1974
OCTOBER: Jack Benny headlines Neiman Marcus Benefit Ball at Fairmont Hotel.
NOVEMBER: Cowboys benchwarmer Clint Longley shocks Redskins on Thanksgiving; guard Blaine Nye calls it the “triumph of the uncluttered mind.”
DECEMBER: The beautiful people flock to Oz, a new restaurant and discotheque on LBJ Freeway, to be seen against the futuristic backdrop of stainless steel and mirrors.
1975
JANUARY: Federal Judge Eldon Mahon, in a suit brought by black activist Al Lipscomb, declares Dallas’ at-large system of electing City Council members unconstitutional.
MARCH: The world’s first Chili’s restaurant opens on Greenville Avenue.
APRIL: Wes Wise is elected to a third term as mayor, signaling the end of the business-dominated Citizens Charter Association as a political force.
DECEMBER: Roger Staubach completes the “Hail Mary” pass to Drew Pearson to beat the stunned Minnesota Vikings in the divisional playoffs.
1976
APRIL: Multimillionaire real estate developer Robert S. Folsom, a prime player in the North Dallas land boom, is elected mayor.
APRIL: Dallas soul singer Johnnie Taylor releases “Disco Lady,” which will become the first platinum single ever.
AUGUST: The Cowboys’ Clint Longley punches Roger Staubach and gets traded to San Diego.
SEPTEMBER: Addison citizens vote to go wet, 242-70.
NOVEMBER: The Dallas Times Herald yanks a “Doonesbury” strip showing a man and woman in bed together.
1977
JANUARY: Radio station KLIF’s promotional gimmick of dropping 2,000 $1 bills near downtown Dallas causes pandemonium.
SEPTEMBER: The Chicken Ranch, a La Grange, Texas, whorehouse, is moved to Greenville Avenue and converted to a theme restaurant.
OCTOBER: Marvin Lee Aday, supposedly nicknamed “Meat Loaf” by a Dallas gym teacher, releases mega-hit rock album Bat Out of Hell.
1978
APRIL: Reunion Tower opens and the big ball becomes the focal point of the Dallas skyline.
AUGUST: Charlie Young, head of a housing activist group called the Bois d’Arc Patriots, lets loose hundreds of cockroaches in the City Hall council chambers.
OCTOBER: Big Tex welcomes visitors to the State Fair of Texas and warns them to watch out for the Hare Krishnas.
DECEMBER: The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders sue the Texas Cowgirls for the Cowgirls’ bare-breasted version of a Cheerleaders poster.
1979
JANUARY: Dallas billionaire Ross Perot commissions a successful rescue of two EDS employees imprisoned in Iran.
MAY: Fort Worth Congressman Jim Wright pushes an amendment through Congress limiting flights from Love Field to Texas and adjoining states only.
JULY: Gene Street, who opened the first Black-eyed Pea Restaurant and other local favorites, wins a $5,400 bet by going a year without
a haircut.
1980
APRIL: Eddie Chiles, whose anti-government radio commercials inspire “I’m mad too, Eddie” bumper stickers, buys the Texas Rangers.
OCTOBER: The Dallas Mavericks play their first game, a 103-92 triumph over the San Antonio Spurs, once known as the Dallas Chaparrals, at Reunion Arena.
NOVEMBER: Dallas episode “Who Done It?,” in which the world learns that Kristen shot J.R., becomes the most watched TV program ever.
1981
APRIL: Grocer Jack Evans is elected mayor.
OCTOBER: City Councilman Rolan Tucker cannot present a briefing on crime prevention because the material is lost when his car is stolen.
1982
APRIL: A contract is awarded to develop Dallas Arboretum.
SEPTEMBER: Mediators Sharon Leviton and James Greenstone open a do-it-yourself divorce clinic.
NOVEMBER: An IBM-compatible PC with 48K of memory sells for $2,500 at Dallas’ Computerland.
1983
JANUARY: Deep Ellum plan is unveiled to keep the area low-rise and artsy.
JANUARY: SMU’s Pony Express, led by Eric Dickerson and Craig James, tops off an undefeated season with a Cotton Bowl victory over Pittsburg, 7-3.
OCTOBER: The Dallas area leads the nation in the construction of new office buildings.
1984
JANUARY: The Dallas Museum of Art opens in the area that will become the Arts District.
MARCH: The FSLIC takes over Mesquite’s Empire Savings and Loan, the first domino to fall in the thrift failure debacle of the mid-’80s.
MAY: Believing the Mavericks are ahead (they were tied), Derek Harper dribbles out the clock. They lose to the Lakers in overtime.
1985
JANUARY: John Wiley Price becomes the first black county commissioner in Dallas County’s 142-year history.
FEBRUARY: After a fire breaks out at the Mansion on Turtle Creek, the restaurant serves coffee in china cups to firefighters and guests in the parking lot.
AUGUST: In Texas’ worst air disaster, Delta Airlines flight 191 crashes at DFW, killing 137 people.
SEPTEMBER: 72-story InterFirst Plaza at Main and Griffin streets, affectionately known as the “Jolly Green Giant,” opens to become the tallest building in Dallas.
1986
JUNE: Channel 4 fires Kevin McCarthy for throwing co-anchor Clarice Tinsley into a swimming pool.
JUNE: South Oak Cliff’s Dennis Rodman, who did not play basketball in high school, is the 27th player picked in the NBA draft.
AUGUST: Vice squad officers raid the Starck Club, signaling the beginning of the city’s move from decadence to sobriety as the real estate and oil money begins to dry up.
1987
FEBRUARY: The NCAA assesses “the death penalty” against SMU for flagrant violations and coverups, prohibiting the school from fielding a football team in 1987.
APRIL: With support from blacks, Hispanics, and women, lifelong civic worker Annette Strauss becomes the first woman elected mayor.
APRIL: Walker Railey, known as “God’s rising star” at the First Methodist Church, is suspected of murdering his wife. He is never convicted.
1988
APRIL: FirstRepublic Bank, which traces its roots back to pioneer institutions First National and Republic National, loses $1.5 billion in three months.
AUGUST: Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt are convicted of conspiring to manipulate the silver market.
OCTOBER: Filming of Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July begins in Oak Cliff.
DECEMBER: Fujitsu announces it will build a 100-acre complex in Richardson along a Highway 75 strip the Dallas Herald will dub the “Telecom Corridor.”
1989
FEBRUARY: Jerry Jones buys the Dallas Cowboys, fires Tom Landry, and hires Jimmy Johnson.
FEBRUARY: The Sixth Floor Museum opens in the old Texas School Book Depository.
SEPTEMBER: The Junior League of Dallas adopts an open-admissions policy.
NOVEMBER: Carrollton high school dropout Robert Van Winkle, who now goes by the name Vanilla Ice, releases “Ice Ice Baby.
1990
JANUARY: The official population of the City of Dallas passes 1 million for the first time.
AUGUST: Dallas blues guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan dies in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin at the age of 35.
NOVEMBER: Mick Jagger marries Mesquite-born model Jerry Hall in a Hindu-style ceremony on the island of Bali.
1991
SEPTEMBER: An NBC Channel 5 fixture for more than 40 years, weatherman Harold Taft dies.
NOVEMBER: ABC’s Prime Time Live reports Dallas TV preacher Robert Tilton trashed thousands of prayer requests he claimed to have prayed over.
DECEMBER: The Dallas Times Herald publishes its final edition, featuring the banner headline “Goodbye, Dallas.”
1992
MARCH: Eddie Bernice Johnson becomes first black U.S. representative from Dallas.
APRIL: Barney, a homegrown purple dinosaur, appears on PBS.
JUNE: Radio station KEGL fires DJ Kidd Kraddick to make room for the Howard Stern program.
OCTOBER: During the presidential debate, candidate Ross Perot, in defending a gasoline tax proposal, says, “If there’s a fairer way, I’m all ears.”
NOVEMBER: Morton Downey Jr. gets a court order allowing him to broadcast his national radio show live from the “sniper’s perch” overlooking Dealey Plaza.
1993
FEBRUARY: Racial violence erupts at a downtown parade celebrating the Cowboys Super Bowl victory.
MARCH: MTV airs Beavis and Butt-head, the brainchild of Mike Judge, who got the idea for the animated series after visiting a Dallas-area mall.
OCTOBER: Minnesota North Stars migrate south; the new Dallas Stars play their first game.
1994
JANUARY: The Ticket debuts as Dallas’ first all-sports radio station.
JUNE: Southwest Airlines now serves 41 cities in 19 states, but it’s still not allowed to fly nonstop from Dallas to Las Vegas.
AUGUST: Prozac Nation, ex-Morning News reporter Elizabeth Wurtzel’s memoir of drugs, depravity, and depression, is published.
1995
MAY: Ron Kirk gets 62 percent of the vote to become Dallas’ first black mayor.
SEPTEMBER: Charlotte Hornets forward Larry Johnson, who grew up in South Dallas, donates $1 million for a rec center in his old neighborhood.
OCTOBER: While autographing books at Dallas’ Crossroads Market, Boy George is served a lawsuit filed by a local nightclub for breach of contract.
OCTOBER: Larry Hagman sports a $350,000 ring made from one of his gallstones.
1996
JANUARY: Coach Barry Switzer gets the Gatorade bath after the Cowboys beat the Steelers in Super Bowl XXX, 27-17.
APRIL: After 30 years on the air, Jerry Haynes, better known as “Mr. Peppermint,” announces the end of the area’s longest-running TV show.
JUNE: The DART light rail system opens (finally).
NOVEMBER: The Highland Park Cafeteria, a Dallas institution, closes its doors.
1997
JANUARY: The downtown H.L. Green variety store, site of a lunch counter sit-in in the ’60s, goes out of business.
APRIL: The starting gate swings open at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, the first live horse racing in the Dallas area in 60 years.
JULY: Dallas golfer Justin Leonard wins the British Open in Troon, Scotland.
OCTOBER: Former Dallas School Superintendent Yvonne Gonzalez pleads guilty to federal embezzlement charges and goes to prison.
1998
JANUARY: “Dr. Phil” McGraw assists Oprah Winfrey’s defense team in selecting the jury in an Amarillo lawsuit brought by Texas cattlemen.
OCTOBER: NorthPark Cinemas I & II close to make room for shopping center expansion.
OCTOBER: Rangers make the playoffs for the first time ever; Yankees spoil the party.
1999
FEBRUARY: A wrecking crew demolishes the Astro in Oak Cliff, Dallas’ last drive-in movie theater.
OCTOBER: Richardson’s Jessica Simpson splits her britches on her first tour in New York City, returning to the stage in jeans borrowed from her mom.
NOVEMBER: Ex-Dallas judge Catherine Crier joins Court TV as co-anchor.
2000
JANUARY: Mark Cuban buys the Dallas Mavericks for $280 million.
JANUARY: Dallas City Council member Al Lipscomb is convicted on 65 counts of bribery and conspiracy.
MAY: Eighteen-year-old singer LeAnn Rimes, from Garland, sues her father, claiming that he milked her recording fund for $7 million.
DECEMBER: Love Field’s leather seat-and-lobster Legend Airlines shuts down after six months in business.
2001
AUGUST: After months of delay, the Angelika Film Center and Cafe opens to the delight of art- and independent-film aficionados.
OCTOBER: A DMN story reports that a Plano teen used a Dallas Observer ad to promote her prostitution business.
DECEMBER: Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton discloses fake cocaine was used by an undercover operative in a series of drug busts.
2002
FEBRUARY: Laura Miller is elected mayor in a bitter runoff against business favorite Tom Dunning.
OCTOBER: Emmitt Smith breaks Walter Payton’s NFL career rushing record of 16,726 yards.
2003
AUGUST: City Manager Ted Benavides fires Police Chief Terrell Bolton.
OCTOBER: Mariano’s Mexican Cuisine, where the frozen margarita was invented, loses its lease on Greenville Avenue.
2004
MARCH: Jabari, a 13-year-old, 300-pound gorilla, escapes from his cage at the Dallas Zoo, attacks visitors, and is killed by police.
OCTOBER: D Magazine celebrates its 30th anniversary. Its staff is exhausted.
