late 1600s	Public awareness that tobacco use is addictive becomes widespread.
1700s	European studies report that pipe smoking causes cancers of the lip and throat.
1820s	German scientists isolate pure nicotine and identify it as a poison.
1881	James Bonsack’s cigarette-making machine is patented, with a production rate 500 times greater than hand laborers.
1883	New Jersey sets its minimum age of legal access (MLA) at 16 years.
1886	New York sets its MLA at 16 years; American Tobacco dramatically increases cigarette production with Bonsack machines.
1890	Twenty-six states and territories have set MLAs ranging from 14 to 24 years.
1895	States begin banning the sale of cigarettes entirely.
1898	German scientists hypothesize a link between tobacco and lung cancer.
1904	American Tobacco lobbyists are exposed bribing Indiana legislators to vote against a tobacco ban.
1905	American Tobacco arranges to have tabacum dropped from the US Pharmacopeoia.
1906	Tobacco is excluded from the Pure Food and Drug Act.
1917	Congress attempts to ban tobacco in the military; this effort is blocked by the tobacco industry.
1918	The War Department includes tobacco in soldiers’ daily rations.
1920	Forty-six of 48 states have set age limits on tobacco sales; South Carolina bans smoking in restaurants.
1921	Fifteen states have banned the sale of cigarettes since 1895; some bans have been overturned because of tobacco industry lobbying.
1929	First statistical evidence of a link between tobacco and lung cancer is reported.
1939	Last 2 states without age restrictions on tobacco sales pass laws: Ohio (18 years) and Rhode Island (16 years).
1950s	Multiple states lower minimum age of legal access as tobacco marketing to children becomes widespread.
1953	Maryland repeals its MLA.
1960s	Multiple states seek to increase, decrease, or overturn their MLAs.
1963	American Cancer Society suggests 18 years as an MLA; Alaska (18 years) and Hawaii (15 years) join the United States.
1964	Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health indicates that smoking causes lung cancer.
1968	Philip Morris studies seek to find the lowest politically feasible MLA.
1971	Lower MLAs are promoted by legislative advocates as a way to “ensure stricter enforcement” of tobacco laws.
1985	The American Medical Association proposes new restrictions on tobacco, including a national MLA of 21 years.
1990	The US Department of Health and Human Services proposes a model MLA set at 19 years.