1869 - First intercollegiate football game (November 6) played between Rutgers and Princeton in New Brunswick; Rutgers beat Princeton, 6- to-4; City of Bayonne incorporated; founding of Ocean Grove

1870 - The first boardwalk in Atlantic City completed by Alex Boardman; Monmouth Park opened; John A. Roebling's Sons Company founded

1871 - Statewide free public school system established; Steven Institute of Technology founded; Asbury Park established by James Brady; founding of Asbury Park

1872 - Political cartoonist Thomas Nast moved to Macculoch Avenue in Morristown

1873 - Singer sewing machine factory opened in Elizabeth

1874 - School attendance made compulsory in New Jersey

1876 - John D. Rockefeller began the operation of Standard Oil Company in Bayonne

1877 - Thomas A. Edison invented the first phonograph at Menlo Park; Prudential Insurance Company founded

1878 - On June 6, John P. Holland took the first successful submarine ride on the Passaic River in Paterson; the fourteen-foot sumarine was finished in Paterson

1879 - Thomas A. Edison invented the incandescent lamp at his Menlo Park laboratory

1880 - The first commercially produced electric light bulb was manufactured by Edison in Menlo Park

1881 - President James A. Garlield died at Elberon after being shot on September 19 in Washington, D.C.; John P. Holland demonstrated the submarine in the Passaic River

1882 - Peter McQuire of Camden and Matthew Maquire of Jersey City succeeded in idea for a Labor Day parade; first one held in Union Square, New York City; Roselle became the first New Jersey community fully lit by electricity

1885 - Grover Cleveland (Democrat) of New Jersey was inaugurated president; he was also elected to a second term (1893-97)

1889 - Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal built at Jersey City

1885 - Johnson and Johnson began its operation in New Brunswick

1892 - Ellis Island Immigration Station opened

1893 - Edison's studio, the Black Maria, opened in West Orange

1895 - Mary Philbrook became first woman to pass the bar in New Jersey

1898 - Rev. Hannibal Goodwin of Newark received patent for rollable film for movies; Palisades Park started