Melbourne, originally known as Crane Creek, received its first settlers, a group of black freedmen. The community was soon renamed for Melbourne, Australia, the former home of the area’s first postmaster, Cornthwaite John Hector.

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church was founded on what is now Strawbridge Avenue.

The Carleton Hotel was built by the Strawbridge family. It was destroyed by fire in 1903, rebuilt and expanded, then permanently destroyed by fire in 1925.

A group of 23 electors gathered to create the “Village of Melbourne” by a spoken vote, gaining the benefits provided to towns under Florida law.

The Melbourne Cemetery was established, later to hold the graves of many of Melbourne’s founding families, including founder and postmaster CJ Hector.

The Florida East Coast Railway arrived, moving the focus of commerce from the Indian River and steamer ships, to the tracks to the west.

Green Gables, which still stands today, was built by William and Nora Wells as a winter home. It was one of the first houses in Melbourne to have electricity.

A funeral home was opened by the founders of the Florida Funeral Directors Association and was taken over in 1915 by VC and Olive Brownlie. Brownlie-Maxwell Funeral Home is still in business today.

James Wadsworth Rossetter purchased the property on which the current configuration of Rossetter House now stands.

The building now known as The Henegar Center for the Arts was constructed as part of Melbourne School. The same year, Downtown Melbourne was consumed in flames as a kerosene heater ignited the wooden sidewalk along Front Street.

Evidence for the presence of Paleo-Indians from the late Pleistocene epoch was uncovered. C. P. Singleton, a Harvard University zoologist, discovered the bones of a mammoth along Crane Creek.

The area’s second wooden bridge across the Indian River opened, connecting Melbourne to Indialantic. It was constructed by Indialantic founder Ernest Kouwen-Hoven and featured a hand-operated draw bridge.

Kouwen-Hoven built a grand home, Magnolia Manor, the land upon which was sold to Florida Air Academy in 1961 (now Florida Preparatory Academy).

The Melbourne Regional Chamber of Commerce was founded with the purpose of attracting and hosting the Florida Frolics and Beauty Review. The same year, the pre-historic body of a human, dubbed the “Melbourne Man” was found at Melbourne Golf Course and Country Club, now known as Melbourne Municipal Golf Course. The course opened in 1920, the same year Pleistocene epoch remains were found nearby.

The Eau Gallie Causeway opened to traffic. The wooden bridge had no railing for more than a year, although no one was reported to go over the edge.

The wooden Melbourne Causeway was replaced by an asphalt bridge with a rotating span. That portion of the bridge was once again replaced in 1947 with a swing bridge.

The Melbourne Naval Air Station, located on property that is now part of the Orlando Melbourne International Airport, was commissioned as an operational training unit for Navy and Marine pilots serving in World War II. The base closed in 1946.

The Melbourne Shopping Center was constructed on Babcock St., the area’s first strip mall.

Radiation Incorporated, the precursor to Harris Corporation, now L3 Harris, was founded.

The Eau Gallie Causeway was replaced with a concrete version featuring a swing span drawbridge.

Florida Institute of Technology was founded.

Alan Shepard became the first American to reach space when he launched on a suborbital flight aboard a Mercury Redstone rocket from Cape Canaveral. The same year, President John F. Kennedy declared the goal of “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth within a decade.”

The chamber sent a resolution to the State Road Dept. to urge improvements for U.S. Hwy. 192, called “the Worst Road in the State” by the American Automobile Association.

With strong advocacy from the chamber, Melbourne and Eau Gallie were consolidated into the contemporary City of Melbourne. The city elected its first black councilman, Julius Montgomery.

Pineda Causeway opened as a toll road, after being proposed in 1969 to help ease traffic from Kennedy Space Center and Patrick Air Force Base. The project was strongly endorsed by the chamber. The same year, the southern tip of Merritt Island is dubbed “Dragon Point” because of the concrete dragon, “Annie,” built there.

With urging from the chamber, construction began on a third Melbourne Causeway, but both sides would not be opened until 1984.

The high-rise span of the Melbourne Causeway was dedicated by the State of Florida as The Ernest Kouwen-Hoven Memorial Bridge after the original builder of the bridge.

President Ronald Reagan visited the Melbourne Regional Airport (now known as the Orlando Melbourne International ​Airport) to address the business community.

The Henegar Center for the Arts opened its doors in the former Melbourne School building.

Annie the Dragon collapsed into the Indian River following a storm.

The chamber was renamed the Melbourne Regional Chamber of East Central Florida, Inc. to communicate the organization’s interest in a regional outreach. The same year, the chamber was accredited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as a 5-Star Chamber, heralding it as in the top 1% of all Chambers of Commerce nationwide. It was also accredited as a Certified Plus Chamber, the highest accreditation level in the state of Florida awarded by the Florida Association of Chamber Professionals (FACP).

President Barack Obama made a visit to the Clemente Center at the Florida Institute of Technology. The same year, former President Bill Clinton visited the Palm Bay campus of Brevard Community College (now Eastern Florida State College).

The Melbourne Regional Chamber was re-accredited as a Certified Plus Chamber.

President Donald Trump returned to Orlando Melbourne International Airport after making a prior campaign stop at the same location several months before.

The Melbourne Regional Chamber was re-accredited as a 5-Star Chamber.