Long Island History
2009
- "Brangelina"
sightings on North Shore, as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are living on Long
Island while Jolie films CIA espionage thriller "Salt"
- IMAC (Inter-Media Art
Center) in Huntington closes
2008
- Frank Mundus, legendary shark
hunter and famed Montauk fisherman, dies of a heart attack at age 82
- Long Island gas prices hit historic
highs
- "Montauk Monster",
unidentified creature which allegedly washed ashore dead on a beach in Montauk,
creates buzz
2007
- American Home Mortgage files for
bankruptcy
- Long Island twins, Jim and Bill Germanakos, win big on "The Biggest Loser"
- Miss New York Pageant held in Huntington at the Dix Hills Center for the
Performing Arts
2006
- First annual Long Island Comedy Festival
- Guitar legend Leslie West is inducted into
Long Island Music Hall of Fame
2005
- Children's Museum of the East End (CMEE) opens in Bridgehampton
- Sayville resident, Tom Westman, is $1 million winner on "Survivor" reality TV
show
- Southampton College closes, and moves its undergraduate programs to Long
Island University's C.W. Post campus in Old Brookville
2004
- First annual Long Island 2-Day Breast Cancer Walk (LI2DAY) was held
- Long Island MacArthur Airport unveils $55
million expansion, funded by Southwest Airlines
2003
- Long Island grinds to a halt during the Northeast Blackout of 2003
2002
- Cradle of Aviation Museum
opens
- LIRR introduces new M-7 electric train cars
- Sarah Hughes of Great Neck captures the gold medal for ladies figure skating
at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah
- Tiger Woods wins U.S. Open at "Bethpage Black" (the Black Course at
Bethpage State Park)
- Wölffer Estate Vineyard releases
Long Island's first $100 bottle of wine
2001
- "9-11" - Never Forget
- "Lizzie" Grubman backs her SUV into a crowd outside a nightclub in the
Hamptons, injuring 16 people, after being asked by security guards to remove her
Mercedes from a fire lane
- Long Island's first Krispy Kreme doughnut shop opens in East Meadow
- The Long Island Lizards, Long Island's own Major League Lacrosse (MLL) team,
was formed
2000
- American Airpower Museum at
Republic Airport opens
- Atlantis Marine World opens in
Riverhead
- Long Island Ducks played their opening baseball game in
Central Islip
1999
- Blue Point Brewing Company (Long Island's first microbrewery) established in
Patchogue
- LIRR bar car service ends
- 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
- Tornado strikes Lake Ronkonkoma and Selden
1997
- Long Island's first dinosaur fossil discovered by Glenn Magee of Roanoke Landing
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
- Fires raged through the Pine Barrens for 13 days, charring more than 6,800
acres of forest
- First annual July 4th Fireworks Celebration held at Jones
Beach
- Roosevelt Raceway Flea Market closes
- The last military airplane built on Long Island, an E-2C Hawkeye advance
warning and control plane, flies out of Northrop Grumman's Calverton facility
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
- Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger Wedding in East Hampton
- Colin Ferguson kills 6 and injures 19 during the "Long Island Railroad
Massacre"
- First Annual Long Island Fall Festival held in Huntington
- Long Island Children's Museum
opens
- The Hain Celestial Group, a natural, specialty and snack food company, is
founded in Melville
1992
- 1st Annual East Hampton SandCastle Contest is held
- East Meadow mom Joy Mangano markets her "Miracle Mop" on QVC
- 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
- 106th Rescue Wing of the Air National Guard performs rescue during the
"Perfect Storm"
- Bay Street Theatre founded on Long Wharf in Sag Harbor
- First Long Island Pride Parade held in Huntington
- 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
- Debbie Gibson lands record deal with Atlantic Records
- John McEnroe weds Tatum O'Neil in Oyster Bay
- Long Island's first bison ranch (Tuccio's North Quarter Farm) established in
Riverhead
- Long Island's first skydiving dropzone (Skydive
Long Island) opens in East Moriches
- 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
1984
- Long Island Flag Football League (LIFFL) is created by George Higgins
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
- New York Islanders win their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup after sweeping the
Edmonton Oilers four games
1982
- Seacrest Diner Horror as 80 people inside are robbed and terrorized by 5
gun-wielding thugs
- New York Islanders win their third and third straight Stanley Cup after
dominating the Vancouver Canucks
1981
- New York Islanders win their second Stanley Cup with a
victory over the Minnesota North Stars
1980
- Friends of the Arts (FOTA) held the first annual Beethoven Festival at the
Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay
- New York Islanders win their first Stanley Cup by beating
the Philadelphia Flyers
- Zahn's Airport closes
1979
- East Side Comedy Club opens in Huntington
- Harry Chapin helps found
the Long Island Philharmonic
- Long Island's largest vineyard (Pindar Vineyards)
founded
- Malibu Nightclub opens in Lido Beach
1978
- Calverton National Cemetery, the nation's largest
national cemetery, established on Long Island
- Long Island Convention & Visitors Bureau and Sports
Commission (LICVB&SC) is founded
- The Barefoot Contessa opens in Westhampton Beach
- Tollbooths close on the
Southern State Parkway
1977
- Book Revue opens in Huntington Village
- First "Around Long Island Regatta" Sailboat Race held
- First "Great Cow Harbor 10K Run"
- Long Island Pine Barrens
Society (LIPBS) founded
- Right turns on red lights
legalized for Nassau and Suffolk County drivers
- Roosevelt Raceway Flea
Market opens in Westbury
- "The Amityville Horror - A True Story", best-selling book written by Jay
Anson, was published
1976
- George Foreman and Joe Frazier fight at Nassau Coliseum
1975
- Lollipop Farm closes
1974
- 55 MPH speed limit set on Long Island highways
- Long Island faces severe
gas shortage
- Long Island High School for the Arts (formerly the Cultural Arts Center) opens
- Woodbury Common opens
1973
- First "Long Island Marathon" held on Long Island
- Long Island's first commercial vineyard (Hargrave
Vineyard) founded in Cutchogue
- New Community Cinema (renamed
Cinema Arts Centre in 2000) established in Huntington
by film buffs Vic Skolnick and Charlotte Sky
- Secretariat wins Triple Crown at Belmont Park in Elmont
- Sunrise Mall opens in Massapequa
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
1971
- Adelphi University and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) launch nation's first
commuter classroom program, called "Adelphi-on-Wheels"
1970
- African American Museum of Nassau County (AAM) opens in Hempstead
- Long Island celebrates the first "Earth Day", a
celebration of the environmental preservation movement
- Old Bethpage Village Restoration opens
1969
- Long Island's first pet hotel, the Willow Pet Hotel, opens in Deer Park
- "Love Story" filmed at Old Westbury
Gardens
- Smith Haven Mall opens in Lake Grove
1968
- Bill Hoest creates "The
Lockhorns" cartoon (originally entitled "The Lockhorns of Levittown")
- Dowling College established
- New York Jets Training Camp moves to Hofstra University in Hempstead
- Rock group Iron Butterfly records "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" at
UltraSonic Studios in Hempstead
- Ronzoni Spaghetti Sauce Factory opens in Hicksville
- Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts opens in Wheatley Heights
1967
- DDT was legally banned in Suffolk County
- Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) founded on Long Island,
with naturalist Dennis Puleston serving as the founding chair
1966
- Suffolk County bans pesticide DDT voluntarily
1965
- New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) opens Old
Westbury Campus
- SUNY College at Old Westbury
founded
1964
- Madeline Kahn graduates from Hofstra University
- Robert Moses Causeway opens
1963
- Ellio's Frozen Pizza founded in Great Neck
- 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
- LIRR launches bar car service
- Long Island Lutheran Junior/Senior High School (LuHi) opens in Brookville
- 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
- Manhasset Shopping Center (now Americana Manhasset) opens
- Mid-Island Shopping Plaza
(now Broadway Mall) first opens in Hicksville
- Westbury Music Fair opens
1955
- Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) holds "End of Steam" ceremony in Hicksville,
retiring it's last steam locomotives
- Molloy College opens in Rockville Centre
1954
- Captree Bridge opens, connecting the mainland with Captree Island and
Ocean Parkway
- 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
- Frank Mundus creates "Monster
Fishing" in Montauk
- Roosevelt Airfield (nicknamed "the cradle of American
aviation") closes
1950
- Lollipop Farm opens in Syosset
1949
- Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) established to preserve his
birthplace
1948
- United Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County, Inc. (ucpn) incorporates
1947
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) founded in Upton
- Webb Institute moves to Glen Cove
1946
- Robert Moses creates Long Island State Park Police
- William Levitt builds prototype homes in Carle Place
1945
- Zahn's Airport opens
1943
- U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) opens at Kings Point
1942
- Long Island MacArthur Airport opens in
Ronkonkoma
1940
- Earthquakes shake up Long Island
- Roosevelt Raceway opens in Westbury
1939
- Pan Am begins transatlantic flights from Manhasset Bay in Port Washington
1938
- Long Island's first Drive-In Movie Theatre opens in Valley Stream
- The "Long Island Express" Category 3 Hurricane
devastates
Long Island
1936
- Long Island National Cemetery established in Farmingdale
1935
- Hofstra University founded
1934
- Meadowbrook State Parkway opens
1931
- Pilgrim State Hospital, world's largest psychiatric hospital (at the time),
opens in Brentwood
1930
- Chaminade High School is founded in Mineola
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
- Gurney's Inn opens
- Institute of Philosophy opens in Lloyd Harbor
- 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)
- Sayville Opera House closes
- Louise Eldridge is elected mayor of Saddle Rock, becoming the first female
mayor in New York State, and one of the first in the nation
1925
- Nassau Country Police Department
established
- 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
1922
- Walker Cup played for the first time in Southampton
1920
- Heckscher Museum of Art opens in
Huntington
1919
- First Nassau County Girl Scout Troop forms in Lynbrook
- Oheka Castle is built by financier and philanthropist Otto Hermann
Kahu
1917
- Boy Scouts form in Nassau County
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
1901
- Sayville Opera House opens
1900
- Long Island's first automobile race held along Merrick
Avenue by the Automobile Club of America
1896
- James Foulis wins first U.S. Open played at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club
1891
- Nation's first Golf Club opens at Shinnecock Hills
1884
- Earthquake rocks Amityville
1883
- Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery opens
- P.T. Barnum founds the
Bridgeport & Port
Jefferson Steamboat Company
1881
- The telephone comes to Long Island
1879
- Fishers Island becomes part of Suffolk County
1868
- Huntington Station LIRR Station opens
1844
- LIRR stretches to Greenport
1839
- Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Co. founded by the Jones Brothers
1838
- Poet Walt Whitman founds weekly newspaper "The Long Islander" in Huntington
1834
- Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) 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
1773
- Nation's first Paper Mill opens in Roslyn
1683
- Suffolk County formed
1672
- Original Milleridge Inn building constructed
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
