1896: Entrepreneur Henry Morrison Flagler, one of the founders of Standard Oil, dredged the south Florida swamp to extend his railway, reaching the newly-incorporated town of Miami. The year before the unincorporated territory consisted of only three houses. Flagler owned a cluster of Florida resorts, with major hotels in Daytona and Palm Beach.

1990s: Miami is the largest metropolitan area in Florida. Over 40 million tourists visit the state each year, mostly to visit the cluster of theme parks around Orlando.

1896: The first public showing of a motion picture occurred in New York, at Koster and Bial's Music Hall.

1956: The first successful videotape recorder was demonstrated at Ampex Corp. in Redwood City, California.

1990s: Advanced home theater technology threatens to make public move viewing obsolete.

1896: The discovery of gold in theKlondike Territory, near the Alaskan border, led to a gold rush that brought miners from around...