1898: Steel Pier built by a local investment group for $350,000.
1921: The Steel Pier hosts the first Miss America Pageant
1925: Frank Gravatt buys the pier. Ultimately books acts, including Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, as well as W.C. Fields.
1929: Diving horses are introduced at Steel Pier by 'Doc' William F. Carver.
1930: Steel Pier makes national news when Alvin 'Shipwreck' Kelly sits on a pole in front of it for seven days, a world record.
1940: The Miss America Pageant leaves the pier for Convention Hall, but WFPG-AM starts broadcasting there.
1945: The Hamid family, which ran rival Million Dollar Pier, buys Steel Pier through phantom company.
1950: Frank Sinatra's performance attracts 41,000 people, an attendance record for the pier.
1953: Two Atlantic City Beach Patrol lifeguards use the Steel Pier as a starting point for a race around Absecon Island. What began as a $200 challenge became a summer tradition known as the Around the Island Swim.
1958: Ricky Nelson's performance helps draw 44,221 people, breaking Sinatra's mark.
1962:The March storm of 1962 cuts the Steel Pier in half. The three-day storm killed 18 people and destroyed nearly 1,800 homes in South Jersey.
1965: The Rolling Stones play Steel Pier.
1969: Fire levels the Marine Ballroom that hosted Sinatra, Nelson, the Stones and other top performers.
1973: After more than a decade of citywide economic decline, the Hamids sell the Steel Pier to a local investment group, including Sonny Goldberg and Milt Neustadter,
1976: WFPG-AM leaves the pier for offices on Atlantic Avenue.
1978: The Steel Pier closes.
1979: Resorts International Casino Hotel buys Steel Pier.
1982: Fire destroys the pier. The rebuilt version is just 1,000 feet long and made entirely of concrete and steel.
1988: Casino owner Donald Trump acquires Steel Pier through a deal with Merv Griffin.
1992: The pier reopens on a limited basis.
1993: The Catanoso family's Atlantic Pier Amusements Inc. takes over Steel Pier through a lease agreement with Trump, whose plans to build condos there were derailed by environmental regulators.
1994: Trump says he'll transform Steel Pier into a $100 million entertainment venue operated by Six Flags. That doesn't happen.
1997: A Broadway musical named for the structure garners 11 Tony Award nominations. Despite critical acclaim and a $7.5 million budget, it closes after a run lasting just two months.
1998: A 180-foot support tower of the Steel Pier's 'Steel Fear' bungee-cord ride collapses and injures four children during its 100th anniversary summer.
2001: The city fines the pier $2,800 for hazardous conditions.
2006: Trump announces plans to redevelop Steel Pier into a mixed-use complex of luxury condos and a small retail component. This also doesn't happen.
2007: Atlantic Pier Amusements attributes a 25 percent drop in business to visitors' fears that the proposed redevelopment would prevent the Steel Pier from opening - along with high gas prices.
2009: Medical debris washups close multiple New Jersey beaches -- about 200 sealed insulin syringes are discovered under Steel Pier alone.
2010: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie approves three windmills to be built on Steel Pier. Plans call for 121-foot towers and 35-foot rotors.
Compiled by staff writer Emily Previti
