1857: Spanish-speaking miners discover gold in the South Platte at Mexican Diggings (roughly the Florida Avenue bridge today)
1857: William Green Russell party from Auraria, Ga., strikes gold in the South Platte and Cherry Creek, triggering the great Colorado gold rush of 1858-59
1858: Denver City founded Nov. 22, 1858
1867: Denver named capital of Colorado Territory
1870: First railroads arrive to revitalize a busted Denver City
1893: Denver’s bonanza mining days end with Silver Crash and Depression
1904: Robert W. Speer elected mayor, and begins transforming a dry, dusty, ugly city into a City Beautiful of parks, parkways and grand public buildings
1908: Democratic National Convention puts Denver on the national map as a major- league city
1920s: Ku Klux Klan rules, electing a Denver mayor, Colorado governor and U.S. senator
1980s: Mayor Federico Peña revives a depressed Denver with a new airport, major league baseball team, Colorado Convention Center, new public library and creation of LoDo Historic District, preserving remnants of the old gold rush town
1994: RTD starts reconstructing a light rail system similar to the old streetcar network that the city had dismantled in the mid-1900s
2008: Denver hosts the Democratic National Convention — which, unlike 100 years before, picks a winner
