This is a brief chronology of the milestones of Washington history. Part 3 covers 1901 to 1950. Search the HistoryLink.org database for detailed essays on these events.
1901-1910
- Yacolt Burn, largest forest fire in recorded state history burns from September 11 to 13, 1902.
- Freeland, a socialist utopian community, is established on Whidbey Island, 1902.
- Weyerhaeuser establishes a sawmill in Everett in 1903.
- Washington State Legislature creates Benton County (out of Klickitat) on March 8, 1905.
- Colville National Forest is established in 1906.
- Nez Perce Chief Joseph dies and is buried at Nespelem on the Colville Indian Reservation on September 21, 1904.
- Last horse roundup near Ephrata (300 cowboys, 2,400 horses) takes place in 1906.
- Washington State Legislature creates Grant County (out of Douglas) on February 24, 1909.
- IWW Free Speech movement takes place in Spokane in 1909.
- Harbor Island, at the time the world's largest artificial island, is completed in 1909.
- Alaska-Yukon-Pacific (AYP) exposition opens for a 138 day run on June 1, 1909..
- Charles Hamilton pilots Seattle’s first airplane on March 11, 1910.
- Washington state women win vote on November 8, 1910.
- The Wellington train disaster occurs on March 1, 1910.
- Population of Washington state is 1,141,990 in 1910.
1911-1920
- Washington State Legislature creates Pend Oreille County (out of Stevens) on March 1, 1911.
- Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (“Milwaukee Road”) is completed through Washington in 1911 and shares Seattle’s Union Station with the Union Pacific and Oregon & Washington Railroads.
- Voters amend Washington State Constitution in 1912 to permit citizen initiatives and referenda.
- Seattle’s Smith Tower opens on July 4, 1914, as tallest building west of Ohio.
- Nellie Cornish founds Cornish School in 1914.
- Reah Whitehead becomes the first female Justice of the Peace in Washington in 1914.
- Boeing takes his first airplane ride on July 4, 1915.
- Prohibition of alcohol takes effect in Washington on January 1, 1916.
- Everett Massacre occurs on November 5, 1916.
- Seattle Metropolitans hockey team wins Stanley Cup on March 26, 1917.
- U. S. enters World War I on April 6, 1917.
- Lake Washington Ship Canal is completed on May 8, 1917.
- Boeing Airplane Co., formerly Pacific Aero-Products, is incorporated on May 9, 1917.
- World War I ends on November 11, 1918.
- Influenza Pandemic 1918.
- Seattle General Strike begins January 6, 1919.
- Boeing and Hubbard deliver first shipment of international airmail on March 3, 1919.
- Oak Harbor fire, July 1920.
- Washington’s first radio stations begin broadcasting in 1920.
- Population of Washington state is 1,356,621 in 1920.
1921-1930
- Great blow-down on Washington coast on January 21, 1921.
- Washington state legislators pass the Alien Land Law in 1921.
- Indian Citizenship Act makes all Native Americans U.S. citizens on June 2, 1924.
- U.S. Army flyers depart Seattle’s Sand Point airfield for first aerial circumnavigation of the globe on April 6 and return September 28, 1924.
- Seattle elects Bertha K. Landes as first woman mayor of a major American city on March 9, 1926.
- Lindbergh lands the Spirit of St. Louis in Seattle and in Spokane in September 1927.
- Boeing enters airline business by winning federal airmail contract for Chicago-San Francisco route on January 28, 1927.
- Don Ibsen, one of several inventors of waterskis, invents his version on Lake Washington in 1928.
- Boeing Field is dedicated in Seattle on July 26, 1928.
- Stock market crash, called Black Tuesday, hits on October 29, 1929.
- Elizabeth Ayer is first woman registered as an architect in Washington in 1930.
- Population of Washington state is 1,563,396 in 1930.
1931-1940
- Rock Island dam, first dam on Columbia River, is completed in 1932.
- Warren G. Magnuson wins his first election and Franklin Roosevelt and Democrats sweep to victory on November 8, 1932.
- Boeing 247 takes flight from Boeing Field, opening new vistas in commercial air travel, on February 8, 1933.
- Seattle Art Museum opens in Volunteer Park on June 23, 1933.
- Prohibition ends on December 5, 1933.
- Longshoremen and maritime workers strike West Coast and Seattle on May 9, 1934.
- Wheeler-Howard Act (Indian Reorganization Act) shifts U.S. policy toward Native American right to self-determination on June 18, 1934.
- Liberal-left Washington Commonwealth Federation is founded on June 8, 1935.
- Eddie Bauer invents the down parka in Seattle in 1936.
- University of Washington rowing crew wins the Olympic Gold Medal on August 14, 1936.
- Bonneville Dam is completed in 1938.
- Boeing Model 307 Stratoliner, world's first pressurized airliner, makes its maiden flight on December 31, 1938.
- REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.) is founded in Seattle in 1939.
- Puget Sound ferry workers strike in August 1939.
- Lake Washington Floating Bridge, first in the world, opens on July 2, 1940.
- First peacetime draft takes effect on October 16, 1940.
- Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses on November 7, 1940.
- McChord Army Air Corps (later Air Force) Base opens in Tacoma on July 3, 1940.
- Everett-born Henry “Scoop” Jackson is first elected to Congress in 1940.
- Population of Washington state is 1,736,191 in 1940.
1941-1950
- Whidbey Island Navel Air Station established in 1941.
- Grand Coulee Dam is completed in September 1941.
- Weyerhaeuser dedicates the nation's first tree farm near Montesano on June 21, 1941.
- Japan bombs Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
- United States declares war on Japan on December 8, 1941.
- FDR signs Executive Order 9066 expelling Japanese Americans from the West Coast on February 19, 1942.
- Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix is born in Seattle on November 27, 1942.
- Hanford Nuclear Plant starts being built in Richland in 1942.
- Warren G. Magnuson wins first of six terms in U.S. Senate on November 7, 1944.
- University of Washington School of Medicine (and future Health Sciences Center) opens in 1946.
- Washington State Legislature passes Un-American Activities bill on March 8, 1947.
- Pilot reports world’s first encounter with “flying saucers” while flying over the Cascades on June 24, 1947.
- First Columbia Basin irrigation water turned on at Pasco Heights on May 15, 1948.
- About 1,000 Puget Sound television owners watch Washington’s first wide-audience TV broadcast on November 25, 1948.
- Earthquake shakes Puget Sound on April 13, 1949.
- Governor Arthur Langley dedicates Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) International Airport on July 9, 1949.
- Population of Washington state is 2,378,963 in 1950.
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