History of Memphis Timeline

Henry Van Pelt began publishing The Appeal newspaper, ancestor of today's Commercial Appeal, in a wooden shack along the Wolf River in 1841.

The Gayoso House Hotel was built overlooking the Mississippi River in 1842 and became a Memphis landmark; it stood until 1899, when it burned down.

Image source: Gayoso Hotel

In the 19th century, Memphis grew as a center for transporting, grading, and marketing growing volumes of cotton produced in the nearby Mississippi Delta, becoming known for King Cotton commerce.

Image source: King Cotton

Memphis was one of the two eastern termini of the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route to California from 1857 to 1861, connecting the city to transcontinental communications.

Image source: Butterfield Overland Mail

In 1857 the Memphis & Charleston Railroad was completed, linking an Atlantic Ocean port with one on the Mississippi River, greatly boosting Memphis's commercial reach.

Image source: Memphis and Charleston Railroad

Tennessee seceded from the Union in June 1861 and Memphis briefly became a Confederate stronghold. Union forces moving down the Mississippi River captured Memphis from the Confederacy in the First Battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862.

Image source: First Battle of Memphis

By 1865, there were 20,000 blacks in Memphis, a sevenfold increase from the 3,000 before the war. By 1870, the black population was 15,000 in a city total of 40,226.

In 1866 there was a major massacre with whites attacking blacks. The presence of black Union soldiers was resented by ethnic whites in the city, where thousands of Irish had immigrated since the mid-19th century. On July 24, 1866, Tennessee became the first southern state re-admitted to the Union.

Image source: Memphis massacre of 1866

Extensive yellow fever epidemics in the 1870s devastated the city. In 1873 some 2,000 people died, the highest fatalities of any inland city, foreshadowing even worse outbreaks to come.

The Memphis Cotton Exchange was founded in 1873 by a group of cotton traders led by Napoleon Hill, cementing the city's role as a major cotton marketing hub.

Image source: Memphis Cotton Exchange

When yellow fever was diagnosed on August 5, 1878, more than 25,000 people left the city within two weeks; tens of thousands fled and more than 5,000 died, with hundreds more dying in the next year's epidemic. Fleeing families reportedly left their houses with doors wide open and silver standing on the sideboards.

Image source: Yellow fever

So many people died or fled the yellow fever epidemics that in 1879 Memphis lost its city charter and went bankrupt. Until 1893 Memphis was governed by the state as a Taxing District.

Construction of the sewers began in January 1880, and by 1893 had expanded to over 50 miles of sewers, a crucial public health improvement following the devastating epidemics.

In 1887, a source of abundant and pure artesian water was found beneath the city, which guaranteed its water supply and aided its recovery after the yellow fever years.

Image source: Geography of Memphis, Tennessee

In 1892, the first Mississippi River bridge at Memphis opened, connecting the city to Arkansas and the western rail networks.

Image source: Frisco Bridge

As a result of sanitation improvements and the discovery of artesian water, the city began to prosper again, and it regained its charter and home rule in 1893.

In 1897, as a conspicuous claim to its revival, Memphis displayed a pyramid-shaped pavilion prominently at the Tennessee Centennial exposition, embracing the city's Egyptian namesake.

Image source: Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition

By the early 20th century, cotton was still a major commodity crop; Memphis grew into the world's largest spot cotton market and the world's largest hardwood lumber market.

Image source: Economy of Memphis, Tennessee

Attracting workers from rural areas as well as new immigrants, from 1900 to 1950 the city increased nearly fourfold in population, from 102,350 to 396,000 residents.

Boss Edward Crump obtained a state law in 1911 establishing a commission to manage the city. He retained full control until his death in 1954, and Roger Biles argues the political system remained virtually unchanged from 1910 into the 1950s and 1960s thanks to Crump's wire-pulling. The city retained commission government until 1967.

Image source: E. H. Crump

In 1942, the US Navy built the Millington Naval Air Station (now the Naval Support Activity Mid-South) in Millington, Tennessee, just north of Memphis, boosting wartime industry and employment.

Image source: Naval Support Activity Mid-South

During the 1960s Memphis was a center of civil rights activity. In 1968, the Memphis sanitation strike began for living wages and better working conditions; the workers were overwhelmingly African American.

Image source: Memphis sanitation strike

Martin Luther King Jr. stayed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he was assassinated by a sniper on April 4, 1968, the day after giving his prophetic I've Been to the Mountaintop speech at the Mason Temple.

Image source: Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

A federal court order in 1973 required Memphis to provide busing to fully integrate the schools. After the riots and busing, about 40,000 of the system's 71,000 white students abandoned the system in four years.

Image source: Desegregation busing

On December 23, 1988, a tanker truck hauling liquefied propane crashed at the I-40/I-240 interchange in Midtown and exploded, starting multiple vehicle and structural fires.

Image source: Memphis tanker truck disaster

In 1991 the city of Memphis elected its first African-American mayor, Dr. W. W. Herenton, marking a milestone in the city's political history.

Image source: W. W. Herenton

By the time it closed in 1997, the Memphis Army Depot had 130 buildings on site with more than 4,000,000 square feet of enclosed industrial space, and its redevelopment transformed parts of the city.

On September 12, 2025, President Donald Trump announced the deployment of National Guardsmen to Memphis, saying that Memphis is deeply troubled. On September 15 he signed a memorandum ordering federal law enforcement deployment as part of a task force with Tennessee's National Guard, and on October 1, 2025 the federal presence increased in the city.

Image source: Domestic military deployments by the second Trump administration