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The Ryman Chronology:
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To capture the cultural changes the Ryman Auditorium has spanned in its more than 100 years of history, the following chronology pairs events in the building's rich history with those taking place simultaneously in America.

Date	Event in Ryman History	Event in American History
1885	May 10 Nashville riverboat Captain Thomas Green Ryman (born Oct 12, 1841) is converted by southern evangelist Samuel Porter Jones and decides to build a tabernacle to serve the city's revivals.	February 18 Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is first published.
		June 19 The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York City from France.
1887	Architect Hugh C. Thompson is hired to work from Ryman's first sketches of the building.	March 3 Anne Mansfield Sullivan arrives at the Alabama home of Captain and Mrs. Arthur H. Keller to become the teacher of Helen, their blind and deaf 6-year-old daughter.
1889	February 25 A Charter of Incorporation is filed for the creation of the Union Gospel Tabernacle (later to be renamed the Ryman Auditorium).	February 22 President Cleveland approves statehood for Montana, Washington, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
1890	May The first revival is held within the walls of the yet unfinished Union Gospel Tabernacle. Canvas is used to cover the opening in the roof.	July 29 Artist Vincent van Gogh dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France, while painting "Wheatfield with Crows."
1892	The Union Gospel Tabernacle is completed.  The Indiana Church Finishing Company supplies the pews, which remain to this day, at an original cost of $2700. The original seating capacity was 3,755 persons.	January 1 Ellis Island becomes an immigration receiving station.
1893	April 5 Lieutenant Robert Peary lectures on Arctic Exploration.	June 21 Engineer George Washington Gale Ferris  constructs a 254-foot high revolving steel wheel, complete with plush chairs for passengers, for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
	May New York Symphony orchestra performs.	November 7 Colorado voters declare statewide voting rights for women.
1894	January 21 - February 11 Rev. Sam Jones holds a revival at the Ryman.	June 28 Labor Day becomes a national holiday.
1895	October 13 Rev. Sam Q. Small, lectures on "The Scarlet Woman" in an afternoon lecture for men only.	February 8 President Grover Cleveland and banker J.P. Morgan negotiate an arrangement that solves the crisis of low federal gold reserves.
1896	February 13 Rev. Dwight L. Moody holds his revival.	April 6 Athens, Greece hosts the first Olympic Games of the modern era.
1897	February Commencement exercises of Meharry Medical College take place on stage.	March 4 William  McKinley is inaugurated as the 25th U.S. President.
	March 10 William Jennings Bryan, lecturer and perennial presidential candidate, speaks.	June 16 Hawaii and the U.S. agree to terms of Annexation, setting in motion the acquisition of Hawaii by the United States.
	June22 The Confederate Gallery is constructed for the Confederate Veterans Association reunion, increasing the seating capacity of the auditorium to 6,000.	Tennessee celebrates its Centennial.
1898	February 3-4 The Chicago Orchestra performs.	February 15 The U.S. battleship MAINE is sunk in a Cuban Harbor sparking the beginning of the Spanish-American War.
1899	February 20-21 "Jim Key" the famous "educated" horse performs.	February 6 The Treaty of Paris is approved, ending the Spanish-American War.
	Construction on the Ryman Auditorium is completed, for a total cost of $100,000.	February 14 Congress approves the use of voting machines in Federal elections.
1900	December 6 Edward Strauss and the Vienna Orchestra perform.	April 30 Casey Jones sacrifices his life and gains legendary status when he slows his train prior to a collision, sparing his passengers from certain death.
1901	September The Ryman stage is constructed at a cost of $750 for the New York Metropolitan Opera Company's touring productions of Carmen, The Barber of Seville, and Faust, which play in October.	September 16 President William McKinley is assassinated.  A memorial service is held at the Ryman.
1902	May 16 Booker T. Washington lectures from the Ryman stage.	February 1 Legendary African-American poet Langston Hughes is born Joplin, Missouri.
1903	January 28 General William Booth, Commander in Chief and founder of the Salvation Army, lectures.	May 29 Comedian Bob Hope is born Leslie Townes Hope, in London, England. He would later change his first name to Bob.
	Victor Herbert and the Pittsburgh Symphony perform.	December 17 Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully fly the first heavier-than-air machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1904	February 14 World famous opera singer Adelina Patti performs.	March 1 Glenn Miller (d.1944), big band leader of the 1930s and 1940s, is born in Clarinda, Iowa.
	December 23 Captain Thomas Ryman dies. At his funeral ceremony, the Rev. Samuel Jones takes a vote to rename the tabernacle the Ryman Auditorium.   He receives a standing ovation response from the audience.	May 11 Salvador Dali (d.1989), surrealist painter, is born in Figueres, Spain
	The French Grand Opera Company of New Orleans performs.	December 6 President Roosevelt presents his Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine to Congress.  In it, he states that the U.S. must assume command during disputes concerning nations in the Western Hemisphere.
1905	September 26 Ellery's Royal Italian Band performs.	May Einstein publishes the theory of relativity.
	Opera star Madame Nellie Melba (for whom Melba Toast and the Peach Melba are named) performs in concert.	The Stanford-Binet intelligence test is developed.
1906	March 8 Sarah Bernhardt performs in Camille.	April 18 The great San Francisco earthquake destroys 28,000 buildings.
	October 15 Rev. Samuel Jones dies in his train cabin, on the way back from a revival. A memorial service is held at the Ryman in his honor on October 28th.	The first known radio broadcast of voice and music is made through a machine engineered by Reginald A. Fessenden.  Unlike today's radios, the machine consisted of two room size generators.
1907	October 23 President Teddy Roosevelt lectures from the Ryman stage.	May 12 Actress Katharine Hepburn is born in Hartford, Connecticut.
	November 13 Carrie Nation lectures on temperance.	September 29 Gene Autry (d.1998), singing cowboy, is born in Tioga, Texas.
	Maude Adams performs in Peter Pan.	November 16 Oklahoma is admitted as the 46th state to the Union.
1908	March 25 Pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski performs	Henry Ford introduces his Model T, and competitor General Motors incorporates.
	January 28 John Phillip Sousa and his band perform.	William Howard Taft elected as the 27th U.S. President.
1909	April 19 Emma Eames in concert	An expedition led by Robert Edwin Peary reaches the North Pole.
1910	March 17 American explorer Robert Edwin Peary lectures on his trip to the North Pole.	June 13 The first Father's Day celebration is held in Spokane, Washington.
1911	May The New York Symphony Orchestra, Walter Damroach conducting, in concert.	May 29 First Indianapolis 500 is won by Ray Harroun, with a top speed of 74.59 mph.
	May 19-20 Victor Herbert and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra perform.	February 8 The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.
1912	February 23 Sir Robert Baden Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, lectures on "Scouting in War and Peace".	January 11 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen beats Robert Scott to the South Pole by five days.
	Vaudeville Comedian Harry Lauder performs.	April 15 The Titanic hits an iceberg and sinks, killing 1,513 people.
1913	October 2 Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy lecture.	February 25 The 16th Amendment to the Constitution is approved, establishing an income tax.
	May 13- December 15 The Fisk Jubilee Singers perform.	October 10 President Wilson officially opens the Panama Canal to traffic.
1914	January 30 Opera great Madame Nellie Melba and violinist Jan Kubelik give a joint concert.	January 5 Henry Ford astounds the world as he announces that he will pay a minimum wage of $5 a day and share with employees $10 million of the previous year's profits.
	March 12 The great Russian dancer Anna Pavlova dances.	June 7 The first vessel passes through the Panama Canal.
	November 20 Opera singer Alma Gluck in concert.	August The Great War, later termed World War I,  begins.
1915	November 9 The Fisk Jubilee Singers celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fisk University.	May 7 German submarines sink the British passenger ship Lusitania. More than 1,000 passengers die.
1916	March 3 Austrian violinist Fritz Keisler in concert.	August 25 The National Park Service is established by the Department of Interior.
	October 26 Great Irish tenor John McCormack sings.	Legendary Mexican outlaw Pancho Villa attacks the town of Columbus, New Mexico.
1917	May 30 Tenor singer Paul Ryman, son of Captain Ryman, performs.	April 6 The United States declares war on Germany, thereby entering WWI.
	Theatrical and film star Francis X. Bushman appears in support of war bonds.	May 13 Three peasant children near Fatima, Portugal, report seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.
	Legendary dance choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky presents the Ballet Russe.	May 29 The official flag of the President of the United States is adopted.
1918	April 11 Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford speak on behalf of savings bonds.	January 8 Mississippi becomes the first state to prohibit the sale, manufacture or transportation of liquor.
	Opera star Ernestine Schumann Heink in concert.	March 31 Througout the U.S., Daylight Savings Time goes into effect for the first time.
1919	April 29 The great Enrico Caruso sings	January 16 State legislatures ratify the 18th Amendment, and Prohibition begins.
	October 29 Dancer Isadora Duncan performs.	May 18 Pope John Paul II, [Karol Jozef Wojtyla] 264th Roman Catholic pope, is born. He is to become the first non-Italian Roman Catholic Pope since the Renaissance.
	December 15 Evangelist Billy Sunday holds a revival crusade.	June 4 Congress approves the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, pending Union approval.
	A performance of the opera Aida is given.	June 28 The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I. World War I began in 1914 and ended on this date.
	Vaudeville comedian DeWolf Hopper performs.	August 30 Ted Williams, Hall of Fame outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, the last man to hit .400 in a season, is born.
1920	April 6 Amelita Galli-Curci gives a recital.	January 4 The Negro National League, the first black baseball league, is organized by Rube Foster.
	American opera star Rosa Ponselle in concert.	August 26 Women gain the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified.
1921	December 9-11 Creatore Grand Opera Company in concert.	July 2 J. Andrew White announces the Dempsey-Carpentier fight in Jersey City. He is thereby credited with being the first professional radio announcer.
1922	January 24 The San Carlo Opera Company presents Madame Butterfly.	February 8 President Warren Harding has a radio installed in the White House.
	December 6 Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, and the Denishawn Dancers appear. Future dance great Martha Graham is in the company.	April 16 Female sharpshooter Annie Oakley shoots down 100 clay targets in a row, setting a new women's record.
	The Walter Hampden Shakespeare Company performs.	August 28 The first-ever radio commercial airs on station WEAF in New York City.  The 10-minute advertisement is for the Queensboro Realty Company, which had paid a fee of $100.
1923	June 13 Rudolph Valentino dances.	August 3 Calvin Coolidge assumes the office of the Presidency of the U.S. after the death of President Harding.
	October 19 Operas La Traviata, and La Boheme are performed.	September 15 Martial Law is declared in Oklahoma in response to problems with the Ku Klux Klan.
	Jascha Heifetz, Mischa Elman, and Ignace Paderewski perform.	The first baseball game is played at Yankee Stadium.
1924	November 17 Vladimir de Pachman, considered one of the five greatest pianists in the world performs Chopin in a farewell concert.	March 4 Happy Birthday to You is published by Claydon Sunny.
1925	November 4 Humorist and cowboy singer Will Rogers performs.	July 10-25 Teacher John Scopes is put on trial in Dayton, Tennessee for teaching evolution in the classroom.
	Legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz performs.	November 28 The WSM Barn Dance radio show, later to become the Grand Ole Opry, gets under way in Nashville.  Old-time fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson is the first to perform.
	Captain Roald Amundsen, first explorer of the South Pole, gives an illustrated lecture.	The Great Gatsby is published by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
1926	December 13-20 Shakespeare Festival with Robert B. Mantell and Genevieve Hamper in Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, As You Like It, King Lear, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar.	Germany is admitted to the League of Nations.
1927	May 14-16 Old-Time Fiddlers Contest takes place.	Charles A. Lindbergh becomes the first pilot to cross the Atlantic when his Spirit of St. Louis takes him from New York to Paris.
1928	January 5 Vatican Choirs under the direction of Raffael Casmiro Casimiri.	May 4 Walt Disney's first animation, Steamboat Willie, is released.
	June 8 Two Black Crows (Moran and Mack) with W.C. Fields.	November 6 Herbert Hoover wins the presidential election.
1929	April 9 Tenor James Melton in concert	January 7 "Tarzan," one of the first adventure comic strips, makes its printed debut.
	February 27 The Isadora Duncan Dancers from Moscow perform.	October 29 "Black Tuesday" marks the worst day in the history of the New York Stock Exchange, and the beginning of the Great Depression.
1930	March 19-22 Presentation of a passion play from Freiberg, Germany.	March 13 Clyde Tombaugh announces the discovery of the planet Pluto at the Lowell Observatory.
1931	January 6 Strange Interlude by Eugene O'Neill.	March 3 The Star Spangled Banner is named the National Anthem of the United States.
	March 23 The Love Duel with Ethel Barrymore.	May 1 The Empire State Building opens.
1932	January 23 The first dressing room is built when Maude Adams requests one for her performance in The Merchant of Venice.	March 1 The infant son of Charles Lindbergh is kidnapped.
	February 5 Famed African American singer Marian Anderson performs in concert.	November 8 Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected the 32nd U.S. President.
1933	April 17 Lily Pons gives a recital.	February 10 The first singing telegram is introduced by the Postal Telegram Company in New York.
	The travelling Broadway production Of Thee I Sing, with music by George Gershwin, is performed.	December 5 Prohibition ends with approval of the 21st Amendment.
1934	February 12 The Vienna Boy's Choir, Sol Hurok conducting, in concert.	February 5 Hank Aaron, American hall of fame baseball player and alltime homerun leader (755), is born in Mobile, Al.
	April 11-12 Basil Rathbone, Orson Welles, and Katharine Cornell star in The Barretts of Wimpole Street.	July 22 Public Enemy #1, John Dillinger, shot in Chicago, Illinois.
	April 17-21 Aimee Semple McPherson of Foursquare Gospel debates with Charles Lee Smith, President of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism.	May 23 Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are killed in an early morning police ambush.  They were driving a stolen Ford Deluxe along a road in Bienville Parish, near Sailes, LA.
	Romeo and Juliet takes center stage, starring Katharine Cornell, Maurice Evans, Ralph Richardson, and Tyrone Power.	August 2 President Paul von Hindenburg of Germany dies. He is succeeded by Adolf Hitler as Reichsfuhrer, an office that combines the duties of president and chancellor.
	Mary of Scotland, starring Helen Hayes is performed.
1935	February 20 The Ziegfield Follies is presented, starring Billie Burke, Fannie Brice, and Eve Arden.	August 14 President Roosevelt approves the Social Security Act.
	March 13 As Thousands Cheer with Ethel Waters and Dorothy Stone.	November 5 Parker Brothers launches the immediately successful game of Monopoly.
	The Paul Whiteman Orchestra in concert.	Ernest Hemingway writes the novel Green Hills of Africa.
1936	Nelson Eddy performs.	November Robert Johnson, Mississippi blues guitarist, records his first of 5 sessions.
	Dodsworth with Walter Huston and Doris Day.	Gone With the Wind is first published by author Margaret Mitchell.
	Irish tenor John McCormack in concert.	American playwright Eugene O'Neill wins the Nobel Prize for literature.
	Ann Blythe and Paul Lukas star in Watch on the Rhine.	King Edward VIII abdicates his throne to marry American Mrs. Wallis Simpson.
1937	April 21 Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in concert.	May 6 A fiery explosion destroys the dirigible Hindenburg in a New Jersey airfield, killing 36 people.
	April 29 Tallulah Bankhead performs in George Kelly's comedy, Reflected Glory.	July 2 Famous aviatrix Amelia Earheart, disappears while flying over the Pacific Ocean and is never seen or heard from again.
1938	January 18 Maurice Evans performs in King Richard II.	January 22 Thornton Wilder's play Our Town is performed publicly for the first time, in Princeton, N.J
	March 30 Victoria Regina  starring  Helen Hayes.	February 17 The first color TV is demonstrated at the Dominion Theatre in London.
	October 4 Nashville Girl Scout Council presents a lecture by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt.	April 26 Pioneering guitarist Duane Eddy is born in Corning, New York.
	December 1 Ryman manager Lula C. Naff goes to court to get the right to present the provocative play, Tobacco Road.	July 22 In Germany, the Third Reich issues special identity cards for Jewish Germans.
	Eddie Bracken and Gary Merrill star in the production of Brother Rat.	December George Cukor announces that Vivian Leigh will portray Scarlet O' Hara in the cinema production of Gone With the Wind.
1939	February Golden Gloves Boxing is presented on the Ryman stage.	June King George VI and Queen Elizabeth tour the U.S. extensively.
	March 6 Idiot's Delight with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.	April Marian Anderson sings before 75,000 at the Lincoln Memorial after being denied use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
	My Dear Children directed by Otto Preminger, with John Barrymore and Dorothy McGuire.	September 1 Germany invades Poland, sparking the beginnings of World War II.
1940	Jeanette MacDonald performs.	Igor Sikorsky's first successful helicopter, the VS-300 takes flight.  Sikorsky played a fundamental role in the development of the helicopter.
	Skylark with Gertrude Lawrence.	The popularity of the radio continues to grow with more than 30 million in American homes by year's end.
1941	Katharine Hepburn performs in The Philadelphia Story, and Tallulah Bankhead performs in Reflected Glory.	December 7 The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, launching the U.S. into WWII.
	November 1 Marian Anderson in concert.	Baseball great Joe DiMaggio has a 56 consecutive game hitting streak.
1942	November 20 Watch on the Rhine with Paul Lukas and Anne Blyth.	April Major Jimmy Doolittle leads an air raid over 4 Japanese cities.
1943	June 5 The Grand Ole Opry moves to the Ryman.	Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower is named Supreme Commander of Allied forces for invasion of Europe.
	November 13 Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin, is performed.	The musical Oklahoma opens.
1944	December 20 The Ryman Auditorium name change is made official by an Amendment to the Charter of Incorporation.	November 7 FDR is the first President to be elected to a fourth term.  Harry Truman serves as Vice President.
	Guitarist Lester Flatt joins Bill Monroe's band for the first time on stage at the Ryman.	June 6 The D-Day invasion of Normandy by Allied Forces takes place.
	Bela Lugosi performs in Arsenic and Old Lace.	September 16 Glen Miller makes his last recording at the Abbey Road studio in London with an Allied Forces band and singer Dinah Shore.
1945	January 10 The Student Prince is performed.	August 6 The Enola Gay drops an atom bomb over Hiroshima, Japan signaling the end of WW II.
	December 8 Innovative banjo player Earl Scruggs joins Bill Monroe on the Ryman stage  for the first time, and the definitive sound of bluegrass music is complete.	August 9 The 10,000 lb. atomic bomb, "Fat Man", is dropped over Nagasaki. The primary objective of Kokura is passed over, due to visibility problems.
1946	January 14 The Ballet Russe of Monte Carlo dances.	February 1 The world's first computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) is displayed at the University of Pennsylvania.
	January Cowboy Copas is joins the Grand Ole Opry.	March 22 The First U.S. rocket built to leave the earth's atmosphere reaches a 50-mile height after launch from White Sands, New Mexico.
	December 6 Spike Jones Orchestra and his Musical Depreciation Revue, featuring the City Slickers takes the stage.	May 16 The musical Annie Get Your Gun opens on Broadway.
	Red Foley first brings young guitarist Chet Atkins to the Grand Ole Opry.	July 1 The United States test-explodes a 20-kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
1947	January 16 Tennessee Williams presents The Glass Menagerie.	January 25 American gangster Al Capone dies in Miami Beach, Florida, at the age of 48.
	April 7-9 Gilbert and Sullivan Operettas take place.	October 14 Air Force Captain Charles Yeager breaks the sound barrier in the Bell X-1.
	Grandpa Jones joins the Opry.	The Brooklyn Dodgers sign Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player.
1948	March 1 Antoinette Perry directs Harvey, starring Joe E. Brown and Marion Lorne.	March 20 First live musical broadcast on CBS with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. This production first appeared at the Ryman in 1937.
	September George Morgan and Jimmy Dickens join the Grand Ole Opry.	March 22 Andrew Lloyd Webber, Broadway composer, is born. His works include Phantom of the Opera and Cats.
	November 7-9 Oklahoma! comes to the Ryman.	August 16 Baseball great Babe Ruth dies of cancer.
1949	June Hank Williams Senior joins the Grand Ole Opry.	September 15 The Lone Ranger starring Clayton Moore premiers on the ABC television network.
	Bob Hope, Doris Day, and dancer Martha Graham perform on the Ryman stage.	The permanent headquarters of the United Nations is dedicated in New York City.
1950	January 17 Tallulah Bankhead performs in Private Lives.	April 9 Bob Hope makes his first television appearance in an NBC special.
	Harpo Marx, Roy Rogers, and Dale Evans perform.	Sen. Joseph McCarthy begins special investigation of Communists.
1951	February Mae West and Gene Autry perform.	February 26 The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, is ratified. It was a reaction to the 4 terms of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
	An article in Colliers magazine by Bill Davidson, entitled Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hillbilly Tunes chronicles the growth in popularity of the Opry and its impact on Nashville.	The first commercial color television show is broadcast.
	Spike Jones and his City Slickers liven up the Ryman stage.	The first atomic-powered generator begins producing electricity in Idaho.
1952	October 13 Fall season opens with Victor Borge.	November 4 Dwight D. Eisenhower wins the presidential election.
	The Ryman undergoes renovations, including new restrooms, and a new and improved stage for a total cost of $8000.	New York adopts the use of three color traffic lights.
1953	March 18 The Spike Jones Review performs.	January 1 Country singer Hank Williams dies at age 29 while en route to a concert date in Canton, Ohio.
	August Madame Butterfly
	Teddy Wilburn, Bill Carlisle and the Carlisles join the Grand Ole Opry.	February 11 Walt Disney's film Peter Pan premieres.
1954	October 2 Elvis Presley appears on the Grand Ole Opry, shocking the audience with his unique style.	January 2 US Senator Joseph McCarthy is condemned by Congress for his Communist "witch hunts".
	Ralston Purina sponsors the first televised show from the Ryman Auditorium.	U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposes an interstate highway system for civilian use and atomic defense.
1955	October Jim Reeves and Hawkshaw Hawkins join the Grand Ole Opry.	January 19 A presidential news conference is filmed for television for the first time, with permission from President Eisenhower.
	November 1 Jean Shepard joins the Grand Ole Opry.	March 3 Elvis Presley makes his first television appearance on the Louisiana Hayride.
	Lula C. Naff retires as general manager of the Ryman.  She is replaced by her assistant, Harry Draper.	June 23 Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp, the first animated feature filmed in CinemaScope, opens in theaters.
1956	July Johnny Cash joins the Grand Ole Opry.	March 13 Elvis Presley released his first album, Elvis Presley.
	August Jimmy C. Newman joins the Grand Ole Opry.	April 11 Elvis Presley celebrates his first gold record, Heartbreak Hotel.
	November 3 Stonewall Jackson joins the Grand Ole Opry.	June 1 Doris Day signs a five-year recording contract with Columbia Records worth $1 million.
1957	February 23 Porter Wagoner joins the Grand Ole Opry.	March 13 The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa on bribery charges.
	Wilma Lee Cooper and the Clinch Mountain Gang join the Grand Ole Opry.	July 12 The U.S. surgeon general, Leroy E. Burney, reports that there is a direct link between smoking and lung cancer.
1958	May 20 Don Gibson joins the Grand Ole Opry.	January 31 Explorer 1, the first successful U.S. satellite, is launched, and the United States enters the Space Age.
	June 13 Roy Drusky joins the Grand Ole Opry.	March 24 Elvis Presley is drafted, and enters the Army.
1959	February 27 Billy Grammer joins the Grand Ole Opry.	January 3 President Eisenhower signs a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union.
	August 4 Skeeter Davis joins the Grand Ole Opry.	February 3 A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, claims the lives of rock- and-roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.
1960	Patsy Cline, George Hamilton IV, Hank Locklin, and Billy Walker join the Grand Ole Opry.	January 2 Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1961	July 15 "Whispering" Bill Anderson joins the Grand Ole Opry.	January 3 The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
1962	September 25 Loretta Lynn joins the Grand Ole Opry.	February 20 U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr., becomes the first American to orbit the earth.
1963	March 5 Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Jack Anglin, and Randy Hughes die in a fatal plane crash. A silent prayer is held during the Grand Ole Opry on March 9, in tribute to the fallen stars.	June 1 Governor George Wallace vows to defy an injunction ordering integration of the University of Alabama.
	August 12 Jim Ed Brown joins the Grand Ole Opry.	June 12 Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is shot and killed in his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
	September 27 National Life Insurance, owners of WSM radio purchase the Ryman Auditorium for $207,500.  They change the official name of the building to the "Grand Ole Opry House".	November 22 President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
1964	March 2 Jim and Jesse McReynolds join the Grand Ole Opry.	January 18 Plans are disclosed for the World Trade Center in New York.
	March 7 Ernie Ashworth joins the Grand Ole Opry.	February 15 The album Meet the Beatles! Goes to number 1 where it remains for 11 weeks.
	August 8 The Osborne Brothers join the Grand Ole Opry.	March 9 The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line.
1965	June 13 Connie Smith joins the Grand Ole Opry.	January 2 The New York Jets signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath for a reported $400,000.
1966	April 30 Ray Pillow joins the Grand Ole Opry.	October Consumption and possession of LSD becomes illegal.
	October 14 Del Reeves joins the Grand Ole Opry.	December 1 Carter Stanley, of the Stanley Brothers bluegrass duo, dies of cancer.
1967	June 1 Stu Phillips joins the Grand Ole Opry.	January 3 Jack Ruby, the man who shot accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, dies in a Dallas hospital.
	August 17 Charlie Walker joins the Grand Ole Opry.	January 27 During a launch pad test of the Apollo I mission at Cape Kennedy, a flash fire suddenly breaks out in the vehicle's command module, killing its crew.
	September 16 Jeannie Seely joins the Grand Ole Opry.
	December 23 Jack Green joins the Grand Ole Opry.	April 14 Some 10,000 people march in protest against the Vietnam war in San Francisco.
1969	January 4 George Jones and Dolly Parton join the Grand Ole Opry.	January 23 NASA unveils a lunar landing craft.
	June 7 The Johnny Cash Show, filmed at the Ryman, makes its television debut.	July 20 The U.S. wins the race to the moon as the lunar landing module Eagle touches down in the Sea of Tranquility.
1970	Director Robert Altman films scenes for Nashville, starring Lily Tomlin and Ned Beatty. The film is nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Picture.	March 25 The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight.
1971	January Singer/Songwriter Tom T. Hall joins the Grand Ole Opry.	January 25 Charles Manson and three female followers are convicted in Los Angeles of murder and conspiracy in the slayings of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate.
	March 27 Jan Howard joins the Grand Ole Opry.	July 31 Apollo 15 astronauts take a drive on the moon in their land rover.
	The Ryman Auditorium is placed on the National Historic Register.	The Beatles disband.
1972	July 9 Barbara Mandrell joins the Grand Ole Opry.	January 5 President Richard Nixon orders development of the space shuttle.
1973	July 23 Jeanne Pruett is the last person to become an Opry member on the Ryman stage.	January 11 The trial of the Watergate burglars begins in Washington, DC.
	Bill Monroe hosts a "Bluegrass Revival" from the Ryman stage in one of the last large events before the Opry's departure.	January 16 NBC presented the 440th and final showing of Bonanza.
1974	March The Grand Ole Opry leaves the Ryman for the Opry House at Opryland USA, the only house built specifically for the Grand Ole Opry show.	April 5 The World Trade Center opens in New York City.
		August 8 President Richard Nixon resigns.
1980	Scenes from Coal Miner's Daughter, a chronicle of Loretta Lynn starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones, are filmed at the Ryman.	John Lennon is shot and killed in New York City.
1982	A singing Clint Eastwood films scenes for Honky-tonk Man at the Ryman.	Seven deaths in Chicago from cyanide-laced Tylenol cause nationwide panic, leading to a massive recall of the product.
1985	Filming for Sweet Dreams: The Patsy Cline Story starring Jessica Lange and Ed Harris begins in the Ryman.	March 10 Konstantin U. Chernenko, Soviet leader for just 13 months, dies at age 73. Mikhail Gorbachev is his successor.
1988	Dolly Parton returns to the Ryman to tape a televised variety show with Minnie Pearl.	The Exxon oil tanker Valdez runs aground and spills 10 million gallons of oil into Alaskan water.
1992	The Ryman Auditorium celebrates its first centennial.	William Jefferson Clinton is elected U.S. President.
	Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers record Live at theRyman from the historic Ryman stage.	December 8 Americans watch live television coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia as Operation Restore Hope begins.
1993	Gaylord Entertainment begins the $8.5 million renovation of the Ryman.	One of the worst fires in U.S. history destroys thousands of acres and homes in southern California.
1994	Nashville's "Mother Church of Country Music" re-opens in June as a premier performance hall and museum.	January 21 A jury in Manassas, Va., acquits Lorena Bobbitt  of maliciously wounding her husband, John.
	The first Sam's Place showcases a plethora of contemporary Christian, country, and gospel artists.	The internet is made available to the general public following the creation of the World Wide Web.
	Bluegrass Night at the Ryman series debuts with a concert by Bill Monroe and Alison Krauss. The first season features 12 bluegrass shows.	Tom Hanks stars in Forrest Gump. The film wins an Oscar for Best Picture.
	Always... Patsy Cline premieres with a 67-show performance schedule.	American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is assaulted at the 1994 winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.
1995	Michele Lee stars alongside legends Kenny Rogers, Chet Atkins, Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and Loretta Lynn as they film scenes from Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story in the Ryman Auditorium.	168 people die when Timothy McVeigh bombs the Murray Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
	The Ryman debuts the Visa Classical Concert Series solidifying the venue's reputation as the "Carnegie Hall of the South."	Lewis Farrakhan leads the Nation of Islam in the Million-Man March.
1996	A full house of over 2000 attend the Ryman funeral of the legendary "Father of Bluegrass", Bill Monr