October 3: The first school, a private institution founded by O.J. Goldrick, opens for classes in Auraria on 12th Street between Market and Larimer Streets.[9]
April 6: Moonlight ceremony on Larimer Street bridge over Cherry Creek unites Auraria with Denver City.[1]
May 18: Barney Ford, who later became an important civil rights activist, arrives in Denver for the first time.[13]
July – Clark, Gruber & Co. a privately owned gold brokerage and mint, produces the first coins in Colorado.[14]
September – "People's Government" formed in the Apollo Hall Saloon in Larimer Square.[15]
October 6: James Gordon executed by hanging for the drunken murder of German immigrant Jacob Gantz by order of the "People's Court" and Alexander Cameron Hunt presiding as judge.[16]
December 17: Denver Horse Railroad the first rail transit service begins operating, changing its name in the next year to the Denver City Railway Co.[31]
1873 – Palace Theater, a gambling and entertainment establishment, opened by Ed Chase.[32]
Typhoid fever outbreak sickens more than 600 residents and kills at least 40. First of six significant outbreaks that occur through 1896 due to contaminated water.[36]
February 24: first telephone exchange in city opens, one of the first 25 in the world.[37]
July 11: State Historical and Natural History Society of Colorado, later History Colorado headquartered in Denver.[38]
September 1: Delivery of mail to addresses starts in Denver with six mail carriers.[39]
1880 to 1899
1880
Population of the City: 35,629 50th most populous US city. First time in 100 most populous cities in the US.[40]
Denver Club, a private gentleman's club founded by leading wealthy residents.[41]
1881
April 13: Denver Fortnightly Club, one of Denver's first women's clubs has its first meeting.[42]
July 30: Soapy Smith assaults and injures Rocky Mountain News editor John Arkins. The News declares a crusade to rid Denver of the bad man, which took a decade to complete.[62]
November: Permission granted to Citizens' Water Company to go into competition with the established Denver Water Company to build a system to provide water to the city.[63]
1890
Population of the City: 106,713 26th most populous US city.[40]
Mount Prospect, the Denver City Cemetery, closed to further burials.[64]
April 8: Construction of the Masonic Temple begins at 16th and Welton Streets.[65]
January: The competing town of Brooklyn incorporated an area inside the town of Colfax setting up a six month fight that was ultimately won by the town of Colfax.[68]
March 15: Governor Waite orders state militiamen to march on Denver City Hall to remove the Police and Fire Commissioners in what became known as the City Hall War.[76]
Population of the City: 133,859 25th most populous US city.[40]
May 3: Spring flood overtops the still under construction Cheesman Dam, flooding low lying areas of Littleton at about 1:00 in the afternoon and sweeping away all but the foundations of the dam.[83]
Voters approve Article XX of the Colorado State Constitution, popularly known as the Rush Amendment, granting home rule for the Government of Denver.[85]
July – What will become the east wing of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science Completed in City Park.[84]
1904
May – Robert W. Speer elected mayor for the first time.[89] Judge and reformer Ben B. Lindsey later alleged there were 10,000 illegal votes cast in the election.[90]
1905
May 9: Water reaches the spillway of the Cheesman Dam. Constructed by the Denver Union Water Company, on the South Platte River, it is the city's first mountain water reservoir and the tallest in the world at the time of completion.[91]
August 27: Official opening of the first two Denver Mountain Parks, Genesee Park and Lookout Mountain Park. Though officially the land in Genesee Park is purchased the next month.[109]
Merchants Biscuit Company joins together with several other companies to form United Biscuit Company of America, the predecessor of the Keebler Company.[123]
Molly Brown purchases the cottage the formerly belonged Eugene Field and has it moved to Washington Park for preservation.[124]
1929
March 26: Ground breaking ceremony for new City and County Building, completed in 1932.[125]
August 9: A 5.3 Mb earthquake affected the Denver area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). This was the largest in a swarm of over 300 events that spanned more than a year. Damage was focused in the Northglenn area where walls were cracked, windows were broken, and structural elements were damaged at a church.[150]
January 1: US West officially in business with headquarters in denver. It was separated from the AT&T as one of the "Baby Bells" as part of a 1982 antitrust case.[173]
Denver Enterprise Zone established by state legislature.[174][175]
August 24: Frontier Airlines, a major Denver airline, goes bankrupt and shuts down.[176]
1987
November 15: Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crashes on takeoff at Stapleton International Airport, killing twenty-five people, the deadliest accident in the airport's history.[177]
December 20: Continental Airlines Flight 1404 crashes, resulting in no fatalities and the most severe incident in Denver International Airport's history.
December 27: A gunman goes on a shooting spree across the Denver metropolitan area, killing five including local artist Alicia Cardenas and injuring two before dying in a shootout with police.[207][208]
^"Denver Parks Timeline". Western History and Genealogy. Denver Public Library. Archived from the original on August 22, 2013. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
^Encyclopedia Staff. "Hayman Fire". Colorado Encyclopedia. History Colorado. Archived from the original on 27 November 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
Leonard, Stephen J.; Noel, Thomas Jacob (1990). Denver: Mining Camp to Metropolis. Niwot, Colorado: University Press of Colorado. Retrieved 16 December 2023.