1912: A jazz orchestra organised by James Reese Europe plays at Carnegie Hall

1913: Darktown Follies at Lafayette Theater (the “beginning” of Harlem nightlife)

1919: 369th Regiment (AKA the Harlem Hellfighters) parades up Fifth Avenue to Harlem after WWI

1920:
National Prohibition Act goes into effect.
Jack Johnson (the first black heavyweight champion) opens Club Deluxe (name changed to the Cotton Club in 1923).
Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association holds a national convention in Harlem.

1921: Shuffle Along (an all black musical) sets a new standard on Broadway

1922: The Harmon Foundation is established

1923: Running Wild, an all black Broadway musical, introduces the Charleston

1924: Louis Armstrong plays at the Roseland Ballroom with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra

1925: Small’s Paradise opens

1926: The Savoy Ballroom opens

1927:
The “400″ Club starts at the Savoy
The Cotton Club starts a live radio broadcast of the Duke Ellington Orchestra
Charles Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic flight

1929:
Chick Webb’s orchestra and “Shorty George” Snowden featured in After Seben
The Stock Market crashes (Beginning of the Great Depression, which effectively ends Harlem Renaissance)

1931: Chick Webb’s band starts its long residency at the Savoy

1932:
Duke Ellington releases It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got the Swing, heralding in the Swing Era
The Apollo Theatre becomes a black vaudeville house

1933:
Weekly floor shows introduced at the Savoy
National Prohibition Act repealed

1934: Chick Webb records Stompin’ at the Savoy

1935:
Harlem Race Riots
The first Harvest Moon Ball dance contest

1936:
A business peak is reached at the Savoy Ballroom
The Lindy Hop is introduced to Europe by Harvest Moon Ball contestants
The Cotton Club relocates downtown
Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton join Benny Goodman
Jesse Owens makes heroic achievements at the Berlin Olympics in Nazi Germany

1937:
The battle of bands at the Savoy features Chick Webb vs. Benny Goodman
Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers featured in Marx Brothers’ A Day at the Races
“Cotton Club Revue” featuring Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers tours Europe
All female swing band “The Sweethearts of Rhythm” formed in Mississippi

1938:
The battle of bands at the Savoy features Chick Webb (with vocalist Ella Fitzgerald) vs. Count Basie (with vocalist Billie Holiday)

1939:
Chick Webb dies and Ella Fitzgerald assumes the leadership of the band
New York World’s Fair (features swing, television is introduced)

1940: The Cotton Club (downtown) closes

1941:
Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers featured in Hellzapoppin
Teddy Hill hires Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke at Minton’s Playhouse
U.S. enters WWII – the Lindy Hop is introduced around the world by the U.S. soldiers.

1943: The staff of hostesses at the Savoy is discontinued

1944: Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., elected the first black congressman from the East

1945: WWII ends

1949: Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson dies

ca1950: Mura Dehn documents dancers from the Savoy Ballroom on film

1958: The Savoy Ballroom closes

1959: The Savoy Ballroom building is replaced by Delano Village