1000: Indians live in Florida, although human habitation in the state has been discovered dating as far back as the Early Archaic Period, more than 7,500 years ago.
1519: Ponce de Leon discovered land on Easter Sunday and christened it "Florida."
1539: Hernando de Soto Expedition landed at a spot now known as Shaw's Point, Manatee County.
1819: Treaty drawn up for transfer of Florida from Spain to United States.
1842: Armed Occupation Act allowed any head of family or single man to earn title to 60 acres of land by erecting a dwelling and cultivating five or more acres and living on the land for five years.
Josiah Gates, innkeeper at Fort Brooke, settled at the Mineral Spring at what is now 14th Street East and the Manatee River.
1846: The Rev. Edmund Lee and his wife, Electa, both schoolteachers, arrived in Manatee and opened the Dame School for Boys.
1855: Manatee separated from Hillsborough County to become Florida's 31st county.
1860: Josiah Gates donated parcel of land in Manatee for a courthouse.
1866: Pine Level (now over the county's eastern boundary in DeSoto County) became the county seat.
1878: May 9, "Braidentown" post office opened in Major Turner's store.
1880: "Madam Joe" Atzeroth received $10 gold piece for growing the first coffee in the United States.
1881: Pliny Ward Reasoner (1868-88) arrived in Manatee County. He and his brother, Egbert Norman Reasoner, founded Florida's oldest continuously operated nursery.
1887: Terrible Yellow Fever outbreak halted community life.
1888: The Village of Manatee is incorporated. Braidentown was chosen as the permanent county seat.
1889B United Methodist Church completed after Yellow Fever outbreak subsides.
1903: Bradentown incorporated as a city. Wiggins Store completed.
1925: Bradentown voted to drop the "w" and become Bradenton.
1976: Manatee Village Historical Park created.
- Herald archives
