| 1841 |
North Texas area
containing the future Dallas becomes part of Peters Colony,
land settlement grant made by the Republic of Texas to American
and English investors led by William S. Peters; City founded
by John Neely Bryan, who settled on the east bank of the Trinity
near a natural ford (November) |
|
Two highways proposed
by the Republic of Texas soon converge near Dallas |
| 1844 |
J. P. Dumas surveyed
and laid out a townsite comprising a half mile square of blocks
and streets |
| 1846 |
Dallas County
formed; Dallas designated as the temporary county seat |
| 1850 |
Voters select
Dallas as the permanent county seat over Hord's Ridge (Oak
Cliff) and Cedar Springs |
| 1856 |
The Texas legislature
grants Dallas a town charter on February 2. Dr. Samuel Pryor,
elected the first mayor, headed a town government consisting
of six aldermen, a treasurer-recorder, and a constable |
| 1860 |
Population 678,
including ninety-seven African Americans as well as French,
Belgians, Swiss, and Germans. On July 8, 1860, a fire originating
in the W. W. Peak Brothers Drugstore spread to the other buildings
on the square and destroyed most of the businesses. Suspicion
fell on slaves and Northern abolitionists; three slaves were
hanged, and two Iowa preachers were whipped and run out of
town |
| 1861 |
Dallas voters
voted 741 to 237 to secede from the Union. Dallas selected
as one of eleven quartermaster and commissary posts in Texas
for the Trans-Mississippi Army of the Confederacy. After the
war, freed slaves flocked to Dallas in search of jobs and
settled in freedmen's towns on the periphery of the city |
| 1870 |
Population about
3,000 |
| 1871 |
Dallas City Charter
is substituted for town charter |
| 1872 |
Houston and Texas
Central Railroad arrives in Dallas; first City health officer
appointed, Dr. Matthew Cornelius |
| 1873 |
Texas and Pacific
Railroad arrives in Dallas making it one of the first rail
crossroads in Texas. Cotton became the region's principal
cash crop, and Elm Street in Dallas was its market. Dallas
becomes the world center for the leather and buffalo-hide
trade |
| 1874 |
Gaslight street
illumination |
| 1880 |
Population 10,385 |
| 1881 |
Telephone service
begins in Dallas |
| 1882 |
Electricity service
begins in Dallas; first electricity plant opened; City acquires
water works from Dallas Hydrant Company |
| 1884 |
First paved streets
in Dallas, laid with bois d'arc blocks |
| 1889 |
First electric
streetcars in Dallas |
| 1890 |
Dallas annexes
the neighboring town of East Dallas on January 1; Dallas ranked
as the most populous city in Texas, with 38,067 residents |
| 1894 |
Parkland Hospital
opens, City-County joint venture |
| 1900 |
Population 42,638 |
| 1901 |
Dallas Public
Library established |
| 1902 |
First interurban
electric lines begin operation |
| 1904 |
City of Oak Cliff
annexed to the City of Dallas; City purchases Fair Park from
its owners in 1904 . although the State Fair of Texas is operated
by a private organization |
| 1907 |
Dallas voters
adopt the commission form of city government (Mayor and four
commissioners) to replace the alderman system |
| 1908 |
Disastrous flood
of Trinity River |
| 1909 |
Kessler
Plan; White Rock Park acquired; lake created one year
later |
| 1910 |
Population 92,104
by 1910; city doubled in area to 18.31 square miles |
| 1912 |
Houston Street
Viaduct opens, billed as "longest concrete bridge in the world";
Dallas Zoo opens in Marsalis Park |
| 1914 |
Municipal Building
(Dallas City Hall 1914-1978) built |
| 1915 |
City Welfare Department
established |
| 1916 |
Union Terminal
opened |
| 1917 |
Dallas votes for
Prohibition; saloons close October 20 |
| 1918 |
Camp Dick (World
War I Army training camp) established at Fair Park |
| 1920 |
Population 158,976;
Dallas ranked as the forty-second-largest city in the nation |
| 1921 |
Station WRR, first
municipal radio broadcasting station in America, established |
| 1927 |
$23,900 "Ulrickson
Plan" city bond issue approved by referendum; Love Field is
purchased by the City as municipal airport |
| 1928 |
Ground broken
for Trinity River levee and reclamation project |
| 1930 |
Population 260,475;
Citizens Charter Association wins voter approval for the council-manager
form of city government (nine council places); Cotton Bowl
built, seating 46,400 |
| 1932 |
City applies jointly
with County to Reconstruction Finance Corporation for $450,000
loan to provide relief work programs |
| 1933 |
Great Depression
puts 15,000 Dallasites on relief roles by 1933; City votes
for repeal of Prohibition |
| 1936 |
Texas Centennial
Exposition, held in Fair Park; Triple Underpass completed,
linking Main, Commerce, and Elm Streets with Oak Cliff; Dallas
Aquarium opened |
| 1937 |
Pan-American Exposition
held at Fair Park; W. W. Samuell estate deeded to City |
| 1940 |
Population 294,734 |
| 1941 |
Farmers Market
(established 1939) becomes City entity |
| 1949 |
An amendment provides
for direct election of the mayor |
| 1950 |
Population 434,462 |
| 1957 |
Dallas Memorial
Auditorium built (Dallas Convention Center, expanded in 1973,
1984, 1994, 2002) |
| 1960 |
Population 679,684 |
| 1961 |
Racial integration
of public and private facilities begins, the work of a biracial
committee appointed by the Dallas and Negro Chambers of Commerce |
| 1963 |
Assassination
of President John F. Kennedy |
| 1969 |
10-1 Council (eleven
council places, including mayor) |
| 1970 |
Population 844,401 |
| 1971 |
Lawsuit forces
election by districts rather than at large |
| 1974 |
Dallas-Fort Worth
International Airport opens, a joint project of the City and
other local municipal governments |
| 1978 |
New City Hall
opens at 1500 Marilla Street, designed by I. M. Pei |
| 1980 |
Population 904,078 |
| 1982 |
Dallas Arboretum
and Samuell Farm open |
| 1984 |
Dallas Convention
Center hosts Republican National Convention |
| 1989 |
Morton Meyerson
Symphony Hall opens |
| 1990 |
Population 1,006,877 |
| 1992 |
Amendment expands
the council to fourteen single-member districts, with the
mayor elected at large |
