A timeline of events in Twin City history, complied from Winston-Salem: A History by Frank V. Tursi, and other sources.

1752:
Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg leads a Moravian expedition seeking settlement sites, resulting in the purcahse of 100,000 acres centered in present-day Forsyth County. The settlement will eventually be named "Wachovia".

1753:
Bethabara is founded.

1759:
Bethania is founded.

1766:
Construction begins on the town of Salem, its name an Anglicization of "Shalom", the Hebrew word for "peace".

1788-1789:
Segregation comes to Salem.

1802:
The Girls Boarding School, forerunner to Salem Academy, opens.

1828:
The first edition of Blum's Almanac is published.

1834:
Nissen Wagon Works open in Waughtown.

1837:
Salem Manufacturing Company, the first textile mill in Salem, opens.

1849:
Forsyth County is created from the southern part of Stokes County, and a county seat is established a mile north of Salem.

1851:
The new county seat is named "Winston", after Major Joseph Winston, a Revolutionary War hero from Waughtown.

1859:
Winston incorporates.

1873:
The Northwest North Carolina Railroad is extended from Greensboro to Winston, and The Hanes brothers open Winston's first tobacco factory.

1875:
Richard Joshua Reynolds opens his tobacco factory in Winston.

1879:
Wachovia National Bank is open for business.

1884:
West End Graded School, Winton's first public school, opens.

1885:
The Twin-City Daily, forerunner of the original Twin City Sentinel, begins publication.

1890:
Winston's first telephones and electric streetcars go into service.

1892:
Slater Industrial Academy, now Winston-Salem State University, opens.

1897:
The Winston-Salem Journal begins publishing.

1900:
John W. Hanes' Shamrock Mills, forerunner of Hanes  Hosiery, opens for business.

1901:
P.H. Hanes Knitting Company  is organized.

1906:
Carnegie Library opens at Third and Cherry in Winston.

1912:
Winston passes a law prohibiting blacks and whites from living on the same street.

1913:
Winston and Salem merge, and Camel Cigarettes and Hanes Underwear make their debut.

1914:
City Hospital, now Forsyth Medical Center, opens.

1917:
Salem Lake is constructed as a city reservoir.

1918:
Worst race riot in Winston-Salem history.

1920:
Winston-Salem is the most populous city in North Carolina, if only for a few years.

1921:
Hotel Robert E. Lee opens.

1923:
North Carolina Baptist Hospital opens.

1927:
The Winston-Salem Journal and the old Twin City Sentinel merge.

1929:
Reynolds Building and Carolina Theatre open.

1930:
WSJS radio signs on the air.

1932:
Z. Smith Reynolds is shot at Reynolda, the family home. The 1956 movie Written on the Wind fictionalized this event.

1935:
Eastern Airlines begins service to Miller (now Smith Reynolds) Airport.

1937:
The K&W Restaurant (now K&W Cafeteria ) and Krsipy Kreme Doughnuts begin operations.

1938:
Reynolds Memorial Hospital opens to serve black patients.

1939:
Bowman Gray Stadium opens.

1941:
Wake Forest College's medical school moves to Winston-Salem and is named for its benefactor, Bowman Gray,

1948:
Piedmont Airlines, based in Winston-Salem, begins operations.

1950:
Old Salem Inc. is established to save and restore the village of Salem.

1953:
WSJS-TV signs on channel 12.

1955:
Thruway Shopping Center opens.

1956:
Wake Forest University follows its medical school to Winston-Salem.

1958:
The first part of the East-West Expressway (formerly Interstate 40, now US 421) opens.

1961:
RJ Reynolds opens Whitaker park facility.

1963:
Winston-Salem City and Forsyth County Schools consolidate.

1965:
North Carolina School of the Arts opens.

1966:
Wachovia Building (now Winston Tower) opens.

1971:
Winston-Salem schools are desegregated as crosstown busing begins.

1972:
The Robert E. Lee Hotel is imploded.

1974:
The Winston-Salem Chronicle, serving black residents, begins publication.

1975:
Hanes Mall opens.

1979:
Hanes Corporation is purchased by Sara Lee's parent company.

1983:
Stevens Center for the Performing Arts  opens in the old Carolina Theatre.

1985:
R. J. Reynolds buys Nabsico to form RJR Nabisco, and the original Twin City Sentinel ceases publication.

1987:
RJR Nabisco moves its headquarters to Atlanta.

1988:
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts buys RJR Nabisco in the largest leveraged buyout in history.

1992:
Interstate 40 bypass opens, relieving pressure on the East-West Expressway.

1998:
Several of the earliest R. J. Reynolds tobacco factory buildings are destroyed by fire just as they are being converted to condos and offices.

1999:
RJR and Nabisco are split into two companies, returning the RJR headquarters to Winston-Salem.

2006:
Hanesbrands once again becomes a separate company headquartered in Winston-Salem.