Beautiful Crescent: A History of New Orleans (37 page)

Chronology

1541 Hernando De Soto discovers the Mississippi River.

1543
July.
Luis Moscoco and the survivors of De Soto’s expedition, descending the river on their way to Mexico, are the first white men to view the site of the future city of New Orleans.

1662
April 9.
De La Salle claims all land drained by the Mississippi River for France, erects a cross near the mouth of the Mississippi, and names the territory Louisiana in honor of Louis XIV.

1699
March 2.
Iberville and his expedition stop at the present site of New Orleans and erect a cross. Later, Bayou Mardi Gras named by Iberville. Ocean Springs settled.

1718
Spring.
Bienville, with the assistance of Pauger and de La Tour, lays out the streets and founds
La Nouvelle Orléans
as trading colony for the Company of the West.

1723 Under Governor Bienville, New Orleans becomes capital of Louisiana.

1724
March.
Bienville promulgates the
Code Noir,
regulating slavery
and religious worship.

1727
August 6.
The Ursulines arrive and establish a convent school for girls.

1728
December.
The first company of Filles à la Cassette (Casket Girls) arrives in Mobile.

1729
December.
Refugees arrive with news of Indian massacre at Fort Rosalie (Natchez), and Governor Périer begins construction of first defense works (ditches and stockade) against a possible Indian attack.

1731 Louisiana becomes a Royal Colony of France again.

1743 Under Governor Vaudreuil, New Orleans becomes a lively social center.

1762
November 3.
Louisiana transferred to Spain by Treaty of Fontainebleau.

1763
February 6.
Louisiana (except for New Orleans) ceded to Spain by the Treaty of Paris.

July 9.
The Jesuits are expelled from Louisiana by the French authorities and their property confiscated.

1768
October.
Opposition to Spanish rule breaks into open rebellion; Governor Ulloa executed and seven others imprisoned. Superior Council is abolished; Cabildo is established.

1777 Under Governor Galvez, Americans are allowed to establish bases in New Orleans and send aid to revolutionary forces.

1779-82
After war declared between Spain and England, Galvez, in a series of campaigns, drives the English out of the country.

1788
March 21.
Fire destroys more than eight hundred houses and necessitates rebuilding a great part of the city.

December 5.
Padre Antonio de Sedella, later known as Père Antoine, is appointed Commissary of the Inquisition and sent back to Spain by Governor Mir
ó
.

1792 The Henry brothers from Paris stage the first professional theatrical performances held in New Orleans.

1794 First regular newspaper,
Le Moniteur de la Louisiane,
begins publication.

1795 Carondelet Canal, connecting the city with Bayou St. John, is opened. Étienne de Boré succeeds in refining sugar in commercial quantities. Almonester rebuilds Cathedral, Cabildo, and first floor of Presbytère.

1803
November 30.
France takes formal possession of the colony from Spain in the
Place d’Armes.
French Commissioner de Laussat arrives.

December 20.
William C. C. Claiborne and General James Wilkinson take possession of the city in the name of the United States.

1805
February 22.
The city of New Orleans is incorporated, and the first municipal officials arrive shortly afterward.

1812
January 10.
The
New Orleans,
the first steamboat to descend the Mississippi, arrives from Pittsburg.

April 30.
Louisiana is admitted to the Union and New Orleans becomes the capital of the state.

1815
January 8.
The American forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the British in the final decisive action of the Battle of New Orleans.

1816 Crevasse at McCarty’s plantation; part of the city floods.

1823
May 9.
James H. Caldwell opens the first American Theater on Camp Street, introducing the use of gas lighting.

1825
April 10.
Lafayette arrives in New Orleans for a five-day visit.

1827 All Catholic funerals held in Mortuary Chapel (Our Lady of Guadalupe Church).

1830 Esplanade Avenue called Promenade Publique.

1831
April.
The Pontchartrain Railroad, the first railroad west of the Alleghenies, offers freight and passenger service to Milneburg.

1833
J. H. Caldwell granted exclusive privilege for street illumination by gas. Incorporation of the City of Lafayette.

1834 The first house in the town of Carrollton is built. The Medical College of Louisiana, which eventually becomes the University of Louisiana (1847) and Tulane University (1844), is established. US Mint is built on Esplanade and the river. It will operate as a mint from 1838 to 1862 and from 1878 to 1910.

1836
March 8.
New charter divides city into three municipalities, each with its own board of aldermen.

1837
January 25.
The
Picayune,
now the
Times-Picayune,
begins publication.

Shrove Tuesday.
First Mardi Gras parade held.

1838 The first house in the Garden District and the first on Esplanade are built. New Basin Canal opened for traffic.

1853 Ten thousand inhabitants perish in the most severe yellow fever epidemic in the history of New Orleans.

May 10.
The City Hall, now Gallier Hall, designed and built by James Gallier Sr., is dedicated.

1859
December 1.
The French Opera House opens its doors with the production of
Guillaume Tell.

1861
January 26.
Louisiana adopts the Ordinance of Secession.

1862
April 30.
The city surrenders to David E. Farragut and his Federal forces.

May 1.
General Benjamin Butler assumes command of the city.

1864
May 1.
Constitution of Louisiana amended to abolish slavery.

1866
July 30.
Riot occurs in Mechanics Institute in which large numbers of blacks and whites are killed and wounded.

1869 Dillard University opens its doors.

1872
Shrove Tuesday.
Rex parades for Grand Duke Alexis of Russia.

1874 The St. Louis Hotel is purchased by the State of Louisiana to serve as the state capital until the capital is moved from New Orleans to Baton Rouge in 1882.

September 14.
The White League forces defeat the Metropolitan Police in a pitched battle at the head of Canal Street

1880
August.
Captain James B. Eads completes the jetties at South Pass, deepening the channels and saving the port.

1884 With an endowment by Paul Tulane, the University of Louisiana becomes Tulane University.

December 16.
The Cotton Exposition opens in Audubon Park.

1886
October 11.
Newcomb College founded.

1890 Board of Commissioners of Orleans Lakefront (the Levee Board) organized and put in charge of 129 miles of levee, 27 miles of the river, and 94 miles of inner-city levees.

1891
March 14.
Eleven Italian prisoners, alleged assassins of Police Chief Hennessy, killed in parish prison by outraged mob of citizens. Two are dragged outside and hung.

1892
September 7.
James J. Corbett defeats John L. Sullivan in a twenty-one-round knockout victory in New Orleans.

1894 Leprosarium at Carville, Louisiana, established.

1896 Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans (the Dock Board) created to have authority over all water frontage in Orleans parish and considerable portions of river and canal frontage in adjacent parishes.

1898-1917 Storyville thrives.

1905 Last of Yellow Fever epidemics occur.

1910 Last coins minted in New Orleans.

1911 Loyola, founded by the Jesuits, becomes a college.

1912
July 10.
Loyola becomes a university.

August 12.
The commission form of city government adopted.

1915
Xavier College established at Washington and Pine Streets.

September 29.
Severe tropical hurricane inflicts serious property damage throughout the city.

1921 Vieux Carré Commission established. The federal government takes over the Leprosarium at Carville, and it becomes the only public health leprosarium on the North American continent.

1923 Industrial Canal connected to the river by locks. Notre Dame Seminar built.

1925 Xavier becomes full-fledged university. Orleans Club founded.

1927 Major flood.

1928 US Engineers take over responsibility for flood control.

1930 Municipal Auditorium built to the rear of Old Congo Square facing Rampart.

1934 Industrial Canal becomes link in newly fashioned Intracoastal Waterway, which now leads from Rio Grande River in Texas to Florida coast.

1935
September 8.
Huey P. Long assassinated in State Capital Building in Baton Rouge, allegedly by Dr. Carl A. Weiss, who was then shot by Long’s bodyguards.

December 13.
Bonnet Carré Spillway dedicated.

December 16.
Huey P. Long Bridge across the Mississippi completed and dedicated.

1936 Vieux Carré Commission authorized by state legislature to regulate architecture through building permits.

1945 International House opens.

1947
May 6.
International Free Trade Zone established.

September 16-19.
Hurricane kills hundreds in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida.

1957
April 15.
First span of the Greater New Orleans Mississippi River Bridge completed.

1958
September.
UNO, originally LSUNO, opens on the lakefront as the States’ first racially-integrated public college.

1963 Mississippi River Gulf Outlet officially opened, cutting forty miles off of the distance to the Gulf.

1965
September 9.
Hurricane Betsy hits New Orleans.

19
67
Second Lake Pontchartrain Causeway built, creating twin
spans.

1969
August 17.
Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits New Orleans.

1973 Theater of Performing Arts completed in what would later be Armstrong Park. Disastrous fire at Howard Johnson’s Motor Hotel.

1975
August.
Superdome opens with a football game at a building cost of $161 million.

1980 Armstrong Park opens at a building cost of $30 million on a space of 10 acres at the site of the old Congo Square.

1982
July 9.
Pan-Am Jet 759 crashes moments after takeoff from New Orleans International Airport, killing 153.

1984
May 4-November 11.
Louisiana World Exposition in New
Orleans. Mississippi Aerial River Transit (MART; gondola from World’s Fair) is a part of New Orleans skyline (until 1994).

1987
September 12.
Pope John Paul II visits New Orleans and says Mass on the UNO Arena grounds at the lakefront.

Fall.
The New Orleans Saints, under owner Tom Benson and coach Jim Mora, are in the NFL playoffs for the first time in their twenty-year existence.

1988
May 11.
Seven-alarm fire on the third floor of the Cabildo.

August.
Republican National Convention held in New Orleans.

September 30.
Second span of the GNOMR Bridge opens. Both spans now called the Crescent City Connection.

1990 Aquarium of the Americas opens.

1993
December 17.
Fair Grounds Club House burns down.

1995
March 8-9.
Greater New Orleans area floods and shuts city down for two days.