Las Vegas Historical Information

• 1829 -- Discovered by Spanish explorers.
• 1855 -- First settlement by Mormons in Las Vegas.
• 1905 -- Town of Las Vegas established by auctioning of land.
• 1905 -- The First United Methodist Church of Las Vegas formed. The original members bought the land at 3rd & Bridger that the church sits on today in the original property auction.
• 1911 -- The city of Las Vegas is incorporated.
• 1926 -- First commercial airline flight, Western Airlines.
• 1931 -- Hoover Dam construction begins in Black Canyon.
• 1931 -- Gambling legalized in Nevada.
• 1935 -- Hoover Dam dedicated by President Franklin Roosevelt.
• 1940 -- Clark County population 16,414 (Las Vegas-8,422).
• 1941 -- El Rancho Vegas opens on the Strip, destroyed by fire 19 years later.
• 1941 -- El Cortez Hotel opens downtown.
• 1942 -- Last Frontier Hotel opens. (Later called New Frontier and Frontier.)
• 1944 -- The first Helldorado parade and rodeo is conducted.
• 1946 -- Bugsy Siegel opens Flamingo Hotel. State levies first gaming taxes.
• 1950 -- Clark County population 48,289. (Las Vegas-24,624).
• 1955 -- Gaming control strengthened. Gaming Control Board created within the Nevada Tax Commission by the Legislature.
• 1959 -- Las Vegas Convention Center opens. The Nevada Gaming Commission is created by the Legislature.
• 1960 -- Clark County population 127,016. (Las Vegas-64,405).
• 1966 -- Howard Hughes arrives to live at Desert Inn.
• 1967 -- Nevada legislature passes a law allowing publicly traded corporations to obtain gambling licenses. The law is refined in 1969.
• 1970 -- Clark County population 273,288 (Las Vegas-125,787).
• 1975 -- Nevada gaming revenues first crack $1 billion mark.
• 1977 -- Clark County gaming revenues first crack $1 billion mark. The Nevada Legislature passes a foreign gaming law allowing Nevada-based casino owners to operate casinos outside Nevada's borders.
• 1980 -- Clark County population hits 463,087 (Las Vegas- 164,674) as Las Vegas celebrates 75th birthday.
• 1981 -- Las Vegas celebrates Golden Anniversary of Gaming.
• 1985 -- First National Finals Rodeo held in Las Vegas.
• 1989 -- Mirage opens Nov. 22, with 3,039 rooms.
• 1990 -- Clark County population 741,459 (Las Vegas-258,295)
• 1990 -- Excalibur opens June 19, to date the world's largest resort hotel with 4,032 rooms.
• 1991 -- Ground broken on MGM Grand Hotel and Theme Park; Treasure Island Hotel, and pyramid-shaped Luxor.
• 1991 -- The Las Vegas Online Entertainment Guide goes online as a dial-up BBS system.
• 1992 -- First Las Vegas Bowl held at Silver Bowl.
• 1993 -- MGM Grand Hotel and Theme Park tops off. Flamingo Hilton announces plans to raze Bugsy suite and office.
• 1993 -- Dunes Hotel sold to Steve Wynn's Mirage Inc.; the north tower and Dunes sign imploded Oct. 27.
• 1993 -- Money won by Nevada casinos tops the $6 billion mark for the first time.
• 1993 -- Grand Slam Canyon Adventuredome opens Aug. 23.
• 1993 -- Luxor Hotel opens Oct. 15 with 2,526 rooms.
• 1993 -- Treasure Island Hotel opens Oct. 26 with 2,900 rooms.
• 1993 -- MGM Grand Hotel and Theme Park opens Dec. 18, with 5,005 rooms and a 171,500-square-foot casino; to date the largest resort hotel-casino in the world.
• 1993 -- The Nevada Legislature passes enabling legislation for development of "The Fremont Street Experience."
• 1994 -- Buffalo Bill's in Stateline and Boulder Station Casino on Boulder Highway in Las Vegas open.
• 1994 -- Mirage Resorts Inc. and Gold Strike announce plans to jointly construct Monte Carlo, a mega-resort north of the intersection of Tropicana Avenue and the Strip. The resort will have a Victorian theme.
• 1994 -- Plans to construct New York-New York Hotel Casino at the intersection of the Strip and Tropicana Avenue announced by MGM Grand and Primadonna Resorts.
• 1994 -- Work begins on Fremont Street Experience. Downtown Fremont Street is permanently closed to automobile traffic on Sept. 7, 1994.
• 1994 -- Steve Wynn reveals plans to construct Bellagio, a 46-story hotel casino at the intersection of the Las Vegas Strip and Flamingo Road.
• 1994 -- Sam's Town on Boulder Highway expands with the opening of a 650-room tower and lush, plant-filled atrium.
• 1994 -- Boomtown opens a 300-room hotel-casino on Blue Diamond Road.
• 1994 -- The first non-stop, regularly scheduled charter service from Europe begins with weekly flights by Condor from Cologne, Germany.
• 1994 -- Four skywalks are built over the intersection of Tropicana Boulevard and the Las Vegas Strip.
• 1994 -- County opens Interstate 15-McCarran airport connector road system that tunnels under the east-west runways.
• 1994 -- Work begins on the Desert Inn Road arterial, which will tunnel under the Las Vegas Strip.
• 1994 -- The Dunes hotel-casino is Imploded on October 27th.
• 1994 -- The Fiesta, the first hotel-casino in North Las Vegas, opens with 100 rooms.
• 1995 -- Vegas World closes its doors Feb. 1 for work on a casino complex at the base of the Stratosphere Tower.
• 1995 -- Clark County population for the first time is estimated at more than 1 million residents.
• 1995 -- The first Hard Rock Hotel opens March 10.
• 1995 -- New visitors center opens at Hoover Dam.
• 1995 -- Circus Circus Inc. buys Gold Strike Resorts.
• 1995 -- $25 million monorail begins running between MGM Grand and Bally's hotel-casinos on June 14.
• 1995 -- William Bennett, former president and CEO of Circus Circus, buys Sahara Hotel-Casino
• 1995 -- Bally Entertainment Corp. announces it will build Paris Casino Resort, a $420 million hotel, on 25 acres adjacent to Bally's Las Vegas on the Strip.
• 1995 -- Texas Gambling Hall & Hotel opens next door to the Fiesta on Rancho Road in North Las Vegas.
• 1995 -- $25 million monorail begins running between MGM Grand and Bally's hotel-casinos on June 14.
• 1995 -- The Las Vegas Online Entertainment Guide moves from dial-up to the Internet.
• 1995 -- ITT Corp. buys Caesars World Inc. for $1.7 billion, including Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.
• 1995 -- Construction begins on Steve Wynn's 46-story, $1.25 billion 3,000-room Bellagio, located at the intersection of Flamingo Road and the Las Vegas Strip.
• 1995 -- Circus Circus Enterprises buys Hacienda and surrounding 100 acres.
• 1995 -- The face of downtown Las Vegas changes forever with the Dec. 13 opening of the $70 million Fremont Street Experience.
• 1995 -- Las Vegas reported a 29 million visitor volume for the year. Statewide gross gaming revenue surpasses $7.3 billion. Clark County produced $5.7 billion of the state's gaming revenue total.
• 1995 -- Landmark Hotel imploded Nov. 7.
• 1996 -- Ground breaking ceremonies for Las Vegas Hilton's Star Trek: The Experience held on Jan. 24.
• 1996 -- The $13 million Las Vegas Strip beautification project, in which 76,000 palms, shrubs, flowering foliage and ground covers were planted, was finished in March. It was started in May 1995.
• 1996 -- Wayne Newton celebrates 25,000th Las Vegas performance. Siegfried and Roy celebrate 15,000th Las Vegas performance.
• 1996 -- Work is completed on the Desert Inn Road arterial, creating the first tunnel under the Las Vegas Strip.
• 1996 -- Stratosphere Tower, the tallest free-standing observation tower in the U.S. and the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River, opens April 30, only to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy nine months later (Jan 27, 1997). It continues to operate.
• 1996 -- Hilton Hotels Corp. purchases Bally's Entertainment Corp., parent company of Bally's Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip for $3 billion.
• 1996 -- Caesars Magical Empire, a multimillion dollar dining and entertainment complex opens in Caesars Palace June 18.
• 1996 -- Monte Carlo, a joint venture between Circus Circus Enterprises Inc. and Mirage Resorts Inc. opens June 21.
• 1996 -- The $72 million, 1,100-acre Las Vegas Speedway park with tracks for drag, stock car and formula car races to open September 1996.
• 1996 -- Clark County Commission grants building permits for the $500 million, 2,900-room Paris Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
• 1996 -- Hyatt Hotel Corp. announces plans to build a 500-room hotel on the shores of Lake Las Vegas
• 1996 -- Circus Circus Enterprises announces a joint venture with Four Seasons Regent to build a 400-room, five star non-gaming hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
• 1996 -- The Sands Hotel, after 44 years of continuous operation, is closed June 30 by owner Sheldon Adelson who announces plans to build a 6,000-room megaresort on the Las Vegas Strip site. Sands tower imploded Nov. 26.
• 1996 -- Flamingo Hilton celebrates 50th anniversary. Caesars Palace celebrates 30th anniversary.
• 1996 -- State Line, NV, at the Southern Nevada-California border, is renamed Primm in honor of the community's founder Ernest Primm.
• 1996 -- Ground breaking held for 3,000-room Planet Hollywood Hotel Casino adjacent to The Desert Inn at Sands Avenue and the Las Vegas Strip. Construction on the joint venture between ITT Corp. and Planet Hollywood was never started.
• 1996 -- Circus Circus implodes Hacienda Hotel Casino Dec. 31 to make way for megaresort.
• 1996 -- 29.6 million people visit Las Vegas in 1996; state gross gaming revenue totals $7.45 billion, and Clark County population hits 1.1 million.
• 1997 -- The Tropicana Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip celebrates its 40th anniversary.
• 1997 -- New York-New York Hotel Casino opens on the Las Vegas Strip Jan 3. More than 100,000 people a day visited the new resort during the casinos first days in operation.
• 1997 -- Hilton Hotels Corp. makes a $10.5 billion hostile take-over move on Jan. 28 against ITT Corp. which resists the bid. ITT shareholders reject Hilton take-over in favor of a more lucrative offer by Starwood Lodging. The deal involves ownership of Caesars Place and The Desert Inn on the Las Vegas Strip.
• 1997 -- The 6,945-yard, par 71 Lakes Course opens Feb. 7, the first golf course located in Primm, NV.
• 1997 -- Sheldon Adelson breaks ground in April to build a 6,000-room, $1.8 billion Venetian theme resort on the grounds of the original Sands Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
• 1997 -- Steve Wynn, builder of Las Vegas Strip megaresorts, calls for a slow approach to future expansion in Las Vegas.
• 1997 -- The U.S. Air Force celebrates its 50th anniversary in an unequaled display of aviation military might attended by 80 foreign, high-ranking NATO and Pacific Air Command officials, and 300,000 spectators.
• 1997 -- Sue Henley, a Las Vegas construction inspector, wins $12,510,549 on a Megabucks slot machine April 14 in New York-New York Hotel/Casino. It is the largest slot machine jackpot in history to date.
• 1997 -- Coca Cola Co. opens its World of Coca Cola store in the Showcase Mall marked by a 100-foot-tall glass Coca Cola bottle.
• 1997 -- The first non-stop scheduled commercial flight from Frankfurt-Mein International Airport in Germany lands May 7 with 215 passengers at McCarran International Airport.
• 1997 -- Sunset Station Hotel-Casino opens June 10.
• 1997 -- Players Island Resort Hotel and Spa in Mesquite purchased by Virgin River Casino and renamed CasaBlanca on July 1.
• 1997 -- The Forum Shops at Caesars on Aug. 29 opened 35 new shops, stores and restaurants in a 276,000-square-foot expansion. The growth doubled the size of the upscale shopping mall adjacent to Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.
• 1997 -- The Aladdin Hotel closed on the Las Vegas Strip Nov. 25 making way for a $1.2 billion gambling and hotel complex. Plans call for development of a Middle East-theme shopping center, a 2,600-room hotel as well as a joint venture with Planet Hollywood Inc. for development of a neighboring $250 million, 2,000-room music-theme resort.
• 1997 -- The Desert Inn Hotel Casino completes $200 million renovation and expansion.
• 1997 -- Owners change the name of the Boomtown Hotel Casino to Silverton after Majestic Realty Co. took control of the struggling resort from Boomtown Inc.
• 1997 -- Harley Davidson Cafe opens on the Las Vegas Strip, continuing the theme restaurant proliferation.
• 1997 -- Caesars Palace opens new tower in December.
• 1997 -- Harrah's Entertainment Inc. buys Showboat Inc. in a $1.154 billion deal.
• 1997 -- The Frontier Hotel, owned by the Elardi family, is sold to Phil Ruffin, a Kansas industrialist, for $165 million.
• 1997 -- Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino opens Masquerade Village and new 41-story, 1,025-room tower giving the resort a total of 2,556 suites.
• 1997 -- Alan Paulson, California entrepreneur, buys the Gold River Casino/Hotel in Laughlin.
• 1998 -- Star Trek: The Experience opens Jan. 4 at the Las Vegas Hilton.
• 1998 -- Ameristar Casinos, Inc. opens The Reserve Hotel Casino on Feb. 10
• 1998 -- Circus Circus officials announce that Mandalay Bay will be the name of the company's new resort at the Strip and Russell Road. The hotel's working name was Project Paradise.
• 1998 -- Starwood Hotels & Resorts buys ITT Corp. for $14.6 billion. The purchase includes acquisition of Caesars Palace and The Desert Inn hotel/casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.
• 1998 -- Eagle Canyon Airlines buys Las Vegas-based Scenic Airlines.
• 1998 -- The Aladdin Hotel is imploded on April 27.
• 1998 -- Northwest Airlines inaugurates non-stop service June 1 from Tokyo to Las Vegas.
• 1998 -- Japan Airlines inaugurates non-stop service October 2 from Tokyo to Las Vegas.
• 1998 -- Koren Airlines makes history in August with three non-stop charter flights from Seoul, Korea, to Las Vegas.
• 1998 -- Country Star restaurant on the Strip is acquired by Mirage Resorts Inc. and closes.
• 1998 -- Bellagio, billed as the most expensive hotel in the world ($1.7 billion) opens October 15 on the Las Vegas Strip and initiates a policy barring persons under 18 years of age who are not registered guests of the hotel.
• 1998 -- Las Vegas Convention Center opens an expansion, boosting its total space to 1.9 million square feet.
• 1998 -- The Debbie Reynolds hotel-casino, a half block east of the Las Vegas Strip on Convention Center Drive, is sold at public auction August 5 to the World Wresting Federation for $9.27 million.
• 1998 -- The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is sold in December by founders Bill Bennett and Ralph Englestad to North Carolina-based Speedway Motorsports Inc., headed by O. Bruton Smith, for $215 million.
• 1998 -- Proposition 5 is passed by California voters in November, opening the door for casino-style gambling on American Indian reservations.
• 1998 -- A 66-year-old Las Vegas resident hits a $27.58 million progressive Megabucks jackpot November 15 at the Palace Station Hotel Casino.
• 1998 -- The D gates open at McCarran International Airport.
• 1998 -- Annual gross gaming revenue in Nevada hits the $8.1 billion mark.
• 1998 -- Annual number of visitors to Las Vegas totals 30.6 million people.
• 1998 -- Hilton Hotels Corp. spins off its gaming division to Park Place Entertainment Corp., including the Las Vegas Hilton, Flamingo Hilton, Bally's and soon to open Paris Las Vegas on the Strip, December 31.
• 1999 -- Harrah's Entertainment Inc. purchases the Rio Hotel-Casino Inc. for $888 million, Jan. 1.
• 1999 -- MGM Grand Inc. buys Primadonna Resorts Inc., taking 100 percent ownership of New York-New York Hotel-Casino on the Las Vegas Strip and Whiskey Pete's, Buffalo Bill's and Primm Valley Resort & Casino in Primm, NV, March 1.
• 1999 -- Mandalay Bay Resort opens March 2 with 3,300 rooms.
• 1999 -- Four Seasons Hotel opens March 2 with 424 rooms
• 1999 -- Japan Airlines adds a fourth nonstop flight per week in April from Tokyo to Las Vegas.
• 1999 -- Phase I of the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino opens May 3 with 3,036 suites.
• 1999 -- The Las Vegas Convention Center celebrates its 40th birthday.
• 1999 -- Circus Circus Enterprises changes its name to Mandalay Resort Group.
• 1999 -- The Resort at Summerlin opens July 15th.
• 1999 -- Paris Las Vegas Casino Resort opens September 1, 1999
• 1999 -- Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Tina Turner, Wayne Newton and Don Rickles are among the many entertainers booked by Las Vegas resorts to ring in the new century.
• 2000 -- A $3 billion deal closes to sell Caesars World Inc., including Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip, to Park Place Entertainment.
• 2000 -- The Resort at Summerlin changes its name to The Regent Las Vegas.
• 2000 -- MGM Grand Inc. announces the purchase of Mirage Resorts Inc., creating the largest corporate buyout in gaming history.
• 2000 -- Steve Wynn buys the Desert Inn and closes it on August 28.
• 2000 -- El Rancho (formally the Thunderbird, then the Silverbird) is imploded on October 3rd.
• 2000 -- A $3 billion deal closes selling Caesars World Inc., including Caesars Palace, to Park Place Entertainment.
• 2000 -- MGM Grand Inc. announces the purchase of Mirage Resorts Inc., in the largest corporate buyout in gaming history.
• 2000 -- The new Aladdin Resort & Casino opens August 18th on the Strip.
• 2000 -- The Desert Inn is bought by casino/hotel entrepreneur Steve Wynn who implodes it to make way for construction of Wynn Las Vegas, a 2,700-room, $2.7 billion property.
• 2000 -- The MGM Grand Hotel & Casino satellite registration/hotel check-in facility at McCarran Airport opens, the first facility of its kind in North America.
• 2001 -- Clark County's population reaches 1,498,274, while Las Vegas gets to 506,111.
• 2001 -- Station Casinos opens the Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa, a $300 million dollar property in Henderson.
• 2001 -- The 3 millionth marriage certificate is recorded in Clark County on February 9.
• 2003 -- Clark County's population reaches 1,641,529; Las Vegas' grows to 535,395.
• 2003 -- In April, Caesars Palace opens the Colosseum, a $95 million contemporary replica of its namesake in Rome and home to Caesars Palace's newest resident performer, Celine Dion.
• 2003 -- The Stratosphere releases plans for its latest thrill ride, a teeter-totter like device situated nearly 900 feet above Las Vegas Boulevard, aptly called X Scream.
• 2003 -- Las Vegas Premium Outlets open in downtown Las Vegas.
• 2003 -- The Fashion Show mall completes a $1 billion expansion, including a towering outdoor multimedia platform called, "The Cloud."
• 2003 -- Mandalay Bay opens new 1,120-suite tower, The Hotel.
• 2004 -- Harrah's Entertainment purchases Binion's Horseshoe.
• 2004 -- Mergers abound in Las Vegas. MGM MIRAGE announces plans to purchase the Mandalay Resort Group. One month later, Harrah's Entertainment announces its plans to purchase Caesars Entertainment.
• 2004 -- The Strip dims its lights for President Ronald Reagan's passing. Other dignitaries to receive such a remembrance upon their passing have included President John F. Kennedy; Rat Pack members Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin; and George Burns.
• 2004 -- The Las Vegas Monorail, a $654 million mass transit system, opens to the public.
• 2004 -- Las Vegas Sands releases new details about its planned $1.6 billion Palazzo casino resort on the Strip.
• 2005 -- Las Vegas celebrates is Centennial year throughout 2005, beginning with the New Year's fireworks display. Las Vegas will celebrate its 100th birthday on May 15, 2005, with the world's largest birthday cake and a recreation of the 1905 land auction that started the Las Vegas community as we know it today.
• 2005 -- Riviera Celebrates 50 Years
• 2005 -- Steve Wynn opens Wynn Las Vegas on April 28th.
• 2005 -- South Coast Hotel & Casino, south of the Las Vegas Strip opens December 22nd.

Compiled by the Las Vegas News Bureau & The Las Vegas Online Entertainment Guide