Background Information
General Information
Madison History Timeline
650 – 1200
Native Americans built more than 1,000 mounds in the Madison area.
1620
Pilgrims from England landed in Massachusetts.
1832
Black Hawk War: U.S. soldiers pursued Sac, Fox and Kickapoo Indians across the isthmus
and killed a great number at the Wisconsin River.
1836
State designates isthmus site to be state capital.
1837
Eben & Rosaline Peck and their son Victor become the first white family to live in
Madison. Their daughter, Wisconsiana Victoria, is born Sept. 14.
1837
Daguerre discovers how to fix photographic images.
1838
Morse perfects the telegraph.
1846
Madison becomes a village with a population of 626 people.
1846
First use of anesthesia in hospitals.
1848
Wisconsin became a state and established the University of Wisconsin.
1852
Otis invents the elevator (Madison's first elevator 1915 when the Churchill Building, 16 N.
Carroll St., is built).
Wisconsin State Journal starts publishing.
1853
Madison Institute founded - private, subscription library.
1854-1965
Madison had passenger train service.
1856
Madison becomes a city with a population of 6,864 people.
Jairus Fairchild became the city’s first mayor.
1857
Forest Hill Cemetery created
1858-1956
Madison’s City Hall was located on corner of W. Mifflin St and Wisconsin Ave.
1863
Lincoln abolishes slavery.
1866
William H. Noland, a black businessman, ran for Mayor of Madison. He received 24% of
the vote.
1867
Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone. Madison had its first telephone exchange in
1879.
1873
Construction of the first high school building.
1875
Madison Free/Public Library was started in the old City Hall. (Madison’s first library
building, located at 206 N. Carroll St., was built with Carnegie funds and opened in 1906.
It was torn down in 1965.)
1879
Wisconsin passed a compulsory school attendance law.
1878 - 1887
Frank Lloyd Wright, architect, lived in Madison.
1886
Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist, invents Coca-Cola.
1885 - 1930's La Follette family and Progressive Party politics were active in Madison.
1887 - 1905
Georgia O’Keeffe, artist, born in Sun Prairie & lived in Madison.
1890
The first hospital opens in Madison.
1892
First electric streetcars (they had been pulled by mules up to this time) lasted until 1935.
1895
Lumiere brothers invent motion pictures. (The first real movie theater in Madison, The
Grand at 202 State St, opened in 1909.)
1897 - 1906
Thornton Wilder, author & playwright, born and raised in Madison.
1899
First city park created, Tenney Park, by the Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association.
1903
Orville Wright flies 120 feet in 12 seconds. (Madison’s first airport was Pennco Field later
called the Royal Airport located between Raywood Rd. and the Yahara River on the south
side of Lake Monona. It opened in 1930. By 1938 the airport had moved to where it is
located today.)
Madison General Hospital opens near the current site of Meriter Hospital.
1906
Ray-o-Vac was incorporated in Madison as the French Battery Co.
Madison Public Library builds Carnegie building at 206 N. Carroll St., torn down in 1965.
1909
First movie theater, The Grand at 202 State St., opened. It was previously an opera house.
1911
Henry Vilas Zoo created.
Madison Public Library set up and ran the library in the Madison (Central) High School.
1912
6th Ward/Hawthorne Branch Library opened on Williamson Street. (It moved to Atwood
Ave. in 1958 and then to East Washington Ave. in 1973.)
1913
Ford develops moving assembly line for mass production of automobiles.
(Madison saw its first automobile in 1899. By 1916 there were as many cars as horses in
Madison, about 950 of each.)
1914-1918
World War I . Nearly 3,000 Madison men, out of a population of about 30,000, marched
off to war.
The German American Bank changed its name to the American Exchange Bank.
1917
The Capital Times newspaper was started by William Evjue. (He had started his
newspaper career working for the Wisconsin State Journal which goes back to 1852.)
1919
Oscar Mayer buys out a struggling meat packing firm operated by the Farmer’s Co-op.
UW broadcasts first radio program in the nation under the 9XM (WHA) call letters.
1920
Women get to vote. (Women in Wisconsin could vote on “school matters” as early as
1885.)
First traffic control light appears on Madison city streets.
First bus line between Madison and Middleton.
1921
High yield hybrid corn is perfected. (By 1928 Dane County was producing more corn than
any other county in the state.)
Madison Area Technical College opens in its new building at 211 N. Carroll St.
One-way traffic replaces two-way traffic on the Capitol Square. (In 1975 the traffic on the
outer ring of streets is also made to go one way.)
Fuller Opera House remodeled into the Parkway Movie Theater.
1922
East High School opens in September.
Methodists build a hospital on the old St. Regina Academy site on W. Washington.
1923
City annexes the South Madison neighborhood.
Kessenich’s builds a new store at corner of Fairchild and State Streets.
1924
Lorraine Hotel opens.
Wisconsin General Hospital opens (now called University Hospital).
East Side News newspaper starts publishing from Schenk’s Corners.
Masonic Temple on Wisconsin Ave. is built.
1925
Buses begin to operate on Madison’s streets. (Madison had electric streetcars from 18921935. Mules pulled the cars from 1884 to 1892.)
Street lights were installed on Atwood Ave. and Winnebago Streets.
First commercial radio station WIBA starts broadcasting.
Madison Public Library set up and ran the libraries in the elementary schools until 1953.
US Senator Robert M. La Follette dies on June 18th.
1926
Edgewood High School opens
1927
Farnsworth develops the TV picture tube. (Madison's first TV station, WKOW-TV, starts
broadcasting in 1953)
Orpheum Theater, 222 State St., opens.
Charles Lindbergh was the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. (He lived in
Madison from 1920-22 while attending the University of Wisconsin. He visited Madison
in 1927 & again in 1928 to receive honorary degree from the UW.)
1926 - 1954
Carson Gulley, an African-American, was the head chef at the UW. (He wrote a book
called Seasoning Secrets and conducted a cooking school on radio and TV.)
1927
New Mendota School built.
Airmail comes to Madison.
1928
Capitol Theater, 211 State St., opens.
New Sherman School built, addition added in 1935.
1930
1930's
West High School opens.
UW Field House opens.
Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District created to process Madison’s sewage.
First air show. Airplanes show off at the Royal Airport where South Towne is now
The Great Depression.
1931
Two Madison banks close because of the Depression (Boyd Co. & Capital City).
WIBA radio station becomes a part of the National Broadcasting Corporation.
Madison annexes Nakoma, growing to 8.3 square miles.
1932
Forest Products Laboratory is built.
First 4-lane highway on Olin Ave.
1933
City Wards increased from 10 to 20.
1934
New bridge over Yahara River at Sherman Ave.
UW Arboretum dedicated.
1935
Last run of the Madison electric street cars - replaced by buses.
Three lane highway constructed between Madison and Middleton.
1936
City Council votes to create a municipal airport on Highway 51, Stoughton Rd.
Bank of Madison created.
Italian Workmen’s Club built on Regent St. near “Spaghetti Corners.”
1936 - 1946
John Steuart Curry, artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin.
1937
122 Union veterans from the Civil War attend the national encampment of the Grand
Army of the Republic held in Madison.
1938
Madison annexes Sunset Village.
1939
New theater wing at UW Memorial Union opens with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine in
The Taming of the Shrew.
Conklin Co. ice house on Lake Mendota torn down for city park.
1939 - 1945
World War II. 17,328 Dane County men and women served in the armed forces out of a
county population of 130,000.
1940
Lapham, Washington (now Doyle Administration) and Marquette schools open in new
buildings.
1941
UW basketball team won the NCAA championship.
First parking meters installed around the Square.
1942
Madison Municipal Airport leased to U.S. Air Force for use during WWII, renamed for Lt.
Thomas L. Truax, U.S. Air Force pilot from Madison. He was killed on a training flight in
California.
480 Navy WAVES attend UW for training as radio operators.
1943
113-year-old iron fountain from the garden of the Governor’s mansion is donated to the
World War II scrap drives.
1944
Monroe Street Branch Library opens.
1945
Japan surrenders, end of World War II. 280 Madison soldiers die in the war.
1947
Madison switches to city manager form of government to replace the mayor form.
1948
On Sept. 6th, Life Magazine published a photo spread on “The Good Life in Madison,
Wisconsin - Is it the best place in America to live?” (On Oct. 28, 1988 the Wisconsin State
Journal and The Capital Times combined to publish a supplement called “Madison, 40
Years Later.”)
Wis. Telephone Co. established dial telephone service in Madison, doing away with the
old “Badger,” “Gifford” and “Fairchild” exchanges, and an operator asking “Number
Please” and going with 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-000.
Madison annexes Westmorland, Truax Field, and more of Sunset Village.
Madison Newspapers Inc. created to print both the WSJ and TCT. The Wisconsin State
Journal starts publishing in the morning and is the only Sunday newspaper. The Capital
Times continues as the only evening newspaper and gives up publishing on Sunday.
First public housing project started at Truax Field.
1949
City converts from artificial gas (made by burning coal) to natural gas.
1950
US President Harry Truman visits Madison to dedicate CUNA headquarters on Sherman
Ave.
Madison goes back to the Mayor form of government.
Korean War started. (18 Madison soldiers were killed in the war.)
1951
Midvale School is built.
Veterans Administration Hospital is built.
Unitarian Meeting House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is dedicated.
Ethel Brown, past-president of Madison's and Wisconsin's League of Women Voters,
becomes the first woman elected to the Madison Common Council. (She became president
of the Council in 1961.)
1952
Madison continues to expand adding 2.72 sq. miles including Mendota Heights.
1953
WKOW-TV, Madison’s first TV station, started broadcasting.
Schenk School opens.
School Board takes over running the school libraries. (They had been run by the Madison
Public Library since 1911.)
1954
Alan “The Horse” Ameche wins college football’s Heisman Trophy. (Ron Dayne won it
in 1999.)
1956
Hoyt School and Cherokee Heights Schools open.
1957
Russia launches Sputnik I- the space race is on.
New city county building opens.
Sequoia Branch Library established, moved to Midvale Blvd.
1959
On April 30, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) lost to Amos Johnson at the UW Fieldhouse
in the finals of the Pan-Am Games boxing trials.
First Little League baseball games in Madison.
Lakeview Branch Library opens.
Madison annexes 75 square miles of surrounding land.
1948 - 1973
Aaron Bohrod, artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin.
1962
Madison adopts a flag designed by 2 Boy Scouts, members of the Madison Scouts Drum
and Bugle Corps.
1963
Martin Luther King Jr. gives his “I Have a Dream” speech. (Madison had an African
American population of 1,600 people.)
Madison adopted its first equal rights ordinance.
President John F. Kennedy assassinated.
UW football team went to the Rose Bowl for the first time, but lost. (They went again in
1994, 1997 and 1998 and won all three games.)
La Follette High School opens.
Children start to receive oral polio vaccines.
1960 - 1973
Vietnam War: many demonstrations against the war take place.
County Court system reorganized to include 5 judges.
1965
Martin Luther King Jr. gives speech at the UW Stock Pavilion.
New downtown Madison Public Library building opens.
Passenger train service ends.
1966
James Madison Memorial High School opens.
Madison Area Youth Soccer Association formed.
Pinney Branch Library opens.
1967
South Madison Branch Library opens.
1968
Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated.
Robert Kennedy assassinated.
1969
Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the moon.
ARPANET, forerunner of the Internet is created.
Woodstock!
Madison’s Central High School, 210 Wisconsin Ave, is closed. (There had been a high
school building on the site since 1873.)
1970
Wisconsin’s former U.S. Senator and former governor Gaylord Nelson organized the first
Earth Day to call attention to environmental issues.
World Food and Agricultural Exposition changes its name to World Dairy Expo.
1971
Voting age lowered from 21 to 18.
Last Milwaukee Road passenger train leaves Madison.
1972
First modern Farmer’s Market around the Capitol Square.
First off-street bicycle paths created.
1973
UW wins its first NCAA ice hockey title.
1974
Meadowridge Branch Library opens.
1975
Traffic on the outer ring of streets around the Capitol Square is made to go one way.
(Traffic on the Square was made one way in 1921.)
First Hmong immigrant/refugees arrive in Wisconsin and Madison.
1976
Shirley Abrahamson becomes first woman Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge.
1980
Winter Olympics: Eric Heiden won 5 gold medals (setting records) in speed skating, Eric’s
sister Beth won a bronze medal in speed skating and Mark Johnson & Bobby Suter were
on the gold medal ice hockey team.
1980
Madison Civic Center opened in remodeled Capitol Theater which was built in 1928.
1981
Children’s Museum opened.
1982
First Crazy Legs Run raises money for UW athletics.
First music CDs were created.
1983
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra performs first Concerts on the Square.
First Brat Fest, sponsored by Sentry Foods and used as a fundraiser for local charities.
1986
Wisconsin drinking age raised to 21.
1987
Wisconsin legislature mandates the wearing of seat belts in cars and trucks.
1989
Berlin Wall comes down.
1991
World Wide Web is born (www).
Madison starts mandatory recycling.
1993
Al Gore speaks on environment at UW.
1996
Money magazine chooses Madison as America’s No. 1 city.
1997
Green Bay Packers win Super Bowl.
First woman County Executive, Kathleen Falk, elected.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center opens after a 60
year debate.
1998
First woman Mayor, Susan Bauman, elected.
Kohl Center opened on UW campus for basketball and ice hockey.
Tammy Baldwin is the first woman from Wisconsin elected to US Congress.
1999
Ron Dayne wins college football’s Heisman Trophy. (Alan Ameche won it in 1954)
2000
UW women’s basketball team wins NIT title.
Alicia Ashman Branch Library opens.
2004
Overture Center opens