1640s: Long Island's First Settlements Established
1659: Chief Wyandanch Deeds Ten Square Miles to Lion Gardiner
1699: Captain Kidd Buries Treasure on Gardiners Island
1700: William "Tangier" Smith Creates Poospatuck Reservation
1700s: Long Islanders Craft Distinctive Blanket Chests
1746: Second House is Built in Montauk
1760-1840: Dominy Family Excels as Master Craftsmen
1770s: LI Quaker Elias Hicks is Early Opponent of Slavery
1775: Ben Franklin Installs Mile Markers on the North Fork
1790: Decoy Dynasty Takes Root in Seaford
1827: Plum Island Lighthouse Established
1836: Walt Whitman Teaches in East Norwich
1839: Jones Brothers Found the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Co.
1843: Whaling Ship Embarks from Sag Harbor on Journey to Japan
1850: Feminist Margaret Fuller Dies in Shipwreck off Fire Island
1866: St. Johnland Nursing Home Founded by Dr. William Augustus Muhlenberg
1868: August Belmont Establishes Horse Breeding Facility
1870s: President Ulysses S. Grant Vacations in West Deer Park
1876: Friends Academy Founded in Locust Valley
1876: The 'Circassian' Wrecked off Bridgehampton
1876: The 'Circassian' Wrecked off Bridgehampton
1879: Fishers Island Becomes Part of Suffolk County
1879: Greenport Boat Builder Produces Innovative Lifeboats
1879: New York Doctor Builds Southampton’s First Summer House
1881: “Whileaway” Built in Islip
1887: Frank M. Flower & Sons Founded
1890: Biological Lab Founded in Cold Spring Harbor
1890: Construction of 'Gold Coast' Mansions Begins
1891: Nation's First Golf Club Opens at Shinnecock Hills
1892: Boxer Jim Sullivan Trains for Fight with “Gentleman Jim” Corbett on LI
1904: Numbered Cars Omit '13' at First Vanderbilt Cup
1905: Belmont Park Opens as Nation's Largest Race Track
1905: First Glenwood Landing Power Plant Built
1908: Teddy Roosevelt Hosts Automobile Race Winners at Sagamore Hill
1910: Bank of Westbury Receives $24,857 in Opening Day Deposits
1910: Nation's First Co-Ed Polo School Founded in Westbury
1912: Lynbrook Trustee Purchases Shells to Pave Roads
1916: Gangster Arnold Rothstein Opens Casino in Hewlett
1917: 'The Great Gatsby' Mansion built in Sands Point
1917: Teddy Roosevelt Honors Boy Scouts at Sagamore Hill
1917: World's First Experimental Aircraft Factory Opens in Garden City
1918: 'USS Tarantula' Sinks Off Fire Island
1918: Escaped "Wild Ape" Frightens Smithtown Residents
1919: First Nassau County Girl Scout Troop Forms
1920: August Heckscher Founds Heckscher Museum of Art
1922: First African-American Pilot Debuts at Curtiss Field
1922: Long Beach Receives City Charter
1922: Walker Cup Played for the First Time in Southampton
1928: US Team Wins First Polo Cup of the Americas
1929: Estate Owners Pay $175,000 to Divert Path of Northern State Parkway
1929: Jones Beach Bathhouses Pioneer Diaper-Changing Rooms
1930: Chaminade High School is Founded in Mineola
1930: Newsday Founder Becomes First Pilot to Receive In-Air Radio Instructions
1930: Roscoe Turner and Gilmore Make Record-Breaking Flight from Roosevelt Field
1931: Designer Lilly Pulitzer Born in Roslyn
1931: Playwright Eugene O’Neill Rents House in Asharoken
1934: Meadowbrook State Parkway Opens
1940: Fall Flower Show is Biggest Ever
1940: Nassau County Declared the Nation’s Fastest-Growing County
1940: Rachmaninoff Composes "Symphonic Dances" in Centerport
1940: Roosevelt Raceway Opens
1940s: Journalist Alistair Cooke Builds House in Cutchogue
1941: FBI Bases Counterespionage Operation in Wading River
1942: “Picket Patrols” Guard Long Island’s Shoreline
1944: Reggie Jones Becomes a Jones Beach Lifeguard
1945: Grumman Produces the First Aluminum Canoe
1946: Assault Becomes the Seventh Triple Crown Winner
1946: Robert Moses Creates Long Island State Park Police
1947: Brookhaven National Lab Established
1949: 'The Girl From Jones Beach' Filmed at Jones Beach
1949: John Savage is Born in Old Bethpage
1949: Pall Corporation Moves to Glen Cove
1950: Lollipop Farm Opens in Syosset
1950: World’s First Peacetime Research Reactor Begins Operations
1951: Frank Mundus Creates “Monster Fishing” in Montauk
1951: Newsday Reporters Pose as Communist “Saboteurs”
1952: Brookhaven National Lab Dedicates the Cosmotron
1952: Deer Park Produces 200,000 Dahlias
1953: IBM Buys Guggenheim Estate to Create Employee Country Club
1953: Peggy Lipton Attends Day Camp in Atlantic Beach
1953: Publishers Clearing House Founded in Port Washington
1953: Transsexual Christine Jorgensen Moves to Massapequa
1955: LIRR Holds “End of Steam” Ceremony in Hicksville
1957: Three LI Villages Legalize Bingo
1957: Truman Capote Writes 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' in Bridgehampton
1958: Andre Eglevsky Opens Ballet School in Massapequa
1958: Scenes from "North by Northwest" Shot in Glen Cove
1959: Nathan’s Holds Its Oceanside Grand Opening
1959: Westhampton Missile Base Begins Operation
1960: Commercial Flights Begin at MacArthur Airport
1960: First Female “Indy 500” Racer Works at Republic Aviation Co.
1960s: Arena Players Bring Dinner Theater to LI
1961: Designer Albert Capraro Graduates from Lindenhurst High School
1962: Songwriter Ellie Greenwich Teaches English in Levittown
1964: Fire Island National Seashore Established
1964: Talia Shire Graduates from Great Neck South High School
1966: Energy Secretary Steven Chu Graduates from Garden City High School
1966: Nassau County's First Woman Police Officer
1966: Robert Moses Proposes Oyster Bay-Rye Bridge
1968: Bill Hoest Creates 'the Lockhorns'
1968: Ronzoni Spaghetti Sauce Factory Opens in Hicksville
1968: Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts Opens
1969: Long Island's First Pet Hotel Opens
1969: Smith Haven Mall Opens
1970: Grateful Dead Perform at Stony Brook University
1970: John McEnroe Enrolls in the Port Washington Tennis Academy
1970: LI Colleges and Universities Reopen After Anti-War Protests
1970s: LI is Nation’s Leading Producer of Hard Clams
1971: Gerard and Lilo Leeds Found CMP Media
1971: Strat-O-Matic Headquarters Open in Glen Head
1972: Nixon Campaigns on Long Island
1973: Sunrise Mall Opens in Massapequa
1974: Long Island High School for the Arts Opens
1975: Bob Dylan Writes Songs for “Desire” in East Hampton
1976: Ron Kovic Publishes "Born on the Fourth of July"
1978: Long Island Experiences its Worst Oil Spill in Memory
1978: Model Carol Alt Graduates from The Wheatley School
1979: Malibu Nightclub Opens in Lido Beach
1980: First Annual Beethoven Festival Held at Planting Fields
1980: Scenes From “The World According to Garp” Filmed on LI
1981: Anti-British Protesters Gather Outside Nassau Coliseum
1982: Drinking Age Raised From 18 to 19
1983: “Trading Places” Filmed in Mill Neck
1983: Wrestler Mick Foley is Ward Melville High Grad
1984: "Compromising Positions" Filmed on Long Island
1984: 'Desperately Seeking Susan' Filmed in Manhasset
1984: “Superbad” Director Works at Adventureland
1984: George Higgins Forms the Long Island Flag Football League
1986: Cheez Doodles Creator Becomes Associate Dean at NYIT
1986: Raymond Floyd Becomes Oldest Golfer in History to Win the U.S. Open
1987: "Californication" Creator Tom Kapinos is Island Trees High Grad
1987: Quintuplets Born at Long Island Jewish Hospital
1988: Frances Conroy Returns to LI to Film “Rocket Gibraltar”
1988: LIRR Runs the 'Buddy McGirt' and 'Howard Davis Express' Trains
1988: Miss Shinnecock Teen Pageant Established
1988: Suffolk County Passes Bill Banning Plastic Packaging
1990: Busta Rhymes Forms Rap Group at Uniondale High
1991: 106th Rescue Wing Performs Rescue During the 'Perfect Storm'
1992: East Meadow Mom Markets Her “Miracle Mop” on QVC
1992: Paul Simon and Edie Bricked Wed in Montauk
1992: Piter Marek Graduates from East Meadow HS
1993: Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger Wed in East Hampton
1993: First Annual Long Island Fall Festival Held in Huntington
1994: Massapequa Musicians Form Diffuser
1996: Billy Joel’s Runabout Produced on Shelter Island
1996: Grace Jones Celebrates Her Birthday at the Oak Beach Inn
1997: “A Perfect Murder” Filmed in Glen Cove
1997: Designer Isaac Mizrahi Buys Bridgehampton Home
1997: Joy Zipper Forms
1997: Victoria Gotti Publishes “The Senator’s Daughter”
1998: “Billy Elliot” Star Begins Dance Lessons in Bellmore
1998: Long Island's Last Drive-In Theater Closes
1998: Tornado Strikes Lake Ronkonkoma and Selden
1999: Blue Point Brewing Company Established
1999: Construction Begins On Atlantis Marine World
1999: LL Cool J Buys Home in Manhasset
1999: Long Island Sound Lobsters Die Off
1999: Southold Resident Files Patent For New Mailing System
2000: Chrisette Michele is Patchogue-Medford High Grad
2000: Long Island is Nation's Most Populated Island
2002: Raquel Castro of Port Jefferson Station Stars in “Jersey Girl”
2002: Sarah Hughes brings Olympic gold home to L.I.
2002: Wölffer Estate Vineyard Releases Long Island’s First $100 Bottle of Wine
2003: Calvin Klein Buys Dragon’s Head for $30 Million
2003: Chef Tom Colicchio Buys Mattituck House
2003: Suffolk County is Nation’s First to Ban Ephedra
2005: Children’s Museum of the East End Opens
2006: “One Ocean View” is Filmed on Fire Island
2006: Stony Brook University School of Journalism Founded
2007: CT Scan Reveals 2,000-Year-Old Mummy's Cause of Death
2007: Walk Now for Autism Long Island Raises Record-Breaking $2.2 Million
2008: Best In Show Pet Resort Opens in Mineola PHOTO: Newsday
2008: Circles the Duck Receives an Order of Protection
2008: Heckscher Museum Reopens After $1.5-Million Renovation
c. 1920s: "Funny Girl" Fanny Brice and Nicky Arnstein Have Halesite Home
c. 1930: 'Roxy' Travels Regularly on the LIRR
c. 1940: Comedian Lenny Bruce Attends Mepham High
c. 1957: Photographer Cindy Sherman Moves to Huntington
c. 1959: Billy Idol Moves to Rockville Centre
c. 1989: Billy Joel Broadcasts Radio Show from the Stephen Talkhouse
c. 1999: Maroon 5's Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael Study at Five Towns College
c. Albert Einstein Plays Violin with Benjamin Britten
C. Late 1820s: The Rev. Henry Highland Garnet Works on Smithtown Farm
Late 1980s: Melissa Joan Hart Attends Sayville Junior High School
Mid-1800s: Rufus Tuthill Builds Scaled-Down House for the “Tiny Tuthills”
Mid-1800s: Steven 'Talkhouse' Pharaoh Is Dubbed 'Last King of the Montauks'
Mid-1970's: Steve Madden Works in Cedarhurst Shoe Store