Chehalis County formed (March 15, 1915 - Changed from Chehalis to Grays Harbor County)

James & Abigail Karr become first permanent settlers on west bank of Hoquiam River.

George Jones completes first cabin on west bank of Wishkah River near its mouth & Sam Benn takes up claim in Melbourne.

Sam Benn trades his claim with his father-in-law for his claim on the Wishkah & moves his family there

Logging begins on the Wishkah.

Chehalis County Vidette's first issue.

First lumber cargo from Grays Harbor.

Salmon cannery built near Cosmopolis.

Wishkah Lumbering Company platted 100 lots at mouth of Wishkah .

Plat for city of Wishkah filed.

Wishkah changed to Aberdeen plat.

A J West arrives with his family & starts 3rd sawmill on harbor.

Coal discovered near Aberdeen.

Cy Blackwell has a dam on the Wishkah (Splash Dam)

Aberdeen organized a hook & ladder company. Aberden has 4 saloons, a small church and no schoolhouse.

Alex Polson's new home is almost finished & will be the finest in the county.

894,000 cases of salmon put up this season.

March 20 – Aberdeen incorporated.

May 27 – Presbyterian church in Aberdeen is dedicated.

September – Old Tiger hand pumper arrives in Aberdeen. It was built in 1853 and brought around the Horn to San Francisco where it had operated for many years.

November 23 – The phone line from Olympia to Hoquiam is complete and will be in operation as soon as the instruments arrive.

April 13 – Clearing starts for Grays Harbor City. Founded by George Washington Hunt as a railroad terminus, it has a 6,600 foot wharf.

July 31 – Aberdeen Weekly Bulletin issues first edition.

November 11 – Washington admitted as 42nd state of the Union.

Census shows 9,325 people residing in Chehalis County.
June – The Washingtonian issues first weekly edition.
August 15 – Hotel Hoquiam opens.
November 14 – Olympia named capitol of Washington State.
December 5 – First brick building in county nears completion in Montesano.

January 16 – Northern Pacific Railroad reaches Montesano.
August 7 – 1,400 wharf running from shore to the wrecked Abercorn nears completion to begin salvaging railroad steel.

Citizens of Aberdeen band together to lay railroad into town with rail salvaged from the Abercorn. Sam Benn gives a lot for each man who donates 10 days labor on the railroad. 160 lots were given away.

January 15 – First train (carry gravel for the track) arrives in Aberdeen.
April 1 – 700 people and a brass band gather in Aberdeen to celebrate the arrival of the first passenger train.

August 23 – Cornerstone laid for Westport lighthouse.

June 30 – Westport Lighthouse is put into service.

December 14 – New telephone directory issued in Aberdeen. 185 phones in use.

March 29 – Twelve-million feet of logs jammed up on the Wishkah River.

January 1 – Door-to-door mail delivery begins in Aberdeen. The first carriers are Edmund J. Croft and Edwin J. Eccles.
September 12 – “Dark Day” in Chehalis county as major forest fires blot out sunlight.
October 13 – George J. Wolff buys store of I. Harris & Sons.

March – New Steam Pumper arrives in Aberdeen.
June – Grays Harbor Packing Co., located at the foot of G street, burns.
July 9 – Billy Gohl takes over as Agent of the Sailor’s Union in Aberdeen.
July 22 – Wilson Brothers Mill destroyed by fire.
October 16 – “Black Friday” – Great Fire sweeps Aberdeen destroying the central business area and leaving three dead.
October 28 – Commercial Block fire.

January 13 – Heavy snowfall stops electric railway.
January 17 – Live wire kills team of horses in Aberdeen.
June 21 – Railway to Moclips completed. First train to run July 1.
July 5 – Jack Donnelly charged with manslaughter after Fred Ross dies of injuries from their July 4 boxing match. He is exonerated on the 7th. Largest headlines to ever appear in the Aberdeen Daily Bulletin.
July 20 – Strike hits Grays Harbor mills.
August 25 – Twenty five ships in Harbor. Grays Harbor currently recognized as largest shipping port in the world.

February 26 – Lizzie Morgan’s opium den unearthed in Aberdeen.
April 26 – 174-foot steamer Quinault launched in Aberdeen. On December 3rd it set a round-trip record between San Francisco and Aberdeen in just under 7 days.
May 7 – Steamer Norwood strikes Chehalis River bridge; a portion of which collapsed the next day.
June 16 – Seaman’s strike shuts down mills.
August 16 – Movement afoot to relocate county seat from Montesano to Aberdeen.
November 15 – Greatest storm in Hoquiam history.

May 4 – State road between Aberdeen and Montesano opens; Mr. Rutherford first to drive it.
May 6 – Ninth floater in 60 days pulled from the Harbor.
July 19 – 385’ steamer Bessie Dollar from Mexico, largest vessel ever to visit Harbor, taking on lumber for China.
September 11 – Secretary of War Taft delivers speech to immense crowd in Aberdeen.
September 21 – Steamer Tellus runs aground on north spit of Harbor.
October 7 – Fourteen windjammers loading on the Harbor; most ever.
November 3 – Loggers break 12-million foot log jam on Wishkah River.

January 3 – Three-year-old girl falls from sidewalk in front of her home in Aberdeen tide flats and drowns.
March 16 – 400’ steamer Indravelli, largest ship to visit Harbor, arrives.
May 3 – New Presbyterian Church dedicated.
May 5 – Coast Saloon closed when dredging in river by Northern Pacific Railway weakens foundation. Billy Gohl, whose office was in the building, said “[The] building cracked and groaned until I thought it was going down.”
May 28 – Two train car-loads of seed oysters arrive in Grays Harbor.
June 1 – Aberdeen Daily Bulletin renamed Aberdeen World.
June 23 – Wireless between Aberdeen and Westport functioning.
July 2 – Street paving to begin in Aberdeen.
July 9 – Chehalis Indians claim entire county.(???)
July 29 – “F” street fire.

January 11 – Grays Harbor earthquake 4:03 pm.
January 17 – First edition of Sunday World.
February – Finch Building construction underway.
March 4 – Aberdeen World becomes Aberdeen Daily World.
March 20 – Swing bridge across Wishkah River opens.
May 10 – Streetcar strikes horse and buggy at Broadway and First.
June 28 – Newlun’s Restaurant in Moclips destroyed as source of diphtheria.
November 23 – Ten thousand logs float out to sea in freshet.

February 3 – Billy Gohl charged with murder.
April 1 – Finch Building opens. First building in Aberdeen with an elevator.
April 23 – Union Pacific begins work on Chehalis River Railroad Bridge.
April 25 – Cornerstone laid for new County Courthouse.
May 2 – Billy Gohl’s trial begins.
May 24 – Billy Gohl sentenced to life in prison.
June 13 – Billy Gohl taken to Walla Walla Penitentiary.
June 15 – New transcontinental railroad, Union Pacific (Grays Harbor and Puget Sound Railroad), reaches Harbor.
July 16 – Forest fires rage in Wishkah.
July 26 – Speed laws opposed by car owners.
August 8 – Broadway Hill on fire.
August 15 – Two railways begin service to the Harbor.
August 30 – Dogs, rats and fleas banned in Aberdeen; 27,000 dogs in Aberdeen.
October 22 – Gohl accomplice denied another trial.
November 8 – Aberdeen will grant women the right to vote.
November 22 – Storm knocks out Chehalis River Bridge.
December 15 – Aberdeen to build highway around bluff.
December 29 – Entire Aberdeen police force dismissed.

January 3 – Mrs. Hilda Willponene is first woman in Aberdeen to register to vote.
June 13 – Rock for new Grays Harbor jetty arrives.
June 26 – First two whales brought in to American Pacific Whaling Plant at Stanford Point.
September 23 – Railroad Day in Aberdeen as Chehalis River railroad bridge opens.
October 10 – First annual Chehalis County Fair opens.
November 1 – Tug Phoenix total wreck at Queets River.

January – 1911 total lumber output was 600,000,000 feet.
May 23 – First car arrives at Lake Quinault.
November 6 – Sternwheeler Harbor Belle gets a plank stuck in the wheel, drifts into a snag and sinks near Montesano.
December 28 – British Bark Torrisdale hits jetty and is beached.

January 31 – Olympia-Grays Harbor canal proposed.
February 1 – Electric Building opens and is illuminated for the first time.
March 3 – Weir Theater in Aberdeen opens with an all-star Vaudeville Revue.
March 7 – Oil is discovered in Hoh River area.
April 18 – John Tornow, “The Wildman of the Wynoochee” is killed.
April 22 – Aberdeen’s wholesale block burns.
May 5 – Timber cruisers say there is enough timber in the county to build a 30’ wide wooden road around the world in wood.
May 20 – First cranberries to be raised in swamps near beach.
May 31 – Sixty school children spend the night marooned aboard the Kennewick on Vincent sandspit opposite Grays Harbor City.
September – Oil companies begin drilling near Taholah.
October 12 – A big storm hits Harbor with 90 mph winds.

September 12 – Grays Harbor Country Club opens.
November 4 – Grays Harbor county goes dry.

March 15 – Chehalis County renamed Grays Harbor County.
April 10 – The new Aberdeen Post Office opens; built in 79 days.
June 29 – Schooner Annie Larsen found loaded with guns and ammo but no manifests or customs papers.

January 26 – Snow storms close all the logging camps.
May 21 – “Birth of a Nation” opens at the Grand Theater with a 30 piece orchestra.
July 31 – The Oregon, the first ship built in Aberdeen in 8 years, is launched.
August 14 – Martha Benn, wife of Aberdeen’s founder, passes away at age 72.

April 6 – U.S. Enters World War I.
June 30 – Al Jolson appears at Aberdeen’s Grand Theater in “Robinson Crusoe, Jr.”.
July 19 – Troops ordered to Grays Harbor in wake of sawmill strike.
July 21 – Grays Harbor county sends 339 men in first army draft call.
August 1 – All shipyards idle for 27 days due to mill strike.
September 14 – Harbor spruce output commandeered by the military.
November 9 – Vice-president Thomas Marshall speaks in Aberdeen.
December 1 – First federal wooden ship Abrigada launched; sets world record for wooden ship construction.

January 2 – 1,600 Harbor sons are in military service.
January 22 – Marie DeRonde is 22nd ship launched since February, 1915.
January 23 – $65,995 approved for the construction of the Olympic Highway.
March 11 – Half of all spruce used in war effort comes from Grays Harbor.
May 22 – Hoquiam Spruce Mill burns.
June 24 – Hoquiam man, Charles Gelden, is first Harbor man to die in WWI (May 29).
October 5 – Steamship Aberdeen built in a record setting 17½ days.
October 7 – All public places on Harbor closed due to influenza epidemic.
November 13 – Military spruce work on the Harbor halted; Loggers had cut 132 million for airplane stock.
November 23 – Airplane “Spruce Division” begin to depart Harbor.

Five die in Clemons Logging Company train wreck.
April 24 – Harbor welcomes return of soldiers.
July 1 – Hoquiam police officer bitten by carnival “cannibal”.
July 16 – Washington announces plans for National Guard.
November 12 – I.W.W. rooms on Harbor raided.

April 2 – Two circular saws with 108” diameter (worlds largest) installed at Coates Shingle company in Hoquiam.
April 3 – Powerboat Phoenix fails to cross bar for 5th time; crew blames it on cross-eyed black cat and two caskets going to Queets.
May 27 – Weatherwax High school closed for 10 days due to smallpox epidemic.
September 23 – Sea otters appear on lower Harbor for first time since 1900.
November 5 – Chehalis Highway opens; new entry in east Aberdeen.
November 27 – Barge Pirrie lost on coast; Found December 3 with twenty dead crewmen.

Aberdeen’s Armory building completed.
January 3 – British Liquor ship runs aground at Westport.
January 17 – Booze-laden submarine runs aground at Point Grenville.
August 8 – Worst drought since 1910; ½ inch of rain in 76 days.
August 25 – Sharks, drawn by whale carcasses, put a stop to swimming in Harbor.
September 26 – New port on Grays Harbor dedicated.
October 28 – Whaling season ends with 163.
October 30 – Over 100 tons of salmon caught over the weekend.
December 18 – Moonshiner’s business hurt by snowfall.
December 26 – Grays Harbor Railway & Light Company to lay cable under the Wishkah River to get power to east county.

January 24 – Russia wants to buy airplane spruce; mills say “NO WAY!”
February 3 – Road trip to Gray’s Monument chronicled in Daily World.
February 15 – Storm takes heavy toll on shipping; four missing.
April 21 – Harbor beaches called hot-beds of petty crime.
May 8 – Fierce fire at North West Mill in Hoquiam.
June 26 – Logging camps ban cigarettes due to fire hazard.
August 21 – Rare albino salmon caught on Humptulips River.
September 13 – Alex Polson says timber will last 1,000 years.
A record setting 1,128,750,000 board feet of lumber was cut on the Harbor in 1923; new record.

April 19 – Morck Hotel opens in Aberdeen.
May 8 – D & R Theater opens with “Scaramouche” and various vaudeville acts.
October 13 – Whale season ends with 181.

January 10 – First fully electric house in Aberdeen.
April 15 – Norwegian ship Dagfred carries first Harbor cargo directly to Europe.
November 7 – Elk’s Building & St. Mary’s School buildings under construction.

Wishkah Street Bridge opens.
January 1 – Woman trapped on new Wishkah Bridge; holds on until it lowers.
March 5 – Japanese freighter Horaisan Maru rolls over inside Harbor.
March 31 – Fifty Quinault Maples planted at Roosevelt (Sam Benn) Park in honor of 45 Harbor soldiers killed in war.
April 2 – Electricity to replace oil at Westport Lighthouse.
April 10 – First west bound airmail letters arrive in Hoquiam.
May 16 – New brick Methodist church dedicated.

February 7 – Hayes & Hayes Bank closed by Federal Government.
February 14 – KXRO radio goes on the air for the first time at 7:30 p.m. with a speech by Frank Lamb.
March 5 – Taholah Indian delivers two tons of clams to Aberdeen canneries.
August 26 – First phone lines reach Quinault.
September 14 – Charles Lindbergh circles the Spirit of St. Louis over Grays Harbor.
October 31 – Lumber shipments from Harbor exceed all other coastal ports.

January 6 – Leo Lomski, the “Aberdeen Assassin” fights Tommy Loughran for the world light-heavyweight championship title. Knocks Loughran down in first roundbut loses the decision.
February 21 – The 6,791-ton, 561 foot long freighter Robert Dollar docks in Aberdeen; largest ship to ever enter the Harbor.
May 11 – Governor Hatley cuts ribbon at Simpson Avenue Bridge opening in Hoquiam.
October 2 – Billy Gohl dies at Medical Lake Asylum.

January 11 – Two killed in train crash in Cosmopolis.
July 30 – Fire destroys 18 buildings in Cosmopolis.
August 2 – Aberdeen-Raymond highway nearly done.
October 7 – Harbor 31st port in Nation.
December 12 – Aberdeen population 26,073.

March 17 – First comics page appears in Aberdeen Daily World.
May 17 – Fox D & R inaugurates Saturday Mickey Mouse Club.
August 18 – MGM’s Leo the Lion visits the Harbor.
December 1 – Feds make prohibition sweep on Harbor.

April 13 – Work begins on East Aberdeen entrance.
July 2 – Harbor spruce used in Wiley Post’s round-the-world flight plane.
August 25-27 – Olympic loop highway celebration and dedication.
November 19 – Oil discovered on the Hoh.
May 24 – Airship Akron sails over Harbor.

December 5 – New Federal Building opens in Hoquiam.

February 18 – “Buy American” week in Grays Harbor.
April 6 – Worst disaster in Grays Harbor history as gale traps trollermen; 200 put at peril/19 dead.
April 7 – Prohibition ends on the Harbor. Beer supply runs out at 15¢/bottle.
May 16 – U.S.S. Constitution arrives on the Harbor for a 9 day visit.
May 18 – Locomotive Old Betsy leaves for Chicago Worlds Fair. Renamed Minnetonka.
May 19 – Entire Aberdeen World issue devoted to Constitution.
May 25 – Storm keeps Constitution here an extra day.
May 26 – Constitution leaves Grays Harbor for Port Angeles. Over 60,000 visited the ship while it was here.
June 22 – Draught beer is legalized in Aberdeen.

April 23 – Strange fossils found on Hoh river.
December 14 – Harbor Plywood develops “Super Harbord,” the first all-weather plywood.

July 21 - The historic Del Monte Hotel is destroyed by fire at the cost of 3 lives. (See 1883)
September 16 – Aberdeen founder Samuel Benn passes away at the age of 103.

October 12 – Schooner Santian destroyed by fire at Aberdeen dock.

April 23 – 102 timber plants in Grays Harbor County.
May 28 – Wonder Bread comes to Grays Harbor.
September 22 – Aberdeen World has daily accounts of President Franklin Roosevelt’s impending visit.
October 1 – President Franklin Roosevelt visits Grays Harbor.
November 2 – Rayonier Inc. formed by merger of Rainier, Grays Harbor and Olympic Forest Products mills.
December 29 – Hume Street changed to State Street to distance it from an infamous past.

May 19 – First airmail to leave Grays Harbor.
June 29 – FDR signs Peninsula Park Bill creating Olympic National Park.
August 25 – Governor Martin opens three-day Aberdeen Golden Jubilee Celebration.
November 24 – Olympic Stadium dedicated.
November 26 – Fish ladder at Lake Aberdeen completed.

January 16 – Grays Harbor PUD established.
March 1 – Fire destroys Aberdeen Plywood Company Mill; one dead, 400 out of work.
May 23 – Three waves of bombers fly overGrays Harbor.
June 20 – Polson’s Eureka Mill in Hoquiam burns.
October 22 – New American Plywood Plant has open house.
December 6 – Tug Tyee sinks.
Sea claims 82 year old North Cove Lighthouse

January 16 – New Aberdeen plant to cut airplane spruce.
March 26 – 30-foot shark washes up at Copalis.
March 31 – Feds seize Danish ship at Grays Harbor.
April 23 – Anti-aircraft guns tested in Grayland.
May 9 – 900 on Harbor join IWA strike.
May 27 – Public barred from Electric Park due to sabotage concerns.
May 27 – Moon Island Airport construction ahead of schedule.
June 12 – Gov. Langlie dedicates Clemons Tree Farm in Montesano.
July 17 – 70 forest fires on Harbor.
November 14 – Moon Island Airport gets CAA approval.
December 7 – Japan attacks Pearl Harbor – United States enters World War II.

July 30 – Scenes for “Lassie Comes Home” begin filming at Lake Quinault.

June 15 – Boeing plant to open on Grays Harbor.
December 25 – Landmark 325 year old Douglas-fir Quinault and DeKay Road felled.

July 18 – S.S. Quinault, munitions victory ship, explodes in San Francisco Harbor.

April 1 – 2,500 inoculated for smallpox in Grays Harbor.
November 12 – Westcoast Airlines DC-3 arrives at Moon Island Airport; previews passenger service.

November 20 – Rayonier acquires Polson logging empire.

May 27 – Harbor in turmoil as cities adopt Daylight Savings Time on different days.
October 30 – 200 lb. sturgeon caught in Chehalis River.

January 14 – Largest Harbor train trestle, Bridge 15 on Clemons Logging line, demolished.
March 15 – Navy fighter plane crashes 3 miles north of Taholah.
March 16 – Television station KRSO-TV in Seattle regularly received in Grays Harbor.
April 6 – Parking meters now in use in downtown Aberdeen.
July 3 – Seven perish in La Fayette Hotel fire at corner of Market and H Street

February 1 – Freezing weather snaps main Aberdeen water line.
February 2 – Wishkah River freezes over.
February 4 – Water emergency closes mills.
June 24 – New Heron Street Bridge dedicated.
August 17 – Robert Keys, 19, first Harborite killed in Korean War.
August 23 – New Robert Gray Elementary School ready to open.

January 27 – Diesel engine now pulls Seattle-Grays Harbor passenger train.
January 29 – Fire sweeps Aberdeen’s Washington Fish plant.
January 30 – Fire kills 21 in Hoquiam resthome fire.

October 6 – Safeway opens new store at L and Heron Streets in Aberdeen.
December 8 – Freighter Yorkmar runs aground at Point Brown. (Pulled free December 18)

May 1 – Moon Island Airport renamed Bowerman Field.
August 19 – First concrete poured for Chehalis River Bridge.
May 20 – Dead 48-foot whale washes ashore at North Cove.

May 28 – Dead 40-foot whale washes into Westport.
May 31 – Dying 40-foot whale beaches at Kalaloch.

June 9 – Weyerhaeuser to build $20,000,000 pulp mill in Cosmopolis.
June 21 – 40 acres purchased in South Aberdeen as site for new Grays Harbor Community College.

January 19 – G and H Streets become one-way at midnight.
January 21 – Six-foot prehistoric “tusk” found near Wig-Wam Inn in Hoquiam.
January 27 – Five million dollar Chehalis River Bridge dedicated by Governor Langley.
January 30 – First malfunction as Chehalis River Bridge is stuck in up position.
February 23 – Final passenger train (four cars) leaves Aberdeen.

August 21 – Gov. Rosellini opens oil valve at Ocean City.

April 24 – New Grays Harbor College dedicated.
July 3 – Aberdeen Daily World features history of Harbor trolley era.

February 7 – 22 new Mercury vapor lamps lit on east Market street.
April 18 – Aberdeen & Hoquiam switch over to telephone dial service at 11:01 p.m.
August – Large razor clam die-off.
October 24 – Freighter Lipari runs aground at Grayland.
November 9/10 – Cranberry embargo by state & FDA for weed killer. (Ok’d Nov.24)
November 13 – 24-lane bowling alley opens in Aberdeen.
December 3 – New Grays Harbor Community Hospital dedicated.

February 6 – First wooden Charlie Choker statue erected at Grays Harbor College
October 7 – MGM blows up bridge and trestle on Wynooche for film, “Ring of Fire”.

January 2 – Freighter Texmar buckles on Grays Harbor mudflat. Burns June 13.
March 6 – Doughboy statue moved from Simpson Avenue to Zelasko Park and rededicated.

October 8 – Columbus Day storm hits the Harbor.

January 12 – New Aberdeen Lumber Company stud mill burns.
February 21 – New Aberdeen Post Office opens. (Dedicated April 13)
August 5 – “Peanuts” comic premiers in Aberdeen World.
November 22 – President John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.
December 20 – Portable spar makes first appearance in Harbor woods.

September 15 – Natural gas begins to flow on Grays Harbor
November 12 – Strike idles local mills.(Ends November 24)
November 18 – Evans Products purchases Aloha Company.
November 23 – Anderson & Middleton buys Blagen’s Mill and Timber

April 29 – Major earthquake strikes at 8:24 a.m.
May 20 – Old Aberdeen library demolished.
July 11 – Spectacular dock side fire as ship burns at Weyerhaeuser dock.

April 8 – Hoquiam police spot UFO.
July 1 – Massive LP gas fire in East Aberdeen
August 20 – First Sunday sale of alcohol since 1930s.
September 16 – New Aberdeen City Hall dedicated.
December 13 – Elma-Montesano freeway link opens.

April – Rayonier merges with International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation.
June 17 – Bees swarm on downtown Aberdeen traffic light.
September 15 – 50-foot pleasure boat flips at Grays Harbor bar; three dead.
November 5 – Voters approve Timberland Library System.

January 31 – 31 inches of snow in Aberdeen this month.
March 1 – The Aberdeen Daily World renamed The Daily World
May 7 – Aloha Shake Mill destroyed by fire during remodeling.

February 28 – Saginaw Mill swept by fire.
March 20 – FBI probes gambling on Grays Harbor
March 28 – Tug H.H. Hubble sinks in Chehalis River when air tank explodes.
September 7 – Lost U. S. Army surveillance plane debris found in Grays Harbor’s North Bay
December 16 – Allman-Hubble Tug Company sold to Seattleites.

April 17 – Aberdeen Fish Protein Concentrate Plant dedicated.
June 22 – Sixty-year old Eighth Street Bridge in Hoquiam closed.
June 30 – Riverside Bridge in Hoquiam dedicated.
August 19 – Aberdeen holds first Rain Fair Festival.

January 26 – Groundbreaking for Grays Harbor College Bishop Center
June 12 – The Daily World unveils new $1,000,000 plant.
July 11 – John Wayne films “McQ” at North Beach and Aberdeen

February 1 – Silkscreen Artist Elton Bennett killed in a Boeing 707 crash in Pago Pago.

February 29 – Old yew wood Indian paddle found on beach.

July 18 – Anderson & Middleton Mill closes after 86 years.
January 1 – Aloha Mill destroyed by fire.
September 18 – 606-foot ship Minerva, largest ever to enter Harbor.
December 19 – 1920’s tramp steamer M.S. Sierra breaks loose and drifts into Chehalis River railroad bridge.

April 17 – Hoquiam police officer Donald Burke killed.
May 25 – Mount St. Helens ash hits Harbor.
May 28 – Spar Restaurant gutted by fire.
November 2 – Ice Palace demolished.

August 5 – South Shore Mall opens.
August 18 – Fire destroys the old Anderson & Middleton Mill.
December 29 – Harbor unemployment rate hits 16.3%.

July 27 – Fire chars remains of M.S. Sierra.
September 17 – New Driftwood Theater opens at 3rd and I Streets.
October 12 – E.C. Miller Lumber Mill auctioned.

September 20 – Old E.C. Miller Lumber Mill in South Aberdeen burns

February 12 – Electric Park Power House demolition under way.
August 28 – Mayr Bros. Lumber Company files for bankruptcy.
December 10 – Parking meters removed from downtown Aberdeen.

January 17 – Electric Park Powerhouse now just rubble.

November 16 – Last movie shown at Aberdeen Theater.

August 6 – Soviet sailor defects from ship docked in Grays Harbor.
September 13 – Keel laid for Lady Washington

August 9 – Port of Grays Harbor dedicates Westport viewing tower.
September 14 – St. Joseph’s Hospital closes.
December 23 – Oil spill off Harbor when tug rams barge U.S. Nesfucca

March 7 – Lady Washington launched.

February 16 – George Streater, claimed to be the first white child born in Queets, dies.
September 20 – Former Aberdeen mayor Walt Failor dies.

January 19 – Westport fishing boat snags a WWII plane.
May 10 – Eleven cows stuck on railroad trestle near Central Park.

Kurt Donald Cobain was the lead singer of the grunge band “Nirvana” together with Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl. He was married to Courtney Love singer/guitarist with the band Hole with whom he had a daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. Cobain was born in Aberdeen, Washington and spent his early years there. He moved to the Seattle area in 1985. Best known for the song Smells Like Teen Spirit, he also wrote the song, Lithium, about the medication lithium carbonate, which is used to treat bipolar disorder. Cobain was highly influential in creating and popularizing what came to be termed “grunge” music – a style that evolved as a reaction against the perceived superficiality of 1980s stadium rock and over-the-top metal bands.

Cobain reportedly committed suicide at the age of 27 with a shotgun blast in his mouth. His body was discovered three days later in his Seattle home by maintenance workers. Toxicology officials have stated that even though Cobain’s tolerance level was extremely high, the amount of heroin injected into his body would have been enough to kill him.

In Cobain’s suicide note he quoted lyrics in Neil Young’s song My My, Hey Hey: “It’s Better to burn out, than to fade away.” Cobain’s use of the lyrics had a profound impact on Young, who recorded portions of the “Sleeps With Angels” album in Cobain’s memory.

Kurt Cobain was cremated; it has been reported that one third of his ashes were scattered in a Buddhist temple in New York, another third were scattered in the Wishkah River in Aberdeen, Washington, and the rest are with Courtney Love.

Writer Charles Cross published a biography of Cobain titled “Heavier than Heaven” in 2001. The next year a collection of Cobain’s journal excerpts was released. Years after his passing, Cobain continues to intrigue and inspire fans, most notably with the release of a new track You Know You’re Right in the fall of 2002, along with a greatest hits album, titled simply “Nirvana.”

February 14 – Major earthquake shakes Aberdeen. Damage is estimated to be in the millions of dollars.

January 5 – Historic Weatherwax High School burns due to arson.

December 11 – Award winning High School teacher David McKay commits suicide.

Fire destroys Aberdeen Museum, Senior Center, and CCAP offices.