(1767) Frontiersman Daniel Boone, John Findley traveled into Kentucky across Cumberland Gap
(1774) James Harrod constructed first permanent Kentucky settlement at Fort Harrod; Indians forced settlers to withdraw
(1775) Settlers returned to Fort Harrod; Daniel Boone and others established Fort Boonesborough; Indians gave Richard Henderson and Transylvania Land Company land between Ohio and Cumberland Rivers; Revolutionary War began
(1776) Virginia declared Transylvania Land Company illegal; formed Kentucky County
(1778) Shawnee Indians attacked Fort Boonesborough, seige lasted 13 days
(1780) Virginia divided Kentucky County into three separate counties: Fayette, Jefferson, Lincoln
(1782) Last battle of American Revolution fought at Blue Licks
(1783) First commercial distillery opened
(1792) Kentucky became 15th U. S. state
(1795) First barrel "Old Jake Beam Sour" introduced by Beam family
(1796) Wilderness Road opened for wagons
(1797) Mammoth Cave main section discovered by Robert Houchins
1800's
(1811) Severe earthquake occurred in far-western Kentucky; first steamboat on Ohio River stopped at Louisville
(1812) Eathquake occurred; tidal waves created on Mississippi River, river flowed backward, created Kentucky Bend, formed Reelfoot Lake area
(1818) Western portion of Kentucky purchased by President Andrew Jackson from the Chickasaw Indians (Jackson Purchase)
(1819) First commercial oil well opened on Cumberland River
(1821) First advertisement for bourbon printed in Western Citizen Newspaper in Paris, Kentucky
(1830) Louisville and Portland Canal opened
(1861) Kentucky declared neutrality in Civil War, issued proclamation asking both sides to stay off Kentucky soil; supplied about 86,000 troops to the north, 40,000 to the south; Fort Jefferson one of first Kentucky positions occuped by Union Troops; Kentucky became 13th Confederate state
(1862) First battle of Civil War on Kentucky soil fought near Prestonburg; Battle of Perryville was bloodiest Kentucky Civil War battle; Kentucky under control of Union Army for remainder of Civil War
(1867 - 1881) Ku Klux Klan active in Kentucky; many incidents of shooting, lynching, whipping of blacks
(1870) Shipment of jugs of bourbon from Ohio River ports began
(1875) First Kentucky Derby run at Churchill Downs
(1891) Present state constitution adopted
(1892) Kentuckian Nathan Stubblefield invented radio
