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Louisiana Timeline

While this timeline includes political events, it's mainly intended to shed light on quality of life issues.


Control of Louisiana, color key:
 France
 Spain
 The United States
 This is when Louisiana and several other states declared themselves the "Confederate States of America" and independent from the United States.
 The Union (United States) Army has control by military force.
Year Event
1939 -The current building for Charity Hospital on Tulane Ave. in New Orleans is completed with room for 3,330 patients. It's the second largest hospital in the United States, and one of the oldest continuously running. (3/04/06) This hospital received severe damage during hurricane Katrina in 2005, and is currently scheduled to be demolished.
1929 -The Stock Market crashes, beginning the Great Depression.
1921 -By this time, automobiles were common on Louisiana roads.
1920 -Women get the right to vote.
-1920's, People were buying electric refrigerators, cars, radios, bathroom fixtures. Consumer credit was a growing business.
-1920- 1933, Prohibition, the Great Drought. United States law prohibited making, selling, and consuming alcohol.
1915 -Severe hurricane hits southeast Louisiana.
1914 -Mosquitos are discovered to be the carriers of Yellow Fever. Controls on the mosquito population controls the spread of the disease.
1911 -The Delgado Art Museum is built in New Orleans City Park, later to become New Orleans Museum of Art.
1901 -The first oil well in Louisiana is drilled in Jennings.
1900 -Early 1900's, the first movies are shown. They are short, silent, black and white.
1893 -Severe hurricane hits southeast Louisiana destroying homes and causing 1000-2000 deaths.
1890 -Shreveport is the first city in Louisiana to use electric street cars.
-During the 1890's, street lights went from coal-oil to natural gas (lit by lamplighters), then by 1916 they were electric. The state's first electric company was formed in the 1890's.
-Special Delivery mail was started in 1885, Rural Free Delivery began in 1890.
1880 -New Orleans' first water system is installed. Most Louisiana residents get water from cisterns and wells.
-1880's, The first telephones appear.
1878 -Yellow Fever kills over 5000 Louisianians.
1877 -United States Army Units are withdrawn from Louisiana, ending the longest occupation of any southern state.
1874 -Roller Skating comes to New Orleans.
1873 -Cholera epidemic, Yellow Fever epidemic.
1865 -Amusements available in New Orleans include Opera, Theater, Balls, Concerts, Circus, and Water Sports. The rest of the state enjoyed traveling troupes, minstrel shows, and showboats cruising the Mississippi River.
1862 -New Orleans is captured by the Union Army. During the occupation farmland, livestock, and tools were destroyed. Prices were high. Furniture, clothes, and other necessities were made at home.
1861 -Louisiana secedes from the Union.
1853 -Yellow Fever plagued Louisiana in the summers. In 1853 10,000 New Orleans inhabitants died. The rest of the state was also seriously affected.
1850 -Baton Rouge becomes the capital of Louisiana.
-By now, all of the Northern Choctaw Indians have left the state.
1847 -Yellow Fever epidemic in New Orleans.
1837 -The first Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans.
1835 -The Medical College of Louisiana is founded, later to become Tulane University.
1830 -The first railroad in Louisiana was a 5 1/2 mile long track along Elysian Fields Ave. from the French Quarter to Lake Pontchartrain. The first cars were horse-drawn but by 1832 they were steam powered.
1820 -1820- 1870, The Steamboat Era.
1812 -Louisiana becomes the 18th state in the Union.
1811 -The first steamboat travels the Mississippi River. For the first time, river traffic can flow in both directions.
1810 -The United States takes control of Louisiana's "Florida Parishes."
1808 -The first public schools open in Pointe Coupee Parish.
1803 -The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15,000,000, thereby gaining control of the Mississippi River. Louisiana Purchase. Which by the way didn't include the part of Louisiana I currently live in, this was at the time, a part of Spain's Florida. West Florida.
1802 -French refugees from the uprising in San Domangue, expelled from Cuba, begin arriving in Louisiana.
1800 -Spain returns the Louisiana Territory to France.
1791 -Refugee players from Santo Domingo presented in New Orleans the first professional theatrical production in Louisiana.
1788 -A fire that burns 856 buildings in New Orleans is started by a candle. Included in the destruction is the St. Louis Cathedral, which is subsequently rebuilt.
1783 -AMERICAN REVOLUTION ENDS
1779 -War breaks out between Spain and Britain, forcing Britain to fight the Spanish and the Americans.
1776 -AMERICAN REVOLUTION BEGINS
1770 -A system of homesteading was begun, allowing a homesteader a parcel of land six to eight arpents fronting on the river of bayou, and forty arpents in depth, if he occupied the land, cleared the front, and enclosed it within three years.
1769 -Spain establishes firm control over Louisiana. Their system of ecclesiastical parishes has been adapted and persists today.
1766 -Settlers earned their living by trading in furs, indigo, tobacco, timber, cotton, pitch, tar, rice, maize, and vegetables.
1763 -The Jesuits are expelled from Louisiana by French Authorities.
1762 -The Spanish receive Louisiana as a gift from the French for favors agreed to.
1750 -Acadians begin arriving in Louisiana in the 1750's. Today their descendants are known as Cajuns.
1732 -Charity Hospital (now Medical Center of Louisiana) is founded in New Orleans.
1727 -Twelve Ursuline Nuns arrive in New Orleans from Rouen, France. They opened the first American school for girls, a hospital, a convent, and an orphanage.
1724 -The first of several churches is built on the site of the St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter in New Orleans.
1723 -The Code Noir (Black Code) was enacted to protect the slaves and free blacks, to define and limit their activities, and to govern the treatment of slaves by their masters.
1721 -New Orleans becomes capital of Louisiana.
1718 -Sieur de Bienville founds the city of New Orleans.
1700 -The first permanent settlement of Louisiana is established at Fort St. Jean Baptiste, present day Natchitoches- the first city in Louisiana.
1682 -LaSalle claims all land drained by the Mississippi for France, and names it Louisiana for the reigning monarch, Louis XIV.
Control of Louisiana, color key:
 France
 Spain
 The United States
 This is when Louisiana and several other states declared themselves the "Confederate States of America" and independent from the United States.
 The Union (United States) Army has control by military force.


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