On 6 February 2011, the Taw Win Centre, a major shopping and residential complex, was opened in the township.

Throughout much of the history, the village was just in the periphery of Thanlyin (Syriam), the commercial city located across the Yangon river.

In 1755, King Alaungpaya captured the village, renamed it Yangon (most commonly translated as "End of Strife"), and founded a larger city by adding settlements such as Ahlon, Pabedan, Kyauktada, and Botataung.

During the British colonial period, Dagon was mostly a prosperous neighborhood, though the areas closer to downtown were full of squatters.

In the 1950s, the Burmese government cleared the squatters in the southern part of the township, and built the Minmanaing Housing Project for senior civil servants.