District of Columbia

District of Columbia History Timeline

• (1600) Piscataway American Indians lived in area
• (1790) A bill passed to locate a new capital along the Potomac River. George Washington picked the site
• (1791) French architect Major Pierre-Charles L'Enfant submitted his design
• (1793) Cornerstone of the new capital building was laid by George Washington
• (1800) The federal government officially moved to Washington, D.C.
• (1812) British burned the city during the War of 1812
• (1824) The Marquis de Lafayette was the first foreign dignitary to address the U.S. Congress
• (1862) Slavery was abolished in Washington, D.C.
• (1881) President James Garfield died, the victim of an assassination in a Washington rail station
• (1888) Washington Monument opened
• (1914) The Lincoln Memorial was completed
• (1943) Jefferson Memorial was completed
• (1953) The restoration of the While House was finished
• (1963) More than 200,000 marched on Washington, heard Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, "I Have a Dream" speech
• (1973) Washingtonians given the right to vote for their mayor and city council
• (1981) President Reagan shot and nearly killed in assassination attempt
• (1982) Vietnam Veterans Memorial erected in Constitution Gardens
• (1990) Washington Mayor Marion Barry received jail sentence for cocaine possession
• (1992) House approved statehood for D.C., but Senate did not
• (1993) U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum opened near Mall
• (1997) President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was officially dedicated
• (2001) Terrorists attacked the Pentagon
• (2009) George Walker Bush, the 43rd President of the United States moved out of the White House.
• (2009) Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States moved into the White House.
• (2009) Two Metro transit trains crashed, killed nine
• (2010) Major winter storm brought over 24 inches of snow, closed airports, delayed trains
• (2011) Earthquake in Virginia felt in Washington, D.C. Several buildings were damaged