Timeline of Nantucket

The following is a timeline of the history of Nantucket, Massachusetts, USA.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

17th century

• 1621 – Island granted to Plymouth Company of London.^[1]
• 1641 – Island bought by Thomas Mayhew.^[2]
• 1659
  • Island sold to Thomas Barnard, Peter Coffin, Tristram Coffin, Christopher Hussey, Thomas Macy, William Pike, John Swayne, and Richard Swayne.^[3]
  • Proprietors of the Common and Undivided Land established.^[4]
• 1660 – Island becomes part of the Province of New York.^[2]
• 1661 – Settlers arrive from Amesbury and Salisbury, Massachusetts.^[2]
• 1665 – Maddequet Ditch (canal) dug.
• 1671 – Town incorporated.^[5]
• 1672 – Town relocated to Wescoe from Madaket.^[6]
• 1673 – Town named "Sherburne."^[5]
• 1683 – Island becomes part of Dukes County, Province of New York.^[6]
• 1686 – Jethro Coffin house built.^[6]
• 1692 – Island becomes part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.^[2]
• 1695 – Nantucket County established.^[6]

18th century

Map of the Island of Nantucket, 1782, by Crèvecœur

• 1712 – Sperm whaling begins.^[6]
• 1713 – Tuckernuck Island becomes part of Nantucket County.^[6]
• 1732 – Quaker meeting house built.^[7]
• 1746
  • Lighthouse and East Mill constructed.^[8]
  • The Old Mill an historic windmill.^[6]
• 1774 – Population: 4,545.^[5]
• 1775 – Nantucket tentatively states their neutrality during the American Revolutionary War.^[9][10]
• 1779 – April: British loyalists raid island.^[9]
• 1784 - Great Point Light established.^[6]
• 1795 – Town of Sherburne renamed "Nantucket."^[5]

19th century

• 1810
  • Second Congregational Meeting House incorporated.^[11]
  • Population: 6,807.^[12]
• 1814 – Nantucket declares neutrality in the US-British War of 1812.^[13]
• 1816 – May: Nantucket Gazette newspaper begins publication.^[14]
• 1817 – Fragment Society formed.^[15]
• 1820
  • Nantucket Mechanics' Social Library Society founded.^[16]
  • Population: 7,266.^[17]
• 1821 – The Inquirer newspaper begins publication.^[14]
• 1823
  • Columbian Library Society founded.^[16]
  • United Methodist Church built.^[18]

• 

  1853 drawing of a Nantucket shark, by Jacques Burkhardt

  1827 – United Library Association^[16] and Lancasterian school^[6] founded.
• 1834 – Nantucket Athenaeum incorporated.^[18]
• 1835
  • African Methodist Episcopal Church incorporated.^[19]
  • Silk Factory in business.^[20]
• 1836 – Ladies' Howard Society formed.^[21]
• 1838 - Nantucket High School established.
• 1839 – Trinity Church built.^[18]
• 1840 – First Baptist Church built.^[18]
• 1846 – Fire.^[3]
• 1848 – Atlantic House hotel in business in Siasconset.^[22]
• 1850 - Sankaty Head Light built.
• 1854 – Lightship Nantucket and Town Library^[16] established.
• 1855 - Death of Dorcas Honorable, Nantucket's last Native American Wampanoag Indian.
• 1856
  • Nantucket Agricultural Society founded.^[23]
  • Lighthouse rebuilt.^[5]
• 1864 – Josiah Freeman photography studio in business.^[24]
• 1866 – Union Benevolent Society founded.^[15]
• 1869 - Nantucket's last whaler sailed.^[6]
• 1873 – Nantucket Relief Association founded.^[15]
• 1875 – Civil War monument erected.^[5]
• 1877 – Sherburne Lyceum organized.^[5]
• 1881 – Nantucket Railroad built.
• 1883 – Siasconset Union Chapel,^[18] Nantucket Hotel, Surf-Side Hotel and Springfield Hotel built.^[5]
• 1886
  • Electric telegraph installed.^[5]
  • New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Company formed.^[25]
  • Wyer's Art Store in business (approximate date).^[24]
• 1892 – Point Breeze Hotel in business.^[5]
• 1894 – Nantucket Historical Association founded.^[18]
• 1895 – Goldenrod Literary and Debating Society founded.^[26]

Original Nantucket Railroad reaches bankruptcy, Nantucket Central Railroad Company established

• 1897 – Church of St. Mary-Our Lady of the Isle built.^[18]

20th century

Nantucket, 1937

• 1901 – Brant Point Light rebuilt.
• 1902 – Maria Mitchell Association founded.
• 1908 – Maria Mitchell Observatory built.^[27]
• 1910 – Population: 2,962 (county).^[6]
• 1917 - Nantucket Central Railroad Company closes after all available trains were commandeered by the United States Army to serve in the Western Front of World War One
• 1923 – Sankaty Head Golf Club opens.
• 1925 – Nobska (steamship) begins operating in region.
• 1930 – Whaling Museum opens.^[28]
• 1940 – Straight Wharf Theatre established.^[15]
• 1945 – Murray's Toggery Shop in business.^[29]
• 1956 – July 25: SS Andrea Doria wrecked offshore.
• 1966 – Nantucket Historic District established.
• 1970 – Population: 3,774.
• 1972 – Hy-Line ferry begins operating.
• 1974 – Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge established (approximate date).^[30]
• 1975 – Nantucket National Wildlife Refuge established.
• 1976 – December 15: MV Argo Merchant wrecked offshore.
• 1990 – Population: 6,012.
• 1995 – Nantucket Regional Transit Authority begins operating.
• 1997 – Bill Delahunt becomes U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 10th congressional district.
• 1999
  • October 31: EgyptAir Flight 990 crashes south of island, 217 dead.
  • African Meeting House restored.^[18]

21st century

• 2001 – Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound organized.
• 2010
  • Cape Wind (wind farm) development approved.^[31]
  • Population: 10,172.
• 2011 – William R. Keating becomes U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 10th congressional district.

See also

• History of Nantucket
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Nantucket County, Massachusetts