Condensing 250 years of Pittsburgh business history into a brief timeline is an nearly impossible assignment. Reporter Elwin Green rose to the challenge and offers a glimpse of the some of the highlights of our illustrious history.

1754

Major George Washington leads a group of English colonists from Virginia in a confrontation with French troops at Fort Duquesne. A year later, he is part of the English garrison led by Gen. Braddock seeking to capture the same fort. The English are routed, and Gen. Braddock killed.

1758

In November, the English succeed in wresting Fort Duquesne from the French. Gen. George Forbes renames the territory Pittsburgh, after William Pitt, Great Britain's Secretary of State.

1786

John Scull and Joseph Hall found The Pittsburgh Gazette, the first newspaper west of the Alleghenies.

1788

Allegheny County is created. Before then, Pittsburgh was part of Westmoreland County.

1790

The census lists Pittsburgh's population at 376, a number that would nearly quintuple in 10 years and continue growing rapidly for decades to come.

1791

Congress imposes a tax on whiskey. Pittsburghers respond by tarring and feathering tax collectors. Their seething discontent reaches fever pitch on July 16, 1794, when 500 men set fire to the buildings on the estate of Gen. John Neville. President Washington dispatches 13,000 militia to quell the "Whiskey Rebellion," but by the time they get there, the rebellion has spent itself.

1793

George Anshutz establishes the first iron foundry in Pittsburgh. It lasts only two years.

1799

A shoemakers' strike is the city's first major labor action.

1800

Pittsburgh's population: 1,565

1805

John McClurg, Joseph Smith and John Gormly partner to establish an iron foundry. The War of 1812 helps it to flourish.

1810

Pittsburgh's population: 4,768

1816

March 18: Pittsburgh incorporated as a city.

1818

Darby's Emigrant's Guide, a travel journal, declares that "The constant volume of smoke preserve the atmosphere in a continued cloud of coal dust." Other writers plagiarize the sentiment for 150 years.

1820

Pittsburgh's population: 7,248

1830

Pittsburgh's population: 12,568

1840

Pittsburgh's population: 21,115

1845

April 10: A raging fire consumes more than 50 acres of downtown Pittsburgh.

1848

Samuel M. Kier, owner of a boating company, learns that his father's salt wells in Tarentum are producing oil. He markets petroleum as "a remedy of wonderful efficacy" that enables the lame to walk and the blind to see. After that flops, he tries using it as lamp oil, and makes his fortune as America's first oil refiner.

1851

Railroad service to Pittsburgh begins with the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad's completion of a line from Cleveland to Allegheny City, now the North Shore, giving Clevelanders the opportunity to get out while the getting is good.

1852

Pittsburgh Trust and Savings Company, which eventually becomes PNC Bank, is established.

1860

Pittsburgh's population: 50,000

1861

April 12: The battle of Fort Sumter launches the War Between the States, also known as the Civil War. In Allegheny County, 24,000 men enlist in the Union Army. Steel and iron production surge.

1869

Henry J. Heinz and L.C. Noble form "a new firm to process and sell horseradish." Heinz and Noble's firm goes bankrupt in 1875, but Heinz goes on to form the H.J. Heinz Co. in 1888. Also in this year, Andrew Mellon establishes a bank. It does not go bankrupt.

1871

Henry Clay Frick forms a company to buy coal.

1877

Railroad workers strike: on July 21, militiamen called in from Philadelphia fire on strikers, resulting in 26 deaths.

1883

Pittsburgh Plate Glass, the forerunner to PPG Industries, is established.

1886

The Union Switch and Signal Co. creates a new subsidiary, Westinghouse Electric Co.

1888

The Pittsburgh Reduction Co. is established, becoming the first piece of a conglomerate that in 1907 became the Aluminum Company of America, better known as Alcoa.

1892

Andrew Carnegie forms the Carnegie Steel Co. At birth, it is the largest steel company in the world, with a capitalization of $25 million. On June 30, the entire workforce of Carnegie Steel's Homestead Works plant is laid off when their contract expires. On July 6, striking workers riot; 10 of their number, and three Pinkerton detectives, are killed. On July 12, a state militia, 8,000 strong, occupies the plant. On Oct. 20, the strike ends with no concessions from Carnegie.

1902 - 1911

Downtown Pittsburgh experiences a building boom, with 10 sky-topping buildings constructed in as many years.

1919

Oct. 17: Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad, an amateur radio operator, decides to save his voice by placing a microphone in front of his phonograph and playing some records, thus inadvertently producing the first musical radio broadcast. His fellow amateur radio operators urge him to do more, and he begins borrowing records from a nearby music store in exchange for mentioning their names during the broadcast, thus inadvertently creating the first radio commercials.

1912

Gulf Oil opens the world's first company-owned service station.

1925

April 13: The state legislature kills a bill to create a Greater Pittsburgh by consolidating suburban townships and boroughs, thus paving the way for another century of intermunicipal wrangling.

1928

Having conquered the worlds of radio programming and advertising, Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad cooks up a method for transmitting motion pictures via radio waves. On Aug. 8, in its East Pittsburgh laboratories, Westinghouse stages a demonstration of the technology, dubbed "television."

1936

June 17: First meeting of the Steelworkers' Organizing Committee, forerunner to the United Steel Workers.

1943

The Allegheny Conference on Community Development is created "to develop, stimulate, encourage and co-ordinate" regional planning.

1946

Jan. 15: A nationwide strike of electrical industry workers idles 18,000 Westinghouse employees. The strike lasts 115 days, ending May 9.

Jan. 20: A nationwide strike by the CIO United Steel Workers shuts down the steel industry until Feb. 17.

July 8: Mellon National Bank and Union Trust Company merge, creating a billion-dollar financial institution. And this was when a billion dollars was real money.

1950

Allegheny County's smoke-control ordinance begins to take effect, clearing the way for locals to enjoy the region's sunny days. Such as they are.

Oct. 15: Construction begins of the first three buildings in a new Downtown office park near the Point, Gateway Center.

1952

May 31: The $33-million New Greater Pittsburgh Airport is dedicated.

Oct. 29: The city's first public parking garage opens as merely a place to park, to the disappointment of the Parking Authority, whose plan to have its garages sell gas, oil and services was scuttled by Judge Henry Ellenbogen.

1953

The openings of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel and the Parkway West make eastern and western suburbs more accessible to the center city.

1954

Construction begins of the world's first nuclear power plant, at Shippingport, Pa., to be build by Westinghouse and Duquesne Light Co., and operated by Duquesne Light.

April 1: WQED goes on the air, the nation's first public television station.

1955

The Regional Industrial Development Corp. is established.

1956

A nationwide strike idles 600,000 members of the United Steel Workers, shutting down 85 percent of the nation's steel production for 27 days.

1959

Pittsburgh passes a Fair Housing Practices ordinance that makes it the second city in the country to ban discrimination in residential sales or leasing.

June 19: The Fort Pitt Bridge opens.

1960

Sept. 1: The Fort Pitt Tunnels open (Where did the bridge go before this?)

1961

Sept. 17: The Civic Arena opens.

1966

Feb. 9: Pittsburgh enters the National Hockey League with the formation of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

1967

U.S. Steel breaks ground for a new headquarters, slated to become the second-largest high-rise office building in the world.

1972

Carnegie Mellon University names Dr. Richard Cyert as president. During an 18-year tenure, Dr. Cyert will develop Carnegie Mellon into a leading force in information science and robotics, and an incubator for numerous startups, that leads Pittsburgh's painful transition into a post-industrial economy.

1974

Dedication of the fountain at Point State Park completes a project that was first announced in October 1940.

1975

Jan. 12: The Pittsburgh Steelers win their first Super Bowl title.

1976

Sept. 15: Volkswagen signs an agreement to establish a plant in New Stanton.

1977

Aug. 1: In the steel industry's first major strike since 1959, 14,000 steelworkers go idle.

1979

Volkswagen lays off 3,500 workers

Nov. 27: U.S. Steel announces production cutbacks that will result in 13,000 layoffs, one-tenth of them in Western Pennsylvania.

1980

Jan. 30: U.S. Steel announces a record quarterly loss of $293 million.

1982

Jan. 7: U.S. Steel buys 51 percent of Marathon Oil.

Jan. 17: A consortium of Westinghouse, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh receive a Cray X-MP/48 supercomputer, capable of 840 million operations per second.

Feb. 8: Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel lays off 40 percent of its workforce.

Oct. 27: U.S. Steel reports a third-quarter loss of $82 million.

1983

July 20: Copperweld Corp. closes its Glassport plant, eliminating 200 jobs.

Dec. 28: U.S. Steel cuts 5,574 district jobs.

1984

Feb. 10: Kroger, whose 2,845 local employees have been on strike since Jan. 19, sells its 45 area stores.

1985

July 3: The Port Authority Transit subway, built at a cost of $90 million, opens, begins providing service between Downtown and the South Hills.

1986

Sept. 13: After 61 years, Gimbel's closes its Downtown store.

Aug. 1: Work stoppage begins at USX, which has just changed its name from U.S. Steel. On Aug. 21, the State Bureau of Employment Security rules it a lockout, entitling 6,200 workers to unemployment benefits. The strike continues until Jan. 17, making it the longest in industry history, but workers don't return to their jobs until Feb. 2, 1987. Three days later, USX announces the closing of four mills, eliminating 3,500 jobs.

1987

Aug. 27: USX closes its National plant, eliminating 186 jobs. At its peak, the plant employed 4,600.

1988

May 6: One day after the death of Mayor Richard S. Caligiuri, Sophie Masloff is sworn in as the city's first woman chief executive.

1991

Sept. 5: Mayor Masloff unveils preliminary plans for Clemente Field, a new 44,000-seat baseball stadium to be placed adjacent to Three Rivers Stadium, with a view of the Downtown skyline. The proposal, with estimated costs between $100 million and $130 million, immediately ignites a firestorm of criticism. Eleven days later, the mayor ditches the stadium plan. Ten years later, PNC Park, a 38,000-seat baseball stadium with a view of the Downtown skyline, opens. Cost: $262 million. On Aug. 24, 2001, Heinz Field, a 66,000-seat football stadium with a view, opens. Cost: $281 million.

1992

Sept. 30: The Greater Pittsburgh International Airport is dedicated.

July 24: Sony begins producing television tubes at the former Volkswagen plant in New Stanton.

1994

April 29: Horne's department store is sold to Federated.

1996

June 15: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Shadyside Hospital announce their merger, setting UPMC on the path to becoming the region's largest employer.

1998

Jan. 16: For the first time in its history, PNC reports profits in excess of $1 billion.

1999

April 26: Fore Systems is sold to London-based General Electric for $4.5 billion.

Dec. 10: In its initial public offering, FreeMarkets, an online auction company, sees its stock soar from $48 to $280 in a single day. The resulting capitalization of $9.7 billion makes FreeMarkets Pittsburgh's sixth-largest publicly traded company.

2000

FreeMarkets' share price peaks at $370 before Internet-based companies fall out of favor. By the end of the year, FreeMarkets shares are less than $19.

2006

March: Equitable Resources and Dominion announce an agreement for Equitable to acquire Dominion Peoples and its West Virginia sibling, Dominion Hope, for $970 million.

May: Sony closes glass production plant at New Stanton, cutting 350 jobs.

July 5: Duquesne Light announces a deal to be acquired by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, a subsidiary of Macquarie Bank, Australia's largest investment bank, for $20 a share.

2007

March 15: Sony announces that it is cutting 900 jobs at its New Stanton plant, as it moves the production of rear-projection televisions to Tijuana, Mexico.

Dec. 4: Allegheny County adopts a $727.5 million county budget for next year that includes a new 10 percent tax on poured alcoholic drinks and a new $2-a-day levy on car rentals. Bar owners, restaurateurs and people who like to drink raise a storm of protest, but it still goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2008.

2008

Jan. 15: Equitable Resources and Dominion announce the dissolution of their deal for Equitable to buy Dominion Peoples and Dominion Hope for $970 million.