April, 1955: Groom Lake is chosen as a test site for the U-2 and work begins under control of Lockheed Skunkworks.

July, 1955: Area51 is finished costing $800,000 and the first U-2 was shipped out on July 23.

June 20, 1958: 38,400 acres are withdrawn to create a security "box" around the base.

November, 1958: An A-12 is shipped to Area51 for radar texting.

January, 1962: Existing restricted airspace is expanded.

1965: The base population reaches 1835.

November, 1977: The haveblue project starts and the F117 prototype is shipped to Area51.

May, 1981: The first production of the F117 is airlifted to Area51 for flight testing.

1984: Nearly 89,000 acres of land is seized to push the border of restricted land far from the base.

July 17, 1988: A soviet spy satellite snaps a photo of Area51 which is released in many publications including Popular Science.

April 10, 1995: Freedom Ridge and WhiteSides peak (the two best places to view Area51) are officially seized from the public until 2001.

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