A settlement established by Maroons or escaped slaves named Angola existed in Bradenton's present area starting in the late 1700s and ending in 1821.

Angola was a rather large maroon settlement as the Manatee River at that time was too shallow for US Navy vessels to navigate.

[13] Bradenton is named after Dr. Joseph Braden, whose nearby fort-like house was a refuge for early settlers during the Seminole Wars.

Braden owned a sugar plantation in the area, covering 1,100 acres (450 ha) and being worked by slave labor.

[14] Major Alden Joseph Adams purchased 400 acres of land in 1876 between present-day Manatee Memorial Hospital and 9th Street East and build his home there in 1882.

[31] On December 29, a streetcar line began operation going from Bradenton to the neighboring city of Manatee and went west crossing Wares Creek to the nearby community of Fogartyville.

[24] The Victory Bridge was opened in August 1919 running from current 10th Street West in Bradenton to 8th Avenue in Palmetto.

The city council began the process of removing the "w" letter from its then name "Bradentown" in January 1925 and be completed on May 2, 1925, when the state Governor signed a bill relating to it making it official.

[39] After the collapse of the Florida land boom and the Great Depression starting, the city faced an economic downturn.

During the Florida land boom, Bradenton borrowed money as a way to pay for infrastructure to areas that were considered outlying.

A new post office building in 1937 was built on Manatee Avenue and 9th Street West as a Works Progress Administration project.

Compiled in the late 1930s and first published in 1939, the Florida guide listed Bradenton's population as being 5,986 and described it as:lies opposite Palmetto on the south bank of the Manatee River.

The neighboring area of rich muck land normally produces two or three crops each season, making Bradenton the principal shipping center for winter vegetables on the west coast.

Celery, citrus fruits, tomatoes, cabbages, eggplants, green peppers and square are the main products.

A recreational center was opened in March 1942 at a building on the intersection of 6th Avenue and 12th Street West in the downtown area to be used by soldiers.

[46] Camp Weatherford located at LECOM Field existed for eight months at some point during the war as a training center for the US Army Signal Corps.

A soldier named Joe Grossman at the camp ran a radio show broadcasting on WSPB called Weatherford Shinings.

[49] Despite Mayor Hall's racial progressiveness, a Ku Klux Klan march occurred during his tenure in 1958 between Palmetto and Bradenton.

[54][55] Governor Claude R. Kirk Jr. arrived in Bradenton on April 6, 1970, in an attempt to stop Manatee County School District's desegregation busing.

[43] The city hall moved to a new location on 12th Street West in November 1998 after the property was sold to a local resident with the intention of redeveloping it but plans never materialized.

[54] The local resident who had owned the former city hall property along Wares Creek sold it to a development group sometime in 2004, and it was demolished in December 2004.

[59] McKechnie Field, the spring training stadium for the Pittsburgh Pirates, was renamed LECOM Park in February 2017.

Along the Gulf of Mexico and into Tampa Bay are over 20 miles (32 km) of Florida beaches, many of which are shaded by Australian pines.

In 2003, Pepsi relocated Tropicana's corporate headquarters to Chicago after it acquired Gatorade and consolidated its non-carbonated beverage businesses.

[71] Bradenton was significantly affected by the United States housing market correction, as reported by CNN, projecting a 24.8% loss in median home values by the third quarter of 2008.

[citation needed] Bradenton is served by Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport and is connected to St. Petersburg by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

WXPX-TV channel 66, the local Ion Television affiliate, is licensed in Bradenton, with its transmitter in Riverview in Hillsborough County.

[74][75] Bradenton is home to the Washington Park neighborhood, a historically African American Community where Lincoln Academy was located.

This one-stop museum-planetarium-aquarium offers a glimpse of Florida history, a star and multimedia show, and ongoing lecture and film series.

Born at the Miami Aquarium and Tackle Company on July 21, 1948, Snooty was one of the first recorded captive manatee births.