Timeline: Major events in Dayton-area and Dayton Daily News history

April 1, 1796

The first permanent settlers of Dayton arrive from Cincinnati.

Feb. 12, 1805

Dayton officially is incorporated as a town.

1839

First Montgomery County Fair held at Swaynies’s wagon yard on East First and Race streets.

April 15, 1850

Dayton’s first high school opens as Central High School.

April 16, 1850

The Montgomery County Courthouse is dedicated.

July 1, 1850

St. Mary’s School for Boys, which would eventually become the University of Dayton, founded.

Feb. 18, 1856

Yellow Springs is incorporated as a village.

Aug. 30, 1856

Wilberforce University is founded.

Sept. 17, 1859

Abraham Lincoln speaks at the Old Courthouse for two hours. Local artist Charles W. Nickum painted a portrait of Lincoln that was later widely reproduced.

May 16, 1869

Huge fire at the Turner Opera House at First and Main streets is the largest in city history for many years.

Nov. 4, 1879

James Ritty patents the first cash register in Dayton.

Feb. 13, 1882

The first formal demonstration of electric light in Dayton is held at the offices of the Dayton Journal.

1883

Boston Dry Goods Store opens. The company later becomes Elder-Beerman.

July 31, 1884

The Soldiers’ Monument at Main and Water streets is dedicated with about 70,000 people watching. Water Street was renamed Monument Avenue.

March 19, 1887

Central State University founded.

Jan. 24, 1888

Dayton’s new library opens centered in Cooper Park, where the Dayton Metro Library main branch is now.

Aug. 22, 1898

The first issue of the Dayton Daily News is published by Publisher James M. Cox.

March 1900

Attorney Carl Baumann drives the first car in Dayton, down Main Street.

July 21, 1901

Dayton’s Union Station is dedicated and opened.

1905

James M. Cox buys the Springfield Press-Republic and changes the name to the Springfield Daily News.

Feb. 9, 1906

Paul Laurence Dunbar dies of tuberculosis at age 33.

May 22, 1906

The Wright brothers receive a patent for the airplane.

1908

James M. Cox is elected to congress.

1908

Oakwood is incorporated as a city.

1909

Edward Deeds and Charles F. Kettering form Delco to manufacture auto parts. Delco becomes a major division of General Motors.

June 17, 1909

The beginning of two days of parades for the Wright brothers, one of the biggest celebrations in the city’s history, on their return from performances overseas.

Jan. 5, 1910

Memorial Hall is dedicated.

1910

Mike-Sell’s Potato Chip Company is founded.

1910

New Dayton Daily News building is erected at Fourth and Ludlow streets

March 19, 1912

New Rike’s department store opens at Second and Main streets.

May 30, 1912

Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid fever at 45.

1913

James M. Cox elected governor of Ohio.

March 21, 1913

Great Dayton Flood begins. The flooding event would last for several days.

May 15, 1914

Village of Englewood is incorporated.

Aug. 17, 1915

Charles Kettering issued patent for electric ignition device for automobiles.

1915

James M. Cox loses re-election bid for governor.

1915

The Miami Conservancy District is created to build dams to prevent another great flood.

1919

James M. Cox is re-elected governor, becoming the state’s first three-term governor.

April 28, 1919

Leslie Irvin makes the first jump with a backpack parachute at McCook Field, and shortly after, Irvin invents the first practical parachute.

July 6, 1920

At the Democratic National Convention, James M. Cox is nominated for president, with young Franklin Roosevelt as his running mate.

Oct. 3, 1920

The Dayton Triangles host the Columbus Panhandles in the first game of what would become the NFL.

Nov. 1, 1920

James M. Cox loses election to fellow Ohioan (and fellow newspaper publisher) Warren G. Harding.

May 7, 1922

John H. Patterson, founder of NCR, dies.

Nov. 11, 1925

Comedian, actor and entertainer Jonathan Winters is born in Dayton.

1927

Josephine and Hermene Schwarz form a dance school that becomes the Dayton Ballet.

Feb. 21, 1927

Erma Bombeck is born in Dayton. She would go on to become one of the top humorists ever.

1928

James M. Cox buys the Springfield Sun newspaper.

April 3, 1928

The Dayton Masonic Temple is dedicated.

July 31, 1929

Start of a two-day dedication of the Dayton airport.

Jan. 7, 1930

The Dayton Art Institute is dedicated.

Aug. 19, 1933

First Soap Box Derby held in Dayton.

Sept. 22, 1933

John Dillinger is arrested in Dayton after being captured in a boarding house on West First Street.

1934

James M. Cox enters broadcasting, establishing Dayton radio station WHIO.

1940

Construction begins on the Deeds Carillon bell tower.

Aug. 3, 1940

Actor Martin Sheen born in Dayton, named Ramon Estevez at birth.

1942

Dayton factories stop making cash registers, refrigerators and car parts and shift production to aircraft, bullets and bombs in response to the United States entering WWII.

Sept. 13, 1944

Shirley Temple appears at Rike’s in Dayton to promote war bonds.

Jan. 13, 1948

Wright and Patterson fields consolidated as Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Jan. 30, 1948

Orville Wright dies at Miami Valley Hospital at age 76.

Jan. 26, 1949

The first Dayton television station, WHIO, goes on the air.

March 13, 1953

Esther Price opens a candy shop on Wayne Avenue.

June 4, 1953

Kettering grocer Victor “Vic” Cassano, Sr. and his mother-in-law Caroline “Mom” Dinisi opened what became Cassano’s Pizza King.

June 24, 1955

The city of Kettering is incorporated.

1957

James M. Cox dies at age 87. His son James M. Cox Jr., succeeds him as head of the family business.

Jan. 12, 1958

The Dayton Daily News resumes publication after a 58-day strike by the mailers’ union.

Nov. 25, 1958

Charles F. Kettering dies.

July 21, 1959

Arthur J. Frei and Raymond C. Davis of Dayton receive a patent for the ice cube tray.

1961

Don L. Crawford becomes the first Black person elected to the Dayton City Commission.

March 24, 1962

University of Dayton Flyers win the NIT championship

1963

Dayton inventor Ermal Fraze patents the first pop-top soda can.

July 28, 1963

Black demonstrators stage a sit-in at Rike’s department store to protest its hiring practices.

1964

Wright State University opens its first building.

Nov. 13, 1964

The Rolling Stones play at Hara Arena in one of their first U.S. concerts.

May 12, 1965

City of Moraine is incorporated.

Aug. 19, 1965

After investing his life savings, Marion Glass opened a pizza restaurant at 460 Patterson Road in Dayton Ohio called Marion’s Piazza.

Sept. 1, 1966

Shops are damaged and 130 people arrested in a race riot on West Fifth Street. The uprising is sparked by the shooting of a Black man.

Sept. 9, 1966

Lyndon B. Johnson visits Dayton and gives a speech at the airport on landing.

1967

UD Flyers reach NCAA basketball finals but lose to UCLA.

Sept. 17, 1967

More racial unrest in Dayton after a police officer kills a Black resident.

Nov. 1, 1967

Phil Donahue broadcasts his first television interview in Dayton.

1968

Jeraldyne Blunden launches the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company.

Nov. 18, 1968

NCR employees strike.

1970

James H. McGee becomes Dayton’s first Black mayor.

Jan. 17, 1970

Dedication is held for UD Arena.

Feb. 13, 1971

Trotwood is incorporated as a city.

Sept. 3, 1971

Richard Nixon flies to Dayton to dedicate the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

1972

Sinclair Community College opens.

Jan. 13, 1973

Opening of the Dayton Convention and Exhibition center.

1973

The Dayton-born R&B group The Ohio Players hits No. 1 on the music charts.

1974

NCR breaks ground on its new headquarters near Old River Park. The old factories on Brown Street begin to fall.

April 3, 1974

The Xenia tornado becomes one of the most destructive in Ohio history, with 36 deaths.

Oct. 27, 1974

James M. Cox Jr. dies.

1974

Dayton civil rights leader W.S. McIntosh is shot to death in a confrontation with robbers at a downtown store.

Sept. 23, 1975

Dayton businessman Lester C. Emoff is abducted.

1976

Daytonian Edwin C. Moses wins gold at the Summer Olympics in Montreal.

Oct. 1976

Courthouse Plaza opens.

Oct. 26, 1976

Elvis Presley performs at UD Arena for the last time.

May 28, 1977

164 people die in the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire near Cincinnati. About a third of those who died were from the Miami Valley.

1977

The Mead Tower on Courthouse Square opens.

Jan. 26, 1978

The worst day of the Blizzard of 1978 drops more than a foot of snow on the Dayton area.

Nov. 1978

Tony Hall is elected to Congress.

Jan. 1979

General Motors announces that the Fridgidaire plant will close.

Nov. 1979

The NCR Auditorium falls to the wrecking ball.

Jan. 11, 1980

Beavercreek is incorporated as a city.

Oct. 2, 1980

Jimmy Carter visits Dayton.

Jan. 23, 1981

Huber Heights is incorporated as a city.

1981

Kim Seelbrede of Germantown is crowned Miss USA.

April 1981

DDN cartoonist Mike Peters wins the Pulitzer Prize.

1982

Springfield Daily News and Springfield Sun combine and name is changed to Springfield News-Sun.

Oct. 12, 1984

Ronald Reagan visits Dayton.

1986

Thousands of Miami Valley residents are evacuated from their homes because of a chemical fire sparked in a freight train derailment in Miamisburg.

Sept. 15, 1986

The Dayton Daily News and Journal Herald are merged.

Dec. 10, 1986

DDN sports editor Si Burick dies at 77 after holding that post for nearly 58 years

1986

Major-league baseball players Mike Schmidt and Roger Clemens, both from Dayton, win the National League and American League MVP awards.

Dec. 31, 1987

The Journal Herald banner appears on the paper for the last time.

Sept. 26, 1988

The Dayton Daily News becomes a morning-only newspaper.

Jan. 1990

Dayton’s Victoria Theatre reopens after an extensive renovation.

March 21, 1991

Dayton police officer Steve Whalen is killed.

Dec. 24, 1992

Marvallous Matthew Keene and accomplices commit the first of six murders in a 60-hour rampage in Dayton known as the Christmas killings.

April 11, 1993

Inmates take over the prison at Lucasville.

April 14, 1998

Dayton Daily News reporter Russell Carollo and Cox Newspapers Washington reporter Jeff Nesmith win the Pulitzer Prize.

March 1, 2003

The Schuster Center opens.

July 3, 2003

Inventing Flight opens as a celebration of 100 years since the Wright brothers took the first powered airplane flight .

Nov. 1995

Dayton peace talks over Bosnia are held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Sept. 14, 2008

The remnants of Hurricane Ike blow through the area, causing power outages across the region, some of which lasted for more than a week.

June 14, 2010

The giant, 62-foot King of Kings statue at Solid Rock Church in Interstate 75 burns down after being hit by lightning.

May 27, 2019

A pack of 16 tornadoes causes damage and injuries in Dayton, Beavercreek, Trotwood and Harrison Twp. on Memorial Day, one of the worst days of tornado destruction in Dayton history.

Aug. 4, 2019

Nine people are killed and dozens more are injured in a mass shooting incident in the Oregon District in downtown Dayton.

Aug. 6, 2021

Vital downtown development is in full swing with the reopening of the historic Dayton Arcade.