- Two New Yorkers, Eddy and Hart, built a pavilion (circular wooden platform covered by a tent) at the far westerly point of the beach. A sidewheeler steamer began bringing visitors from the city to a small pier there that jutted out into Gravesend Bay.

 - Peter Tilyou and family moved to Coney Island in 1865 to establish the Surf House, a hotel and restaurant which sold Bavarian Lager for five cents and rented "Fancy Flannel Bathing Suits."

- Charles Feltman invented the hot dog, a marriage of the German frankfurter with a roll.

- Charles Feltman sub-leased a tiny plot of land near the beach. He served hot dogs to 3,684 customers that summer.

- Charles Feltman bought a 150 x 200 foot lot for $7500 and opened his Ocean Pavilion. It proclaimed itself to be the largest building on Coney Island with rooms for 20,000 guests, a ballroom for 3000 dancers, and a piazza for 5000 onlookers.

- Charles Feltman bought a 150 x 200 foot lot for $7500 and opened his Ocean Pavilion. It proclaimed itself to be the largest building on Coney Island with rooms for 20,000 guests, a ballroom for 3000 dancers, and a piazza for 5000 onlookers.

- Coney Island's first carousel carved by Charles Looff, was built for William Vanderveer who owned several flourishing bathhouses. It was located at Balmer's Bathing Pavilion, a three story hotel and two story bathing pavilion at the foot of Ocean Parkway.

- The Manhattan Beach Hotel was built on the far eastern shore of Coney Island. It was considered the most elegant and fashionable hotel in the United States when it opened on July 4, 1877. It featured 258 lavish rooms, restaurants, ballrooms and shops. Evening entertainment often included spectacular huge fireworks displays staged by Henry Pain, which depicted scenic wonders, famous legends and battles.

-The 300 foot high Iron Tower was brought from the Philadelphia Cenntenial Exposition. It featured two steam elevators to transport visitors to its top, which offered splendid views of the island.

- Brighton Beach Hotel (Hotel Brighton) opens. This vast wooden hotel with accommodations for nearly 5000, could also feed 20,000 people per day.

- William Engeman builds the Iron Pier and Brighton Beach Bathing Pavilion.

- Feltman builds a 100 foot long Iron Pier with space for 1200 bath lockers and various game and food stands.

- William Eugeman builds the Brighton Beach Race Track which opens in June.

- Louis Stauch began his restaurant business.

- The Sheepshead Bay Race Track opened in June.

- Peter Tilyou built Coney Island's first theater, the Surf Theater along an alley that was soon to be dubbed "The Bowery."

- Lamarcus Thompson built the first amusement railroad in the world, his Switchback Railroad at W. 10th Street at Coney Island. It consisted of a pair of wooden undulating tracks on a structure 600 feet long. A train started at its highest point and ran down grade and up until it lost momentum. It only cost Thompson $1600 to build, but his ten cents per ride receipts averaged $600-700 per day.

- James V. Lafferty after two years of construction, finished his Elephant Hotel, a small hotel in the shape of an elephant. It stood 122 feet high, with legs 60 feet in circumference.

- Members of the Brooklyn Jockey Club built Coney Island's third race track at Gravesend just off the Ocean Parkway. Now with three race tracks, Coney became the horse racing capital of the country.

- George Tilyou erected a 125-foot-diameter Ferris Wheel

- Captain Paul Boyton opened Sea Lion Park, the world's first enclosed amusement park charging admission on the east side of Surf Avenue It featured a Shoot-the-Chutes water slide, Old Mill ride, and a Sea Lion show. He also demonstrated his floating rubber suit that enabled him to paddle across the English Channel and down rivers in both Europe and North America.

- George Tilyou opens Steeplechase Park along the beach on 15 acres.

- "Streets of Cairo," an exotic attraction of alleyways faced with buildings topped by minarets, opened at Surf Avenue & W. 10th Street. Barkers offered camel rides and glipses of belly dancers, but it was actually a shrine to god of chance.

- On May 27th an early morning fire destroyed $800,000 worth of West Brighton. Sixty buildings burned & 17 people were badly injured . The fire burned along 8 blocks and included Henderson's Bath House. Only one block of the Bowery burned, but Stauch's Dance Hall and Feltman's big casino were destroyed.

- Tilyou entices Thompson and Dundy to exhibit their "A Trip to the Moon" show at his Steeplechase Park. This untique attraction flew patrons in a giant flying ship to the moon where they were greeted by midget moon men and were offerd green cheese (the moon was said to be made of).

- Thompson and Dundy's Luna Park opened on May 16, 1903 to a crowd of 43,000 paying customers. The 22 acre park, on the site of the old Sea Lion Park, featured a forest of towers and spires lit at night by 122,000 electric lights. Attractions inluded A Trip to the Moon, a Dragon's Gorge (scenic railroad), Shoot-the-Chutes, Canals of Venice, Hagenbeck's Wild Animals, Miniature Railroad, Trip to the North Pole, Infant Incubators, Old Mill ride, Eskimo and German Villages, Chinese and Monkey Theaters and a Grand Ballroom. The park was an immediate success.

- A fire on November 2, 1903 swept the Bowery's five blocks between Steeplechase Park and Feltman’s. 

- Dreamland amusement park opened on May 14, 1904 on 15 acres of land seaward of Luna Park, across Surf Avenue. While most of its attractions were either copied from or pirated from Luna Park, but on a grander scale, it did have some innovative ones like Midget City and the Haunted Swing. Initially it attracted huge crowds, but most visitors found the park's cultural and architectural pretensions boring. They preferred to go to Luna Park instead.

- Coney Island's first Mardi Gras Festival was held in September and attracted 300,000 people. It became a yearly tradition at the close of the summer season.

- Brighton Beach Race Track closes.

- The fire at Steeplechase began at 4 A.M. July 28th in the Cave of the Winds attraction. The spreading flames could not be checked by Coney's inadequate fire fighting equipment. Within hours all 25 of the park's 25 attractions burned along with some adjoining property along the Bowery. The loss was $1,400,000.

- Sixteen people in two roller coaster cars were pitched from the top of a 60 foot peak on the Rough Riders switchback at Jones Walk and The Bowery. Miraculously only four of them were killed.

- Dreamland burned the night of May 27, 1911 just hours before it was scheduled to open for the season.

- Two women riding the Giant Racer died when the train they were riding in left the track on a curve fifty feet above Surf Avenue.
- A fire started in the Pneumatic Tube and Miniature Subway in Luna Park on December 11, 1911.

- Two accidents at Steeplechase Park that season. A man was killed on May 19, 1912 when he fell off the Wooden Donkey. The object was to ride on its revolving back for five minutes in order to win a $5 prize.

- May 26th five people were injured when the cable on the Airship snapped and dropped one end of a car. The passengers tumbled out and hit the ground.

- Another accident occurs on the Rough Riders roller coaster. A train derails on July 30 and falls along Jones Walk. Two passengers and the driver are killed instantly.

- The first section of Coney Island's boardwalk, stretching for half the length of the resort, opened. Its wooden planked boardwalk was 80 feet wide. 

- Six passengers were injured on the Oriental Scenic Railroad on Surf Avenue on June 21st when a trestle, 10 feet off the ground gave way.

- Coney Island's first beauty contest was held during the Democratic National Convention in Manhattan. 48 contestants from each of the states competed.

- The Bobs / Tornado, a thrilling twister roller coaster designed by Prior & Church was built on a very narrow lot at Henderson's Walk and the Bowery. It was called the Amusement Department Store. This included a carousel, wax show, Bug House, shooting gallery and a bathhouse for 500 bathers.

- Twelve people hurt in a crash on the Thunderbolt roller coaster, when failing to make a hill, rolled back down and was struck by the next train.

- The 85 feet high Cyclone, Coney Island's most famous roller coaster opened on June 26, 1927.

- On August 1st 57 bathers were injured when a section of the west balcony at Steeplechase's pool collapsed.

- Lawrence Russo, a high school student riding the Mile Sky Chaser at Luna Park was pitched out of the car and killed.

- Steeplechase fire on Sept 14, 1939 destroyed a Flying Turns toboggan coaster, and several rides including the outside section of the Steeplechase Horse track. 50,000 visitors watched the fire from the beach.

- Coney Island's boardwalk was extended across Brighton Beach into Manhattan Beach.

- Steeplechase's Parachute Jump, fresh from the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, was installed along the Boardwalk. The 262 foot tall tower with its 12 chutes offered customers a change to experience a simulated parachute jump.

- Fire guts nearly half of Luna Park on August 12th. Nearly a dozen attractions including the 125 foot high Coca Cola Tower were destroyed. The Mile Sky Chaser (coaster) and Shoot the Chutes rides were damaged but repairable. However, the park did reopen and charged ten cents to see the ruins.

- Robert Moses rezoned the land where Luna Park once stood for low income housing projects.

- Electronic games at Coney's arcades were banned as police Commander McCaffery refused to renew liscences.

- Fire destroys the Steeplechase Pier on April 22nd.

- Astroland amusement park opens.

- Steeplechase Park closes permanently on September 20th.

- 15 year old Bienviendo Morales was killed on a Ferris wheel when he opened the door of the car and had his head caught between a steel suspension bar and car door.

- Fourteen people were injured and hospitalized while riding the Hell Hole on Saturday night July 29, 1995.  The ride was permanently closed.