1519: Spanish explorer, Alonzo Alvarez de Piñeda, explored Gulf of Mexico, including Mobile Bay

1539 - 1541: Hernando de Soto explored Southeast; met Chief Tuskaloosa in Battle of Maubila

1559 - 1561: Don Tristán de Luna attempted to establish Spanish colony; failed

1600: Developments created by Indian tribes

1702: Le Moyne brothers established Fort Louis de la Mobile and settlement on Mobile River

1712: La Moyne brothers moved fort and settlement to present day Mobile

1717: Fort Toulouse established on Coosa River to trade with Indians

1721: Ship Africane sailed into Mobile harbor with over 100 slaves

1724: Slavery institutionalized in Mobile area by the French Code Noir Black Code:

1756 - 1763: Seven Years War French and Indian War:, won by Great Britain; France ceded territories east of Mississippi River

1780: Spanish captured Mobile during American Revolution

1798: Mississippi Territory organized from western Georgia, included Alabama

1799: U. S. took possession of Fort St. Stephens from Spanish; Andrew Ellicott surveyed boundary between U. S. and Spanish West Florida, placed stone north of Mobile to mark 31st latitude

1802: Georgia formally ceded western claims at 31st parallel

1805 - 1806: White settlements of Indian lands began

1813: U. S. captured Mobile from Spanish

1813 - 1814: Creek Indian Wars

1814: Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated Creeks; lands ceded to federal government; British failed in attack on Fort Bowyer on Mobile Point

1815: British forces captured Fort Bowyer; abandoned when heard war was over

1817: Alabama Territory created

1818: First legislature of Alabama Territory met at St. Stephens; Cahaba designated as state capital

1819: State constitution adopted; first general election held; Alabama became 22nd U. S. state

1820 - 1840: Over 150,000 slaves brought into Alabama

1826: Capital relocated to Tuscaloosa

1830 - 1835: Indian Removal Bill treaties signed; Indians ceded lands in Alabama for western lands

1820: Steamboat Harriett reached Montgomery; river trade opened between Montgomery and Mobile

1832: First railroad, Tuscumbia, opened

1833: Meteor shower caused night to be known as "the night stars fell on Alabama"

1835 - 1836: Alabama gold rush in east-central hill country

1836 - 1837: Second Creek War; Battle of Hodby's Bridge was last Indian battle in Alabama

1846: Montgomery selected as state capital

1849: Capitol in Montgomery destroyed by fire

1852: Senator William Rufus King elected u.s. vice president; died before taking office

1861: Civil War began; Alabama became fourth state to secede from Union

1861 - 1865: 194: land battles, 8: naval battles occurred within Alabama boundaries during America's Civil War

1868: Alabama readmitted to Union

1895: State flag adopted

1909: Wright brothers established flying school outside Montgomery; boll weevil entered state, destroyed cotton crops

1926: University of Alabama won Rose Bowl

1931: Conviction and death sentence by all-white jury of black youths, "Scottsboro Boys" caused international outrage

1936: Jesse Owen won Olympic gold medals in Berlin, Germany

1937: State sales tax instituted to fund education

1944: First oil well in Alabama

1948: Dixiecrat Convention met in Birmingham, elected Strom Thurmond as Presidential candidate; Henry Truman's name not on ballot

1954: State Attorney General nominee, Albert Patterson, murdered in Phenix City, "wickedest city in America"

1955: Black seamstress, Rosa Parks, arrested for refusing to give seat on bus to white passenger; Montgomery Bus Boycott began; Parks named "mother of modern day civil rights movement"

1956: Army Ballistic Missile Agency established at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville; segregated seating on Montgomery's public transportation vehicles banned by Supreme Court; Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks among first people to ride integrated bus; Montgomery Bus Boycott ended

1961: Freedom Ride, integrated bus trip from Washington, D. C.arrived at bus terminal in Montgomery, attacked by angry mob

1963: Civil Rights targets bombed in Birmingham; four children killed in bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church; first African-American students register at University of Alabama

1965: 600 demonstrators made first of three attempts to march from Selma to Montgomery protesting voting restrictions on black Americans, attacks by law enforcement officers forced them to turn back, broadcast across U.S. caused surge of support for protestors; Martin Luther King led 3,200 marchers from Selma toward Montgomery; Voting Rights Act became law, ending voting restrictions

1967: Lurleen Wallace elected first woman governor in state

1972: Gov. George Wallace shot in Maryland during presidential campaign, paralyzed from waist down

1981: Academy of Country Music selected music group, Alabama, "Vocal Group of the Year"

1993: Governor Guy Hunt, removed from office, convicted of misuse of public funds

1995: Heather Whitestone became first Miss America with a disability

1998: Dr. David Satcher of Anniston appointed U. S. Surgeon General

2001: Condoleezza Rice, Birmingham native, appointed National Security Advisor to President Bush

2002: Vonetta Flowers became first African American to win gold medal in Winter Olympics; Bobby Frank Cherry convicted of murder for his part in 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church

2004: Condoleezza Rice appointed U.S. Secretary of State by President George W. Bush

2005: Hurricane Katrina caused major damages along coastal areas