Norfolk, 20th Century

1902 - in Norfolk, Park Place (7th ward) was annexed, followed by Berkley (8th ward) in 1906 and Huntersville (9th ward) and Lambert's Point (10th Ward) in 1911.

1903 - News of the Wright Brothers' historic first flight at Kitty Hawk NC is "scooped" by a Norfolk newspaper reporter

1907 -- The Jamestown Exposition, celebrating the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, was held in the Sewell's Point area of Norfolk.

1907 - The Abraham Doumar family moves to Norfolk and sets up an ice cream concession at Ocean View Park. In 1904, at the St. Louis Exposition, the Doumars were credited with inventing the ice cream cone. In 1905 they made the first ice cream cone machine, which is still in use at Doumar's Restaurant today.

1907 -- The Great White Fleet - 15 U.S. ships on a peace mission around the world - sailed from Norfolk.

1909 - Virginian Railway opened for business.

1910 -- Eugene Ely makes aviation history when he successfully launches his Curtiss biplane from the deck of the cruiser Birmingham and lands on the beach at Willoughby Spit.

1910 - P.B. Young founds the Norfolk Journal and Guide newspaper.

1917 - 600 German sailors, crew of the interned raiders Kronprinz Wilhelm and Prinz Eitel Friedrich, are held at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth and build a German Village to pass away the time. The village is a popular tourist attraction - entrance fees and revenue from the sale of baked goods and souvenirs are sent to the German Red Cross. After the United States enters the war, the sailors become prisoners of war and are sent to POW camps in Georgia.

1917 -- The U.S Naval Operating Base and Training Station was established on the old Jamestown Exposition grounds. 1400 sailors from St. Helena Training Station in Berkley marched to the new base.

1917 -- Announcement made that Norfolk leads the nation in Navy recruiting for World War in proportion to population.

1917 -- Poet James Weldon Johnson meets with P.B. Young and other prominent blacks in Norfolk to organize NAACP chapter.

1918 -- The City Manager form of government was established in Norfolk, and the old 5 ward system was replaced by a 5 member at-large City Council. In

1989, the ward system returned to Norfolk, with members elected from 5 wards and 2 superwards.

1919 - Crispus Attucks Theatre opened; designed, financed and developed by African-Americans.  The theater is named to honor African-American Crispus Attucks, who was the first American killed by British soldiers when they fired into a crowd of demonstrators in Boston in 1770. The event, which closely preceded the American revolution, became known as the Boston massacre.

1921 - Virginia Beach Boulevard, a concrete road running from Virginia Beach to Norfolk, was completed

1922 - The US Army dirigible Roma crashed at the Quartermaster Depot (now Norfolk International Terminal), killing 34 of the 45 men aboard.

1923 -- An annexation which included Ocean View, Larchmont and Lafayette added 27 square miles to Norfolk City.

1924 - a bus route between Norfolk and Virginia Beach was established

1926 - The Schneider Cup Race between American and Italian aviators is held in Norfolk and receives international publicity. The race is won by an Italian aviator, flying at an average speed of more than 246 mph.

1935 - Norfolk unit of Virginia Union University established (now Norfolk State University).

1938 -- Norfolk Municipal Airport opened on the former Truxton Manor Golf Course tract. A new terminal building was dedicated in 1951. In 1976, Norfolk International Airport opened, with overseas flights.

1938 - Norfolk Virginian-Pilot editor Louis Jaffe's anti-KKK editorials in the earn the Pulitzer Prize.

1939 - Aline E. Black sued against Norfolk's unequal pay for black and white teachers, starting a series of legal maneuvers that eventually toppled similar unequal pay scales throughout Virginia. Black's lawsuit was replaced by one from Melvin Ol Alston of Norfolk. National civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall represented the black Norfolk teachers as the lawsuit prevailed at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1940.

1939 -Norfolk City Manager Borland recommends the creation of a Housing Authority. City Council votes unanimously against the proposal.

1940 - On recommendation of Manager Borland, Council reconsiders; votes to create Housing Authority so Norfolk can participate in federally funded low-cost housing projects. Louis H. Windholz is named chairman. Authority applies to US Housing Authority for $4 million for 1000 housing units. Ground broken for Merrimack Park, the Authority's first defense housing project.

1941 -- World War II, with heightened defense activities and hundreds of families moving into the area, doubled Norfolk's population. At the end of the war, Norfolk Naval Base and Air Station remained the largest military installation in the world.

1941 - USHA earmarks $2 million for slum clearance in Norfolk. The previous year, Nathan Straus, USHA administrator, called a Norfolk hotel-apartment "the worst slum he had seen anywhere in the US".

1941 - First tenants move into Merrimack Park. Three black citizens - P.B. Young (publisher), J. Eugene Diggs (attorney) and the Rev. Richard H. Bowling - are appointed as an advisory committee on housing construction in black slum areas. Construction begins on Oak Leaf Park. Merrimack Park is dedicated.

1942 - The Nansemond Hotel at Ocean View served as headquarters of the Amphibious Training Command, Atlantic Fleet until the end of World War II. Troops stationed here participated in embarkation and landing exercises day and night on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Successful assaults on 40 enemy beaches were planned and practiced at the Nansemond, including Operation Torch, the successful invasion of North Africa.

1945 - The first black police officers in Virginia are sworn in on the Norfolk force.

1946 -- The Shriners sponsored the first Oyster Bowl Parade and football game, to aid crippled children. The Granby High School Comets defeated Clifton New Jersey High School 6-0. The last Oyster Bowl game was played in 1995.

1946 - Norfolk Housing Authority changes name to Norfolk Redevelopment & Housing Authority.

1948 - Norfolk's last streetcar runs on the Ocean View line, as streetcars are replaced by buses.

1949 - Norfolk, with 3000 units and Galveston TX, with 500 units become the first cities in the nation to be assigned an allocation of housing units under the new public housing program now being activated.

1950 - The battleship Missouri runs hard aground off Thimble Shoal Light near Willoughby Spit.

1950 - Work begins on Norfolk's first public (non-defense) housing project, across from Oak Leaf Park.

1951 - Norfolk's slum clearance program begins with the demolition of a house on Smith Street.

1951 - Four new housing projects in Norfolk named for black leaders - Diggs, Young, Bowling and the late Dr. Robert R. Moton.

1951 - The last reunion of Confederate veterans is held in Norfolk.

1952 -- SACLANT, Supreme Allied Command Atlantic, western arm of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and only international command in the western hemisphere, was established in Norfolk.

1952 -- The Downtown Norfolk-Portsmouth Bridge-Tunnel opened. A modern engineering marvel, it was followed by the Mid-Town Tunnel in 1962 and a second Downtown Tunnel in 1986. Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel opened in 1957, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in 1964 and a second Hampton Roads Tunnel in 1976. In 1992, the $400,000,000 Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel opened, connecting Suffolk and Newport News and completing the loop of interstate highways in Hampton Roads.

1952 - 1918 Berkley Bridge demolished

1954 -- The first Azalea Festival, now an annual event, was held to honor NATO countries.

1955 -- Tanners Creek annexed. Ownership of Broad Creek Village transferred to Housing Authority. Norfolk becomes largest city in state, with a population of 297,253.

1955 -- Ferry service from Norfolk to Portsmouth, established in 1636 by Adam Thoroughgood, was discontinued. Pedestrian ferry service was resumed in 1983.

1955 -- Black parents petition Norfolk School Board to reorganize schools along non-racial lines

1957 - Cornerstone laid for Norfolk General Hospital's new wing. Dedicated in 1958.

1957 - Calvert Park opens in Norfolk - the last housing project of the slum clearance program begun in 1949.

1957 -- The International Naval Review, celebrating the sesquicentennial of our nation's birth, was held in Norfolk.

1958 -- Norfolk's Sister City program began with the adoption of Moji, Japan (changed to Kitakyushu in 1963). Additional Sister Cities followed: Wilhelmshaven, Germany (1976); Norwich, Norfolk County, England (1986); Toulon, France (1989); and Kaliningrad, Russia (1992).

1958 - Gov. J. Lindsey Almond closed six Norfolk schools to stop their integration, putting 9,950 white children out of school.

1959 - Norfolk's public schools were desegregated when 17 black children entered 6 previously all-white schools in Norfolk. Norfolk Virginian-Pilot editor Lenoir Chambers' editorials against massive resistance earn the Pulitzer Prize.

1960 -- Norfolk was one of eleven U.S. cities to receive the All American City Award, granted jointly by LOOK Magazine and the National Municipal League.

1961 -- The completion of the Public Safety Building marked the beginning of a $15,000,000 Civic Center. A court building and 11-story City Hall were completed in 1965.

1961 - Demolition begins on Norfolk's East Main Street taverns.

1962 -- Kirn Memorial Library opened in a glass and marble structure in downtown Norfolk, replacing the old Carnegie building on Freemason Street.

By 1992, there were also 11 branches and a bookmobile.

1962 - Norfolk College of William and Mary has its name changed to Old Dominion College.

1962 - Brambleton Avenue extension, including the new bridge crossing the Hague, opens to traffic between Colley Ave. and Boush St.

1964 - General Douglas MacArthur Memorial opens in Norfolk. Death of General MacArthur.

1966 - The Supreme Court outlawed Virginia's poll tax in a case brought by Evelyn Butts, a Norfolk citizen activist and seamstress.

1966 -- Norfolk International Terminals are built. This huge complex of one of the most complete and modern operations in the U.S. for steamship, rail and truck carriers serves international cargoes.

1966 -- Virginia Wesleyan College opened.

1967 -- The Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway, a 12.1 mile long toll road leading from Baltic Avenue in Virginia Beach to Brambleton Avenue in Norfolk, opened to traffic.

1968 - Joseph A. Jordan, Jr. in Norfolk and Raymond Turner and Dr. James W. Holley III in Portsmouth, became the first African-Americans to be elected to their city councils in this century.

1969 - Norfolk State College, founded in 1935 as a branch of Richmond's Virginia Union University, becomes an independent 4-year college.

1969 -- Old Dominion College gained University status.

1971 -- Donation of major art collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences.

1971-1972 -- Norfolk's $30,000,000 convention and cultural center opened; SCOPE, a unique domed convention hall; and Chrysler Hall, a separate theater.

1973 -- Eastern Virginia Medical School, the hub of a major regional medical and health service center, began. In 1980, the first in-vitro fertilization clinic in the U.S opened at EVMS in a $25,000 lab. The clinic was named the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in 1983 to honor its directors, Drs. Georgeanna and Howard Jones. In 1992, the Institute's new $25,000,000 home was dedicated.

1975 -- Professional Opera arrived in Norfolk as the Virginia Opera Association opened its premiere season at the Center Theater. In 1993, the renovated theater was rechristened the Edythe C. and Stanley L. Harrison Opera House in honor of the company's founders.

1976 -- Operation Sail began as a tall ship celebration for the American Bicentennial. It developed into the annual Harborfest.

1976 - First graduating class of the Eastern Virginia Medical School

1979 -- Norfolk State College became a University.

1980 - Headquarters of the Jacques Cousteau Society move to Norfolk

1980 - William P. Robinson Sr. Of Norfolk, the first African-American to head a committee in the House of Delegates when he was appointed chairman of the House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee.

1981 -- Birth at Norfolk General Hospital of first baby in the United States conceived by in-vitro fertilization (Elizabeth Jordan Carr)

1982 - Norfolk and Western and Southern Railways consolidate; the new company, Norfolk Southern, moves its headquarters to Norfolk.

1983 - John C. Thomas, a Norfolk native, first black to be a judge on the Virginia Supreme Court.

1983 -- Waterside opened in Norfolk as a festival marketplace with 120 food and specialty shops. Adjacent is Town Point Park, the scene of concerts and activities for all ages. In 1990, the $8,500,000 Waterside expansion opened.

1983 -- The World Trade Center was built in Norfolk. This $30,000,000, 9 story, curvilinear office complex is a vital center for international trade.

1983 -- The U.S Postal Center, in a new $13,000,000 building, replaced the Old Post Office and Parcel Post Annex in Norfolk.

1991 -- Site preparation began for the $52,000,000 National Marine Center, Nauticus, which opened in 1994.

1992 -- Ground was broken for a 12,000 seat, $13,000,000 baseball park, which opened as Harbor Park in 1993 and is touted as the country's finest minor-league stadium.

1993 -- Tidewater Community College opened a downtown Norfolk center with 100 students in 7 classrooms. A $26.6 million, 185,000 square foot campus with a capacity for 5000 students, opens in the Fall of 1996.

1995 -- Tolls on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway are removed. Tolls had been removed from the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnels in 1976 and from the Norfolk-Portsmouth tunnels in 1986. The Jordan Bridge, closed for repairs in 1994, reopened in December 1995 with a 50c toll.

1996 -- Symbolic groundbreaking for MacArthur Center Mall was celebrated on 26 January. The mall is scheduled for completion in 1999.

1998 - The Virginia Symphony, under the direction of JoAnn Falletta, performs at Carnegie Hall.

1998 - Armed Forces Memorial is dedicated at Town Point Park.

1998 - President Bill Clinton participates in the commissioning of the USS Harry S. Truman at the Norfolk Naval Base. The nuclear-powered supercarrier was built at Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia's largest industrial employer.

1998 - Norfolk Southern acquires 7200 miles of Conrail

From 50 acres of land and a population of 1, Norfolk has grown to 61.86 square miles (39,590.4 acres) and a population of nearly 300,000.