1524 Giovanni da Verrazano explores New York Bay.
1609 Henry Hudson lands on Coney Island, explores New York Bay and the Hudson River.
1636-1684 Native American chiefs transfer Brooklyn lands to the Europeans.
1645 The Town of Gravesend is charted. Founded by Lady Deborah Moody and a group of English Anabaptists in 1643, it is only one of six original towns that was not settled by the Dutch.
1646 The Town of Brooklyn (Breuckelen) is chartered by the Dutch West India Company.
1647 The Town of Flatlands (New Amersfoort) is chartered. Hans Hansen Bergen receives a grant of waterfront land in Brooklyn and Bushwick.
1652 The Town of Flatbush (Midwout or Vlacke Bosch) is chartered. The Dutch West India Company acquires Yellow Hook (Bayridge) from the Nyack Indians.
1654 Coney Island (Conye Islant) is acquired from the Indians by the Town of Gravesend. Brooklyn's first church, Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church, is founded.
1657 The Town of New Utrecht is chartered by Jacques Cortelyou.
1661 The Town of Bushwick (Boswick) is chartered by Governor Pieter Stuyvesant.
1664 New Netherland is taken over by the English and renamed New York.
1677 New Lots and Flatbush are separated by Governor Edmund Andro's charter.
1683 The Towns of Brooklyn, Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend and New Utrecht join to make up Kings County.
1698 The first census of Kings County is taken, listing the population of King's County as 2,017 (1,721 white; 296 of African descent).
1776 General William Howe leads British Army in the Battle of Long Island, the first major battle of the Revolutionary War. George Washington retreats across the East River and Brooklyn is occupied by British soldiers.
1776-1783 The British occupation of Brooklyn.
1787 Erasmus Hall Academy receives a state charter, making it the first public school in the country.
1790 First U.S. Census is taken. Kings County has a total population of 4,495 (3,017 white, 1,478 of African descent) sixty percent of all Kings County families own slaves. This rate is the highest of any county in New York State.
1797 John Doghty frees slave Caesar Foster. This is the first recorded act of manumission in Brooklyn.
1799 A system for the gradual emancipation of slaves is begun in New York State. Brooklyn's first newspaper, the Long Island Courier, is published.
1801 The Brooklyn Navy Yard is established on Wallabout Bay.
1814 The steamship Nassau begins ferry service between Brooklyn and New York.
1816 The Village of Brooklyn, comprising the present-day downtown area, is incorporated within the Town of Brooklyn.
1818 Brooklyn's oldest African-American church, Bridge Street A.W.M.E. Church, is founded.
1827 The Village of Willamsburg is incorporated within the Town of Bushwick. Slavery is abolished in New York State. Weeksville is settled by free African Americans.
1831 Kings County Hospital is founded.
1832 William Thomas buys 30 acres of farmland and becomes the first African American landowner in Brooklyn. Jim de Wilt, reputed to be the last "full-blood" Native American of Brooklyn dies.
1834 The Town of Brooklyn is incorporated as the City of Brooklyn. George Hall becomes the first Mayor of Brooklyn. Kings County is now made up of Brooklyn and five towns: Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend and New Utrecht.
1836 Construction of Brooklyn City Hall begins. It is completed in 1849.
1838 Green-Wood Cemetery is incorporated.
1840s-1850s First Great Wave of European immigration begins. Immigrants are largely northern and western Europeans.
1841 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle begins publishing.
1847 Colored School No. 1 opens in Fort Greene. The Atlantic Basin is completed.
1851 The City of Willamsburg is chartered.
1852 The Town of New Lots is organized. It was formerly part of the Town of Flatbush.
1853 The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn is established. Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute are established. Horse-railway service is introduced by the Brooklyn City Railroad Company.
1854 The consolidated City of Brooklyn is established, merging the former City of Brooklyn with the City of Willamsburgh and the Town of Bushwick.
1855 Walt Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass.
1857 The Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn is formed. The Mercantile Library is founded.
1858 The National Association of Baseball Players is formed. It is baseball's first centralized organization. Brooklyn is represented by 71 teams.
1859 Brooklyn Academy of Music is incorporated. St. Francis Academy is founded.
1860 Brooklyn becomes the third largest city in America. Its population is 279,122.
1861 The Civil War begins. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher raises money from his Plymouth Church congregation to free Sarah Maria Diggs.
1862 The ironclad Civil War ship, the Monitor is launched at Greenpoint.
1863 The Brooklyn Historical Society is founded as The Long Island Historical Society.
1864 The Brooklyn Long Island Sanitary Fair is held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The purpose of the fair was to raise funds for soldiers and their families.
1865 Wechsler & Abraham opens. This store is later known as Abraham & Straus. Charles S. Brown founds Brown's Village (Brownsville).
1867 Prospect Park is completed. The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux.
1868 Eastern Parkway, the world's first six-lane parkway, is completed. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. William A. Engeman purchases land that later becomes Brighton Beach.
1870 Citizen's Gas Company provides gaslight for Brooklyn.
1874 Charles Feltman introduces the "frankfurter" at Coney Island.
1876 The Brooklyn Theater fire kills 295 people.
1880 Second great wave of European immigration to Brooklyn. It lasts into the early twentieth century and is made up largely of eastern and southern Europeans.
1880 Brooklyn is the fourth largest producer of manufactured goods in America. The Society of Old Brooklynites is founded.
1881 The Brooklyn Historical Society moves into its new building designed by George B. Post.
1883 The Brooklyn Bridge opens. The Brooklyn Dodgers is organized as minor league team.
1884 The first roller coaster is built in Coney Island by LaMarcus Adna Thompson.
1885 Brooklyn's first elevated railroad is completed. It runs from the Brooklyn Bridge to Broadway.
1886 The Town of New Lots is annexed to the City of Brooklyn. Girls High School opens.
1887 Charles M. Gage opens a restaurant that becomes Gage and Tollner's. Pratt Institute is founded.
1888 A major blizzard hits Brooklyn. William Zeigler purchases Norton's Point (Sea Gate).
1890 The first electric trolley begins running in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Dodgers win their first National League pennant. Irving T. Bush begins building Bush Terminal.
1891 The Montauk Club opens.
1892 Boy's High School opens. The Soldier's and Sailor's Memorial Arch in Grand Army Plaza is dedicated.
1894 The Towns of Flatbush, Gravesend and New Utrecht are annexed to the City of Brooklyn. Work on the transatlantic telephone cable is completed. George C. Tilyou introduces the first Ferris wheel to Coney Island.
1895 The Brooklyn trolley strike occurs. Brooklyn City Hall catches fire.
1896 The Town of Flatlands is annexed to the City of Brooklyn. The x-ray is first demonstrated at Adelphi Academy. Construction begins on the Willamsburgh Bridge. Pratt Institute Free Library opens. It is Brooklyn's first free library.
1897 The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (Brooklyn Museum of Art) opens on Eastern Parkway. The Brooklyn Public Library is established. George Tilyou opens Steeplechase Park in Coney Island. It is the first of Coney Island's great amusement parks.
1898 The City of Brooklyn is consolidated into Greater New York City.
1899 The Brooklyn Children's Museum opens. It is the world's first museum for children.
1900 U.S. Census shows Brooklyn to have a population of 1,166,582.
1901 Coney Island Hospital opens. Brooklyn Law School opens.
1902 Willis Haviland Carrier invents the air conditioner.
1903 The Williamsburg Bridge opens. The American Revolution prison ship Jersey is discovered under 12 feet of mud in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
1905 Havemeyer sugar plant closes.
1906 Vitagraph film company opens in Midwood.
1908 The IRT, New York's first subway, connects Manhattan to Brooklyn through the Joralemon Street tunnel. The cornerstone is laid for Brooklyn College.
1909 Manhattan Bridge opens.
1911 The Brooklyn Botanic Garden opens. Calbriath P. Rodger's transatlantic flight occurs.
1913 Ebbets Field stadium opens. It is the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1914 The Brooklyn Public Library opens the Brownsville Children's Library. This is the first children's library in America. Betty Smith publishes her popular children's book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
1915 The "Great Migration" of African Americans from the rural south begins. The migration will continue through the 30s and 40's through the post World War II period.
1916 St. Joseph's College founded. Nathan Handwerker opens Nathan's in Coney Island. Margaret Sanger opens the worlds first birth control clinic in Brownsville.
1918 Malbone Street tunnel wreck occurs, killing 94 people and injuring 100.
1924 The Immigration Act of 1924 restricts southern and eastern European immigration.
1926 Long Island University is chartered.
1928 The Cyclone roller coaster ride opens at Coney Island.
1929 Willamsburg Savings Bank is completed.
1930 Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough with 2,560,401 people.
1934 The Lundy Brothers Restaurant opens in Sheepshead Bay.
1936 USS Brooklyn is launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
1941 Parachute Jump opens at Coney Island .
1944 Battleship Missouri launched at Brooklyn Navy Yard.
1946 New York City Technical College opens.
1947 Jackie Robinson signs with the Brooklyn Dodgers and becomes the first African-American player to play in the Major leagues.
1955 The Honeymooners, a television show set in Bensonhurst, is first broadcast. The Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees in the World Series.
1957 The Brooklyn Dodgers play their last game at Ebbets Field. They leave for California and become the L.A. Dodgers. The New York Aquarium opens at Coney Island.
1960 Ebbets Field is demolished.
1964 The Verrazano Narrows Bridge is completed.
1965 Kingsborough Community College opens. Immigration laws are eased, allowing new immigrants to come to Brooklyn. These immigrants are mainly of Caribbean, Latin American and Asian origin.
1966 The Brooklyn Navy Yard closes. Brooklyn Heights is designated as New York's first Historic District.
1967 The Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation is established.
1969 The first West Indian American Carnival Day Parade is held along Eastern Parkway.
1977 The Fulton Mall is built in downtown Brooklyn.
1983 The first Mermaid Parade is held at Coney Island. The Brooklyn Academy of Music holds its first Next Wave Festival.
1983-1984 The centennial of the Brooklyn Bridge is celebrated.
1987 Metrotech Center opens in downtown Brooklyn.
1989 The Brooklyn Philharmonic is formed.
1990 Brooklyn is still New York City's most populous borough. With 2,300,664 people, it is the equivalent of the fourth largest city in the nation after New York City, Los Angles and Chicago.
1993 Herstory Archives opens.
1995 The first Brooklyn History Fair is held. Brooklyn Brewery opens.
1998 New York Marriott Brooklyn opens. BAM Rose Cinemas open.