A Timeline of Census History

Legend
. Staff Population Geography Economy Technologyand innovation Research and Methodology
Census Supervisors Population
1790 ‘
Thomas Jefferson 3,925,214 > JANUARY 8, 1790 President George Washington gives

Under the leadership of the Secretary of
State, U.S. Marshals conduct the nation’s
first census, which asks six questions.

(U.S. Secretary
of State)

New York is the nation’s

la est city witha
population of 33,131.
Q John Marshall 5 308,483
(U.S. saree)
of State)

Temporary census headquarters moves from
New York City, NY, to Washington, DC.

Robert Smith

(U.S. Secretary
of State)

U.S. Marshals collect data on
U.S. manufacturers while
conducting the 1810 Census.

(U.S. Secretary
of State)

U.S. Marshals make the first agriculture
inquiries by collecting data on families
“agricultural pursuits.”

Population...

2.960702

Martin Van Buren

U.S. Marshals use uniform, printed
schedules to collect census data. They do
not collect manufacturing data due to its
poor quality in 1810 and 1820.

(U.S. Secretary
of State)

ee.)

william Augustus Weaver 17,063,353

(1840-1842)

1849
Congress establishes a census board
to oversee data collection.

U.S. Marshals resume
collection of manufacturing
data, as well as data on
mining and fisheries.

1849

The U.S. Department of the
Interior assumes control of
census operations from
the Department of State.

Population...

0,191,876

Five cenans records the
names of all free persons i
the Household.

joseph C. G. Kennedy
1850-1853)

{

publication.

1854

ii D. B. DeBow Supe rintencens D. Ba
1853-1855) DeBow publishes the
first map in a census

Six questionnaires collect population, slave
mortality, agriculture, manufacturing, ani
government data.

Population

J M3 Sal

pros Cc. G. Kennedy
1860-1865)

The census enumerates
American Indians not livin
on tribal lands in own racial

category.

a Poplation

Francis Amasa Walker
(1870-1872) tens
Seaton

introduces a
mechanical
allying
machine to

The censys records the
name of every person
living in a household.

tabulat

on oO
census data

1874

Census Office publishes
first Statistical Atlas of
the United States.

h t

stract.

Census Offi
annua

$

ce publishe:
i Statistical

‘A

Population...

501189209

‘Francis Amasa Walker

(1879-1881)

Charles W. Seaton
(1881-1885)

Specially trained supervisors and
enumerators replace
U.S. Marshals to collect census data.

&
®
G
G

Population............
Robert Percival Porter
(1889-1893) 62,979,766
Herman Hollerith’s
. electric t bulator
Carroll D. Wright speeds tabulation
of data.

(1893-1897)

First use of administration records
to collect data on the recorded
indebtedness of private
corporations and individuals.

—xdh

BSS gee 187°

“418

the first State of the Union Address.
..FEBRUARY 20, 1792 Establishment

Tt of U.S. Post Office Department
denn MARCH 14, 1794
Eli Witney patents
the cotton gin.
> JuLy 10, 1797 The United States launches its first naval ship,
the frigate USS United States.
1800

APRIL 30, 1803 The United States
_..purchases 828,000 square miles from
France for the price of $15 million.

..MAY 14, 1804 Lewis and Clark
Expedition begins.

.. 1806 Noah Webster publishes the Compendious Dictionary of
the English Language.

AuGusT 17, 1807 Robert Fulton makes the first steamboat
journey up the Hudson River from New York City, NY, to
Albany, NY.

OCTOBER ii, 1811 Steam-powered
“ferry service between New York City, NY,
and Hoboken, Nj, begins.

“JUNE 18, 1812—FEBRUARY 18, 1815 War of 1812
SEPTEMBER i3—i4. i8i4

‘Francis Scott Key writes
The Star-Spangled Banner.

APRIL 4, 1818 Congress adopts

twenty stars and thirteen stripes

configuration of the U.S. flag, with
~a star added for each new state.

~NOVEMBER 20, 1820 A whale sinks the whaling ship
Essex inspiring Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby Dick.

DECEMBER 2, 1823 President James Monroe's
“Monroe Doctrine” considers future European attempts
~to recolonize North America as hostile.

OCTOBER 26, i825 The first boat leaves Buffalo, NY,
en route to New York City, NY, via the Erie Canal.

FEBRUARY 28, 1827 The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
becomes the first to provide rail transportation for people
and goods.

MARCH 19, 1831 Edward Smith commits the first bank
. robbery in the United States when he steals $245,000 from
the City Bank of New York.

JULY 24, 1832 The first wagon
train crosses the Rocky Mountains
at Wyoming's South Pass.

“FEBRUARY 23—MARCH 6, i836
The Battle for the Alamo waged in
San Antonio, TX.

FEBRUARY 11, 1839 University of Missouri in Columbia, MO,
becomes the first college west of the Mississippi River.

AUGUST 9, 1842 The Webster-Ashburton Treaty formalizes
the U.S.-Canadian border east of the Rocky Mountains.

MAy 24, 1844 Samuel B. Morse sends the message,
"What hath God wrought" over the first telegraph line from

Grover Washington, DC, to Baltimore, MD.
ss SEPTEMBER 1845 The “Great Potato Famine” begins, result-
ing in a surge of Irish immigration to the United States.
~oom JANUARY 24, 1848 A worker discovers gold at
Sutter's Mill in California.
~18S50

MARCH 20, 1852 Harriet Beecher
Stowe publishes the anti-slavery master-
piece, Uncle Tom's Cabin.

... JULY 8, 1853 Commodore Matthew
Perry lands in Edo Bay, Japan, and nego-
tiates a trade agreement.

bs MARCH 23, 1857 Elisha Otis installs the first elevator
in a building at 488 Broadway in New York City, NY.
OCTOBER i6, 1859 John Brown leads a raid on the

¢ armory at Harper's Ferry, VA (now WV).

: 1860 APRIL 3, 1860 The rst Pony Express riders leave

$--rnSt. Joseph, MO, heading west and San Francisco, CA,

| heading east.

ae APRIL 12, i861—May 98, i865
U.S. Civil War

; MARCH 30, 1867 The United States

buys Alaska from Russia.

DECEMBER 10, 1869 Wyoming becomes the first
.-State to give women the right to vote.

MARCH 30, 1870 The 15th Amendment to

the U.S. Constitution gives the right to vote to all men,
regardless of race.

OCTOBER 8—10, 1871 A fire kills 300 people, destroys
more than 3 square miles, and leaves 100,000 homeless in
Chicago, IL.

MARCH i, 1872 Yellowstone Park, which covers parts of
Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, becomes the first national park.

JUNE 25-26, 1872 Sioux and Cheyenne Indians defeat
George Custer and the 7th U.S. Cavalry at the Battle of the
Little Big Horn.

Washington opens

JULY 4, 1881 Booker T.
the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee Univer-

sity) in Tuskegee, AL.

SEPTEMBER 4, i882
Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street
Station in New York City, NY,
begins Roeetag electricity
for public use.

JUNE 17, 1885 The Statue of Liberty
arrives in New York Harbor from France.

MAY 31, 1889 A flood in Johnstown, PA,
kills more than 2,200 people after rain
destroys the South Fork Dam.

90

JANUARY i, 1892 The Ellis Island immigration Station in
New York Harbor opens as the main immigration center on
the east coast.

May 1—OCTOBER 30, 1893 More than 25 million people
visit the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL.

NOVEMBER 5, i895 George B. Selden received
the first U.S. patent for the automobile.

o-

APRIL 25—AUGUST 12, 1898 The Spanish-American War

Census Directors :
76,212 168. ane 90 SEPTEMBER 8, 1900 The deadliest natural disaster in
(1899-1903) he U.S. Census Bureau emt, strikes Galveston, TX, when a hurricane kills
becomes a permanent 000.
agency within the
U.S. Department of the DECEMBER 17, 1903 The Wright Brothers successfully fly
Simon Newton Dexter North Interior. The next year it a controlled, powered, and sustained heavier-than-air
(1903-1909) ine ee to jie airplane at Kitty Hawk, NC.
q .S. Department o!
Commerce and Labor. APRIL 18, 1906 An earthquake kills
3,000 people and destroys 80 percent of
First jnteedocenntal San: hrencisen cA:
census of manufacturing
establishments OCTOBER i, 1908 Ford Motor
Population Company begins production of the Model T.
Edward Dana Durand 92,208 496 1910
(1909-1913) r i913 oo ;
Questions about The Census Bureau APRIL 14—15, 1912 RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg and
“Mother-Tongue” and stays in the sinks in the North Atlantic Ocean.
: a Civil War veteran stars asked. red aneibngi ll
William J. Harris its split from the RUaUSE shade iets phe Saree makes the first
(1913-1915) Department of Labor. official transit of the Panama Canal.
1917-1918 APRIL 6, 1917—NOVEMBER 11, 1918 United States
The Census Bureau conducts “emergency involvement in World War |.
Samuel Lyle Rogers = cen speed ot Pel ad ustties, one
(1915-1921) a aoe) ers Seat Sri ctr rib JANUARY 16, 1919 Ratificaton of the 18th Amendment
support the war effort. which prohibits the "manufacture, sale, or transportation
Population of intoxicating liquors."
106,021,537 1920 auauer 18, 1920 Ratification of
bac 1927 the 19th Amendment which gives
First time growik and women the right to vote.
majority o'
US. population —— con M4 fOr FEBRUARY 14, 1924 IBM Corpo-
lives in urban j > ration founded, in part from Herman
result in ' :
areas. biennial Hollen Tabulating Machine
censuses of company. zi
meni facturiag MAY 21, 1927 Charles Lindbergh lands his airplane
1925. and 6 "Spirit of St. Louis" in Paris, successfully completing
William Mott Steuart 1927. the first trans-Atlantic flight.
A (1921-1933) OCTOBER 29, 1929 Crash of the stock market
Population if ~~signals the beginning of the Great Depression.
123,202. f24 1930 arcu 3, 1931 The Star-Spangled Banner designated
1 as the national anthem.

i933

Census of selected service
industries conducted as part of
the New Deal programs.

1937
The Census Bureau studies
the use of statistical sampling

William Lane Austin and conducts a census of

(1933-1941) unemployment.
ee Population...
James Clyde Capt 132,164,569 The Census mee
(1941-1949) headquarters

First use of moves to
statistical samplin Suitland, MD.
during a decennial bs

census. i945

introduction of the
Standard Industrial
Classification (SIC)
manual for classifying
industries.

Roy Victor Peel °

Population
(1950-1953) aes

[51,820,798 The Census Sureau

receives UNIVAC |, the first
nonmilitary computer.

i953

The Census Bureau develops the
Film Optical Sensing Device for
Input to Computers (FOSDIC) to
replace punch cards.

i9sss

The Data Processing
Division opens in
Jeffersonville, IN.

First enumeration of
Americans abroad, includin
U.S. armed forces and federa'

civilian personnel.

Robert Wilbur Burgess
, (1953-1961)

Population,

179,323,175

Populations in urban areas
receive questionnaires by mail
before enumerator visits.
A. Ross Eckler
(1965-1969)

Richard M. Scammon
(1961-1965)
i963

First census of
transportation

S ,

oes

tr

1967
Congress changes economic census
years to those ending in “2” and “7.

is67-—i968
Development of Dual Independent Map Encoding (DIME) to

enable computerized geography
Sg ag og pi Sate te Population.
George Hay Brown

(1969-1973) 203,302,031

Hispanic-origin asked = |ntroduction of the

of 5 percent of Survey of

Vincent P. Barabba U.S. population. Minority-Owned

(1973-1976) Businesses

¢

All data products are available
on magnetic computer tape

>»

Manuel D. Plotkin

(1977-1979) vod

Introduction of the Survey of
Women-Owned Businesses

\ Vincent P. Barabba
(1979-1981)

Hispanic-origin asked
Bruce Chapman of all households.

(1981-1983)

7
<a

~'

95 percent of

U.S. households receive
mailout/mailback
questionnaires.

Population

248,709,873

John G. Keane
(1984-1987)

\ Barbara Everitt Bryant
(1989-1993)

Martha Farnsworth Riche
(1994-1998)

First CD-ROMs
containing census
data released

database of the nation

1997

The North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS) replaces the
Standard Industrial Classification System.

isos
The Data Poceseltg Division in Jeffersonville, IN,
changes its name to the National Processing Center.

PEE, | | RRO ENON NCSSEN

261,421,906

Multiple responses to the race question permitted.
First use of a paid advertising campaign.

2005
The annual American

Community Survey
replaces the decennial
census long form.

7g
2007
‘ Publication of first statis-

tical atlas of the United
States since 1920.

~ Kenneth Prewitt
(1998-2001)

Charles Louis Kincannon ~~~
} (2002-2008)

Steve H. Murdock
(2008-2009)

Population

308,745,598

Releases of 5-year American
Community Survey estimates.

Robert M. Groves
(2009-2012)

John H. Thompson

f
“199

Topologically Integrated

Geographic Encoding and
Referencing (TIGER) system
creates a digital geographic

os ales

DECEMBER 5, 1933 The 21st Amendment repeals the
prohibition on the sale of alcohol.

May 6, 1937 The German airship Hindenburg bursts into
flames over Lakehurst Naval Air Station, NJ.

JUNE 25, 1938 The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes
a minimum wage, overtime pay, and regulates employment
for minors.

is

1940

SEPTEMBER 28, 194i Ted Williams is the last player to
end the season with a .400 batting average.

DECEMBER 7, 1941—SEPTEMBER 2, 1945

United States involvement in World War II.

JANUARY 10, 1946 First
meeting of the United Nations
General Assembly.

> OCTOBER 14, 1947 Chuck Yeager
becomes the first man to break the sound barrier
while flying the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1.

° JUNE 25, 1i950—JULY 27, 1953 United States

involvement in Korean War.

APRIL 15, 1955 Ray Kroc opens
the first franchised McDonald's in
-Des Plaines, IL.

May 31, i955 U.S. Supreme
Court orders the integration of all
public schools.

APRIL 9, i959 NASA selects seven military pilots to
be the first astronauts.

i960
i AUGUST 13, 1961 The Berlin Wall isolates West Berlin
from surrounding Communist-controlled East Germany.

OCTOBER i, i962 James H. Meredith becomes the first
black student to attend the University of Mississippi.

? FEBRUARY 8, 1964 The Beatles make
their U.S. debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show.” ss,
°
JULY 20, 1969 Astronauts Neil Armstrong and
f Buzz Aldrin are the first men to land on the moon.
1970 acroser 41, 1970 Walt Disney World opens in Orlan-
lo, FL.
JUNE 9, 1973 Secretariat wins the first
> Triple Crown of horse racing since 1948.

APRIL 30, 1975 The last Amer-
ican combat personnel—
10 U.S. Marines—depart Vietnam.

JULY 20, 1976 Viking I space probe
lands on Mars and sends back color
photos of the surface.

APRIL 12, 1980 The United States Olympic Committee
votes to boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow in
response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

~~ AUGUST 12, 1981 IBM introduces
the first personal computer, the IBM 5150. mr

a

JANUARY 28, 1986 The Space Shuttle Challenger
explodes 74 seconds after liftoff.

NOVEMBER 9, 1989 East Germany opens the Berlin
Wall, allowing its citizens to move freely between East and
West Germany.

AUGUST 1, 1990—FEBRUARY 28, 1991
U.S. participation in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

DECEMBER 25, 1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union.

APRIL 19, 1995 Domestic terrorists

explode a bomb outside the Murrah

Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK,
killing 168 people.

~ JULY 5, 1996 In Scotland, Dolly the sheep
is the first cloned mammal.

SEPTEMBER ii, 2001 Hijacked airliners crash into the
World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville,
PA. In response, United States and allies invade Afghanistan.
OCTOBER 23, 2001 Apple Computer debuts a digital
music device called the “iPod.”

“MARCH 19, 2003 The Iraq War begins.

» AUGUST 25—29, 2006 Hurricane Katrina, the costliest
purricene in U.S. history, hits the Gulf coast from Florida to
exas.

$

MAy 7, 2012 Nevada grants the first testing license fora
driverless car.

FEBRUARY 2013 Scientists at Cornell University grow
a living human ear using cow cells and a 3-D printer.

(2013-2017) ; JUNE 26, 2015 The U.S. Supreme
Releases 5 he i data. f Court legalizes same-sex marriage
¢-—-- NOVEMBER 2, 2016 The Chicago
Cubs win the World Series for
Populati the first time since 1908.
Steven D. Dillingham 2020 FEBRUARY 29, 2020 Center for Disease

33), 4493,281

Enumerators use handheld devices to upload
collected information directly to database.

Majority of households answer the
decennial census via the new internet
response option.

65 percent of addresses validated via GIS
and satellite imagery.

The Disclosure Avoidance System data enhances
protections of individual data.

(2019-2021)

Robert L. Santos
(2022-)

J

Legend

Staff Population Geography Economy Technology and Innovation

|

Control reports the first COVID-19 cases in the
United States.

| ~ JANUARY 20, 2021 Kamala Harris is sworn in
as the first African-American and Asian-American
Vice President.

¢—--- AUGUST 30, 2021 The last American soldier

departs Afghanistan.

SEPTEMBER i6, 202i SpaceX launches the first
all-civilian crew into space.

Research and Methodology