A Peek at the Past
From Fayetteville's founding to its present...
1755: John Newberry builds a gristmill, and the Cross Creek settlement, which will eventually become Fayetteville, is under way.
1762: Campbellton is established on the Cape Fear River near the mouth of Cross Creek.
1783: Cross Creek is renamed Fayetteville, and streets are laid out in a grid pattern.
1789: The Constitutional convention meets in Fayetteville, and the University of North Carolina is chartered.
1832: The Market House, Fayetteville's signature building, is built.
1865: Sherman's army marches in and destroys the arsenal.
1861: The Federal arsenal, built in 1850, is seized for the Confederacy and becomes a gun factory.
1865: Sherman's army marches in and destroys the arsenal. Freedman School, which will later be renamed Howard School, Normal School and ultimately Fayetteville State University, is established for children of freed slaves.
1902: The first automobile is seen on Fayetteville streets.
1904: Fayetteville's first mail carriers for free delivery make their appointed rounds, and it costs 2 cents to mail a letter.
1907: The Cape Fear River floods up to the Market House.
1912: The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad station opens on Hay Street.
1914: George Herman "Babe" Ruth hits his first professional home run at the Cumberland County Fairgrounds on Gillespie Street.
1918: Camp Bragg, which later becomes Fort Bragg, is established.
1925: The Prince Charles Hotel opens on Hay Street.
1931: Aviator Amelia Earhart visits Fayetteville.
1935: Fayetteville aldermen repeal anti-dance laws.
1937: State Normal School, now Fayetteville State University, becomes a four-year instititution.
1941: The first United Service Club (USO) in the United States opens in Fayetteville.
1942: Pin-up Betty Grable entertains the troops at Fort Bragg.
1947: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, chief of staff of the Army, rides through downtown Fayetteville during his first visit to Fort Bragg.
1949: The Fayetteville municipal Airport opens.
1949: The first two black Fayetteville policemen are hired.
1951: Three women are on regular police duty for the first time. They direct traffic in school-crossing areas. 1955: Eutaw Village Shopping Center on Bragg Boulevard opens.
1955: The cornerstone is laid for a new $3.5 million Cape Fear Valley Hospital.
1957: The Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra is formed.
1960: Black college students hold sit-ins at segregated lunch counters.
1961: President Kennedy visits Fort Bragg
1961: President Kennedy visits Fort Bragg.
1962: School desegregation begins.
1962: Hardee's and McDonald's open on Bragg Boulevard.
1965: 1,700 Fort Bragg soldiers receive orders for duty in Vietnam.
1969: The first tire rolls off the line at the Kelly-Springfield plant, now Goodyear Tire & Rubber.
1970: Fayetteville's Raymond Floyd is named golfer of the year by the Carolinas Golf Writers.
1974: A federal grand jury convenes in Raleigh to consider murder charges against Jeffrey MacDonald, whose pregnant wife and two daughters were killed in their home on Fort Bragg.
1975: Cross Creek Mall opens.
1976: Elvis Presley sells out the Cumberland County Arena.
1977: The All American Freeway opens.
1979: Cumberland County voters approve mixed-drink sales.
1980: The new 17-mile Fayetteville bypass section of Interstate 95 opens.
1983: The first Dogwood Festival is held.
1986: The downtown library opens on Maiden Lane.
1987: President Reagan visits Pope Air Force Base to wish Bob Hope, who is taping a TV show, a happy birthday.
1988: A rap concert featuring Salt-N-Pepa draws more than 10,000 people to the first concert at the new Charlie Rose Agri- Expo Center. Nearly 3,000 are turned away.
1990: Thousands of Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base troops deploy to the Persian Gulf.
1991: Troops are welcomed home.
1992: Brad Edwards, an alumnus of Douglas Byrd High School, becomes the first football player from the Fayetteville area to start in a Super Bowl game. He starts at free safety for the Washington Redskins.
1994: Actress and comedian Martha Raye, an honorary Green Beret, is buried in Fort Bragg Cemetery.
1997: The Crown Coliseum opens.
1999: The U.S. Open is held in Pinehurst.
2000: The Airborne & Special Operations Museum opens downtown.
2001: Bragg's forces are thrust on the front lines of the global war on terror.
2003: Record rainfall causes a dam break that empties Hope Mills Lake.
2004: Cumberland County celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding in 1754, when 2,400 square miles were carved from the Bladen backcountry.
2004: The 4.2-mile Cape Fear River Trail opens.
2005: Under BRAC, Pope Air Force Base will cease to exist as a separate installation.
2005: Under the Base Closure and Realignment process -- known as "BRAC" -- Army officials announce Fort Bragg will gain thousands of troops and two major Army commands over the next six years. But Pope Air Force Base will cease to exist as a separate installation.
2007: Festival Park debuts as a downtown venue, and the 25th Dogwood Festival is held with teen sensation JoJo performing.
2008: Fayetteville State University unveils a new U.S. Postal Service stamp honoring Charles W. Chesnutt, recognized as the first major black novelist in America. Born in Cleveland in 1858, Chesnutt was the son of two freed slaves and was assistant principal at what's now FSU.
2008: Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaign through the region, both making stops in Fayetteville.