http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/21/us/arlington-national-cemetery-fast-facts/
Timeline:
May 13, 1864 – The first military burial takes place at Arlington Estate. Pvt. William H. Christman of the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry is buried.
June 15, 1864 – Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs designates Arlington House and its surrounding 200 acres as a Union military cemetery.
1882 – George Washington Custis Lee sues the government for taking over the land. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the federal government was trespassing.
March 3, 1883 – Congress purchases the land for $150,000.00.
May 15, 1920 – Memorial Amphitheater is dedicated.
1921 – The Tomb of the Unknowns is established for the Unknown Soldier of World War I.
April 6, 1948 – The 3rd U.S. Infantry begins guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
May 14, 1998 – Through DNA testing, the Vietnam era Unknown Soldier’s identity is established as Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie who died near An Loc, Vietnam in 1972. His remains were returned to his family and this particular crypt remains empty.
November 13, 2009 – Secretary of the Army John McHugh orders the inspector general to conduct an inspection of the record keeping operations in Arlington National Cemetery.
June 2010 – The Army’s investigation reveals missing burial records, unmarked graves and burial urns put in a spillage pile, where dirt dug up for gravesites is left. Longtime Superintendent John C. Metzler is reprimanded. He is able to keep his job until his retirement date of July 2, 2010.
July 14, 2010 – The cemetery announces that Thurman Higginbotham, second-in-command at Arlington, filed paperwork in the previous week to retire retroactive to July 2, 2010. He had been placed on administrative leave in June pending disciplinary review for improper handling of burial records, and was accused of botching dozen of contracts.
July 29, 2010 – Sen. Claire McCaskill, chairwoman of an oversight panel on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Reform Committee, says that her investigation of the cemetery has revealed between 4,900 and 6,600 graves may be unmarked or mislabeled on cemetery maps.
December 2010 – The Army launches the first criminal investigation into the misplacement of remains at Arlington National Cemetery after discovering the cremated remains of eight people dumped in a single grave site.
December 22, 2010 – President Barack Obama signs into law bill S. 3860, which will hold the Secretary of the Army accountable to Congress on Arlington National Cemetery’s ability to identify and fix errors in the burial records for gravesites.
December 23, 2011 – According to the Army Inspector General’s report, of the 259,978 graves audited, 195,748 were checked. The consequences were that in 64,230 cases, the information on the headstones was incorrect when they were compared to the paper or electronic records.
January 25, 2012 – During a congressional hearing on cemetery operations, investigators say that they have found no documentation accounting for $12 million that is missing from the cemetery’s budget. The money was allocated to the cemetery between 2004 and 2010 but apparently was never spent.
January 26, 2012 – Former Marine Corps reservist Yonathan Melaku, is sentenced to 25 years in prison for attempting to desecrate graves at the Arlington Cemetery.
2012 – Arlington is seeking to be placed on the National Register as a historic “district”. The entire process takes up to a year.
April 11, 2014 – The National Park Service lists the Arlington National Cemetery Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
June 15, 2014 – The 150th anniversary of the cemetery.