April 15, 1524 — Giovanni da Verrazzano entered New York Bay.

Sept. 4, 1609 — Henry Hudson sailed into New York Harbor and discovered the Rockaways.

1614 — Adrian Block sailed through Hell Gate into Long Island Sound.

Astoria is settled.

1628 — Flushing is settled.

1637 — Bayside and Little Neck are settled. Thomas Foster is the first settler in Bayside, Adrian Block charts Little Neck.

1637-56 — Dutch farmers obtained grants to tracts of land in the Astoria, Hunters Point and Dutch Kills areas of Long Island City.

1640 — Mohawk nation sells Rockaway Peninsula to Dutch.

1642 — Dutch Governor Kieft issued a charter for 13,332 acres to 38 Englishmen who setted Maspeth.

Long Island City is settled by the Dutch. "Smithy" Hendrick Harmensen was slain in the first recorded murder case when a tomahawk Harmensen had forged was used to kill him in Newtown.

1643 — Repeated Native American attacks force abandonment of Maspeth colony.

1645 — Settlement at Tew’s Neck (College Point). Town of Flushing (called Vlissingen) chartered by Governor Kieft. Eight Dutch families purchase Whitestone from Matinecock Indians. Maspeth’s charter is revoked.

1652 — Maspeth colony revived and relocated further inland, known as Newtown (initially called Middleburgh, now Elmhurst).

William Hallett became the first settler in Astoria.

1655 — Town of Jamaica (called Rustdorp) begun by English at Old Town Neck on Jamaica Bay (site now covered by JFK Airport).

1656 —Springfield bought and settled. Governor Stuyvesant granted charter for Jamaica.

1657 — Quakers come to New Amsterdam.

1661 — The first part of Bowne House was built by John Bowne, an Englishman who came from Boston to reside in Flushing in 1653. Additions to the house were made in 1680 and 1696.

1662 – Jackson Heights is founded. The oldest Presbyterian church in United States is built in Jamaica.

1663 – the Elmhurst - Moore Homestead is built.

1664 — Freedom of religious worship was restored to New Netherland because of John Bowne’s plea before authorities of the Dutch West India Company in Amsterdam, Holland.

Sept. 8, 1664 — Dutch surrendered New Netherland to English Settlement at Little Neck (called Cornbury and Little Madnans Neck).

Aug. 7, 1673 — The Dutch retook New York.

March 6, 1674 — The Peace of Westminster restored New York to the English.

1678 – Queens Village is settled.

Nov. 1, 1683 — Queens County chartered as one of 10 counties in the colony of New York. Named for Catherine of Braganza, Queen Consort of Charles II. Queens County then embraced all of present-day Nassau County, including the towns of Hempstead and Oyster Bay.

1684 — Flushing bought all land from Matinecock Indians.

1685 — All of Rockaway Neck sold by Canarsie tribe to the English.

1685-86 — Governor Dongan confirmed town patents of Flushing, Newtown and Jamaica.

1686 – Rockaway is settled.

1703 — Colonial legislature creates law for a highway from the East River ferry in Kings County (Brooklyn) through Queens and Suffolk counties to East Hampton. It is called Kings Highway, and would evolved in Queens into Jamaica Avenue.

1732 — The Prince Nurseries were established by William Prince; reportedly the first of their kind in America, they operated for almost two centuries and were named "The Linnaean Botanic Gardens," after the Swedish botanist Linnaeaus.

1774 – Sugar Act imposed by the British.

1765 — Flushing revolted against the Stamp Act. Cadwallader Colden was lieutenant governor of New York (P.S. 214 named after him) and his home was at Spring Hill near what is now Mt. Hebron Cemetery.

1776-83 — British occupation of Flushing. Officers quartered in the Aspinwall House, which adjoined the present YMCA building on Northern Boulevard. The Friends Meeting House was taken over by the British and remained in their possession for the duration of the War.

July 4, 1776 — Francis Lewis, a resident of what was then part of Flushing, signed the Declaration of Independence for New York State.

Aug. 1776 — Battle of Long Island lasted Aug. 22-25. Present-day Queens became a quartering area.

Aug. 28, 1776 — American General Nathaniel Woodhull captured at present-day Hollis by British. Wounded, he died aboard a prison ship in New York harbor.

1776-83 — Seven-year occupation. Regular troops quartered in tents in summer and huts in winter. Prince William Henry, who later became William IV of England, visited William Prince, and on Aug. 1, 1782, reviewed the British troops stationed in and around Flushing.

1783 — War formally ended by Treaty of Paris. Complete British evacuation by November 1783.

Oct. 10, 1789 — George Washington visited Prince Nurseries in Flushing, accompanied by Vice President John Adams and New York Governor George Clinton.

1800 — The first bridge over Flushing Creek was built, connecting Flushing with Corona.

1809 — Brooklyn, Jamaica and Flatbush Turnpike Company built the Brooklyn and Jamaica Turnpike as a toll road from the Brooklyn Ferry to 168th Street, a distance of 12 miles. This represented a further development of what later became Jamaica Avenue.

1814 — Jamaica became the first incorporated village on Long Island.

1814-16 — Toll road begun by the Williamsburg and Jamaica Turnpike, Road and Bridge Co. Operated until 1972, it became the farmers’ route to the Brooklyn Ferry and also a stage coach route. Now known as Metropolitan Avenue.

1821 — Union Course Race Track opened in Woodhaven.

1825 — Eclipse or Centerville Race Course opened east of Woodhaven Boulevard and south of Rockaway Boulevard.

1826 — Woodside settled.

1832 City Hospital Center at Elmhurst built.

1834 — The Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad Co. began construction.

1835 — Woodhaven settled.

1835 — Douglaston settled.

Apr. 18, 1836 — First Long Island Rail Road train runs between foot of Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn and Jamaica.

1838 — The Parsons Nurseries were established by Samuel Parsons. The nurseries adjoined Bowne House on the north, the present site of Weeping Beech Park and "Kingsland."

1839 — Astoria charter issued, making Astoria the first new village to be incorporated within the present-day limits of Queens since the 17th century.

1840-50 — Hamlet of Middle Village grows up midway along the Williamsburg and Jamaica Turnpike (now Metropolitan Avenue).

1841 — Blissville laid out by Neziah Bliss on west side of what became Calvary Cemetery.

1842 — The Flushing Journal was first issued as a "weekly."

1847 — The shoot of a weeping beech tree, acquired by Mr. Parsons’ son on a trip to Belgium, was planted on its present site, part of the original Parsons Nurseries. The tree was designated an historic landmark in 1971.

1848 — Beginning of Calvary Cemetery.

1850 — Middle Village settled.

1854 — Ridgewood settled.

1865 — Glendale settled.

1868 — Poppenhusen Institute donated to College Point.

1870-72 — Establishment of Steinway Piano factory and factory village in Long Island City.

1870 — Corona founded.

1870s — 1890s — Numerous oil refineries developed along the shores of Newtown Creek and the waterfront of Long Island City.

1871 — Queens Village begun.

1872 — Name of West Flushing officially changed to Corona. South end below Corona Avenue developed by Benjamin F. Hitchcock.

1874 — Queens County Courthouse and seat of county government moved from Mineola (in present-day Nassau County) to Long Island City.

1882 — Ozone Park laid out by Benjamin F. Hitchcock.

1884 — Morris Park begun.

1884-85 — Hollis developed by Frederick W. Dunton in area previously known as East Jamaica.

1885 — Horse-drawn buses arrive in what will soon be called Queens.

1887 — First electric trolley in Queens operated from Jamaica Avenue in East New York to 168th Street in Jamaica — the second such line in the U.S.

1887 — Bellerose founded.

1887 — John Lewis Childs settled in Hinsdale and founded a mail-order nursery business so big that the village changed its name to Floral Park in his honor. Tulips and carnations blanketed vast fields. Urban encroachment drove him out just before World War I.

1888 — Richmond Hill settled.

1890 — Howard Beach settled.

1892 — Edgemere developed by Frederick J. Lancaster as "New Venice."

1897 — Elmhurst: the name given to Newtown Village by Cord Meyer, after he began land development. At the time, the public associated the word "Newtown" with the stink of Newtown Creek.

Jan. 1, 1898 — Queens County joins Greater New York City. Borough of Queens carved out of the towns of Flushing, Newtown, Jamaica and the Rockaway peninsula. The eastern half of Queens County becomes a separate county (Nassau County) the next year.

1898 — Railroad comes to St. Albans on July 1. Bellerose (partly in Queens, mostly in Nassau) is founded by Helen H. Marsh. Its railroad station also opened in 1898.

1899 — Flushing and Jamaica linked by trolley line.

1901 — A rail station opens in Auburndale.

June 1901 — Last turnpike in Queens County on Jamaica Avenue goes out of business.

1901 — L.H. Green buys Thomas Willets’ 90-acre farm and develops Auburndale. Rail station opens in May.

1903 — Queens’ first suspended bridge, the Grand Street Bridge, connects Queens to Brooklyn.

1904, June — At least 1,021 people - probably dozens more - perished on the General Slocum Steamboat as it burst into flames during an East River excursion. Many of the survivors committed suicide out of grief. Captain Van Schaick, left blind and crippled from the accident, was the only person convicted of any wrongdoing.

1905 — Motorbuses and double-decker buses arrive in Queens.

1905 — Auburndale settled.

1906 — Beechhurst laid out. Formerly Whitestone Landing. Lots put on market 1907-1908.

1906 — Forest Hills (originally White Pot) begun north of Queens Boulevard by Cord Meyer.

1907-11 — David Leahy develops South Ozone Park along Rockaway Boulevard, from 130th to 135th streets.

1907 — Belle Harbor developed near Rockaway. Laurelton Land Company surveys Laurelton and starts selling lots. After the failure of Interstate Park, a private target-shooting park, in 1904, the land was subdivided into lots in 1907, named "Bellaire Park," and marketed in 1908.

1908 — Malba surveyed by Malba Land Company in 1907. First houses built in 1908. Most houses erected in the 1920s.

1908 — The subdivision of Kissena Lake is laid out by Paris and McDougall, north and west of Kissena Lake (now much reduced from original size).

1908 — Horse-drawn buses are retired.

1908 — The Borden Avenue Bridge is built over the Dutch Kills.

1910 — Jamaica Estates is founded.

September 8, 1910 — Electric train service from Penn Station through East River tubes is inaugurated. The train follows the LIRR’s main line, through Queens to Mineola and Hempstead.

1910 — The Hunters Point Avenue Bridge is built over Dutch Kills.

1911 — Queens Chamber of Commerce incorporates. Topographical engineers devise a house number and street naming plan for the entire borough.

1911 — The Russell Sage Foundation buys 142 acres through Cord Meyer and starts developing Forest Hills Gardens.

1911-12 — William Howard develops Howard Beach on landfill. Originally called Ramblersville, it was renamed in 1916.

1912 — LIRR Kew Station opens. Kew Gardens, originally Hopedale, began in 1875 as a railroad station for Maple Grove Cemetery. Railroad is relocated in 1909, opening up space for the neighborhood and a new station.

1914 — Construction begins on Queens Blvd., as a 2000-foot-wide arterial highway. Teddy Roosevelt delivers a July 4th speech from the Forest Hills Gardens LIRR station.

1915 — Construction on the first elevated railways in Queens are completed above the Queensboro Bridge, providing access for 2nd Avenue trains to Astoria and Corona. The railways lasted until it was abandoned in 1917.

June 22, 1915 — Queensboro Subway opens, with service between Grand Central Terminal and Long Island City at Vernon-Jackson avenues via East River Tunnel.

1915 — The 7 train is connected to Queensboro Plaza.

1917 — The 7 train is connected to Corona.

1917 — Hell Gate Bridge completion allows New York Connecting Railroad to cross East River at Hell Gate.

1918 — Elevated structure extended to 168th Street in Jamaica from old terminal at Cypress Hills.

1920 — Fledgling bus operations arrive in Queens, developing a large network.

1920 — Cambria Heights began. Named in 1924 with major growth and development during the 1930s.

1920 — Jamaica Avenue receives present name, formerly known as the Brooklyn and Jamaica Turnpike (to Van Wyck Blvd.), Fulton Street within Jamaica and Hempstead, and Jamaica Turnpike east of 168th Street.

1923 — Real Good Construction Co. (REGO) develops Rego Park.

1923 — Glen Oaks founded.

1924 — Sunnyside Gardens opens. This limited-profit housing experiment in Long Island City featured block-perimeter housing containing inside-block yards, gardens and play spaces.

1925 — First Flushing YMCA built. The "Y" offered swimming and gymnastics programs.

1925 — Construction is completed on both the North Channel and Roosevelt Avenue Bridges.

1925 — Rego Park founded.

January 1928 — IRT No. 7 elevated line extended to Main Street in Flushing.

1929 — The Greenpoint Avenue Bridge is completed, allowing Queensites easy access to Brooklyn.

1929 — Glenn-Curtis Airport built at North Beach, displacing North Beach Amusement Park and site of 17th century Bowery Bay settlement.

1931 — The Hook Creek Bridge connects Queens to Nassau, and the Little Neck Bridge is built over Alley Creek.

1932 — The first trolleys arrive in Queens.

1932 — An elevated transit line connects Queens and Brooklyn.

1932 — The IRT declares bankruptcy. It and the BMT were later bought by the city in 1940. Operation of networks assumed by the City’s Board of Transportation.

1932 — Serviceable airfields in Queens: Grand Central Air Terminal, Glenn-Curtis Airport, Jamaica Sea Airport, Flushing Airport. Great Depression ends the building boom in Queens.

1933 — Grand Central Parkway opens from Kew Gardens to Nassau County line.

1935 — Interboro Parkway, connecting Brooklyn’s Pennsylvania Avenue to Kew Gardens, opens.

October 4, 1937 — Queens College opens in a former truant facility as a four-year college with 400 students and a 56-person staff.

1937 — The Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Bridge is built, connected to Brooklyn.

1937 — Kew Gardens Hills founded.

April 29, 1939 — Bronx-Whitestone Bridge opens.

1939 — All in the same year, construction is finished on the Cross Bay-Veterans’ Memorial, Flushing (Northern Blvd.), Kosciuszko, and the Whitestone Expressway Bridge.

October 15, 1939 — LaGuardia Airport officially opens. LGA stands on extensive landfill at North Beach between Flushing and Bowery Bays.

1940 — Belt Parkway opens.

1940 — The Transit Workers Union (TWU) is formed.

1940 — The Mil Basin Bridge is open for use for Queens and Brooklyn.

1946 — Queens Botanical Gardens formed on old World’s Fair site.

1946-50 — United Nations meets in New York City Building at Flushing Meadows.

1947 — Queens bus division of the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) is formed.

July 1, 1948 — Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport), built on landfill in eastern Jamaica Bay, is inaugurated. President Harry Truman officially opens the airfield.

1948 — Subway fare raised to 10 cents. The fare had been five cents since 1913.

1950 First Xerox Copier created by Chester Carlson in Astoria.

1950 — The F train is connected to 179th Street in Jamaica.

1950 — Large, diesel powered buses become the standard.

1953 — The New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) is formed, to operate the City’s subways and buses. Subway fares are raised to 15 cents and tokens are introduced.

1954 — The Pulaski Bridge is built over Newtown Creek.

1954 — Hillcrest Country Club becomes St. John’s University.

1955-60 — Long Island Expressway opens in several stages, taking over the route of the Horace Harding Expressway.

1955 — Construction is completed as the Roosevelt Island Bridge is open for business.

1956 — The NYCTA absorbs Queens’ Rockaway railroad line.

1957— Surface transit routes become converted entirely to buses with the replacement of the last streetcar route.

1960 — The last trolley rides through Queens.

1960 — Queens native Lynn Edythe Burke wins two gold medals at the Rome Olympics, taking the 100 meter backstroke, and the 4X100 medley relay.

1961 — Throgs Neck Bridge opens, connecting Queens to the Bronx.

1961 Groundbreaking begins for Shea Stadium.

1963 — The Hawtree Bridge, for use by pedestrians, is completed.

1964 — Kitty Genovese was murdered in the doorway of a bookstore on Austin Street in Kew Gardens. Winston Mosley was charged with the murder, and the neighborhood was charged with the murder of civic pride.

1964 — Sri Chimoy has been a resident of Jamaica since this year. He is the guru of peace and the official mediator at the United Nations.

April 17, 1964 — Shea Stadium, home of New York Mets and New York Jets, opens. The first game at Shea Stadium - Mets vs. Pirates - 48,736 in attendance.

1964-65 — World’s Fair opens at Flushing Meadows Park, using the site of the 1939-40 fair and public parkland created since the 1936 landfill.

1965 — The aspiring socialite Alice Crimmins had only two things standing in her way — her two young children. She was sentenced to 25 years, but was paroled after only 5 years amid a storm of controversy.

1966 — Demanding a new contract, the Transit Workers Union (TWU) goes on strike. The union won wage settlements and provisions for early retirements. Due to the strike, transportation fares are raised to 20 cents.

1966 — Construction on the Rikers Island Bridge is finished.

1967 — Robert Moses, as World’s Fair president, hands over a completed Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to the NYC Parks Dept.

1968 — The Long Island Star Journal closes.

1968 — The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) takes control of the Transit Authority. Plans are made to build lines to northeastern and southeastern Queens.

1968 — Express buses to Manhattan arrive in Queens.

March 1969 — The "Lindsay Snowstorm" hits Queens as a blizzard cripples the borough for a week.

October 1969 — A home run for the home team, as the New York Mets win the World Series.

1969 — Half-fares on buses for public transportation for seniors and handicapped are introduced. Fare boxes which made change of dollar bills are discontinued.

February 14, 1970 — The first edition of the Flushing Tribune hits the streets.

1970s — In a story broken by the Tribune, John German, president of Flushing Boy’s Club, was arrested after a six-month investigation by the FBI. German pleaded guilty to an 89-count indictment tying him to a series of sexual exploits with five boys, all under the age of 16.

1970 — Public transportation fare raised to 30 cents.

1972 — Public transportation fare raised to 35 cents.

1972 — Attorney Mario Cuomo leads Corona to victory over the proposed height of the Lefrak hi-rise development.

September 12, 1973 — Queens Center Mall opens.

1974 — The New York Yankees move to Shea Stadium while Yankee Stadium in the Bronx undergoes renovation.

1975, June — An Eastern Airlines Boeing 747 plane en route from New Orleans to JFK crashed trying to land at JFK during an electrical storm. 109 people died.

1975 — Public transportation fare raised to 50 cents.

1976 — Kneeling buses allow the handicapped easier access to public transportation.

1976 — David Berkowitz, aka "Son of Sam" terrorizes the women of Queens.

1977 — Borough President Donald Manes announces plans for the renovation of the U.S. Army Pictorial Center (now Kaufmann Astoria Studios) in Astoria as a television and film production center.

1977 — The transit system is in turmoil as ridership declines due to many moving to the suburbs and relying on automobiles.

1978 — City newspapers went on strike, but the Tribune was there, with increased circulation, and door-to-door distribution.

Dec. 1978 — Jimmy "The Gent" Burke, mastermind behind the $6 million heist at Lufthansa Airlines at JFK International Airport, was believed to be responsible for the disappearance of 13 Wiseguys involved in the robbery. Henry Hill, immortalized in the film "Goodfellas" (partly filmed at the Sparten Restaurant in Maspeth) fingered him for 2 of the murders, and Burke was sent to jail. Paul Vario was sent up the river for 6 years for helping to plan the heist.

1978 — U.S. Open moves from the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills to new facilities at Louis Armstrong stadium in Flushing Meadows Park.

1979 — All transit construction is suspended as focus is on repairing aging facilities and reversing decay. Other problems included crime, graffiti, panhandling, and homelessness.

1980 — No further construction of the Clearview Expressway, state officials say. Originally planned to connect the Throgs Neck Bridge with Kennedy Airport, the highway now ends at Hillside Avenue.

1980 — Handicapped access to buses are improved with wheelchair lifts.

1980 — Public transportation fare raised to 65 cents.

1980 — Astoria Studios is rescued by developer George Kaufman.

1981 — Public transportation fare raised to 75 cents.

1982 — From 1982 to 1991, nearly $1.1 billion is committed to capitol improvements for the transit system. Transit Police expanded and improved.

1982 — Port Authority announces plans to redevelop Long Island City’s Hunters Point.

June 1983 — Queens celebrates its Tricentennial by hosting a two-day bash in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

1983 — Queens Chamber of Commerce elects its first female president, Margaret Swezey of Citibank.

1984 — Work begins on renovations of two former Long Island City factories to create a new Industrial Design Center (IDCNY) on Thomson Avenue. Queens gets the new (718) telephone area code, which also covers Brooklyn and Staten Island. Democratic Queens Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro is nominated for Vice President.

1984 — Queens native Nancy Lynn Hogshead, wins three gold medals at the Los Angles Olympics. She swims the 100 meter freestyle, 4X100 meter medley relay, and the 4X100 meter freestyle relay.

1984 — Public Transportation fare raised to 90 cents.

1985 — Groundbreaking for new Greenpoint Avenue bridge, connecting Queens and Brooklyn, replacing the 55-year old span.

1986 — Queens tunes in to cable television. New York Hall of Science reopens after major renovations; ground is broken for American Museum of the Moving Image (AMMI) in Astoria.

1986 — Citibank announces plans for a 42-story office building in Long Island City.

1986 — Borough President Donald Manes resigns as scandal investigations engulf Borough Hall; he commits suicide soon afterwards.

1986 — The "bull’s-eye" transportation token is introduced, which is much more difficult to counterfeit than the older tokens.

1986 — Private bus companies Queens Transit and Steinway Omnibus merge to form Queens Surface Corporation.

1986 — Public Transportation fare is raised, hitting the one dollar mark.

1986 — Claire Shulman became the first woman to be elected borough president of Queens County.

1986 — A furor erupts after a black man is chased to his death on the Belt Parkway in Howard Beach. Jon Lester, Jason Ladone, Richard Riley, and Scott Kern were sent to prison.

April 1987 — Fire damaged a home on Gladwin Avenue in Flushing - a house the city planned to use as a "Boarder Baby Home." The project was met by harsh protests from within the community.

November 1987 — Avery Mendez, a homeless man who lived on a streetcorner in Flushing, was featured on a Tribune cover, in an effort to address the homeless problem. One week later he fell victim to the freezing cold and died.

September 1988 — American Museum of the Moving Image opens.

1988 — Glenda Brawley, mother of Tawana Brawley, refused to answer a Grand Jury subpoena that would have placed her on the hot seat in an upstate courtroom. She sought refuge in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Flushing for several days before turning herself in on the arm of Rev. Al Sharpton.

September 1989 — USAir Flight 5050 took off from LaGuardia Airport for North Carolina. The Boeing 737 went in the wrong direction, plunging into Bowery Bay.

October 1989 — Ellen Shulman Baker, daughter of Claire Shulman, blasts off into space aboard the space shuttle Atlantis. On her journey she took a Queens flag, messages from the Queens Hall of Science, and a CD-ROM disc containing an issue of the Queens Tribune.

1990 — Queens Public Library becomes the highest circulation library system in the United States.

1989 — Heriberto Seda, aka the "Zodiac" killer, makes his initial appearance, sending a letter to the 75th Precinct in Brooklyn. Seda taunted police through letters left at the crime scenes and through the mail. The Zodiac killer disappeared in 1994, and returned later that year when he sent a note to the Post indicating that he was "back." He was caught in 1996, and convicted in 1998 of murdering three people and injuring one in Queens. He was sentenced to 83-and-one-third years to life in prison.

1990 — Citicorp Tower at Court Square in Long Island City opens.

1991 — United States Tennis Association (USTA) plans expansion of U.S. Open tennis facility in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

1992 — Public transportation fare raised to $1.25.

March 1992 — USAir Flight 405 crashed while leaving LaGuardia Airport. The Fokker F28-4000 slid into Bowery Bay, killing 27 of the 51 passengers.

March 1992— Journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue is assassinated. His writings exposed dealings between businessmen and Colombian drug cartels, and the ridicule of Cuban terrorists. At least that night, the pen wasn’t mightier than the sword.

1992, July — Patrick Bannon believed he ruled the nights along Bell Boulevard as a bouncer for the Palm Club. Housing cop Paul Heidelberger tried to break up a fight. Bannon thought it was Heidelberger who hit him in the head with a bottle, and tracked down the cop. He paralyzed the officer with a .9-mm blast to the neck, and then finished off the pleading man with a point-blank shot to the forehead. He turned himself in after a six-week manhunt and an appearance on America’s Most Wanted.

1992 — Queens ranks as the most ethnically diverse county on the planet.

August 1992 — TWA Flight 843 aborted takeoff from JFK. The craft, a Lockheed L-1011, caught fire and miraculously all of the 292 passengers and 8 crew members were safely evacuated.

1992 — Teflon Don John Gotti finally ran out of slick when Sammy "The Rat" Gravano testified on his racketeering enterprises and his 1985 murder of mob boss Paul Castellano.

1993 — Port Authority proposes a "light rail" system from Manhattan’s East Side to LaGuardia and Kennedy airports.

1993 — Adam Cole was dubbed the Apple’s "most notorious" graffiti vandal, responsible for over $100,000 in property damage to Queens residents and businesses. Cole was spotted defacing a Tribune distribution box in Forest Hills.

1993 — The Tribune exposes shenanigans inside Runway 69, a nude bar which opened for a short time in Forest Hills. Club owners were forced to move the "dirty dancers" two weeks later.

1994 — Groundbreaking for a park as the first part of the Queens West development at Hunters Point.

August 1994 — President Bill Clinton stopped by the Fresh Meadows Diner to discuss a new nationwide health plan.

1995 — Work begins to connect the 63rd Street tunnel to nowhere—to the Queens Blvd. subway lines. Completion is scheduled for 2002. The Army announces plans to abandon most of Ft. Totten in Bayside, and planning for future uses begins.

1995 — The organizers of a mermorial service for slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin insist that naked statues in the Queens Museum be covered for the duration of the service.

1995 — Flushing Town Hall is restored and opened.

October 1995 — One million people pack Shea Stadium to celebrate a mass with Pope John Paul II.

1996 — New York Hall of Science and AMMI reopen after major renovations. Port Authority scales back its airport access plan from Kennedy Airport to Howard Beach and Jamaica; ferry service is planned for LaGuardia.

1996, Jan. — The famous Blizzard of 96 in January paralyzes Queens.

August 1996 — TWA Flight 782, a Boeing 727, shed a nine-foot section of wing flap that fell on 156th Avenue between 89th and 90th Streets in Howard Beach. There were no injuries, and TWA failed to report the incident to the FAA.

1997, Jan. —The Queens Tribune uncovers evidence that Terrace on the Park was laden with asbestos. As a result of the investigation, owners of the ritzy resturant were required to clean-up the toxic mess.

1997 — President Clinton and a sell-out crowd celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier; the Interboro Parkway is re-named after the ballplayer.

1997 — State announces plans to sell portions of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center campus. U.S. Open unveils the new Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium.

1997 — Two-fare zones, in which Queens residents had to pay two fares to get into Manhattan among other locations, are eliminated.

1997 — Metrocards are introduced in Queens.

1998 — Queens County marks a century as part of Greater New York City.

August 1998 — The Queens Tribune completed a nearly year-long crusade to put the names of Queens neighborhoods back on the envelopes, instead of being clumped into Flushing, Jamaica or Long Island City.

1998 — Flushing Library is reborn at the intersection of Main Street and Kissena Boulevard.

1999 — Metrocard vending machines are installed in major Queens subway stations.

1999 — The 7 Train becomes one of 16 sites in the country to be designated on the "millennium trail," making it a mobile landmark.

January 1999 — Former Tribune reporter Kendra Webdale was slain when she was pushed underneath a train in Manhattan by Andrew Goldstein, a Flushing man with a history of mental illness.

1999 — The Asian long-horned beetle honed in on dozens of Queens trees in Bayside, chomping them into extinction.

August 1999 — First Lady Hillary Clinton came to Queens, along with her New York State Senate candidacy hopes. Hillary took a few moments to gander at the Tribune — and she became an immediate subscriber to Queens’ largest weekly.

1999 — Billboards that screamed immigration was "eroding our Quality of Life" were repelled. The Tribune lashed back, noting the diversity and multicultural experience that is Queens.