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Nashville Dateline

In Depth

  • 9000 B.C. Paleo-Indians inhabit area that is now Nashville.

  • A.D. 1000-1400 Mississippian-period Indians develop advanced society characterized by mound-building and farming.

  • 1710 French fur trader Charles Charleville establishes a trading post in the area.

  • 1765 A group of long hunters camp at Mansker’s Lick, north of present-day Nashville.

  • 1772 Wautauga Association becomes first form of government west of the Appalachians.

  • 1775 Transylvania Purchase stimulates settlement in middle Tennessee.

  • 1778 James Robertson scouts the area and decides to found a settlement.

  • 1779 Robertson’s first party of settlers arrives on Christmas Eve.

  • 1780 Second of Robertson’s parties of settlers, led by Colonel John Donelson, arrives by boat in April; in May, settlement of Nashborough founded.

  • 1781 Battle of the Bluffs fought with Cherokee Indians.

  • 1784 The small settlement’s name changed from Nashborough to Nashville.

  • 1796 Tennessee becomes the 16th state.

  • 1814 Andrew Jackson, a Nashville resident, leads the Tennessee militia in the Battle of New Orleans and gains national stature.

  • 1840 Belle Meade plantation home built.

  • 1843 State capital moved from Murfreesboro to Nashville.

  • 1850 Nashville is site of convention held by nine Southern states that jointly assert the right to secede.

  • 1862 Nashville becomes first state capital in the South to fall to Union troops.

  • 1864 Battle of Nashville, last major battle initiated by the Confederate army.

  • 1866 Fisk University, one of the nation’s first African-American universities, founded.

  • 1873 Vanderbilt University founded.

  • 1897 The Parthenon built as part of the Nashville Centennial Exposition.

  • 1920 Nashville becomes center of nation’s attention as Tennessee becomes 36th state to give women the vote, thus ratifying the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • 1925 WSM-AM radio station broadcasts first Grand Ole Opry program.

  • 1943 Grand Ole Opry moves to Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville.

  • 1944 Nashville’s first recording studio begins operation at WSM-AM radio.

  • 1950s Numerous national record companies open offices and recording studios in Nashville.

  • Late 1950s to early 1960s Record company competition and pressure from rock ‘n’ roll change the sound of country music, giving it a higher production value that comes to be known as the “Nashville sound.”

  • 1972 Opryland USA theme park opens in Nashville.

  • 1974 Grand Ole Opry moves to a new theater at the Opryland USA theme park.

  • 1993 Ryman Auditorium closes for a renovation that will make the Grand Ole Opry‘s most famous home an active theater once again.

  • 1994 With the opening of the Wildhorse Saloon and the Hard Rock Cafe and the reopening of the Ryman Auditorium, Nashville becomes one of the liveliest cities in the South.

  • 1996 Nashville Arena opens in downtown Nashville.

  • 1997 Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park opens north of state capitol building.

  • 1999 NFL Tennessee Titans move into new Coliseum and NHL Nashville Predators into Gaylord Entertainment Center (Nashville Arena) downtown.

  • 2000 Titans take a trip to the Super Bowl as AFC champs. Opry Mills, a 1.2-million-square-foot entertainment and shopping complex, rises from the ashes of the demolished Opryland amusement park.

  • 2001 Two new world-class venues open downtown: the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

  • 2005 Centennial Park, a 132-acre green oasis and home to the Parthenon in Nashville’s West End, becomes one of the first parks in the U.S. to get wireless Internet access.

  • 2006 Nashville celebrates its bicentennial.

    • Nashville Travel Guide

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    Excerpted from Frommer's Nashville & Memphis, 8th Edition, © 2009, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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