to return to the home page.1862 - Congress passes "An Act for the Collection of Taxes in Insurrectionary Districts" specifying that lands claimed by the Confederacy must pay a property tax, requiring Mary Custis to pay taxes on Arlington House.
1864 - Private William Christman of the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry is the first person buried on the Arlington property.
1864 - Official orders are given to commission the Arlington Mansion as a military cemetery.
1866 - 2,111 Civil War Unknown Soldiers are buried near Arlington House.
1874 - The Old Amphitheater, located next to the Arlington Mansion, is dedicated.
1882 - The Supreme Court declares the United States Federal Government a trespasser on Arlington grounds and forces them to leave. The estate is then returned to its pre-war status, in the possession of the Custis Lees.
1883 - George Washington Custis Lee sells the Arlington land back to the United States Government for $150,000.
1888 - Memorial Day is declared a national holiday.
1892 - The first of the Revolutionary War casualties are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
1902 - The Spanish-American War Memorial is dedicated.
1905 - Fourteen unknown soldiers from the War of 1812 are buried.
1908 - In an attempt to prove that aircraft would be useful to the military, Orville Wright brings an airplane to Washington, D.C.. Lt. Thomas Selfridge dies in a test flight crash on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery, where he later is buried.
1909 - Pierre L'Enfant is buried at the front of Arlington House to eternally overlook the city he designed, Washington, D.C.
1920 - The Memorial Amphitheater is completed and dedicated.
1921 - The World War I Unknown Soldier is buried on the plaza of the recently completed Memorial Amphitheater.
1926 - Robert Todd Lincoln is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, overlooking the Lincoln Memorial, built to honor his father, President Abraham Lincoln.
1930 - William Howard Taft becomes the first President to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1937 - The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is placed under a 24-hour honor guard of the Third United States Infantry, known as "The Old Guard."
1948 - General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing is buried. He was the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I.
1958 - The internments of both the World War II and Korean Conflict Unknown Soldiers take place. They are buried in front of the World War I Unknown Soldier with flat headstones.
1963 - President John F. Kennedy, killed by an assassin, is buried directly below Arlington House as are two of his children.
1967 - Two of the three astronauts from the Apollo I tragic launch pad fire and explosion are buried.
1967 - President John F. Kennedy and children are moved 20 feet down the hill to the official memorial grave site.
1967 - U.S.S. Forrestal dead are buried in section 44 of Arlington National Cemetery.
1968 - Senator Robert F. Kennedy is buried adjacent to his brother at his own memorial.
1971 - Audie Murphy, the most decorated solider in World War II, is buried near the Memorial Amphitheater.
1977 - Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, dies in a helicopter crash and is buried.
1980 - The Columbarium, for cremated remains, is opened.
1981 - Omar Bradley is buried, the last of the five star generals from World War II.
1983 - Twenty-one of the soldiers who were killed in the terrorist bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, are buried.
1984 - The Vietnam Unknown Soldier is interred between the World War II and the Korean Conflict Unknown Soldiers.
1986 - Francis Dick Scobee and Michael Smith, from the Space Shuttle Challenger, are buried.
1986 - The construction of the new Visitors' Center begins.
1987 - The Challenger Memorial is dedicated in remembrance of the six astronauts and one teacher who lost their lives in the mid-flight explosion.
1988 - Frank Irwin, one of the Americans to walk on the moon, is buried.
1989 - One of the casualties from Operation Just Cause is interred.
1991 - Twenty-seven men and women from the Persian Gulf Conflict are buried.
1994 - Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, wife of President John F. Kennedy, is buried next to her husband.
1995 - Corporal Heather Johnsen becomes the first female sentinel to guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
1996 - Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown, is interred after a tragic plane crash.
1996 - One casualty from the Saudi Arabia terrorist bombing is interred. With this addition, there has been at least one person from all American wars, conflicts, and terrorist actions buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
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