# Timeline of Nantucket

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

## 17th century

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

## 18th century

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

## 19th century

* 1810
** Second Congregational Meeting House incorporated.
** Population: 6,807.
* 1814 – Nantucket declares neutrality in the US-British War of 1812.
* 1816 – May: Nantucket Gazette newspaper begins publication.
* 1817 – Fragment Society formed.
* 1820
** Nantucket Mechanics' Social Library Society founded.
** Population: 7,266.
* 1821 – The Inquirer newspaper begins publication.
* 1823
** Columbian Library Society founded.
** United Methodist Church built.
* 1853 drawing of a Nantucket shark, by Jacques Burkhardt1827 – United Library Association and Lancasterian school founded.
* 1834 – Nantucket Athenaeum incorporated.
* 1835
** African Methodist Episcopal Church incorporated.
** Silk Factory in business.
* 1836 – Ladies' Howard Society formed.
* 1838 - Nantucket High School established.
* 1839 – Trinity Church built.
* 1840 – First Baptist Church built.
* 1846 – Fire.
* 1848 – Atlantic House hotel in business in Siasconset.
* 1850 - Sankaty Head Light built.
* 1854 – Lightship Nantucket and Town Library established.
* 1855 - Death of Dorcas Honorable, Nantucket's last Native American Wampanoag Indian.
* 1856
** Nantucket Agricultural Society founded.
** Lighthouse rebuilt.
* 1864 – Josiah Freeman photography studio in business.
* 1866 – Union Benevolent Society founded.
* 1869 - Nantucket's last whaler sailed.
* 1873 – Nantucket Relief Association founded.
* 1875 – Civil War monument erected.
* 1877 – Sherburne Lyceum organized.
* 1881 – Nantucket Railroad built.
* 1883 – Siasconset Union Chapel, Nantucket Hotel, Surf-Side Hotel and Springfield Hotel built.
* 1886
** Electric telegraph installed.
** New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Company formed.
** Wyer's Art Store in business (approximate date).
* 1892 – Point Breeze Hotel in business.
* 1894 – Nantucket Historical Association founded.
* 1895 – Goldenrod Literary and Debating Society founded.
Original Nantucket Railroad reaches bankruptcy, Nantucket Central Railroad Company established
* 1897 – Church of St. Mary-Our Lady of the Isle built.

## 20th century

* 1901 – Brant Point Light rebuilt.
* 1902 – Maria Mitchell Association founded.
* 1908 – Maria Mitchell Observatory built.
* 1910 – Population: 2,962 (county).
* 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.
* 1940 – Straight Wharf Theatre established.
* 1945 – Murray's Toggery Shop in business.
* 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).
* 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.

## 21st century

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