|[L2 201]1686 The virgin tract of land that will one day be the site of the Empire State Building is granted to "Francisco Bastian, a Negro" by the City of New York.
|1716 The family of Bastian sells the land to Garrit Oncklebagg, a silversmith.
|[L2 202]1776 September 15 The Continental Army, under the command of General George Washington, is attacked by British forces landing on the Island of Manhattan. In their retreat they flee across the swampy territory.
|1784 John Jacob Astor lands in America and begins his career as a fur trader. He begins plowing most of his profits into New York city real estate.
|[L2 203]1799 The City of New York sells 20 acres of still-virgin land to a farmer, John Thompson, for $2,400.
|1825 Thompson sells the farm to Thomas and Margaret Lawrance, who in turn sell it to Charles Lawton for $10,000.
|[L2 204]1827 William Backhouse Astor, son of John Jacob Astor, purchases the land from Lawton for $20,500.
|1849 Slum riots in Greenwich Village; Astor family begins to move north.
|[L2 205][I 010]1853 Elisha Otis demonstrates the first practical elevator safe enough for passengers.
|1856 Two sons of William B Astor choose the Thompson farm as the site for their adjoining mansions.
|[I 011]1857 Elevators are first used in an office building.
|1859 Both Astor mansions completed.
|[L2 207]1885 Steel is first used in architecture.
|[M 003]1893 William Waldorf Astor, son of John Jacob Astor III, razes his inherited mansion and erects the Waldorf Hotel on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.
|[L2 208]1897 Mrs William Backhouse Astor, aunt of John Jacob Astor III, allows her mansion at 34th and Fifth Avenue to be razed and the Astoria Hotel is erected on the site. The new complex is known as the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
|[L2 209]1913 Woolworth Tower, 792 feet, is completed.
|[L2 210]1915 Equitable Building, 120 Broadway, is completed.
|1916 Strict New York City zoning laws now require [G 13 / setbacks], so that tall buildings grow narrower as they rise - thus creating the `wedding cake profile' architecture.
|1924 Otis Elevator Company develops an automatic elevator system called `Signal Control.'
|[L2 211] Richmond H Shreve and William F Lamb form an architectural firm, Shreve and Lamb.
|1928 The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is sold to Bethlehem Engineering Corporation for around $20 million.
|1929 Arthur Loomis Harmon joins Shreve and Lamb as a partner; firm name changes to Shreve, Lamb & Harmon.
|[L2 212] John Jacob Raskob forms a company named Empire State, Inc to finance and build the Empire State Building.
|[L2 301] Shreve, Lamb and Harmon is commissioned by John Jacob Raskob to design the Empire State Building. The assignment falls to William F Lamb.
|[L2 213]1929 August Four-time former New York governor, Alfred E Smith, president of Empire State, Inc, publicly announces plans to build the world's tallest building on the site of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
|[L2 214]1929 October 1 Razing of Waldorf-Astoria begins.
|[L2 215]1929 October 24 Wall Street Crash ("Black Thursday").
|1929 December Metropolitan Life Insurance Company provides a loan of $27,500,000 to keep the Empire State Building project afloat.
|[L2 216] Construction of the Chrysler Building gets underway.
|1930 Other major engineering feats contemporary with the Empire State Building include: railways in Persia and in Turkey-Siberia; dams in India and Oregon; highways in Central and South America; world's then-largest arch bridge across Sydney Harbor, Australia; longest tunnel in the Orient (seventh-largest in the world) opens in Japan.
|[L2 302]1930 January 22 Construction on the Empire State Building begins.
|[L2 303]1930 March 6 Steel work preparation begins.
|1930 March 17 First steel [G 12 / piers] are sunk.
|1930 April 7 First steel [G 03 / column] is set.
|[L2 901]1930 September 17 Al Smith lays the cornerstone, while high in the sky steelworkers perched on a girder over the 85th floor raise the American flag at 1,048 feet.
|[I 017]1930 Early October Arches of the 86th floor are completed.
|[L2 306]1930 November 13 Masonry is completed.
|1931 William Lamb and his firm win the American Institute of Architects' gold medal for drafting plans of the world's tallest building.
|[L2 902]1931 March Final scaffolding is removed from the rounded tower; interior work on the lobby and on the utilities serving the office floors continues.
|[L2 217][P 011]1931 May 1 Empire State Building is officially dedicated.
|[L2 219]1931 September 15 A privately-owned [G 06 / dirigible] moors atop the Empire State Building for three minutes.
|1931 Late September Another Navy blimp attempts to dock at the Empire State Building; the last aircraft to do so.
|[L2 220]1931 December 22 NBC presents its first experimental transmission from its TV station atop the Empire State Building.
|[L2 218][V 007]1932 May 2 Empire State Building and its observatories open to the public, who take in the view from a building a quarter of a mile up in the sky.
|1932 November First light atop the Empire State Building is a searchlight beacon, visible for 50 miles around, signalling that Franklin D Roosevelt had been elected president.
|[L2 221]1932 December The first suicide of a visitor jumping from the observation deck.
|[L2 222][I 004]1933 Movie King Kong features scenes of the giant ape climbing the Empire State Building.
|[L2 223]1941 The building still not having achieved even 50 percent occupancy, Alfred E Smith goes to Washington to seek Roosevelt's help to secure the rental of the 60th-floor suites by the Department of Commerce.
|1941 July 1 NBC operates first commercial TV station on Channel 1. (It became Channel 4 in 1946.)
|1944 Alfred E Smith dies.
|[L2 224]1945 July 28 Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor on the north side of the Empire State Building.
|1945 September Elevator operators go on strike; 2,000 New York City skyscrapers virtually shut down.
|[L2 221][I 012]1947 After 16 suicides since the building's opening, guard rails are installed around the observation decks.
|[I 009]1950 Air conditioning is first installed in Empire State Building.
John Jacob Raskob dies.
|1950 July 27 New York Mayor O'Dwyer, RCA Chairman David Sarnoff and others drive the first rivets into the base of the new TV tower.
|[V 008]1950 December 1 TV tower completed.
|[L2 225]1951 Building bought for $34 million by a group headed by Roger L Stevens.
|1954 Building bought for $51.5 million by a syndicate led by Col Henry Crown.
|[L2 226][P 016]1956 Revolving beacons, the `Freedom Lights', are installed.
Engineers from the Minneapolis - Honeywell company install [L2 227]an ultra-precise gyroscope on the 85th floor to measure the sway of the building.
|1961 December 27 Prudential, together with a syndicate headed by Lawrence Wien, a lawyer, and Harry Helmsley, a realtor, buy the building for $65 million, the highest price paid to that date for a New York city property.
|[L2 228]1962 Building washed for the first time.
|[P 003][V 004]1963 June Installation in the lobby of eight illuminated panels depicting the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the Eighth Wonder from the Modern World - the Empire State Building.
|[P 007]1964 April Timed to the opening of the New York World's Fair, floodlights are installed in the Empire State Building to illuminate the top 30 floors.
|[L2 220]1965 FM radio antennas are installed just below the television facility.
|1968 Two sub-ground level floors, unoccupied since construction, are opened up, adding 75,000 square feet of space.
|[L2 229][P 020]1970 The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, under construction, surpass the Empire State Building in height.
|1976 The 50-millionth visitor to the building, Helga Eilers of Germany, receives the key to New York, a lifetime pass to the observatory, gifts and a week's stay at the St Moritz hotel.
|1976 July Colored lighting - red, white and blue - first used in celebration of the American Bicentennial.
|[P 007]1977 October 12 A new lighting system permitting a wider range of colors was inaugurated and flashed blue and white lights, announcing that the Yankees had won the World Series.
|[L2 230]1978 First Annual Empire State Building Run-Up 1,575 steps from the lobby to the 86th floor.
|1981 May 50th anniversary addition to the cornerstone laid.
|1981 May 18 Building exterior and interior declared a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
|1982 December 20 Empire State Building listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.
|[L2 222]1983 April 7 An 84-foot, 3,000-pound inflatable King Kong, designed by Robert Vicino, is attached to the tower to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the movie.
|1984 Air conditioning system is upgraded.
|[L2 226] Lighting system in the mooring mast is automated.
|1985 May FM antenna system is rebuilt to increase power by nearly 50 percent for eight of the 12 stations broadcasting from the tower.
|1985 November 24 The 52-foot NBC antenna is replaced with a 34-foot bright orange antenna owned by WWHT, a pay-television service.
|1986 October 23 The building is recognized as a National Historic Landmark by the National Parks Service, US Department of the Interior.
|1992 Replacement of all 6,500 windows begins.
|[L2 231]2085 Master Lease on the Empire State Building expires and control of the property passes to the Prudential Insurance Company of America.
