Timeline Nevada
Return to home
ALH: http://www.alhn.org/nevada.htm
Facts & Links: http://www.50states.com/nevada.htm
Lycos: http://infoplease.lycos.com/ipa/A0108242.html
Newspapers: http://ajr.newslink.org/nvnews.html
Virtual Tourist:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/North_America/USA/Nevada/?s=@959470737-10618
Nevada means
"snow-capped" in Spanish. The Mountain Bluebird
(Sialia Artica, also commonly known as the "Arctic Blue-bird") is the
official state bird and the Sagebrush is the official flower. The state
motto is "All for our country," and the state slogan is "Battle Born."
Its size is 110,561 square miles.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.E3)(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.1B)
Before whites
arrived the Indians around Pyramid lake called the lake Cyui-ui Pah and
called themselves Kuiyuidokado (eaters of the Cui-ui fish).
(SFC, 12/28/02, p.A20)
The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) owned about 85% of Nevada.
(Econ, 11/26/05, p.37)
230Mil BC The
Panthalassa Ocean covered much of what later became the western United
States. Sediments later called the Luning Formation were deposited in
what later became the mountain ranges of central Nevada. Fossil
ichthyosaurs included Shonisaurus popularis.
(NH, 6/01,
p.22)(www.shgresources.com/nv/symbols/fossil/)
225Mil BC Icthyosaur fossils first found in 1928 by
Prof. Seimon W. Muller of Stanford 150 miles SE of Reno, dated to this
time. An inland sea linked to the Pacific and submerged California and
Nevada during the Triassic.
(SFEC, 4/23/00,
p.T10)(www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0849392.html)
145Mil BC The seas over Nevada receded.
(SFC, 12/2/06, p.A6)
112Mil BC-99Mil BC Most of Nevada was a flood plain and supported
dinosaurs including the raptor dromaesaur, sauropods, tyrannosauroids
and iguanodonts.
(SFC, 12/2/06, p.A6)
23-5 Million BP Mastadons, mammoths and rhinos roved
Nevada during the Miocene.
(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.C5)
c10,000BCE Petroglyphs dating to this time were later
discovered in the Big Smokey Valley of Nevada, where Lake Tolyabe and
Lake Tonopah provided for human habitation.
(USDI, 2004)
c0AD The last small lake disappeared
from the Death Valley basin about this time. At least 4 lakes covered
the valley floor in Earth's history.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.T5)
1843-1844 John C. Fremont discovered that Nevada lies
within the Great Basin, where all waters run inward without outlet to
an ocean.
(SFEC, 10/31/99, BR p.10)
1845 John C. Fremont led his 3rd
surveying expedition through the central Great Basin of Nevada. He was
accompanied by Thomas E. Breckenridge, a Missouri fur trapper.
(BLM, 2001)(ON, 12/06, p.5)
1846 Oct 31, Heavy snows trapped
the Donner party in the eastern Sierras near what is now Truckee.
(SFC, 7/20/96,
p.C1)(www.utahcrossroads.org/DonnerParty/Chronology.htm)
1846 Dec 16, In desperation 10 men
and 5 women of the Donner Party left on snowshoes to cross the Sierra
Nevada. The 5 women and 2 men survived. All but one of the dead were
eaten. Of the 89 members in the whole group 42 died.
(SFC, 7/20/96, p.C1)
1846 The Applegate Trail across
northwest Nevada and northeast California was blazed as a southern
approach to Oregon's Willamette Valley.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, p.T7)
1849 The first white settlement
was by Mormons at Genoa near Carson City, then called Mormon Station.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.1B)
1849 Peter Lassen pioneered a new
route to California that bypassed the 40 Mile Desert in Nevada. The
trail led from Nevada to Oregon and was combined with another trail
that led past his ranch and trading post near Chico. The trail however
led across more desert and came to be called "The Death Route."
(SFC, 8/22/98, p.A13)(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A1,9)
c1850 Peter Lassen pioneered a new
route to California that bypassed the 40 Mile Desert in Nevada.
(SFC, 8/22/98, p.A13)
1851 A Mormon trading post in
Carson Valley, later called Genoa, became the 1st permanent white
settlement.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, DB p.67)
1853 Kit Carson herded some 7,000
sheep through Eagle Valley, where Carson City was later founded.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T7)
1859 May 26, Captain James Simpson
and his party, looking for the shortest route across Nevada, crossed
the Hickison Summit into Big Smoky Valley. Their path was later
followed by the Pony Express (1860) and the Overland Mail and Stage
(1861).
(BLM, 2001)
1859 Jun 11, Comstock silver load
was discovered near Virginia City, Nevada. Prospector James Finney
stumbled across thick, bluish clay in western Nevada. A fellow minor,
Henry Comstock, gave his name to the lode, the most lucrative silver
ore mine in history. Ott’s Assay Office in Nevada City, Ca., first
assayed samples of the rich Comstock Lode of Nevada. Four Irishmen
known as the Bonanza Kings bought up shares in the Comstock mines and
became rich. They were John Mackay, James Fair, James Flood, and
William O’Brian. Ore from the Comstock lode was hauled by horse-drawn
wagon over Donner Pass to SF.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T6)(SFC, 4/14/96, T-3)(SFC,
5/19/96,City Guide, p.17)(RFH-MDHP, 1969, p.107)(SC, 6/11/02)
1859 Colonel Frederick W. Lander
led an expedition to the West to survey a railroad route across Nevada
to California. Artist Alfred Bierstadt accompanied the expedition.
(www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/sherman2.html)
1859-1860 The International Hotel was built in
Virginia City. In 1863 it was taken down to make room for a larger
version. The original was moved to Austin, Nevada.
(ACC, 2004)
1860 Aug 11, The first US
successful silver mill began operation near Virginia City, Nev.
(AP, 8/11/97)
1860 John Wagner established
Nevada's longest-operating brewery in Carson City during the rush to
Virginia City. The Carson Brewing Co. built a new two-story brewery in
1865 in the commercial form of Classical Revival, on the corner of
Division and King streets, where it was later turned into an arts and
performance center.
(www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/nevada/bre.htm)(SSFC,
11/19/06, p.F10)
1861 Mar 2, The Territory of
Nevada was created by an act of Congress. The first elected governor of
the state was Henry G. Blasdel
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.1B)(SFEC, 7/9/00, DB p.67)
1861 Orion Clemens was appointed
Secretary of the Territory of Nevada. He took along his young brother,
Sam Clemens (Mark Twain).
(SFEC, 9/17/00, Z1 p.2)
1862 Mar 2, Gen’l. Frederick W.
Lander (b.1821), transcontinental engineer and Union General, died of
“congestion of the brain” at Paw Paw, Virginia. He was the chief
engineer of the Central Overland route. In 2000 Gary L. Ecalbarger
authored “Frederick W. Lander: The Great Natural American Soldier.”
(www.picturehistory.com/find/p/16832/mcms.html)(ACC,
2004)
1862 Dec 19, Lander County,
Nevada, was formed and took in the eastern third of the state with the
1st county seat at Jacobsville. It was later broken up into Lander,
Eureka, White Pine and Elko.
(ACC, 2004)
1862 Austin, Nevada, was born when
a horse kicked loose a rock revealing rich silver ore.
(ACC, 2004)
1862 David Walley of New York
discovered natural hot springs about 90 miles south of Carson City.
(SSFC, 12/18/05, p.F4)
1863 Feb 3, Samuel Clemens became
Mark Twain for 1st time. In Nevada the Territorial Enterprise in
Comstock printed some humorous letters from a reader named “Josh.” The
editor hired the man, who was Samuel Clemens, for $25 a week. Clemens
accepted and changed his pen name to Mark Twain. Sam had dropped the
penname "Josh" and first signed himself "Mark Twain" in a letter
written on January 31, 1863. The Territorial Enterprise published the
letter in its Tuesday, February 3, 1863 issue
(http://www.twainquotes.com/18630203t.html).
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)
1863 Mar 3, Congress authorized a
US mint at Carson City, NV, and Gold certificates as currency.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1863 May 16, The Reese River
Reveille, Nevada’s oldest newspaper, began publishing and continued
until June, 1993.
(ACC, 2004)
1863 The Sears-Ferris House was
built in Carson City, Nev. It was the boyhood home of Gale Ferris
(1859-1896), the inventor of the Ferris Wheel.
(SSFC, 11/19/06, p.F10)
1863 Austin got itself declared
the official Lander County seat.
(ACC, 2004)
1863 In Virginia City a 3-story
brick mansion was built as the office and residence for the owners of
the Chollor-Potosi mining company.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T6)
1863 The Kingston silver mine was
discovered in central Nevada.
(ACC, 2004)
1864 Oct 31, Nevada became the
36th state under a proclamation signed by Pres. Lincoln.
(AP, 10/31/97)(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.1B)(HN, 10/31/98)
1864 The Clemens House was built
in Carson City, Nev., by Orion Clemens, brother of author Samuel
Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. Orion served as the first and only
Territorial Secretary (1861-1864), and at times, acting governor of the
Nevada Territory.
(SSFC, 11/19/06,
p.F10)(www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/nevada/ori.htm)
1864 William Sharon (44) was sent
from SF to Virginia City as manager of the Nevada branch of the Bank of
California.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1864 Ruel C. Gridley (d.1870),
owner of the Gridley Store in Austin, Nevada, lost an election bet and
had to carry a 50 lb. sack of flour the length of Austin to the tune of
“John Brown’s Body.” The sack was auctioned and the proceeds went to
the Sanitary Fund, a forerunner to the Red Cross, to help relieve
suffering created by the Civil War. The sack was resold many times and
soon other towns called for a similar auction. The last auction was at
the St. Louis World’s Fair.
(ACC, 2004)
1865 William Brown opened the
Boston Saloon in Virginia City for black patrons. It burned down in an
1876 fire.
(AM, 11/00, p.23)
1868 Jan 15, The Masonic-Odd
Fellows Hall in Austin, Nevada, formally opened with a ball.
(ACC, 2004)
1868 The Central Pacific Railroad
came through Reno. The town had been founded on the banks of the
Truckee River by Myron Lake and was named after a Civil War general.
Lake's land was bought up by Charles Crocker, who had surveyors lay out
streets and a town for which he sold lots. The Crocker land eventually
came under the control of the Pacific Improvement Co., controlled by
Crocker, Huntington, Hopkins and Stanford.
(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A12)
1868 The Virginia and Truckee
railroad line was built to serve Virginia City, Nv., site of the
richest silver strike in history. Ted Wurm (d.2004) later co-authored
with Harre W. Demoro "Silver Short Line," a history of the line.
(SSFC, 2/29/04, p.A25)
1868 St. Peter’s Episcopal Church
was built in Carson City, Nev.
(SSFC, 11/19/06, p.F10)
1869 The courthouse in Austin,
Nevada, was built.
(ACC, 2004)
1869 Gambling in Nevada was
legalized.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)
1869 The first assay report from
Berlin Canyon was filed.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.T10)
1869 A fire at Yellow Jacket Mine
near Virginia City killed 45 people.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T7)
1870 Nov 4, Reuel Gridley,
supporter of the Civil War Sanitary Commission, died in poverty. He had
been a co-partner of the Gridley, Robert and Jacob Store in Austin,
Nevada.
(AHS, brochure)
1870 Palisade, Nevada, was
established and became a railroad transfer point for ore from nearby
mines.
(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A2)
1870 A US Mint began operations in
Carson City, Nev., and continued to 1893, after which it was turned
into the Nevada State Museum.
(SSFC, 11/19/06, p.F10)
1870s George Hearst (d.1891) built
the Charcoal Kilns in Death Valley.
(CHA, 1/2001)
1871 Sep 9, A cornerstone was laid
for the Lander County Courthouse in Austin, Nevada.
(ACC, 2004)
1871 The silver-domed state
capital in Carson City was completed. It was completely rebuilt between
1977-1981.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T7)
1871 In Reno, Nevada, Jacob W.
Davis (born as Jacob Youphes), a Jewish tailor from Latvia, custom made
a pair of work pants using rivets to reinforce the pockets.
(ON, 4/05, p.11)
1872 Jul 2, Jacob W. Davis of
Reno, Nevada, sent Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco a sample of
his work pants and a business proposal for Strauss to apply for a
patent in exchange for a half share in the patent. Davis soon sold his
half share to Strauss and moved to San Francisco to supervise the
manufacture of the work pants.
(ON, 4/05, p.11)
1872 Mark Twain wrote "Roughing
It." It chronicles the night he and 2 friends spent in a blizzard only
15 steps from the Desert Wells Trading Station in Nevada.
(SFEM, 9/15/96, p.24)(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.19)
1872 In Nevada Francis Marion
"Borax" Smith (d.1931) found borax in Peel’s Marsh. In 1890 he
developed the Pacific Coast Borax Company to transport the borax on a
1-day, 169-mile trip from Death Valley to a railhead at Mohave with the
famed 20-mule team. He later consolidated the SF Bay Area trolley lines
into the Key System.
(SFC, 11/6/98, p.D5)(SSFC, 10/20/02, p.A19)
1873 The "Big Bonanza," a huge
silver deposit, was found by miners working for the Comstock Kings in
Virginia City. The 1999 book "The Roar and the Silence" by Ronald James
described the silver boom in Virginia City.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, Z1 p.4)
1874 Trinity Church in Nevada City
was established.
(SFC, 7/15/98, p.A20)
1874 The Nevada state legislature
overrode the Governor’s veto and approved a railroad from Austin to
Battle Mountain. Construction only began 4 ½ years later.
(ACC, 2004)
1875 William Sharon of SF was
elected to a 6-year term as Senator. It is believed that he spent some
$1 million to get elected.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1876 The Fourth Ward School in
Virginia City, a gem of Second Empire architecture, was built on C
Street.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, Z1 p.4)
1878 A tunnel to drain and
ventilate the silver mines at the Comstock Lode was completed by Adolph
Sutro.
(G, Winter 98/99, p.1)
1879 The Bliss Mansion was built
in Carson City for Duane Bliss, a lumber magnate. He supplied lumber to
the Comstock mines.
(SSFC, 11/19/06, p.F10)
1879 Adolph Sutro returned to SF
after becoming a millionaire from building a tunnel at the silver mines
of the Nevada Comstock Lode.
(G, Winter 98/99, p.1)
1879 In Nevada the "Great Fire of
Reno" claimed six lives.
(AP, 11/5/06)
1880 Feb 9, Austin, Nevada,
extended its city limits in order to obtain a railroad subsidy that
required the completion of a road by midnight.
(ACC, 2004)
1880 Jacob Bressman left
Pennsylvania with his family and homesteaded in the what later became
Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.C5)
1885 Dec, A Nevada Circuit court
reversed the 1884 SF ruling against William Sharon and ruled that the
marriage certificate and letters of Sarah Althea Hill were forgeries.
Hill later married one of her attorneys, David Terry.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1885 Piper's Opera House in
Virginia City was rebuilt a third time. It had been founded by John
Piper.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, Z1 p.4)
1885 Emma Nevada (d.1940), opera
singer born in Austin, Nevada, as Emma Wixom, returned to America and
her home town for a triumphal tour.
(ACC, 2004)
1887 Ely, Nevada, was incorporated.
(SFC, 8/21/02, p.A12)
1887 Charles Lux died. His firm,
Miller and Lux, by this time owned some 700,000 head of cattle in
Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Over 700 miles of private telegraph lines
connected their ranches.
(SSF, 1976, p.2)
c1890s In the late 1800s soldiers
found garnets in the mountains of eastern Nevada and named the area the
Ruby Mountains.
(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.C4)
1895 The Berlin Mine was
established.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.T10)
1897 Anson Phelps Stokes, an
eccentric business man in the Reese River Valley, built Stokes Castle
in Austin, Nevada. He built the 92-mile Nevada Central Railroad from
Battle Mountain to Austin.
(SFCM, 3/28/04, p.43)(ACC, 2004)
1900 Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry
Alonzo Longabaugh (aka Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and their
Wild Bunch went to Fort Worth after their last holdup of the First
National Bank at Winnemucca, Nevada. They posed for pictures at John
Swartz’s photo studio.
(HT, 4/97, p.45)(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)
1900 Major silver and gold
deposits were found at Tonopah.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, DB p.67)
1902 Aug 23, Gold was discovered
in Goldfield, Nv., near Tonopah. By 1907 Goldfield grew to 20,000
residents.
(SFC, 8/31/02, p.A2)
1902 The US Newlands Act
established the Bureau of Reclamation and began to enact some of the
ideas of John Wesley Powell concerning control of water resources in 17
western states. Results included the Newlands Irrigation Project in
Nevada’s Fallon area that diverted water from the Carson and Truckee
Rivers to new farmland.
(HFA, ‘96, p.128)(SFEC, 7/9/00, DB p.67)(SFC,
12/28/02, p.A20)
1903 Major silver and gold
deposits were found at Goldfield.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, DB p.67)
1904 California’s Wells Fargo
merged with the Nevada Bank, owned by Isaias Hellman, making it one of
the West’s largest financial institutions.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, Books p.3)
1905 Las Vegas, a Mormon outpost,
railroad burg and silver mining camp, rose to township status.
(SFEM, 4/30/00, p.19)(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.T8)
1906 Jan 13, The Golden Gate Hotel
opened on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nev..
(SSFC, 11/13/05, p.F4)
1906 The Hotel Nevada opened in
Las Vegas shortly after the rail lines from Los Angeles and Salt Lake
City met nearby.
(WSJ, 5/29/98, p.B1)
1908 The Goldfield Hotel was
completed in Goldfield, Nevada, to accommodate a gold-mining frenzy. In
2004 the hamlet had shrunk to 356 people from 25,000 at its peak.
(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A1)
1909 The governor's mansion in
Carson City, built in Southern Colonial style, was completed.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T7)
1910 Jul 4, African-American Jack
Johnson knocked out Jim Jeffries in the 15th round of a heavyweight
boxing match in Reno, Nevada. As Johnson entered the ring a band played
“All Coons Look Alike to Me.” Johnson’s victory prompted race riots all
over the United States. Jack London covered the match and coined the
phrase "The great white hope" in his story.
(HN, 7/4/98)(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.B10)(Econ, 6/21/08,
p.104)
1910 Gambling in Nevada was
outlawed.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)
1911-1931 The Nevada state ban on gambling went
largely ignored.
(SSFC, 5/8/05, p.F4)
1912 Mar 16, Thelma Catherine
Patricia Ryan Nixon, first lady (1968-75) to Richard Nixon, was born in
Ely, Nevada.
(HN, 3/16/01)(MC, 3/16/02)
1913 In Goodsprings, Nevada, the
Pioneer Saloon opened. In 2006 Noel Scheckells, a Las Vegas
entrepreneur, purchased it. In 2007 Nevada added the saloon to its
Register of Historic Places.
(SFC, 4/26/08, p.A6)
1914 The Krebs-Peterson House was
built in Carson City, Nev. It was featured in actor John Wayne's last
movie, “The Shootist” (1976).
(SSFC, 11/19/06, p.F10)
1916 Drillers on the 30,000 acre
Fly Ranch in the Hualapai Flat struck geothermal water and gave birth
to the Fly Geyser. It transformed the area into a desert wetland.
(NH, 7/98, p.83)
1919 Jul 4, In Mountain City the
grand old Overland Hotel was torn down.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, BR p.8)
1920 Pat McCarran represented Mary
Pickford in a divorce that freed her to marry Douglas Fairbanks.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, BR p.12)
1922 The Mizpah Hotel was built in
Reno, Nev. In 1984 it was placed on the National Register of Historic
Places.
(AP, 11/5/06)
1922 The Colorado River Compact
allocated 7.5 million acre-feet of water from the upper basin states
(Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico) to be delivered to the lower
basin sates (California, Arizona and Nevada) plus the rights to divert
another 1 million acre-feet from the river’s lower tributaries.
(SFEC, 8/24/97, p.A10)(SFCM, 7/17/05, p.6)
1923 Mar 5, Montana and Nevada
passed the U.S.'s first old age pension grants, giving $25 per month.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1924 Feb 8, The gas chamber was
used for the first time to execute a murderer. Major D.A. Turner of the
US Medical Corps used hydrocyanic gas on an alleged Chinese Tong member
named Gee Jon at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, Nev.
(HN, 2/8/98)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.E4)(AP, 2/8/99)
1924 Four school boys discovered
Hidden Cave near Fallon, Nevada.
(SFCM, 3/28/04, p.41)
1925 Dat So La Lee, famous Carson
City Washoe weaver, died at age 90.
(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.T5)
1927 The Pacific Borax Co. opened
the Furnace Creek Inn as a luxury resort in Death Valley.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.T5)
1927 Las Vegas instituted the
90-day divorce to attract more visitors. The residential requirement
was later reduced by half.
(WSJ, 3/23/00, p.W12)
1928 Ichthyosaurs fossils were
first found by Prof. Seimon W. Muller of Stanford near Berlin, 150
miles SE of Reno.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.T10)
1929 Lora Knight, eccentric
heiress, built a teahouse on Lake Tahoe’s Fanette Island. Her 1929 home
was named Vikingsholm and later became a part of Emerald Bay State Park.
(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.C8)
1929 Neon lights first came to Las
Vegas.
(SSFC, 11/17/02, p.C12)
1930 Jul 7, Construction began on
Boulder Dam on the Colorado River. It is now known as Hoover Dam.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1931 Mar 19, Nevada legalized
gambling a 2nd time to raise tax revenues and stabilize the state’s
economy. Gov. Fred B. Balzar signed a measure legalizing casino
gambling. The Northern Club on 15 E. Fremont was soon issued the 1st
gaming license.
(HN, 3/19/98)(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)(SFEC, 7/9/00,
DB p.67)(AP, 3/19/07)
1931 The Vatican assigned
the first Catholic bishop in Nevada to Reno.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.A23)
1932 Nov 8, Patrick McCarran of
Nevada won a US Senate seat.
(SSFC, 10/3/04, p.M3)
1933 Feb 11, Pres. Hoover declared
Death Valley a national monument.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.T5)
1933 Mar 10, Nevada became the
first U.S. state to regulate narcotics.
(HN, 3/10/98)(MC, 3/10/02)
1933 Sep 1, Groundbreaking
ceremonies were held for the boulder Dam Hotel. The Colonial style
hotel opened Dec 15.
(SSFC, 5/30/04, p.D5)
1936 Sep 11, President Roosevelt
dedicated Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) by pressing a key in Washington
to signal the startup of the dam's first hydroelectric generator in
Nevada.
(AP, 9/11/97)
1936 Oct 26, At Boulder Dam the
first of the five power units to be installed under the initial plan
went into operation.
(www.usbr.gov/history/hoover.htm)
1937 Mar 26, The state slogan:
"Battle Born," was adopted.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.1B)
1937-1955 Gov. Pat McCarran entered legislation at
every session on behalf of Italian American squatters on reservation
lands of the Pyramid Paiutes.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, BR p.12)
1939 George Whittel Jr.
(1881-1969), heir to a SF family wealthy from the gold rush, completed
his Thunderbird Lodge at Lake Tahoe. He had acquired some 30,000 acres
along the Nevada shore since 1936. It was begun in 1937 and designed
Nevada architect Frederick De Longchamps. He deeded most of the land to
the US Forest Service.
(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.C8)(SFC, 7/21/07,
p.F1)(www.thunderbirdlodge.org/theman.html)
1941 The El Rancho Vegas opened
with 63 rooms. It was the first major resort built on the Las Vegas
strip. It was destroyed by fire in 1960.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)
1942 Jan 16, Actress Carole
Lombard and her mother were among some 20 people killed when their
plane crashed near Las Vegas while returning from a tour to promote war
bonds.
(AP, 1/16/00)
1942 Dec 21, The US Supreme Court
ruled all states had to recognize divorces granted in Nevada.
(AP, 12/21/05)
1945 Bill Miller (d.2002 at 98)
bought the Las Vegas hotel Riviera. It closed in 1953 to make way for
the Palisades Parkway.
(SFC, 12/17/02, p.A23)
1945 Sophie Tucker agreed to
entertain at the El Rancho for $15,000 a week.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.T6)
1946 Dec 26, The Flamingo casino
opened. Billy Wilkerson designed the Flamingo and sold a controlling
interest to Bugsy Siegel when his money ran out. It was the 3rd hotel
casino built on the Las Vegas strip.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.T8)
1946 The Nevada Club (d.1997) in
downtown Reno opened. It used slot machines made by the Jennings
company of Chicago.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, p.D3)
1947 Dec, In Reno the Mapes Hotel,
a 12-story art deco building, was constructed for use as a hotel,
casino, restaurant and entertainment facility under one roof. It became
vacant in 1982 and was added to the National Register of Historic
Places in 1984. Implosion was scheduled for Jan 30, 2000.
(SFC, 12/23/99, p.C4)(SFC, 1/18/00, p.A11)
1947 The Las Vegas Vic was
unveiled. It was replaced by a newer version in 1951 and its sidekick,
Vegas Vicky (aka Sassy Sally), was built in 1980.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)
1948 Bill Harrah married Scherry
Teague (d.2000).
(SFC, 9/21/00, p.C6)
1948 The Pine Lodge was
established in Lamoille at the foot of the Ruby Mountains.
(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.C5)
1949 A.J. Liebling, New York
reported, arrived in Nevada for Reno divorce, which required a 6-week
residency. He began a series of articles for the New Yorker on the
Pyramid Paiutes and their struggle with Italian American squatters over
water rights. In 1999 the collected stories were edited by Elmer Rusco
and published under the title "A Reporter At Large: Dateline: Pyramid
Lake, Nevada."
(SFEC, 1/2/00, BR p.12)
1950 Sep 23, Congress adopted the
Internal Security Act, which provided for registration of communists.
The Act was ruled later unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court. US
Sen. Pat McCarran (Nevada) legislated the Internal Security Act, which
included a jumble of restrictions on speech and association. Pres.
Truman attempted an unsuccessful veto of the McCarran Act, which gave
the government unprecedented powers.
(WSJ, 3/18/99, p.W17)(MC, 9/23/01)(WSJ, 10/13/04,
p.D18)
1950 The Desert Inn opened in Las
Vegas, Nv., with 300 rooms and a 3rd floor Sky Lounge.
(WSJ, 5/17/05, p.D10)
1950s Howard Hughes bought 25,000
acres around Las Vegas.
(WSJ, 1/16/98, p.A1)
1950s Las Vegas casinos began to
require work cards for workers.
(SFC, 1/16/01, p.C3)
1951 Jan 27, Atomic testing began
in the Nevada desert as an Air Force B-50D from a base in New Mexico
dropped a one-kiloton nuclear bomb on Frenchman Flats, Clark County, 65
miles NW of Las Vegas. Over the next 40 years 928 nuclear devices were
exploded at the site.
(AP, 1/27/98)(WSJ, 4/12/05, p.D8)(www.ntshf.org)
1951 Feb 1, The third A-bomb test
was completed in the desert of Nevada.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1951 Jun 1, The first
self-contained titanium plant opened in Henderson Nevada.
(DT internet 6/1/97)
1951 Oct 24, Dr. Albert W.
Bellamy, chief of Radiological Services for the California State Civil
Defense, held a press conference to assure state residents that there
would be no ill effects from the atomic test explosions near Las Vegas.
(SFC, 10/19/01, WB p.6)
1951 Nov 1, The 1st atomic
explosion, witnessed by troops, was at Yucca Flat, Nevada. Members of
the 1st Battalion, 188th Airborne Infantry Regiment from Ft. Campbell,
Kentucky, were the first unwitting test participants to be sent to that
facility by the Atomic Energy Commission and The Department of Defense
in a series of nuclear tests, code named "Buster-Jangle."
(www.angelfire.com/tx/atomicveteran/exposed.html)
1951 Benny Binion, a former
bootlegger and numbers runner from Dallas, went to Las Vegas and bought
the El Dorado casino and hotel. He renamed it The Horseshoe and
promised to take any bet, no matter how high. In 1953 he was put into
prison for income tax evasion and served 3 years and 3 months.
(WSJ, 8/24/98, p.A5)
1951-1962 The US conducted 100 nuclear atmospheric
tests at the Nevada Test Site over this period.
(AH, 6/02, p.72)
1951-1992 Some 928 bombs were exploded over this
period at the Nevada Test Site. In 1999 the area began to be used as a
training ground against terrorism.
(SFC, 10/22/01, p.A1)
1952 Apr 22, An atomic test
conducted at Yucca Flat, Nevada, became the first nuclear explosion
shown on live network television.
(AP, 4/22/99)(SFC, 4/19/02, p.G3)
1952 May 1, Marines took part in
an atomic explosion training in Nevada.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1953 May 25, The first atomic
cannon was fired, in Nevada.
(HN, 5/25/98)
1953 May 25, The first atomic
cannon was fired at Frenchman Flat, Nevada.
(HN, 5/25/98)(SC, 5/25/02)
1953 Jun 4, An atomic bomb test
explosion took place at Yucca Flats, Nevada, equivalent to 50,000 tons
of TNT. This was double the 1945 blast over Hiroshima.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.E7)
1953 The Davis Dam was completed.
(SFEC, 10/10/99, p.T6)
1953 The Algiers Lounge in Las
Vegas first opened.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.T6)
1954 Aug 23, A rolling earthquake
measuring 6.5 hit northern California and Nevada.
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.F4)
1954 Sep 28, Patrick McCarran
(b.1876), Nevada US Senator since 1932, died in Hawthorne, Nevada. In
2004 Michael J. Ybarra authored “Washington Gone Crazy: Senator Pat
McCarran and the Great American Communist Hunt.”
(www.aoc.gov/cc/art/nsh/mccarran.htm)
1954 A.J. Liebling, New York
reporter, returned to Pyramid Lake and wrote some stories on mustang
buzzing, the practice of chasing wild mustangs with small planes into
corrals to sell them for pet food.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, BR p.12)
1954 The Congo Room of the Sahara
Casino gave birth to the lounge show concept. Ragnar Qvale (d.2001),
actor turned architect, designed the original Sahara Hotel.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.T7)(SFC, 10/2/01, p.A15)
1954 The 1st major neon sign in
Las Vegas was the Young Electric sign Co.’s project for the Boulder
Club.
(SSFC, 11/17/02, p.C12)
1955 Mar 6, A US Atomic Energy
Spokesman said a cloud from the atomic blast at Nevada’s Yucca Flat
passed over the Central California coastline.
(SFC, 3/4/05, p.F3)
1955 Apr, The Riviera Casino
opened.
(SSFM, 4/29/01, p.31)
1955 May 5, The US detonated a
29-kiloton nuclear device in Nevada. "Apple 2" was the 2nd of 40 tests
of Operation Cue, meant to study the effects of a nuclear explosion on
a typical American community.
(AH, 6/02, p.72)
1955 May, The Moulin Rouge opened
at a cost of about $2 million under a group of investors led by NY
restaurateur Harry Ruben. It was highly successful with an all-black
staff except for the card dealers. It closed down after 6 months due to
possible skimming and/or pressure from other casinos who lost customers
due to the Moulin’s successful late night entertainment. In 1992 it was
granted a listing on the National Registry of Historic Places.
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.31)
1955 Jun, The Dunes Casino opened.
(SSFM, 4/29/01, p.31)
1955 Noel Coward, British
playwright, actor and composer, accepted a $35,000 per week offer to do
a cabaret act at the Las Vegas Desert Inn.
(SFC, 12/1/99, p.E1)
1955 The Hotel Nevada in Las Vegas
was purchased by 5 investors from SF and renamed the Golden Gate Hotel
with a street level casino.
(WSJ, 5/29/98, p.B1)
1955 Union Canyon was designated
as the Ichthyosaur Paleontological State Monument and in 1970 became
the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park.
(NH, 6/01, p.24)
1957 Jun 24, A 37-kiloton nuclear
fission bomb, code-named Priscilla, was exploded in the Nevada desert
at Frenchman Flat. The security of a bank vault was tested in the
experiment. At this time the US was manufacturing 10 nuclear bombs a
day.
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.E1)
1957 Sep 19, The United States
conducted its first underground nuclear test, code-named "Rainier," in
the Nevada desert.
(AP, 9/19/07)
1957 The Dunes casino introduced
topless showgirls.
(WSJ, 7/6/01, p.A4)
1957 The Tropicana casino was
opened by the Chicago mob.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.T6)
1957 The Berlin Icthyosaur State
Park was established in central Nevada to protect North America’s most
abundant collection of Icthyosaur fossils.
(http://parks.nv.gov/bi.htm)
1958 Jan 29, Actors Paul Newman
and Joanne Woodward were married in Las Vegas.
(AP, 1/29/08)
1958 The film "I Want To Live"
starred Susan Hayward as the death-row inmate Barbara Graham. It was
directed by Robert Wise and based on the Santo gang murder trial in
Nevada County.
(TVM, 1975, p.270)(SFEC, 3/1/98, DB p.49)(SFC,
7/15/98, p.A20)
1958 The 1,500 room Stardust
casino-hotel opened in Las Vegas, Nv. In 2006 Boyd Gaming Corp. planned
to tear it down and build a $4 billion complex.
(SFC, 1/5/06, p.C1)
1959 Sep 12, NBC launched
"Bonanza," the first color western on TV. 428 episodes were produced
and the show ran to 1973. 431 episodes were filmed at the 570-acre site
in Incline Village, Nevada. Michael Landon (d.1991) played Little Joe,
Lorne Greene (d.1987) played Ben Cartwright, and Dan Blocker (d.1972)
played Hoss. [see Jan 16, 1973]
(SFC, 9/3/98, p.A12)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A29)(SSFC,
8/8/04, p.D2)
1960 The film "Ocean’s Eleven"
starred Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and
Joey Bishop, the 5 members of the Rat Pack. Sinatra leads an 11-man
team to rob 5 Las Vegas casinos simultaneously.
(SFC, 5/16/98, p.E6)(SFEC, 8/16/98, DB p.56)
1960s Chandler Laughlin (aka
Travus T. Hipp) and a group of Berkeley friends took over a Virginia
City building and began the Red Dog Saloon. They imported music by the
Charlatans with Dan Hicks on drums and advertised with a poster later
called "The Seed" for its influence on psychedelic art.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T6)
1962 Mar 1, US-British nuclear
test experiment took place in Nevada.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1962 Jul 6, The US tested a 104
kiloton nuclear device in Nevada in "Project Sedan" and blew a hole
1,280 feet wide and 320 feet deep. It was one of many "Plowshare"
experiments to see if atomic detonations could be used for large scale
peaceful purposes.
(SFC,12/23/97, p.A3)
1962 Dec 7, Great Britain
performed a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1962 A fire at the Golden Hotel in
Reno, Nev., claimed 6 lives.
(AP, 11/5/06)
1963 Amtrak began offering its
weekend Fun Train service from the SF Bay Area to Reno.
(SSFC, 1/22/06, p.E5)
1964 Aug 6, In Eastern Nevada a
bristlecone pine tree, Pinus longaeva, near Wheeler Peak was cut down
for scientific study of its age. The tree had been named Prometheus
(WPN-114) for its age which turned out to be about 4,900 years.
(SFEC, 8/23/98, Z1 p.1,4)
1964 Don Laughlin sold his 101
Club in Las Vegas.
(SFEC, 10/10/99, p.T6)
1965 Mar 3, US performed a nuclear
test at Nevada Test Site.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1966 Jun, Allen and Beatrix
Gardner of the Univ. of Nevada began teaching sign language to a
10-month-old female chimpanzee named Washoe (d.2007).
(www.friendsofwashoe.org/timeline_project_begins.shtml)(SFC, 11/1/07,
p.A2)
1966 Oct 15, US Congress passed
the Endangered Species Preservation Act. It was expanded in 1973 as the
Endangered Species Act. The Devils Hole Pupfish of Death Valley were
among the first species protected. By 1972 only 124 remained. By 2007
only 42 were left.
(www.fws.gov/endangered/1966listing.html)
1966 Caesars Casino opened with
its 1,000 seat Circus Maximus showroom. Andy Williams performed on
opening night. Dave Rogers (d.1998) was the sound engineer and made
tapes of many of the live shows.
(WSJ, 3/19/00, p.A1)
1966 Don Laughlin opened his
Riverside Hotel and Casino in South Pointe, Nevada. The town was
renamed Laughlin in 1968. In 2006 it was reported that Laughlin planned
have his body frozen upon death and had created a personal revival
trust to guarantee an income should he be revived in the future.
(SFEC, 10/10/99, p.T6)(WSJ, 1/21/06, p.A1)
1967 Mar 2, US performed a nuclear
test at Nevada Test Site.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1967 Mar 3, US performed a nuclear
test at Nevada Test Site. [see Mar 2]
(SC, 3/3/02)
1967 May 1, Elvis Presley (32)
married Priscilla Beaulieu (20) in Las Vegas at the Aladdin Hotel. They
divorced in 1973. They had met when she was 14 in West Germany.
(AP, 5/1/97)(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.66)
1967 Dec 31, Evel Knievel
(1938-2007) failed in his attempt to jump Caesar's Palace Fountain.
(www.evelknievel.com/ek-timeline.html)
1967 The Mustang Ranch brothel
opened in Storey County. Joe Conforte, a one-time cab driver in San
Francisco who used to deliver his passengers to prostitutes in the
1960s, took over the 104-room brothel when prostitution was illegal in
Nevada. The government closed it in 1990 following bankruptcy for IRS
taxes. It reopened in 1992. [see 1971]
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A3)(AP, 7/1/05)
1967 In Incline Village, Nevada,
the Ponderosa Ranch Western Studio and Theme Park opened to the public.
"Bonanza," the first color western on TV had begun filing there in
1959. In 2004 it was sold to PeopleSoft founder David Duffield.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.D2)
1968 Apr 26, The United States
exploded beneath the Nevada desert a 1.3 megaton nuclear device called
"Boxcar."
(AP, 4/26/08)
1969 Jul 30, Barbra Streisand
opened for Liberace at the International Hotel, Las Vegas.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1970 Jan 14, Diana Ross and the
Supremes performed their last concert together, at the Frontier Hotel
in Las Vegas.
(AP, 1/14/00)
1970 Mar 23, US performed the
Shaper nuclear test in Nevada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mandrel)
1970 Apr 29, Andre Agassi, tennis
star and winner of an Olympic gold medal in 1996, was born in Las
Vegas, Nev.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Agassi)
1970 Dec 18, An atomic leak in
Nevada forced hundreds to flee the test site.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1970 California and Nevada
approved The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1970 Lester "Benny" Binion, owner
of the Horseshoe Casino, founded the annual World Series of Poker.
(WSJ, 1/14/04, p.B3)
1970 Kirk Kerkorian opened his
International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, the largest hotel in the
world. It later became the Las Vegas Hilton.
(WSJ, 4/21/07,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Hotel_%28Las_Vegas%29)
1971 Jan 5, Sonny Liston (b.1932),
World Champion boxer (1962-64), was found dead in his Las Vegas home.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Liston)
1971 Hunter S. Thompson
(1937-2005, "gonzo journalist," wrote "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."
It was made into a film in 1998. The term gonzo was 1st applied to
Thompson by his journalist friend Bill Cardoso (d.1006 at 68). The term
had kicked around Boston for some time and was used by youth in the
1950s to describe something as over the top.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.C1)(SSFC, 3/5/06, p.B7)
1971 The Mustang Ranch became the
state's first legal bordello.
(AP, 7/1/05)
1971 Michael Oliver, a Las
Vegas-based libertarian activist, created the Republic of Minerva by
dumping sand on the Minerva Reefs 310 miles southwest of Tonga. He
proclaimed independence in 1972, but Tonga annexed the place and it
soon sank.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.84)
1971 The Lake Tahoe State Park in
Nevada was officially dedicated.
(SFC, 6/6/06, p.B5)
1973 Mar 23, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Toggle)
1973 Dec 24, The MGM Grand in Las
Vegas opened to the public.
(www.vegas4visitors.com/museum/mgmgrand.htm)
1974 May, William Bennett (d.2002
at 78) and William Pennington bought Circus Circus Enterprises. They
took the company public in 1983.
(SFC, 12/24/02,
p.A13)(www.answers.com/topic/mandalay-resort-group-1?cat=biz-fin)
1974 Gladys Mapes, aka "Mrs.
Reno," died. The Mapes Hotel went to her son Charles Jr. who lost the
property in 1980 to foreclosure following some unwise investments.
(SFC, 1/18/00, p.A11)
1975 The Salt Wells and the Lazy B
Ranch brothels opened in Churchill County, Nevada.
(WSJ, 10/20/04, p.A12)
1976 Feb 26, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/tests/USA-ntests3.html)
1976 Argentinean boxer Oscar
Bonavena was killed at the front gate of the Mustang Ranch. Ross Brymer
(d.2000 at 55), a ranch bodyguard, pleaded guilty to voluntary
manslaughter.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.D7)
1977 May 25, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1977 Sep 3, Lisa Marie Bonham (6)
of Martinez, Ca., was abducted from Idlewild Park in Reno. Her body was
found by hikers after 2 months. In 2000 Stephen Robert Smith, a
convicted sex offender, was charged with the murder following a DNA
match.
(SFC, 7/27/00, p.A18)
1978 Mar 23, US performed nuclear
test at Nevada Test Site.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1978 Jun 8, A jury in Clark
County, Nev., ruled the so-called "Mormon will," purportedly written by
the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.
(AP, 6/8/97)
1978 Oct 9, Larry Singleton
(1927-2001), rapist, was arrested in Sparks, Nev. He was later
convicted of raping and mutilating Mary Vincent (15) of Las Vegas.
(SFC, 1/1/02,
p.A13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Singleton)
1978 New Jersey legalized gambling
and ended the Nevada monopoly on casino gaming.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)
1979 Apr 15, The Liberace Museum
opened in Las Vegas at 1775 E. Tropicana Ave.
(SSFM, 4/29/01, p.22)
1979 Jun 24, Brenda Lynn Judd and
Sandra Colley were kidnapped in Reno, Nevada, by Gerald Gallego
(b.1946) and Charlene Williams. The bodies of Judd (14) and Colley (13)
were found in Dec 1999 in Lassen Ct., Ca. Gallego died in 2002 at age
56.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/gallego.htm)(SFC,10/28/97,
p.A17)(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A3)(SFC, 7/20/02, p.A15)
1979 Nov, The first annual COMDEX
trade show opened in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand. It was a trade show
for business related computer hardware and software. The acronym used
to stand for Computer Dealer Expo, but since 1984, the D has stood for
Distribution.
(Hem, Nov.'95,
p.138)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMDEX)
1979 The Nevada Supreme Court
ruled to uphold a May vote to move the Lander County seat to Battle
Mountain.
(ACC, 2004)
1979 Ralph Engelstad (d.2002 at
72) opened the Imperial Palace on the site of the old Flamingo Capri.
(SFC, 11/28/02, p.A30)
1979-1983 Robert List served as governor of the state.
(WSJ, 10/24/97, p.B18)
1980 Nov 21, In Las Vegas 87
people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino.
(AP, 11/21/97)
1980-1990 The US Dept. of Defense allowed the open
pit burning of highly toxic classified materials at a top secret Air
Force base called Area 51, 125 northwest of Las Vegas. Workers later
complained of strange skin diseases and other health problems and file
suit against the DoD. Government lawyers use the "mosaic theory"
argument in defense and claim that they can't acknowledge seemingly
innocuous facts without creating a mosaic that an enemy could use to
figure out military secrets.
(WSJ, 2/8/96, p.A-1)
1981 Feb 10, Eight people were
killed, 198 injured, when fire broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton
hotel-casino.
(AP, 2/10/97)
1981 May 30, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(http://tinyurl.com/32s5h3)
1981 The Tahoe Regional Planning
Agency put a moratorium on new housing around the Lake Tahoe to
maintain water quality.
(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A3)
1982 Jan 18, Four Thunderbird USAF
pilots died when their T-38 Talon jets crashed at Indian Springs
Auxiliary Airfield, Nv. Mechanical failure was cited as the cause.
Shortly after, the precision flying team began flying F-16 fighter
jets. It was the worst accident in the Thunderbirds' history. In all,
18 pilots and one crew member have died in Thunderbird crashes.
(www.reviewjournal.com)(SFC, 8/30/03, p.A22)
1982 Oct 4, Frank Rosenthal
(1929-2008), Las Vegas casino operator, survived a car bomb when his
Cadillac exploded as he turned the key. He ran the mob-owned Stardust,
Fremont, Hacienda and Marina casinos. In 1995 Martin Scorsese made his
film “Casino,” based on the life of Frank Rosenthal.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.B8)(Econ, 11/1/08, p.99)
1982 Dec, The Mapes Hotel and
Casino was closed.
(SFC, 1/18/00, p.A11)
1983 Mar 26, US performed a
nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
(www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/tests/USA-ntests3.html)
1984 Jun, In Nevada Gerald Gallego
was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to death. Charlene
Williams, his former accomplice and mother of his child, testified
against Gallego. They were involved in sex-slave murders in the late
1970s. Charlene was released from prison in 1997.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A17)(SFC, 1/21/02, p.B2)
1984 Art Bell began broadcasting a
late-night radio talk show from Pahrump. In 1998 it was the 4th most
listened to show in the US.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.W17)
1985 The 1st Cowboy Poetry
Gathering was held in Elko, Nevada. Baxter Black and Waddie Mitchell
were among the performing poets. It became an annual event held in the
last week of January.
(WSJ, 3/5/00, p.A1)(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.M2)
1985 Gov. Richard Bryan honored
Ben Dasher (d.2004), Reno benefactor, with a Benedict J. Dasher Day.
Dasher helped open the National Automobile Museum in Reno (1989).
(SFC, 1/10/04, p.B4)
1985 Las Vegas began hosting the
National Finals Rodeo (NFR), which began around 1959.
(WSJ, 1/4/00, p.A20)
1986 The Hot August Nights
festival was begun in Reno to earn money for the Easter Seal Society.
It became an annual festival touted as the world’s largest nostalgia
fest.
(SFEC, 6/14/98, p.T10)
1986 The bodies of Tony (48) and
Michael (41) Spilotro were found buried in an Indiana cornfield. Tony
“The Ant” Spilotro was a top mob figure in Las Vegas. In 2005
prosecutors indicted 11 Chicago mob figures for at least 18 murders,
including the Spilotros.
(SFC, 4/26/05, p.A5)
1986 Nevada’s 77,000-acre Great
Basin National Park was dedicated.
(SSFC, 7/18/04, p.D7)
1987 Feb 1, Terry Williams of Los
Gatos, CA, won the largest slot machine payoff to that time. He put
$4.9 million in his pockets after getting four lucky "7s" on a machine
in Reno, NV.
(www.igt.com/Content/base.asp?pid=8.17.37.19)
1987 Mar 2, Two sets of
quintuplets were born on the same day in the USA as Rosalind Helms
delivered a basketball team of bouncing babies in Peoria, IL and Robin
Jenkins became the mother of five in Las Vegas, NV,- beating the odds
there, to be sure.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1987 Jul 15, Izzatullah Wasifi
(29) was arrested at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for selling 650 grams
(23 ounces) of heroin. Prosecutors said the drugs were worth $2 million
on the street. Wasifi served three years and eight months in prison
before winning parole. In 2007 Wasifi, a long time friend of Afghan
Pres. Hamid Karzai, was appointed as general-director of Afghanistan’s
General Independent Administration of Anti-Corruption and Bribery.
(AP, 3/9/07)
1987 Nevada opened a
maximum-security prison 10 miles from Ely.
(SFC, 8/21/02, p.A12)
1987 The Texas Bass family bought
an undeveloped property 17 miles from Las Vegas and began the $500
million Lake Las Vegas development.
(WSJ, 6/21/00, p.B12)
1989 The Mormons dedicated a new
temple in Las Vegas.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.A23)
1989 Benedict J. Dasher helped
open the National Automobile Museum in Reno.
(SFC, 1/10/04, p.B4)
1989 Lester "Benny" Binion,
founder of the Horseshoe Casino, died.
(WSJ, 8/24/98, p.A1)
1990 Apr 2, The University of
Nevada at Las Vegas won the NCAA college basketball championship,
defeating Duke 103-73.
(AP, 4/2/00)
1990 Pahrump, Nevada, had 7,600
residents. The town had no police, no income tax, 5 brothels and no
need for building permits. By 1998 it grew to 24,000.
(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A3)
1990 Arthur Goldberg, head of an
East Coast trucking business, bought a 5.6% share of Bally
Entertainment and began a 10 year creation of the world’s largest
casino conglomerate.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A26)
1991 Sep 1, The Burning Man
Festival came to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada from Baker’s Beach in
San Francisco.
(SFC, 8/30/97, p.A15)
1991 Sep 21, Union members of the
Frontier Hotel-Casino went out on strike. The strike ended in 1998
under new owner, Phillip Ruffin.
(SFC, 2/2/98, p.A5)
1991 Sep, A scandal arose from the
US Navy Tailhook convention in Las Vegas. Navy officers were accused of
sexually assaulting female officers. The incident was documented by
Gregory Vistica in his book "Fall from Glory, the Men Who Sank the US
Navy." Paula Coughlin, a Navy lieutenant, pressed the initial charges
and more than 80 women made similar claims.
(WSJ, 7/10/96, p.A19)(WSJ, 10/14/96, p.A14)(SFC,
5/3/97, p.A6)
1993 Jan 6, Authorities rescued
Jennifer Stolpa and infant son after her husband found help after an
eight-day ordeal in the snow-covered Nevada desert.
(AP, 1/6/98)
1993 Oct, Heather Catherine
Tallchief (21) drove away from the Circus Circus hotel casino in Las
Vegas in an armored car with $2.5 million. In 2005 she surrendered and
said she had been influenced by her boyfriend Roberto Solis, who
remained a fugitive. The 2 had fled to Amsterdam after the heist.
(SFC, 9/16/05, p.A3)
1993 The Roman Catholic Shrine of
the Most Holy Redeemer opened in Las Vegas with seating for 2,500.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.A23)
1993 In Cactus Springs a small
shrine, dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet, opened. It was built
be a female construction crew sponsored by Genevieve Vaughan of Texas
and cared for by Patricia Pearlman, a Crone Witch from New Jersey.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/17/00, p.A1,6)
1994 Jan, Alvaro Calambro, a
Philippine native, used a hammer and crowbar to murder 2 U-Haul
employees in Reno. Calambro was executed in 1999.
(SFC, 4/6/99, p.A3)
1994 Dec, Ron Rudin (64), a
millionaire real estate developer, disappeared.
(SFC, 2/2/98, p.A3)
1994 In Cactus Springs, Nv., a
small shrine to the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet was built. It was cared
for by Patricia Pearlman, a Crone Witch from New Jersey.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A3)
c1994 Robert T. Bigelow donated
$3.7 million to the Univ. of Nevada, LV, to establish the Bigelow Chair
in Consciousness Studies. Bigelow established his fortune building
extended stay hotels and later set up Bigelow Aerospace for a hotel in
space circling the moon.
(WSJ, 8/23/99, p.A1,8)
1995 Jan, The charred body of Ron
Rudin (64), a millionaire real estate developer, was found in the
desert. His 5th wife, Margaret, was suspect but there was insufficient
evidence to arrest her.
(SFC, 2/2/98, p.A3)
1995 Dec 18, A powerful fertilizer
bomb was found outside an Internal Revenue Service office in Reno,
Nevada, but fizzled before its lit fuse could do much damage.
(AP, 12/18/00)
1995 Pope John Paul II created a
separate diocese in Las Vegas under Bishop Daniel F. Walsh.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.A23)
1995 James Chic-Cheng Chen built
America's 1st "master-planned Chinatown" in Las Vegas.
(WSJ, 4/28/04, p.A1)
1995 Harold’s Club in downtown
Reno, owned by the Fitzgerald Gaming Corp., was closed down. It was
known for a large gun collection.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, p.D3)
1995 Golden West Sports Tours
opened a shooting gallery in Las Vegas.
(WSJ, 6/16/99, p.A24)
1996 Jul, Bruce Weinstein, a
professional gambler, was killed in his bed. His decomposed body was
found a month later in the desert. His girlfriend, Amy DeChant, was
charged in the crime. She was found in Florida in 1998 hiding at the
Sunnier Days nudist camp.
(SFC, 2/2/98, p.A3,5)
1996 Sep 7, Rapper Tupac Shakur
was shot on the Las Vegas Strip; he died six days later.
(AP, 9/7/97)
1996 Sep 13, Rap star Tupac Shakur
(b.1971) died of gun shot wounds in Las Vegas after he was wounded Sep
7 in a drive-by shooting as he was leaving a Mike Tyson fight in Las
Vegas. He had just finished filming "Gang Related" later retitled
"Criminal Intent." He was buried at Stone Mountain, Georgia.
(SFC, 9/14/96, p.A1)(AP,
9/13/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupac_Shakur)
1996 Jack Lee Harelson was
convicted for stealing Native American artifacts from a cave in the
Nevada desert. In 2004 Harelson faced a trial in Oregon over charges
that he tried to hire a hit man to murder 4 people involved in his
conviction.
(Arch, 1/05, p.10)
1996 The Neon Museum was
established in Las Vegas.
(Sm, 3/06, p.26)
1997 Jan 3, Las Vegas had a total
of 101,106 hotel rooms as of this date.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)
1997 May 25, In Las Vegas Jeremy
Strohmeyer (20) raped and killed 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson in the
Primadonna Casino. Strohmeyer’s friend, David Cash, saw the initial
struggle, but failed to stop it. Cash was later plagued by fellow
students in Berkeley for his non-action. Strohmeyer admitted his guilt
in 1998 in exchange for life in prison. He was sentenced to life in
prison in Oct, 1998.
(SFC, 8/26/98, p.A14)(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A17)(SFC,
9/9/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A3)
1997 Jul 1, Nevada Athletic
Commission suspended Mike Tyson for biting Holyfield.
(www.lasvegassun.com/sports/boxing/htfight/)
1997 Jul 26, Pres. Clinton visited
Lake Tahoe and announced that the Forest Service would allot 350 acres
to the Washoe Indian tribe for a cultural center and give tribal
members access to the edge of Lake Tahoe. He also made an executive
order for $50 million over 2 years and 25 initiatives to improve the
water quality of Lake Tahoe. He brought with him $26 million worth of
natural gas postal trucks and sewage pipes to help preserve the lake.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A1,14)(AP, 7/26/98)
1997 Aug 27, The annual Burning
Man Festival began near Gerlach, Nevada, on a private ranch on the
Hualapai Playa, a prehistoric lakebed. Some 20,000 people came to the
instantly created "Black Rock City" for the torching of the 50-foot
effigy.
(SFEC, 8/24/97, p.A3)(SFC, 8/30/97, p.A1, 15)
1997 Oct 13, A British jet car,
Thrust SSC, driven by Andy Green of the Royal Air Force set a land
speed record of 764.168 mph in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. The record
was not recorded as official because turn around time went over an hour
due to braking problems. Green officially broke the record two days
later.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A1,7)(AP, 10/13/98)
1997 Oct 15, A British jet-powered
car driven by pilot Andy Green broke the land speed record with an
average run of 763.035 mph at Gerlach, Nevada. The Thrust SSC was
powered by two 110,000-horse-power Rolls-Royce Spey 205 engines. The
vehicle was 54 feet long, 12 feet wide, and weighed 10.2 tons.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A3)(AP, 10/15/98)
1997 Oct, In Nevada a US district
court convicted Jose B. Uribe for attempting to swap world famous
paintings for 110 pounds of cocaine. At least some of the paintings,
that included work by Matisse, Renoir and Dali, were said to be owned
by entertainer Wayne Newton. Newton, embroiled in a bankruptcy suit,
initially denied ownership but later changed his mind and claimed
ownership.
(SFC,11/17/97, p.A2)
1997 Dec 28, The Nevada Club owned
by the Fitzgerald Gaming Corp. in Reno closed down after being sold to
a private party. Everything inside was auctioned including 200 old
mechanical slot machines that sold for $600 when new.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, p.D3)
1997 Louise Driggs, a descendant
of John Piper, sold the Piper Opera House of Virginia City to the
nonprofit Piper's Opera House Historic Programs.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, Z1 p.4)
1997 The streets of Reno flooded
as the Truckee River overflowed.
(SSFC, 8/3/03, p.C7)
1998 Jan 7, In Mustang, Nevada,
two blasts at the Sierra Chemical Co. plant left 4 workers feared
killed.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A3)
1998 Feb 11, KVBC-FM (Las Vegas)
offered Monica Lewinsky $5M for an interview.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1998 Feb 19, Federal officials in
Henderson, Nevada, arrested Larry Wayne Harris and William Job Leavitt
for possession of suspected anthrax bacterium. Harris had earlier
published the 131-page book: "Bacteriological Warfare: A Major Threat
to North America." The substance turned out to be a harmless veterinary
vaccine. Harris was later sentenced to 6 months probation.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A1,8)(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.A11)(SFC,
3/25/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 8, A riot broke out in
Reno during the annual "Hot Autumn Nights" festival. There was some
property damage and a few minor injuries. 130 people were arrested.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A2)
1998 Sep 4, In Nevada two Air
Force helicopters crashed during training and all 12 people aboard were
killed.
(SFC, 9/5/98, p.A3)
1998 Sep 6, In Gerlach, Nevada,
15,000 people gathered at Black Rock City to watch the 13th Burning Man
go up in flames and end the 8 day arts festival.
(SFC, 9/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep, Lonnie "Ted" Binion
(55), son of Benny Binion, died from a suspected drug overdose. 6
months later the coroner declared that his death was a homicide. Sandy
Murphy (26), Binion's girl friend and her lover, Rick Tabish, were
considered prime suspects. 36 hours after Binion's death police
arrested Tabish digging up Binion's buried vault in Pahrump that
contained $4 million in silver bars and was built by Tabish. Murphy and
Tabish were arrested in 1999 and convicted of 1st degree murder in 2000.
(SFC, 5/24/99, p.A3)(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A4)(SFC,
5/20/00, p.A3)
1998 Oct 18, The new Steve Wynn
$1.6 billion, 3,000 room Bellagio Casino opened in Las Vegas. It was
built over the site of the old Dunes casino. It was named after the
Italian town of Bellagio whose name means place of relaxation.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A1)(SFEM, 11/29/98, p.13)
1998 Oct 19, Mike Tyson got his
boxing license back after pleading with the Nevada Athletic Commission
not to "torture" him anymore for biting Evander Holyfield's ears in the
ring 15 months earlier.
(AP, 10/19/08)
1998 Nov, Voters approved the
medical use of marijuana with a 59% margin.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.A20)
1998 Dec 29, In Nevada 31 wild
horses were found shot to death by rifle fire at close range at Devil's
Flat near Washoe Valley.
(SFC, 12/30/98, p.A3)
1998 Bart Maybie, Canadian
entrepreneur, bought the defunct Moulin Rouge for a reported $3
million. A re-opening was scheduled for 2003.
(SSFM, 4/29/01, p.34)
1998 The Nevada nuclear dump site
at Yucca Mountain was originally scheduled to open this year. In 2006
the US Dept. of Energy announced that it would not open until 2017.
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.A1)
1999 Jan 4, A sniper hit at least
4 vehicles on I-80 between Reno and the California border. Police
arrested Christopher Lee Merritt (20) of Mankato, Minn., who hoped to
rob the drivers after they crashed. Merritt pleaded guilty in 1999 and
was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison in 2000.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A3)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A2)(SFC, 11/6/99,
p.A6)(SFC, 1/12/00, p.A7)
1999 Jan 12, A Reno construction
worker, Anthony John Merlino (21) was arrested for the slaughter of 34
wild horses. Two marines were also charged, William Brendle (22) and
Darien Thomas (21).
(SFC, 1/13/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 8, Nevada lawmakers voted
to oppose federal plans for a nuclear storage dump northwest of Las
Vegas.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A3)
1999 Apr 4, A medical helicopter
crashed about 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas and the pilot, James Bond
Jr., and 2 nurses, Kathy Batterman and Leroy Shelton, were killed.
(SFC, 4/5/99, p.A4)
1999 May 3, The new $1.4 billion
Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino opened at the former site of the Sands
Hotel. It was developed by Las Vegas Sands, Inc.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, DB p.70)
1999 May 4, The Las Vegas primary
mayoral election were scheduled. Lawyer Oscar Goodman (59) led a 9
person filed with 49% of the vote.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.C5)(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A3)
1999 Jun 3, Zane Floyd (23), a
former Marine, killed 4 employees at an Albertsons supermarket in Las
Vegas before being arrested by police.
(SFC, 6/4/99, p.A4)
1999 Jun 8, A general election was
scheduled.
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A3)
1999 Jun 4, Senators Diane
Feinstein of California and Harry Reid of Nevada announced the Lake
Tahoe Restoration Act. The bill authorized $300 million over 10 years
to restore clarity and health to Lake Tahoe.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 8, Oscar Goodman was
elected mayor of Las Vegas with 63.8% of the vote over Arnie Adamsen.
(SFC, 6/9/99, p.A3)
1999 Jul 8, Heavy rains poured 3
inches onto Las Vegas and caused the worst flooding in 15 years.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A3)
1999 Aug 5, Lightning sparked over
75 fires and blackened some 500 sq. miles of Nevada range.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A3)
1999 Aug 9, The US government took
over the Mustang Ranch brothel following successful fraud and
racketeering charges.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A3)
1999 Sep 3, An estimated 18,000
people were in attendance at Black Rock Desert for the Burning Man
festival. Local veterans complained that spontaneous art projects
started giving way to carefully laid plans and agendas.
(SFC, 9/4/99, p.B1)(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A20)
1999 Sep 4, The 14th Burning Man
festival drew 23,500 people.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, p.C10)
1999 Sep 1, The $760 million
Paris-Las Vegas Hotel Casino, owned by Park Place Entertainment, held
its grand opening. Arthur Goldberg (d.2000 at 58) delivered the hotel
on time and on budget at $785 million.
(SFEC, 10/24/99, p.T10)(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A26)
1999 Nov 30, Five white
supremacists attempted to firebomb the Emanu-El synagogue in Reno. They
pleaded guilty at their 7/14/00 trial.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A3)
1999 Dec, The $70 million Cirque
du Soleil show called "O" began playing at the 1,800 seat Bellagio
Theater.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.AA2)
1999 David Littlejohn edited "The
Real Las Vegas: Life Beyond the Strip," a collection of 13 essays by
journalism graduates of the master's program at UC Berkeley.
(SFEC, 10/17/99, BR p.5)
1999 David Thompson published "In
Nevada: The Land, The People, God and Chance."
(SFEC, 10/31/99, BR p.10)
1999 Arthur Goldberg of Park Place
Entertainment acquired Caesar’s World for $3 billion.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A26)
2000 Jan 30, The Mapes Hotel and
Casino, listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's as one
of the most endangered landmarks, was blown up at 8 a.m. as 10,000
people watched.
(SFC, 1/18/00, p.A1)(SFC, 1/31/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 6, MGM Grand Inc. led by
Kirk Kerkorian acquired Mirage Resorts, founded by Stephen A.
Wynn, for $4.4 billion in cash.
(SFC, 3/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 8, In Nevada a van
crashed on I-15 at jean and 8 people were killed with 5 injured.
(SFC, 3/9/00, p.A3)
2000 Mar 19, In Nevada 5 youths on
a juvenile offenders cleanup crew were killed by a speeding minivan on
I-15 in Las Vegas.
(SFC, 3/20/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 19, Krystal Steadman (5)
disappeared from a playground at Stateline. Her body was found the next
day off US 50 and Thomas Robert Soria (19) was arrested.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A5)
2000 Mar 30, In Reno there was an
arson fire at a construction site. By the end of May a serial arsonist
was suspected in setting 12 fires with damages over $2 billion.
(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A6)
2000 Jun, Jose Manuel Vigoa Perez
robbed the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, continued a string of robberies
that began in 1998. He was soon caught and imprisoned. In 2008 John
Huddy authored “Storming Las Vegas: How a Cuban-Born, Soviet-Trained
Commando Took Down the Strip to the Tune of Five World-Class Hotels,
Three Armored Cars, and Millions of Dollars.”
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.W7)
2000 Jul 4, In Jarbridge the
Jarbridge Shovel Brigade reopened access to South Canyon Road, which
had been closed by the US Forest Service to protect endangered bull
trout in the Jarbridge River.
(SFC, 7/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 15, The new $97 million
Las Vegas federal courthouse opened.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A10)
2000 Sep 2, Some 28,000 people
gathered for the finale of the Burning Man festival in the Black Rock
Desert.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 12, Syl Cheney-Coker
(55), a poet from Sierra Leone, was named as the Las Vegas resident
writer-in-asylum.
(SFC, 10/12/00, p.A10)
2000 Oct 19, Arthur Goldberg, head
of Park Place Entertainment, died at age 58. In 1999 Park Place
generated $4.6 billion in revenue.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A26)
2000 Dec 15, US Congressional
compromise included federal protection for the Black Rock Desert-High
Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, 1.2 million
acres in northwest Nevada.
(SFC, 12/16/00, p.C2)
2000 Dec, Harper's magazine ran an
article by Jim McManus, a "rank amateur," who had made a successful run
in the 2000 World Series of Poker. In 2003 the article was expanded
into the book "Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs and
Binion's World Series of Poker.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.M1)
2000 Gregory Martin authored
"Mountain City," a personal look at the northern Nevada mining town.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, BR p.8)
2001 April 5, Michelle Curran (16)
was reported missing in Las Vegas. She was kidnapped as she hitchhiked,
sexually abused for three weeks, and then shot in the head. In 2006
Michael Thorton (50) and Janeen Snyder (26) were both found guilty of
murder, rape with a foreign object, and burglary. The pair were
sentenced to death.
(http://tinyurl.com/fww93)(SFC, 9/9/06, p.B2)
2001 Apr 14, It was reported that
8 cases of childhood leukemia were recorded in 2000 in the area of
Fallon, Nevada. 12 children were diagnosed with leukemia since 1997 and
high levels of arsenic in the drinking water was suspected. Jet fuel at
a nearby air base and a nuclear detonation in 1963, and pesticides were
also cited as possible causes. In 2002 a 16th case was reported.
(SFC, 4/14/01, p.A6)(SFC, 7/29/02, p.A4)
2001 Apr 21, Stephanus Bridges
(37), a South African national, was executed for the shooting Hunter
Blatchford and leaving him to bleed to death in the desert outside Las
Vegas. Bridges denied the killing.
(SFC, 4/23/01, p.A7)
2001 Jun 4, Nevada lawmakers
approved a bill to legalize Internet gambling and passed a medical
marijuana measure.
(WSJ, 6/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 18, Thousands of
firefighters fought the Martis fire at Floriston near Truckee that
covered 12,300 acres since Jun 17. The fire on the California-Nevada
border reached 14,500 acres with 2/3 in Nevada.
(SFC, 6/19/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/20/01, p.A3)(SFC,
6/23/01, p.A3)
2001 Jul 28, Martin Stern Jr.,
architect of much of the Las Vegas skyline, died at age 84.
(SFC, 8/2/01, p.C2)
2001 Aug 17, Adam Ezerski (19),
wanted for 2 recent murders in Florida, was arrested at the Holiday Inn
in Reno as the city kicked off its gay pride celebration.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 27, In Gerlach, Nevada,
thousands of people gathered at Black Rock City for the 16th Burning
Man arts festival. This year’s theme was the Seven Ages, from the
cradle to the mausoleum
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A1,9)
2001 Sep 2, The Burning Man
festival came to a close. Also burned was "The Mausoleum," a plywood
temple built over several weeks and dedicated to the dead.
(SSFC, 9/9/01, p.B3)
2001 Sep 22, Volunteers celebrated
the completion of the Tahoe Rim Trail, a 150-mile loop around Lake
Tahoe that began with an idea by US Forest Service ranger Glenn Hampton
in 1980.
(SFC, 9/29/01, p.A13)(SSFC, 4/14/02, p.C5)
2001 Oct 15, Anthrax in a letter
to a Reno Microsoft office was reported to be from Malaysia. 2
anthrax-tainted letters were reported to have been mailed from Trenton,
New Jersey and 2 postal employees there showed symptoms.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Sally Denton and Roger Morris
authored "The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold
on America 1947-2000."
(WSJ, 3/23/00, p.W12)
2001 Richard L. Orndorff, Robert
W. Wieder and Harry F. Filkorn authored "Geology Underfoot in Central
Nevada."
(NH, 6/01, p.22)
2002 Jan 10, US Energy Sec.
Spencer Abraham said he found the Nevada site at Yucca Mountain
"scientifically sound and suitable" as a nuclear waste repository.
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/11/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan, The 18th annual Cowboy
Poetry Gathering was held in Elko.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.M2)
2002 Feb 15, Pres. Bush approved
the Nevada Yucca Mountain site for nuclear waste. Nevada filed suit to
block the decision.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Apr 8, Gov. Kenny Guinn
vetoed the Pres. Bush’s endorsement of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear
waste site.
(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A5)
2002 Apr 23, The US Supreme Court
ruled that property owners were not entitled to compensation in cases
where a temporary freeze stops development. The ruling stemmed from a
development freeze around Lake Tahoe.
(SFC, 4/24/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 27, In Laughlin, Nev.,
members of the Hells Angels clashed with members of the Mongol gang and
3 people were killed in a shootout at Harrah’s. Some 80,000 bikers were
in town for the annual Laughlin River Run party. Investigations led to
arrests on Dec 3, 2003.
(SSFC, 4/28/02, p.A9)(SFC, 12/5/03, p.A25)
2002 May 7, Lucas John Helder (21)
of Pine Island, Minn., was arrested following a car chase near
Lovelock, Nevada, and charged for the recent series of mailbox pipe
bombs. Helder said he was trying to make a "smiley face" pattern on the
map of his bombings. His series of rural mailbox bombings left six
people wounded in Illinois and Iowa. Helder has since been found
incompetent to stand trial.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A3)(AP, 5/7/07)
2002 May 13, A crash on I-80 east
of Reno left 5 members of a Utah family dead. Stephen Scharosch later
admitted he was drunk and under the influence of marijuana. In 2003
Scharosch (52) was sentenced to up to 80 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/18/03, p.A15)
2002 Jul 9, The US Senate approved
a nuclear waste burial site at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert. The
Senate voted to entomb thousands of tons of radioactive waste inside
Yucca Mountain, rejecting the state's fervent protests. Gov. Kenny
Guinn vowed to continue fighting the plan.
(SFC, 7/10/02, p.A3)(AP, 7/9/03)
2002 Jul 23, Pres. Bush signed
legislation designating Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear
waste repository.
(WSJ, 7/24/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 31, The Burning Man was
put to flames at Black Rock, Nv. Some 29,000 people attended the event,
which featured a 78-foot Temple of Joy, created by David Best, that was
burned down Sep 1.
(SFC, 8/31/02, p.A3)(SFC, 9/2/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug, In Gerlach, Nevada, the
17th Burning Man arts festival was scheduled. Founder Larry Harvey
summarized the event as an example of a gift economy, where "value is
transmitted through people, from heart to heart."
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.E6)
2002 Dec 1, The US federal Bureau
of Land Management (BLM) began rounding up over 2,650 wild horses in
Nevada to prevent starving and rangeland destruction.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.J7)
2002 Dec 4, John Weaver,
historian, died in Las Vegas. His books included "Los Angeles: The
Enormous Village" (1980).
(SFC, 12/7/02, p.A25)
2003 Mar 21, A young man from LA
visiting Las Vegas hit pay dirt, a world record $39 million on a slot
machine.
(AP, 3/22/03)
2003 Mar 25, Celine Dion opened a
three-year gig in the new $95 million Colosseum theater at Caesars
Palace.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 May 24, The $16 million
Nevada Museum of Art opened in Reno.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.D2)
2003 May 24, In Las Vegas Chris
Moneymaker (27), an accountant, walked away with $2.5 million and the
title of champion in the 34th annual World Series of Poker.
(AP, 5/25/03)
2003 May 29, A fire destroyed the
Moulin Rouge casino in downtown Las Vegas.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.A18)
2003 Jun 22, It was reported that
Elko, Nevada, besieged by Mormon crickets (shield-backed katydids), had
spent $56,000 for 18 tons of the pesticide carbaryl to stop the
infestation. The 4-year Nevada plague, the worst in 5 decades, had
missed Elko until this year.
(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 20, Floodwaters receded
in Las Vegas following the worst flood since 1999.
(SFC, 8/21/03, p.A2)
2003 Aug 30, In Gerlach, Nevada, a
woman riding an "art car" at the counterculture Burning Man festival
died when she accidentally fell under the vehicle's wheels. The
weeklong festival, theme name "Beyond Belief," peaked Saturday night
with the torching of a 70-foot-high wooden effigy of a man.
(AP, 8/31/03)(SFC, 9/1/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 31, In Gerlach, Nevada,
the "Temple of Honor" by David Best went up in flames. Some 30,500
people attended the weeklong "Burning Man" event.
(SFC, 9/1/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 3, In Las Vegas a tiger
attacked magician Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy during a performance.
It was Horn's 59th birthday.
(SFC, 10/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 25, A small plane crashed
after takeoff at the North Las Vegas and 6 family members were killed.
(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.A3)
2003 The US Bureau of Land
Management auctioned off the assets of Mustang Ranch on eBay. Lance
Gilman paid $145,000 for the brothel’s trademark and pink stucco
building, which he airlifted to his Wild Horse bordello in Storey
County, Nevada.
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.33)
2004 Jan 13, Harrah's agreed to
buy Binion's Horseshoe casino. It had just been shut down by federal
agents for failure to pay pension and health benefits to its employees.
(WSJ, 1/14/04, p.B3)
2004 Jul 9, An appeals court
rejected Nevada’s claim against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste
repository, but ordered leak plans beyond 10,000 years.
(WSJ, 7/12/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 14, Harrah’s reached a
deal to acquire Caesars for about $17 a share.
(SFC, 7/15/04, p.C1)
2004 Jul 15, The new $650 million,
4.4-mile Las Vegas Monorail began operations with stops at 7 stations
between Sahara and Tropicana avenues.
(SSFC, 7/25/04, p.D2)
2004 Jul 16, The Waterfall Fire in
Carson City, Nev., consumed over 7,600 acres and threatened some 1,000
homes. 14 homes were already destroyed.
(SFC, 7/17/04, p.B1)
2004 Aug 30, In Gerlach, Nevada,
the annual Burning Man Festival began.
(SFC, 8/30/04, p.B1)
2004 Sep 5, The 19th Burning Man
went up in flames in Gerlach, Nevada, where some 35, 664 people had
gathered for the annual festival.
(SSFC, 9/5/04, p.B1)
2004 Nov 16, US Senate Democrats
selected Harry Reid of Nevada as party whip for the 109th Congress.
(SFC, 11/17/04, p.A3)
2005 Feb 21, The new Atomic
Testing Museum opened in Las Vegas.
(www.ntshf.org/)
2005 Apr 28, The new 2,700 room
Wynn Las Vegas was scheduled to open.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.F10)
2005 Apr 21, Anna Ayala, the woman
who claimed she found a finger in her bowl of Wendy's chili last month
in San Jose, Ca., was arrested at her home in Las Vegas.
(AP, 4/22/05)(SFC, 4/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 26, The 160-acre 1870
ghost town of Palisade, Nevada, was auctioned off in SF for $150,000.
(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A2)
2005 Apr 28, Steve Wynn opened the
new $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas casino-resort. It was built on the site
of the historic Desert Inn.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/17/05, p.D10)
2005 May 23, Kansas City rapper
Anthony “Fat Tone” Watkins (24) and another man were found shot dead in
the Southern Highlands area of Las Vegas. Police later said that a SF
rap promoter named Andre Dow, aka “Mac Minister,” and Jason Mathis
killed the 2 men to avenge the Nov, 2004, killing of Andre “Mac Dre”
Hicks in Kansas. Mathis was arrested in 2005 in SF. Dow was arrested in
2006 in SF.
(SFC, 5/26/05, p.B5)(SFC, 11/29/05, p.A1)(SFC,
3/3/06, p.B7)
2005 Aug 22, Harrah’s said it has
agreed to buy the Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for
$370 million.
(WSJ, 8/23/05, p.D6)
2005 Aug 29-2005 Sep 5, The annual
Burning Man Festival in Nevada planned to introduce BORG2, an event
within the main event concentrating on art projects.
(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A20)
2005 Sep 3, In Nevada over 35,000
people gathered in the Black Rock Desert for the 20th burning of the
Burning Man.
(SFC, 9/3/05, p.A25)
2005 Sep 21, Stephen M. Ressa (27)
of Rialto, Ca., drove a stolen car into a crowd on the Las Vegas Strip
killing 2 people and injuring dozens.
(SFC, 9/23/05, p.A6)
2005 Sep 22, Boxer Leavander
Johnson (35) died from injuries suffered in a Sep 17 Los Vegas boxing
match with Jesus Chavez. The match was telecast on HBO.
(WSJ, 9/29/05, p.D10)
2005 Oct 8, In Nevada 23 robotic
vehicles competed over a 150-mile course for a $2 million prize
sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Darpa. 4
robotic vehicles finished the race across the Mojave desert over a
rugged 132-mile course without a single human command. Stanford
University's Sebastian Thrun, a customized Volkswagen, crossed first in
6 hours and 59 minutes. Race officials planned to resume the race Oct 9
so the sole remaining vehicle, a mammoth six-wheel truck, could compete
in daylight.
(SFC, 10/8/05, p.C1)(AP, 10/9/05)(Econ, 10/15/05,
p.88)
2005 Oct 9, A driverless
Volkswagen won a $2 million race across the rugged Nevada desert,
beating four other robot-guided vehicles that completed a
Pentagon-sponsored contest aimed at making warfare safer for humans
[see Oct 8].
(AP, 10/9/06)
2005 Nov, The US Bureau of Land
Management auctioned 3,000 acres of Nevada land in the Las Vega area
for $800 million.
(Econ, 11/26/05, p.37)
2005 William L. Fox authored “In
the Desert of Desire,” a wandering meditation on Las Vegas.
(WSJ, 11/25/05, p.W3)
2006 Jan 21, In Las Vegas Manny
Pacquiao avenged his defeat 10 months ago and handed Erik Morales the
worst beating of his career before finally stopping him in the 10th
round of their 130-pound showdown.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Las Vegas Jennifer
Berry, a 22-year-old ballerina from Oklahoma, was crowned Miss America.
The pageant went without coverage from a major television network for
the first time since 1954, but aired on Country Music Television.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Feb 7, Nevada’s State Gaming
Control Board sent a letter to casinos expressing concern about
“gangster rap.”
(WSJ, 3/28/06, p.A1)
2006 May 5, A spokesman for Nevada
Gov. Kenny Guinn said Nevadans will be able to buy prescription drugs
from Canada over the Internet starting next week, despite objections by
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 Jun 12, Charla Mack was
slashed to death in Reno, Nevada. Judge Chuck Weller (53) was shot and
wounded the same day by a sniper. Police issued a murder warrant for
Charla’s husband, David Mack (45), the next day and declared him a
suspect in the shooting of Weller. Mack surrendered to Mexican police
on June 23. In 2008 Mack was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 6/16/06, p.B6)(WSJ, 6/24/06, p.A1)(SFC,
2/9/08, p.A4)
2006 Jul 11, Kathy Augustine (50),
Nevada state controller, died suddenly. Her husband, Chaz Higgs, said
it was a heart attack and chalked it up to the stress of an uphill
election battle for state treasurer. But just days after her death,
Higgs tried to kill himself by slitting his wrists. On Sep 29 Police
arrested Higgs in Hampton, Va., after toxicology tests found a drug in
his wife’s system that would have paralyzed her. Higgs was convicted on
June 29, 2007, of killing Augustine by injecting her with
succinylcholine, a paralyzing drug. He was sentenced to life with a
possibility of parole after serving 20 years.
(AP, 7/21/06)(SFC, 9/30/06,
p.A3)(www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6762551)
2006 Jul 22, Some 3,000 people
gathered at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas for the annual Lifestyles
conference, a five-day, $700-per-couple event that offers a mix of
seminars, socializing and sex.
(Reuters, 7/22/06)
2006 Aug 11, Jamie Gold (36), a
former Hollywood talent agent, won the $12 million grand prize in the
World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Nv.
(SFC, 8/12/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 29, Warren Steed Jeffs
(50), a fugitive polygamist, was arrested in Nevada. He was on the
FBI’s 10 most-wanted list for sex crimes in Utah and Arizona.
(SFC, 8/30/06, p.A11)
2006 Aug 31, The United States
carried out a subcritical nuclear experiment successfully at an
underground test site in Nevada, the 2nd this year and the 23rd such
test since 1997.
(http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/100778)
2006 Oct 31, In Reno, Nev., a fire
at the Mizpah Hotel killed 12 people. Valerie Moore (47), a casino
cook, was arrested the next day for starting the fire.
(SFC, 11/2/06, p.A4)(AP, 11/5/06)(SFC, 11/6/06,
p.A3)(AP, 10/31/07)
2006 Nov 4, Katherine Jefferts
Schori (52) took office at Washington National Cathedral as the 1st
woman to lead the US Episcopal Church and the 1st female to head an
Anglican province. The former bishop of Nevada was elected at the
Episcopal convention in June.
(SSFC, 11/5/06, p.A9)
2006 Nov 9, The Nevada Supreme
Court upheld a Las Vegas city regulation barring erotic dancers from
raunchy physical contact with their customers, in a ruling that runs
counter to the gambling city's sinful reputation.
(Reuters, 11/11/06)
2006 Nov 14, US Sen. Harry Reid, a
moderate Nevada Democrat, was elected by colleagues as US Senate
majority leader for the 110th Congress that will convene in January.
(AP, 11/14/06)
2006 Dec 4, Station Casinos of Las
Vegas said it received a $4.7 billion buyout offer from its founding
family and affiliate of Colony Capital LLC, a private equity firm.
(SFC, 12/5/06, p.C3)
2006 Dec 21, The US Census Bureau
said Arizona had deposed Nevada as the fastest growing US state.
(WSJ, 12/22/06, p.A1)
2007 Jan 2, Jim Gibbons, former
Republican Representative in Congress, was sworn in as governor of
Nevada. He soon faced FBI investigations over unreported gifts while
serving on the House Intelligence and Armed Services committees.
(WSJ, 2/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan, The culinary workers’
union in Nevada numbered some 51,000 members representing hotel and
casino workers.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.30)
2007 Apr 21, Police in Las Vegas
raided illegal brothels as part of “Operation Dollhouse,” a sting aimed
at prostitution and human trafficking with suspected links to Asia.
Prostitution is legal in most counties of Nevada, but not in Clark
County, which includes Las Vegas.
(SFC, 4/25/07, p.B5)
2007 May 5, In Las Vegas Floyd
Mayweather Jr. won his boxing match against Oscar De La Hoya in a
12-round split decision. A sellout crowd of 16,200 paid a record $19
million gate.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 Jun 27, Nevada Solar One, the
first large CSP (concentrating solar power) plant built since the
1980s, went online with a capacity to generate 64 megawatts.
(Econ, 9/15/07,
p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Solar_One)
2007 Jul 6, In Las Vegas Steven
Zegrean (51) opened fire on gamblers at the New York-New York casino
and wounded 4 people before he was tackled by off-duty military
reservists.
(SFC, 7/7/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 7, Wildfires in
California consumed 17,000 acres in Inyo National Forest and 7,500
acres in Los Padres National Forest. An 8,000-acre wildfire
forced hundreds of people in the town of Winnemucca to leave their
homes, one of more than a dozen blazes that charred a combined 55
square miles in northern Nevada. In Utah a 160,000-acre wildfire forced
evacuations at Cove Fort and the Blundell Geothermal Power Plant.
Wildfires also burned in Colorado, Arizona, Oregon and Washington
states.
(AP, 7/8/07)(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A5)
2007 Aug 21, The board of MGM
Mirage approved a deal with Dubai World in which the holding company
for the Persian Gulf state will eventually acquire a 9.5% stake
and 50% ownership in the Las Vegas CityCenter project.
(WSJ, 8/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 28, Burning Man became
Burnt Man four days early, and a San Francisco performance artist was
arrested on suspicion of igniting the signature figure of the
counterculture festival in the remote Nevada desert.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Sep 3, Steve Fossett
(b.1944), tycoon turned record seeker, disappeared in Nevada after
flying from the Flying M Ranch, owned by billionaire Baron Hilton. In
2002 Fosset became the 1st person to fly around the world in a balloon.
In 2006 Fossett authored his autobiography “Chasing the Wind.” A search
was formally suspended on Oct 2. On Feb 15, 2008, an Illinois court
declared him legally dead. In 2008 wreckage of his plane was found on
Oct 1 in the rugged eastern mountains of California.
(SFC, 9/5/07, p.A8)(SFC, 9/15/07, p.A1)(SFC,
2/16/08, p.B5)(Econ, 2/23/08, p.106)(Reuters, 10/2/08)
2007 Sep 14, Two airplanes
collided at the Reno National Championship Air Races, killing one pilot
and injuring another in the third fatal crash at the event in four days.
(AP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 11, Douglas Eugene "Gene"
Savoy, explorer, died at age 80 in Reno, Nev. He discovered more than
40 lost cities in Peru and led long-distance sailing adventures to
learn more about ancient cultures. Savoy wrote dozens of books,
including "Antisuyo: The Search for the Lost Cities of the Amazon"
(1970) about his early discoveries in Peru, and "On the Trail of the
Feathered Serpent" (1974) about some of his sea journeys.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, Police in Las Vegas
arrested O.J. Simpson saying he was part of an armed group that broke
into a hotel room on Sep 13 and snatched memorabilia that documented
his sports career. Simpson (60) was booked on five felony counts,
including suspicion of assault and robbery with a deadly weapon. On Sep
18 DA David Roger filed the felony charges and added five other
felonies, including kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
(SFC, 9/17/07, p.A1)(AP, 9/18/07)
2007 Nov 13, In Las Vegas the New
Frontier casino, opened in 1942, was imploded to make way for a $5
billion megaresort. It earned historical notations by becoming the
Strip's first theme casino and hosting Elvis Presley's debut in the
city. Phil Ruffin sold the 34.5-acre site to Elad, owned by Israeli
billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, for $1.24 billion in May. Ruffin had bought
the Frontier in 1997 for $165 million and quickly settled a nearly 6
1/2-year strike by 550 hotel workers, one of the longest job actions in
US history.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 15, During a feisty
Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Hillary Rodham Clinton accused her
closest rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, of slinging mud "right
out of the Republican playbook" and sharply criticized their records.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2007 Nov 25, Kevin Dubrow (52),
lead singer for the 1980s heavy metal band Quiet Riot, died in Las
Vegas from an accidental cocaine overdose.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Nov 28, O.J. Simpson pleaded
not guilty in Las Vegas to charges of kidnapping and armed robbery
stemming from a confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers. Simpson
and a co-defendant were convicted in October, 2008.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2007 Dec 7, US federal officials
outlined a new plan on how to allocate water to California, Arizona and
Nevada from the Colorado River in case of shortages.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.A9)
2008 Jan 5, A levee break flooded
hundreds of homes In Nevada as a storm that has pummeled the West Coast
with high wind and heavy rain dropped a thick blanket of snow on the
Sierra Nevada.
(AP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 19, In Nevada Hillary
Clinton defeated rival Barack Obama 51-45% in a tight Democratic
contest. Her delegate count increased to 236 followed by Obama with 136
and 50 for Sen. John Edwards. Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts
governor, cruised to victory in the little-contested GOP Nevada
caucuses.
(AP, 1/20/08)(SSFC, 1/20/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 20, Brianna Denison (19)
last was seen at the edge of the University of Nevada, Reno. Her body
was found Feb 15, 8 miles away near a business park and an autopsy
confirmed that she died of strangulation. DNA evidence linked her
kidnapping to two other attacks on women near the university late last
year.
(AP, 2/17/08)
2008 Feb 28, In Las Vegas two
vials of ricin were found a manager at the Extended Stay America motel.
2 days earlier police had found firearms and an “anarchist type
textbook” there. Roger Von Bergendorff (57) was the last to stay in the
room, and has been in critical condition since calling an ambulance on
Feb. 14 complaining of respiratory distress. In April Bergendorff was
indicted on federal charges that included possession of a biological
toxin. Bergendorff was convicted and sentenced in November to 3½
years in federal prison.
(AP, 3/1/08)(SFC, 3/3/08, p.A4)(SFC, 4/23/08,
p.A3)(SFC, 11/18/08, p.A8)
2008 Mar 6, In Nevada letters
began arriving this week to patients who received injected anesthesia
at the endoscopy center from March 2004 to mid-January were urged to
get tested for hepatitis B and C, and HIV. The Las Vegas clinic was
found to be reusing syringes and vials of medication for nearly four
years.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Apr 11, Crystle Stewart (26),
of Missouri City, Texas, was named Miss USA, besting 50 other beauty
queens for the coveted crown in Las Vegas.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 May 12, Oakley Hall (b.1920),
prolific author and writing teacher, died in Nevada City. His books
included “Warlock” (1958) and “The Art and Craft of Novel Writing”
(1994).
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 6, Pres. Bush signed a
transportation bill that freed $45 million for environmental studies
for a levitating train planned to run from Disneyland to Las
Vegas.
(SFC, 6/7/08, p.C2)
2008 Jun 28, A small plane crashed
outside Las Vegas killing 4 residents of Oakley, Ca.
(SFC, 6/30/08, p.B1)
2008 Jul 25, US regulators took
over two banks and sold them to Mutual of Omaha Bank, the sixth and
seventh bank failures this year as financial institutions struggle with
a housing bust and credit crunch. The Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency said it closed First National Bank of Nevada and First
Heritage Bank NA of California.
(Reuters, 7/26/08)
2008 Aug 22, In North Las Vegas,
Nevada, an experimental aircraft crashed into a house killing the pilot
of the Velocity 173 RG and 2 people in the home.
(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 30, In Black Rock City,
Nevada, the 40-foot Burning Man was set aflame. This year’s festival,
themed the American Dream, was marked by a 10-story steel frame tower
built by union workers of recycled materials. The annual guidebook
reached 77 pages.
(SSFC, 8/31/08, p.B2)
2008 Sep 1, In Nevada an air
tanker being used to drop retardant on a wildfire in the Sierra Nevada
crashed after taking off for its last flight of the day, killing all
three crew members.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 5, US bank regulators
shut down Silver State Bank, saying the Nevada bank failed because of
losses on soured loans, mainly in commercial real estate and land
development. It was the 11th failure this year of a federally insured
bank.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Oct 3, O.J. Simpson was found
guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las
Vegas hotel room on Sep 13, 2007. This was 13 years to the day after
being acquitted of killing his wife and her friend in Los Angeles. Four
other men charged in the case struck plea bargains that saved them from
potential prison sentences in return for their testimony.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, Voters in Nevada
favored Barack Obama and ousted 2 Republicans to give Democrats a
majority in the state senate.
(WSJ, 11/10/08, p.A10)
2008 Dec 5, O.J. Simpson was
sentenced in Las Vegas from 9 to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and
assaulting two sports memorabilia dealers with a deadly weapon.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 9, Nevada state and
federal authorities said they arrested nearly two dozen people, many
with ties to Eastern Europe, in a credit card fraud and identity theft
scheme that cost Las Vegas businesses and consumers about $1.5 million.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2009 Jan 24, In Las Vegas Miss
Indiana Katie Stam was crowned Miss America 2009 by Miss America 2008
Kirsten Haglund.
(AP, 1/25/09)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Nevada
End of file.