S. Mint in New Orleans.
1840	The country's oldest family-run restaurant, Antoine's, opens its doors in New Orleans. Patrons have included Franklin Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Pope John Paul II.
1853	New Orleans suffers its worst epidemic of yellow fever, which kills approximately 9,000 people.
1857	Mardi Gras in its modern form debuts in New Orleans with the establishment of the parading organization called the "Mistick Krewe of Comus."
1861	January 26: Louisiana secedes from the Union. April 12: Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Civil War breaks out.
1862	April 28: Under the command of Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, a Union naval fleet captures New Orleans. Union forces control the city until the end of the Civil War.
1868	April: Louisiana's Reconstruction government approves a Constitution that extends voting rights to black males and integrates public schools and public accommodations. June 25: Louisiana is readmitted to the Union.
1872	The Krewe of Rex, establishing a king of the Carnival, is founded. Famed French impressionist artist Edgar Degas stays in New Orleans, where he creates at least 22 works of art.
1884	New Orleans hosts the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition.
1890	July 10: The general assembly of Louisiana passes a law requiring segregation of railway cars in the state.
1890	October 20: Considered the first great jazz composer and pianist, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton is born in New Orleans.
1892	June 7: Homer Plessy, who is categorized as seven-eighths Caucasian and one-eighth African, boards a train in New Orleans reserved for white passengers. He is arrested and will fight the charge all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
1896	May 18: The U.S. Supreme Court delivers the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, affirming the Louisiana state law that mandated segregation.
1901	August 4: Louis Armstrong, who would become known as the father of jazz, is born in New Orleans.
1905	Yellow fever strikes New Orleans for the final time, killing more than 400 people.
1909	The U.S. Mint in New Orleans coins its last currency.
1912	The Louisiana state legislature grants a charter to Loyola University in New Orleans.
1913	Albert Baldwin Wood invents the Wood screw pump, which would be used to reduce flooding in New Orleans.

1682 - 1913 | 1921 - 2006

page created on 12.1.2006

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