The Dayton Daily News is celebrating 125 years of operation on Tuesday, and we’re spending the week publishing stories, photos, graphics and more about Dayton history.
Here’s a timeline of some of the most significant events in Dayton Daily News and Dayton-area history, starting from the very beginning.
April 1, 1796
The first permanent settlers of Dayton arrive from Cincinnati.
Feb. 12, 1805
Dayton officially is incorporated as a town.
1839
First Montgomery County Fair held at Swaynies’s wagon yard on East First and Race streets.
April 15, 1850
Dayton’s first high school opens as Central High School.
April 16, 1850
The Montgomery County Courthouse is dedicated.
July 1, 1850
St. Mary’s School for Boys, which would eventually become the University of Dayton, founded.
Feb. 18, 1856
Yellow Springs is incorporated as a village.
Aug. 30, 1856
Wilberforce University is founded.
Sept. 17, 1859
Abraham Lincoln speaks at the Old Courthouse for two hours. Local artist Charles W. Nickum painted a portrait of Lincoln that was later widely reproduced.
The Dayton Daily News celebrates 125 years
May 16, 1869
Huge fire at the Turner Opera House at First and Main streets is the largest in city history for many years.
Nov. 4, 1879
James Ritty patents the first cash register in Dayton.
Feb. 13, 1882
The first formal demonstration of electric light in Dayton is held at the offices of the Dayton Journal.
1883
Boston Dry Goods Store opens. The company later becomes Elder-Beerman.
July 31, 1884
The Soldiers’ Monument at Main and Water streets is dedicated with about 70,000 people watching. Water Street was renamed Monument Avenue.
March 19, 1887
Central State University founded.
Jan. 24, 1888
Dayton’s new library opens centered in Cooper Park, where the Dayton Metro Library main branch is now.
Aug. 22, 1898
The first issue of the Dayton Daily News is published by Publisher James M. Cox.
March 1900
Attorney Carl Baumann drives the first car in Dayton, down Main Street.
July 21, 1901
Dayton’s Union Station is dedicated and opened.
1905
James M. Cox buys the Springfield Press-Republic and changes the name to the Springfield Daily News.
Feb. 9, 1906
Paul Laurence Dunbar dies of tuberculosis at age 33.
May 22, 1906
The Wright brothers receive a patent for the airplane.
1908
James M. Cox is elected to congress.
1908
Oakwood is incorporated as a city.
1909
Edward Deeds and Charles F. Kettering form Delco to manufacture auto parts. Delco becomes a major division of General Motors.
June 17, 1909
The beginning of two days of parades for the Wright brothers, one of the biggest celebrations in the city’s history, on their return from performances overseas.
Jan. 5, 1910
Memorial Hall is dedicated.
1910
Mike-Sell’s Potato Chip Company is founded.
1910
New Dayton Daily News building is erected at Fourth and Ludlow streets
March 19, 1912
New Rike’s department store opens at Second and Main streets.
May 30, 1912
Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid fever at 45.
1913
James M. Cox elected governor of Ohio.
March 21, 1913
Great Dayton Flood begins. The flooding event would last for several days.
May 15, 1914
Village of Englewood is incorporated.
Aug. 17, 1915
Charles Kettering issued patent for electric ignition device for automobiles.
1915
James M. Cox loses re-election bid for governor.
1915
The Miami Conservancy District is created to build dams to prevent another great flood.
1919
James M. Cox is re-elected governor, becoming the state’s first three-term governor.
April 28, 1919
Leslie Irvin makes the first jump with a backpack parachute at McCook Field, and shortly after, Irvin invents the first practical parachute.
July 6, 1920
At the Democratic National Convention, James M. Cox is nominated for president, with young Franklin Roosevelt as his running mate.
Oct. 3, 1920
The Dayton Triangles host the Columbus Panhandles in the first game of what would become the NFL.
Nov. 1, 1920
James M. Cox loses election to fellow Ohioan (and fellow newspaper publisher) Warren G. Harding.
May 7, 1922
John H. Patterson, founder of NCR, dies.
Nov. 11, 1925
Comedian, actor and entertainer Jonathan Winters is born in Dayton.
1927
Josephine and Hermene Schwarz form a dance school that becomes the Dayton Ballet.
Feb. 21, 1927
Erma Bombeck is born in Dayton. She would go on to become one of the top humorists ever.
1928
James M. Cox buys the Springfield Sun newspaper.
April 3, 1928
The Dayton Masonic Temple is dedicated.
July 31, 1929
Start of a two-day dedication of the Dayton airport.
Jan. 7, 1930
The Dayton Art Institute is dedicated.
Aug. 19, 1933
First Soap Box Derby held in Dayton.
Sept. 22, 1933
John Dillinger is arrested in Dayton after being captured in a boarding house on West First Street.
1934
James M. Cox enters broadcasting, establishing Dayton radio station WHIO.
1940
Construction begins on the Deeds Carillon bell tower.
Aug. 3, 1940
Actor Martin Sheen born in Dayton, named Ramon Estevez at birth.
1942
Dayton factories stop making cash registers, refrigerators and car parts and shift production to aircraft, bullets and bombs in response to the United States entering WWII.
Sept. 13, 1944
Shirley Temple appears at Rike’s in Dayton to promote war bonds.
Jan. 13, 1948
Wright and Patterson fields consolidated as Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Jan. 30, 1948
Orville Wright dies at Miami Valley Hospital at age 76.
Jan. 26, 1949
The first Dayton television station, WHIO, goes on the air.
March 13, 1953
Esther Price opens a candy shop on Wayne Avenue.
June 4, 1953
Kettering grocer Victor “Vic” Cassano, Sr. and his mother-in-law Caroline “Mom” Dinisi opened what became Cassano’s Pizza King.
June 24, 1955
The city of Kettering is incorporated.
1957
James M. Cox dies at age 87. His son James M. Cox Jr., succeeds him as head of the family business.
Jan. 12, 1958
The Dayton Daily News resumes publication after a 58-day strike by the mailers’ union.
Nov. 25, 1958
Charles F. Kettering dies.
July 21, 1959
Arthur J. Frei and Raymond C. Davis of Dayton receive a patent for the ice cube tray.
1961
Don L. Crawford becomes the first Black person elected to the Dayton City Commission.
March 24, 1962
University of Dayton Flyers win the NIT championship
1963
Dayton inventor Ermal Fraze patents the first pop-top soda can.
July 28, 1963
Black demonstrators stage a sit-in at Rike’s department store to protest its hiring practices.
1964
Wright State University opens its first building.
Nov. 13, 1964
The Rolling Stones play at Hara Arena in one of their first U.S. concerts.
May 12, 1965
City of Moraine is incorporated.
Aug. 19, 1965
After investing his life savings, Marion Glass opened a pizza restaurant at 460 Patterson Road in Dayton Ohio called Marion’s Piazza.
Sept. 1, 1966
Shops are damaged and 130 people arrested in a race riot on West Fifth Street. The uprising is sparked by the shooting of a Black man.
Sept. 9, 1966
Lyndon B. Johnson visits Dayton and gives a speech at the airport on landing.
1967
UD Flyers reach NCAA basketball finals but lose to UCLA.
Sept. 17, 1967
More racial unrest in Dayton after a police officer kills a Black resident.
Nov. 1, 1967
Phil Donahue broadcasts his first television interview in Dayton.
1968
Jeraldyne Blunden launches the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company.
Nov. 18, 1968
NCR employees strike.
1970
James H. McGee becomes Dayton’s first Black mayor.
Jan. 17, 1970
Dedication is held for UD Arena.
Feb. 13, 1971
Trotwood is incorporated as a city.
Sept. 3, 1971
Richard Nixon flies to Dayton to dedicate the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
1972
Sinclair Community College opens.
Jan. 13, 1973
Opening of the Dayton Convention and Exhibition center.
1973
The Dayton-born R&B group The Ohio Players hits No. 1 on the music charts.
1974
NCR breaks ground on its new headquarters near Old River Park. The old factories on Brown Street begin to fall.
April 3, 1974
The Xenia tornado becomes one of the most destructive in Ohio history, with 36 deaths.
Oct. 27, 1974
James M. Cox Jr. dies.
1974
Dayton civil rights leader W.S. McIntosh is shot to death in a confrontation with robbers at a downtown store.
Sept. 23, 1975
Dayton businessman Lester C. Emoff is abducted.
1976
Daytonian Edwin C. Moses wins gold at the Summer Olympics in Montreal.
Oct. 1976
Courthouse Plaza opens.
Oct. 26, 1976
Elvis Presley performs at UD Arena for the last time.
May 28, 1977
164 people die in the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire near Cincinnati. About a third of those who died were from the Miami Valley.
1977
The Mead Tower on Courthouse Square opens.
Jan. 26, 1978
The worst day of the Blizzard of 1978 drops more than a foot of snow on the Dayton area.
Nov. 1978
Tony Hall is elected to Congress.
Jan. 1979
General Motors announces that the Fridgidaire plant will close.
Nov. 1979
The NCR Auditorium falls to the wrecking ball.
Jan. 11, 1980
Beavercreek is incorporated as a city.
Oct. 2, 1980
Jimmy Carter visits Dayton.
Jan. 23, 1981
Huber Heights is incorporated as a city.
1981
Kim Seelbrede of Germantown is crowned Miss USA.
April 1981
DDN cartoonist Mike Peters wins the Pulitzer Prize.
1982
Springfield Daily News and Springfield Sun combine and name is changed to Springfield News-Sun.
Oct. 12, 1984
Ronald Reagan visits Dayton.
1986
Thousands of Miami Valley residents are evacuated from their homes because of a chemical fire sparked in a freight train derailment in Miamisburg.
Sept. 15, 1986
The Dayton Daily News and Journal Herald are merged.
Dec. 10, 1986
DDN sports editor Si Burick dies at 77 after holding that post for nearly 58 years
1986
Major-league baseball players Mike Schmidt and Roger Clemens, both from Dayton, win the National League and American League MVP awards.
Dec. 31, 1987
The Journal Herald banner appears on the paper for the last time.
Sept. 26, 1988
The Dayton Daily News becomes a morning-only newspaper.
Jan. 1990
Dayton’s Victoria Theatre reopens after an extensive renovation.
March 21, 1991
Dayton police officer Steve Whalen is killed.
Dec. 24, 1992
Marvallous Matthew Keene and accomplices commit the first of six murders in a 60-hour rampage in Dayton known as the Christmas killings.
April 11, 1993
Inmates take over the prison at Lucasville.
April 14, 1998
Dayton Daily News reporter Russell Carollo and Cox Newspapers Washington reporter Jeff Nesmith win the Pulitzer Prize.
March 1, 2003
The Schuster Center opens.
July 3, 2003
Inventing Flight opens as a celebration of 100 years since the Wright brothers took the first powered airplane flight .
Nov. 1995
Dayton peace talks over Bosnia are held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Sept. 14, 2008
The remnants of Hurricane Ike blow through the area, causing power outages across the region, some of which lasted for more than a week.
June 14, 2010
The giant, 62-foot King of Kings statue at Solid Rock Church in Interstate 75 burns down after being hit by lightning.
May 27, 2019
A pack of 16 tornadoes causes damage and injuries in Dayton, Beavercreek, Trotwood and Harrison Twp. on Memorial Day, one of the worst days of tornado destruction in Dayton history.
Aug. 4, 2019
Nine people are killed and dozens more are injured in a mass shooting incident in the Oregon District in downtown Dayton.
Aug. 6, 2021
Vital downtown development is in full swing with the reopening of the historic Dayton Arcade.
