Long Island History
2007
- American Home Mortgage files for
bankruptcy
2005
- Southampton College closes, and moves its undergraduate programs to Long
Island University's C.W. Post campus in Old Brookville
2004
- Long Island MacArthur Airport unveils $55
million expansion, funded by Southwest Airlines
2002
- Cradle of Aviation Museum
opens
- Tiger Woods wins U.S. Open at "Bethpage Black" (the Black Course at
Bethpage State Park)
2001
- "9-11" - Never Forget
2000
- American Airpower Museum at
Republic Airport opens
- Long Island Ducks played their opening baseball game in
Central Islip
1999
- Suffolk County gets a new Area Code (631)
1998
- Goodwill Games held on Long Island
- Long Island's last Drive-In Movie Theatre (Westbury Drive-In) closes
1996
- Culinary Academy of Long Island opens
- Malibu Nightclub in Lido
Beach closes
- TWA Flight 800 explodes
in mid-air off the coast of East Moriches
1995
- First annual July 4th Fireworks Celebration held at Jones
Beach
- Roosevelt Raceway Flea Market closes
1994
- Grumman acquired by Northrop, and the Northrop Grumman Corporation was born
- HOV (High-Occupancy Vehicle) Lanes open on the Long
Island Expressway (LIE)
- Tanger Outlet Center
opens in Riverhead
1993
- First Annual Long Island Fall Festival held in Huntington
- Long Island Children's Museum
opens
1992
- Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) founded
- "Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher shoots Mary Jo in the face after having affair
with her husband Joey Buttafuoco
1991
- Splish Splash Water Park opens in Riverhead
1990
- Avianca Flight 52 crashes after running out of fuel in
Cove Neck
1988
- Dolan DNA Learning Center (DNALC) is established
- Roosevelt Raceway closes
1986
- Long Island's first bison ranch (Tuccio's North Quarter Farm) established in
Riverhead
- Ronald McDonald House of Long Island opens in New Hyde
Park
1985
- First Corporate Challenge Race is run at Jones Beach
- Hurricane Gloria hits Long Island
1983
- First Christmas Tree lights up EAB Plaza (now RexCorp Plaza)
- First Oyster Festival held in Oyster Bay
- IMAC (Inter-Media Art
Center) opens in Huntington
1981
- New York Islanders win their second Stanley Cup with a
victory over the Minnesota North Stars
1980
- New York Islanders win their first Stanley Cup by beating
the Philadelphia Flyers
1979
- Malibu Nightclub opens in Lido Beach
- Harry Chapin helps found
the Long Island Philharmonic
1978
- Calverton National Cemetery, the nation's largest
national cemetery, established on Long Island
- Tollbooths close on the
Southern State Parkway
1977
- First "Around Long Island Regatta" Sailboat Race held
- Long Island Pine Barrens
Society (LIPBS) founded
- Right turns on red lights
legalized for Nassau and Suffolk County drivers
- Roosevelt Raceway Flea
Market opens
1974
- 55 MPH speed limit set on Long Island highways
- Long Island faces severe
gas shortage
- Woodbury Common opens
1973
- Long Island's first commercial Vineyard (Hargrave
Vineyard)
- New Community Cinema (now
Cinema Arts Centre) established in Huntington
1972
- Long Island Expressway (LIE) completed to Riverhead
- Long Island Iced Tea
invented by Oak Beach Inn (OBI) bartender named Robert C. "Rosebud" Butt
- Long Island's first
Hockey Game, between the Islanders and the Rangers, played at Nassau Coliseum
1970
- Long Island celebrates the first "Earth Day", a
celebration of the environmental preservation movement
- Old Bethpage Village Restoration opens
1969
- Smith Haven Mall opens in Lake Grove
1968
- Dowling College established
- Rock group Iron Butterfly records "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" at
UltraSonic Studios in Hempstead
- Ronzoni Spaghetti Sauce Factory opens in Hicksville
1967
- Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) founded on Long Island,
with naturalist Dennis Puleston serving as the founding chair
1964
- Robert Moses Causeway opens
1963
- Southampton College founded
1962
- Walt Whitman Mall opens
1961
- First Dairy Barn opens in Massapequa
1960
- First commercial flights begin at MacArthur Airport
- Hurricane Donna's fury hits Long Island
- Suffolk County Community College opens
- Suffolk County Police Department founded
1958
- The world's first video game ("Tennis-for-Two") invented
by physicist William A. Higinbotham at Brookhaven National Laboratory
1957
- Diocese of Rockville Centre created by Pope Pius XII to
serve Long Island's growing number of Catholics
1956
- Green Acres Mall opens in Valley Stream
- Mid-Island Shopping Plaza
(now Broadway Mall) first opens in Hicksville
- Westbury Music Fair opens
1955
- Molloy College opens in Rockville Centre
1954
- Long Island University (LIU) opens
its C.W. Post Campus in Brookville
- Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) established on
Plum Island by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
1953
- Publishers Clearing House founded in Port Washington
1952
- Jones Beach Amphitheater opens
1951
- Roosevelt Airfield (nicknamed "the cradle of American
aviation") closes
1949
- Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) established to preserve his
birthplace
1942
- Long Island MacArthur Airport opens in
Ronkonkoma
1940
- Earthquakes shake up Long Island
1938
- The "Long Island Express" Category 3 Hurricane
devastates
Long Island
1936
- Long Island National Cemetery established in Farmingdale
1935
- Hofstra University founded
1929
- Jones Beach State Park opens
1927
- Charles A. Lindbergh takes off in "The Spirit of St.
Louis" from Roosevelt Field, making the first solo transatlantic flight in
history
1926
- Long Island Association (LIA) founded as the Long Island
Chamber of Commerce
- Long Island University (LIU) establishes
its first residential campus in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Campus)
1925
- Water skis invented in Huntington by inventor Fred Waller
1924
- Long Island's first radio station, WGBB in Freeport, begins broadcasting
1923
- Patchogue Theatre opens
1909
- Long Island's first Airport (Mineola Flying Field) opens
1908
- Fire Island State Park (now Robert Moses State Park)
becomes Long Island's first state park
1905
- Belmont Park Race Track opens in Elmont
- Long Island's first
reported traffic jam
1904
- First Vanderbilt Cup Race held
1900
- The Nation's first automobile race held along Merrick
Avenue by the Automobile Club of America
1884
- Earthquake rocks Amityville
1883
- Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery opens
1838
- Poet Walt Whitman founds weekly newspaper "The Long Islander" in Huntington
1834
- Long Island Rail Road lays it's first tracks
1827
- Long Island's first milk delivery service begins
1794
- Long Island's first Post Offices open
1791
- Long Island's first newspaper, the "Long Island Herald",
is published
1789
- Sag Harbor named New York State's first Port of Entry
1783
- Long Island liberated from British Occupation at the end of the Revolutionary
War
1776
- Patriot Nathan Hale lands in Huntington Bay
1683
- Suffolk County formed
1658
- Nation's First Cattle Ranch (Deep Hollow Ranch)
established in Montauk
1657
- Long Island's First Recorded Shipwreck occurred when the
"Prince Maurice" ran aground on Fire Island.
1653
- Huntington was purchased from the Matinecock Indians by a
group of English settlers
1639
- First English Settlement in New York on Long Island by
Lion Gardiner (Gardiners Island)
1614
- Dutch explorer Adrian Block explores Long Island Sound
20,000 B.C.
- Wisconsinin Glacier forms Long Island
