Note: There maybe some overlap between these and the Liverpool Firsts thread.

432 St Patrick sailed from River Mersey on mission to Ireland?

916 Runcorn castle built

1050 West Derby castle built?

1125 Benedictine monks at Birkenhead Priory begin rowing people across the river (Monk’s Ferry)

1150 Benedictine monastery founded at Birkenhead by Hamo de Mascy, 3rd Baron of Dunham.

1172/73 Embarkation point for conquest of Ireland by Henry II?

1207 28th August Liverpool Charter (King John)

1220 Everton beacon?

1229 Henry III charter confirming 1207 charter

1235 Royal assent given to William de Ferrers to build Liverpool castle

1237 Liverpool castle completed

1272 First Liverpool census? 840 population.

1280 Bank Hall built (demolished 1770)

1282 Woodside Ferry established

1295 Liverpool’s 1st MPs Adam, son of Richard and Robert Pinklowe

1330 Edward III grants charter to Birkenhead Priory allowing it to charge for ferry crossings

1333 Edward III charter

1351 William de Lyverpull? (son of Adam) becomes first recorded mayor of Liverpool

1361 Plague

1382 Richard II charter

1413 Henry V charter

1442 Castle extended

1510 Start of coal mining in Prescot area

1515 1st Town Hall built in Dale Street

1521 1st mention of coal mining in Whiston area

1522 Liverpools first grammar school built (founded by John Crosse of Crosse-hall)

1530s Dissolution of monasteries – ferry service provided by Birkenhead Priory sold to Thomas Worsley

1540 Plague

1544 Prescot Grammar School founded

1548 Plague

1556 Philip and Mary charter

1558 Plague

1561 November storm destroyed harbour

1565 138 inhabited houses

1578 John Midleton (the child of Hale) born – allegedly grew to 9’3” tall (died 1623)

1580 Liverpool Common Council established (survived until 1835)

1600 Introduction of watch-making to Prescot

1611 Salt works established at bottom of Chapel Street

1618 Puritan chapel established (now Ancient Chapel of Toxteth)

1626 Charles I charter

1632 Purchase of Crown Rights over town by Lord Molyneux

1639 Liverpool born astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks predicts and observes the orbit of Venus

1641 First trade contact with the West Indies?

1643 Parliamentarians take control of town during Civil War

1644 Cavaliers re-capture Liverpool (but re-taken by Roundheads six months later)

1647 Liverpool becomes free port (no longer under control of Chester)

1648 First reported cargo to arrive from America

1673/1674? Exchange & Council Hall built

1679 First seamen’s charity in England opened in Liverpool (founded by Mayor)

1689 Liverpool castle seized by forces of William of Orange

1691 William and Mary charter

1693 Capt. Grenville Collins publishes first known charts of the Dee and Mersey

1695 2nd William and Mary charter

1699 Liverpool becomes an independent parish (previously part of Walton)

1700 8th June reference in Illustrated to Marlborough, 1st ship in ‘old dock’

1700 Customs House built (up to this point Liverpool had been under authority of port of Chester)

1704 Woolton Hall

1708/09 Blue Coat School founded

1708 First reference to scouse (in Ned Ward’s The Wooden World Dissected)

1709 1st vessel sails from Liverpool to Africa

1709 Act of Parliament giving permission for 1st dock at Liverpool

1712 First Liverpool newspaper the Liverpool Courant established

1715 1st Liverpool dock fully opened (closed 1826)

1716 First Liverpool borough treasurer appointed

1717/1718 Blue Coat School moves to new premises in School Lane (now art centre)

1719 Completion of dock walls

1721/1725? Liverpool castle demolished

1724 Artist George Stubbs born (died 1806)

1725 Chadwick map of Liverpool

1726 Work starts on St George’s Hall

1726 Road from Liverpool to Prescot improved by turnpike trust

1732 New workhouse built near Blue Coat School

1738 Act for improvement of tidal basin

1740 Administration of Liverpool docks transferred to Dock Trustee’s (therefore docks became public rather than private)

1743 Dry pier (sea wall of tidal basin) completed

1743 First public parks provided by Common Council

1745 Lime Kiln Road first laid out (renamed Lime Street 1790) – Lime Street station built on site of former kilns

1748 Exchange building foundation stone laid

1749 25th March Infirmary opened – situated on present site of St George’s Hall (demolished 1826)

1752 26th March - George II charter

1752 Seamen’s Hospital completed (as detached wing of infirmary) (demolished 1826)

1753 2nd wet dock opened (renamed Salthouse Dock)

1754 New Town Hall built – the third one (replacing earlier Exchange and Council Hall)

1755 2oth March Bill to improve navigation of Sankey river introduced to Parliament

1756 25th May Liverpool Advertiser begins publication

1756 John Sadler invents art of transferring print to pottery

1757/1758? St Helen’s canal and Sankey navigation (first still water canal in England)

1757 23rd September 1st direct postal delivery from Liverpool to Preston

1757 18th October (St Lukes Day) a mob stops the mayoral elections taking place

1758 1st May earliest circulating library in Europe

1760 1st September first ever stage coach from Liverpool

1761 First Dock committee set up by Common Council

1762 October storm destroys large part of newly built wall on eastern side of North Dock

1763 Leasowe lighthouse opened

1763 Liverpool Dock Master builds first lighthouses to use parabolic mirrors (Hoylake and Bidston)

1765 27th December John Gore’s first newspaper published

1766 1st Liverpool directory published (Gore’s)

1769 Carr colliery opened

1770 5th November 1st sod cut for Leeds & Liverpool Canal (junction with Mersey is at Stanley Dock)

1771 North Dock (later George’s Dock) opened

1772 Theatre Royal, Williamson Square opened (demolished 1970)

1773 Bridgewater Canal extended to Runcorn

1773 Duke’s Dock built by Duke of Bridgewater to accommodate coal vessels coming from Manchester via Bridgewater Canal

1773 Pilkingtons opened glassworks, St Helen’s

1774/1776? Liverpool physician Matthew Dobson discovers link between sugar and diabetes

1774 18th February 1st boat on Leeds – Liverpool canal

1774 2nd August Liverpool races start at Crosby

1776 Establishment of first marine life-saving station in UK at Southport

1776 Ether first publically used as an anaesthetic

1780 Childwall Hall built by Bamber Gasgoyne (designed by architect John Nash) (demolished 1949 and new structure built – now HQ for Mersey TV)

1780 Derby horse race first run at Lord Derby’s private racecourse at Liverpool (now run at Epsom)

1786 Castle Street widened

1783 New St John’s church built

1785 20th July & 9th August Lunardi ascends in balloon from Liverpool Fort

1785 25th July 1st mail coach from Liverpool to London

1786 Europe’s first purpose-built prison (Great Howard Street)

1786 12th June Music Hall in Bold Street opened

1787 Samuel Cunard born Halifax, Nova Scotia

1787 Welsh Methodist chapel in Pall Mall opened

1788 3rd October Kings Dock completed

1788 Polish church in Seel Street – (city’s oldest Catholic church)

1788 Liverpool Corporation petition Parliament against abolition of slavery proposals

1789 Lunatic asylum built (in garden behind Infirmary) (demolished 1826)
1789 Chamber and ballroom added to Town Hall

1790 America’s first overseas consul appointed to Liverpool (James Laury – was consul until 1819)

1791 Liverpool School for the Blind, Commutation row founded (1st in England)

1792 Liverpool Lunatic Asylum opened

1793 Liverpool Corporation issues ‘bank’ notes

1794 Rack lever escapement invented by Liverpool watch-maker Peter Litherland

1795 Ellesmere Canal opened

1795 18th January Town Hall fire (documents lost in fire)

1796 17th April Queens Dock completed (extended 1816)

1797 4th June Liverpool Town Hall reopened after fire and dome added

1797 Liverpool Athenaeum founded

1797 Arms granted to Liverpool

1797 Bootle Water company established

1799 Liverpool Corporation waterworks established

1800 Lyceum, Bold Street built (as gentlemen’s club, later became first circulating library in Europe, then a post office)

1800 School for blind people moves to London Road

1801 American Chamber of Commerce founded in Liverpool

1802 Liverpool Botanical Gardens founded at Calderstones Park

1802 15th September Goree warehouse fire at Liverpool docks

1802 Whiston colliery opened (closed 1890)

1802 Halsread colliery opened (closed 1895)

1802/03 The Lyceum opened, Europe’s first circulating library

1803 First underwriters association (Liverpool Underwriters’ Association)

1807 Jewish synagogue built in Seel Street. Abolition of slavery in the British Empire

1808 19th January George III charter

1808 4th August new Corn Exchange building opened (corner of Fenwick Street & Brunswick Street)

1809 1st January new Exchange opened

1809 29th December William Ewart Gladstone born at 62 Rodney Street

1809 2nd lifeboat station built at Southport (demolished 1965)

1809 Society for the Suppression of Wanton Cruelty to Brute Animals founded (first animal welfare organisation in the country – forerunner of RSPCA)

1811 Portico added to Town Hall

1812 May Prime Minister Spencer Perceval assassinated by Liverpool man John Bellingham

1813 ‘Seaforth’ built by Sir John Gladstone MP, father of William Gladstone

1813 19th April foundation stone laid for first cast-iron built church (St George’s Everton)

1814 The Kingsmill is first Liverpool ship to trade with India

1815 Soapworks established at Warrington by Joseph Crosfield

1815 First steamships introduced on the Mersey

1816 23rd October Leeds & Liverpool canal completed

1817 First steamship ferry from Woodside (‘Etna’)

1819 12th July Orange Parade riot

1819 18th July Tower demolished

1819 20th June ‘Savannagh’ 1st steam ship to cross Atlantic arrived at Liverpool

1821 Actor Julius Brutus Booth emigrates. His son John Wilkes Booth assassinates Abraham Lincoln

1821 Prince’s Dock opened

1822 Williams Roscoe becomes 1st President of the Liverpool Royal Institution

1822 St Mary’s church, Birkenhead built (demolished 1977)

1823 Liverpool Mechanic’s & Apprentices’ Library (became Liverpool Polytechnic 1970)

1823 Liverpool Oil Gas Company established

1824 25th September Infirmary opened (Brownlow Street)

1824 Iron works established at Birkenhead by William Laird

1825 18th January Institute for the Deaf & Dumb, world’s first school for deaf people opened

1825 1st February Necropolis cemetery opened

1826 31st August? 1st ‘old’ dock filled in

1826 Hamilton Square, Birkenhead developed

1826 29th August 1st post office steam packet between Liverpool & Ireland

1827 28th April King George IV charter

1827 25th July Liverpool races start at Maghull

1828 18th July 1st regatta on Mersey

1828 Laird’s first order for iron ship (from Irish Inland Steam Navigation Co.)

1829 7th July races at Aintree

1829 6th October Rainhill trials

1829 Canning Dock opened (converted to wet dock from ols tidal basin ‘dry dock’)

1830s Liverpool Medical School established

1830 15th September William Huskinson run over and killed by Rocket (first steam passenger engine fatality)

1830 21st September William Huskinson buried at St Jomes

1830 12th may 1st omnibus in Liverpool

1830 Liverpool Crown Street station

1830 September Clarence Dock

1832 Brunswick Dock

1832 May Cholera outbreak

1833 Great Fire

1833 27th may Liverpool zoo opened

1834 17th April St Nicholas Church lit by gas

1834 6th September Waterloo Dock

1835 New lunatic asylum built in Ashton Street

1836 30th July Trafalgar Dock

1836 30th July Victoria Dock

1836 March William IV charter

1836 15th August? Lime Street railway terminus opened (Liverpool & Manchester railway)

1836 Liverpool Police first to use helmets

1837 1st March 1st grand steeple chase at Liverpool

1837 31st may Medical institution (Hope Street) opened

1838 1st stone laid of St George’s hall

1838 6th January first travelling Post Office ran between Liverpool and Birmingham (horse box fitted out as sorting office)

1838 19th October ‘Ironsides’ 1st iron ship built in Liverpool launched

1839 Samuel Cunard comes to England

1839 24 hour hurricane hits Liverpool

1840 Mersey charted for the Admiralty by Capt. Henry Mangles Denham

1840 Britain’s first Borough Engineer

1840 23rd September railway from Chester opened at Birkenhead

1840 Cunard ship Britannia made first scheduled transatlantic crossing (to Boston)

1840 Liverpool Philharmonic Society formed

1840 Dr R Bickersteth first physician to use carbolic spray and anti-septic cat gut in operations. Also first surgeon to use a special gown while operating

1841 Grange Beacon, West Kirkby

1841 Society for the PrDATEion of Cruelty to Animals founded in Liverpool (later became the RSPCA)

1841 First British purpose-built office block (Brunswick Buildings)

1841 3rd June Salem Welsh independent chapel opened

1842 Princes Park

1842 June world’s first public baths and wash houses founded by Kitty Wilkinson during great cholera epidemic (Upper Frederick Street)

1843 First official Grand national steeplechase

1843 Birkenhead Dock Co formed

1844 Mean Sea level first taken at Victoria Dock

1844 First English girls high school (day grammar school) opened in Blackburne House, Hope Street

1844 Prescot Union Workhouse opened (later Whiston Hospital)

1844 Monk’s Ferry railway terminus opened by Prince Albert

1845 30th July Albert Dock opened by Prince Albert



1845 ‘Dock Cottages’ – built to house labourers working on construction of Birkenhead docks

1845 12th July Birkenhead market opened

1845 Start of great influx of Irish due to famine

1847 7th July electric telegraph opened in Exchange Buildings

1847 5th April Birkenhead Park opened

1847 Samuel Cunard takes up permanent residence in England

1847 5th April 1st stage of Birkenhead Docks opened – Egerton and Morpeth

1847 1st January Liverpool appoints country’s first Medical Officer of Health (Dr William Duncan, physician to th Infirmary)

1847 Liverpool Corporation Waterworks Act

1847 1st December Greenwich time adopted by Liverpool

1848 22nd June Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire formed

1848 4th August docks opened – Salisbury, Collingswood, Stanley, Nelson and Bramley Moore –linked via cut and docks to Leeds & Liverpool Canal

1849 1st White Star ship

1849 Wellington Dock opened

1849 Cholera outbreak

1849 Philharmonic Hall

1850 13th May Exchange railway terminus opened (Liverpool & Bury railway)

1850 Liverpool first borough to establish Library Committee

1850 17th January Liverpool Chamber of Commerce founded

1851 Sandon Dock opened

1851 10 April Great Float dock at Birkenhead officially opened

1852 First Liverpool city public library opened (Duke Street)

1852 Huskinsson Dock opened (extended 1860)

1853 25th January/12th June? New Corn Exchange Building opened for business

1853 Nathaniel Hawthorne becomes US Consul (until 1857)

1853 Bromborough Pool village built

1853 21st June Garston Dock opened (built by St Helens Canal & Railway Company)

1854 14th March temporary dam built to enable work on tidal basin and graving docks at Birkenhead collapsed

1854 Cholera outbreak

1854 18th September St George’s Hall foundation stone

1855 August takeover of Birkenhead docks by Liverpool Corporation

1856 Lewis’s department store (first ever)

1856 John Sadler invents transfer printing to pottery

1857 15th April foundation stone laid for public library and museum

1857 9th September Jewish synagogue opened in Hope Place

1858 Liverpool Steam Ship Owners Association formed

1858 1st January 1st meeting of Mersey Docks & Harbour Board – formed to take over operation of docks on both sides of the estuary

1858 Wapping Dock opened – and joined to Salthouse by a cut

1858 St George’s Hall completed

1858 11th January new registry office opened

1859 16th September Canada dock opened

1860 Street tramways introduced in Birkenhead (1st in Europe) (electrified 1901; tramway system closed 1937)

1860 Altcar Rifle Ranges – led to foundation of National Rifle Association

1860 Central Library & Museum opened in William Brown Street

1860 27th June ‘William Singer’ 1st cotton ship arrives in Liverpool

1860 29th August death of Jesse Hartley, dock engineer

1860 1st November Great Float at Birkenhead opened

1861 11th February Wirral directory first published

1862 Canada half-tide dock built (renamed Brocklebank)

1862 8th October Garibaldi riots at Birkenhead

1864 Oriel Chambers designed by Peter Ellis (cast iron frame used)

1864 January Lottie Sleigh blew up after taking on board gunpowder from magazine ships at Tranmere

1864 Sebastian Ferranti born in Liverpool

1864 Herculaneum floating dock opened

1864.1865? 15th May excavations to lay water pipes in London Road near Commutation Row uncover remains of prince Rupert’s army trenches dug during Civil War siege of Liverpool

1865 Playhouse Theatre, Williamson Square opened (oldest in country)

1865 Last Confederate ship to surrender at the end of American Civil War does so, to Mayor at Liverpool Town Hall

1866 19th September Great Eastern arrives in Mersey after laying Atlantic cable

1866 Oriel Chambers, Water Street built (important architecturally)

1866 Sefton Park bought for £251,000 from Lord Sefton

1866 Hooton to West Kirkby railway line opened

1866 Alfred Dock (Birkenhead)

1866 May Cholera outbreak

1867 Prescot Local Government Board

1867 26th March Sefton Park bought by Liverpool Corporation

1868 Runcorn railway bridge

1868 First borough to secure an Act of Parliament to establish a tram system

1869 1st municipal/council housing – St Martin’s Cottages, Silvester Street, Vauxhall opened (demolished 1977)

1869 White Star Line formed (Oceanic Steam Navigation Co.)

1870 Meyer Library, Bebington

1870 Liverpool School Board set up

1872 Sefton Park opened

1872? Tate & Lyle sugar refinery opened in Love Lane (closed 1981)

1873 Stanley Park

1874 West Lancashire Golf Club founded at Blundellsands

1874 Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire railway line extended from Garston to Central railway station

1875 2nd Garston dock opened

1876 Royal Liverpool’s Seamen Orphanage Institution, Newsham Park opened (closed 1949)

1876/1877 Walker art Gallery opened (first British public art gallery)

1877 Birkenhead incorporated – John Laird 1st mayor

1877 Huyton Local Government Board established

1878 Everton FC founded at Stanley Park

1878 Death of Samuel Cunard

1879 Langton Dock built

1879 Picton reading room added to Central Library

1880 11th May Charter granting Liverpool city status

1880 Cunard Steam Ship Company becomes a public company

1880 Granton Road School opened

1880 Prince’s food company founded

1881 University College (granted charter in 1903)

1881 14th July foundation stone of Vyrnwy laid by Earl of Powis

1881 Attempt by Fenians to blow up Town Hall

1881 8th September Langton Docks opened

1882 Liverpool Home for Aged Mariners built at Egremont

1882 10th April Bootle Town Hall opened

1883 Municipal Buildings opened in Dale Street

1883 19th April Liverpool Society for the PrDATEion of Cruelty to Children (later NSPCC)

1883 21st June Wirral Children’s Home, Oxton officially opened

1884 17th January, borings for Mersey tunnel meet

1884 Britain’s first qualified woman doctor starts practice in Liverpool

1884 January, Hornby Dock built

1884 Wallasey dock

1886 Liverpool International Exhibition of Navigation, Travelling, Commerce & Manufacturing opened in Liverpool by Queen Victoria

1886 Mexico disaster at Horse Bank off Southport – 27 lifeboat men killed

1886 20th January rail tunnel under Mersey declared open by Prince of Wales (first tunnel under water in world)

1886 Hamilton Square railway station, Birkenhead opened

1887 10th February Birkenhead Town Hall opened

1887 22nd June Bootle free library & museum opened

1887 Oldest mosque in UK set up at house in Vernon Street, Liverpool (moved to Brougham Terrace 1889)

1887 11th November, 1st sod of Manchester Ship Canal cut at Eastham

1888 Poet and critic Matthew Arnold died at Dingle

1888 3rd March 1st sod cut at Port Sunlight

1888 Liverpool Overhead Railway Company formed

1888 Barnham & Bailey visit

1889 Royal Infirmary, Pembroke Place opened (designed with advice from Florence Nightingale)

1889 15th July, Death of Sir James Picton, local historian & antiquarian

1889 Britain’s first mosque (a gathering in Brougham Terrace)

1889 Lancashire Watch Company founded at Prescot

1889 First epileptic hospital founded at Maghull

1889 First pre-payment gas meters introduced in Cazneau Street, Liverpool by Liverpool Gas Company

1890 First steam lifeboat Duke of Northumberland had trials in Albert Dock

1891 Manchester Ship Canal

1891 British Insulated Wire Company (later BIHC/BICC) founded at Prescot

1890/1892 Ex-Liverpool City Engineer John Brodie invented football goal nets

1892 First John West canned goods arrive in Liverpool

1892 29th September Aintree Racecourse grandstand destroyed by fire

1892 Everton FC move to Goodison Park

1892 John West

1893 14th August Queen Victoria charter allows Liverpool to have a Lord Mayor

1893 4th February, Overhead Railway opened

1894 First radio transmission (by Sir Oliver Lodge)

1894 Huyton UDC formed

1894 21st May or 25th? Manchester ship Canal officially opened by Queen Victoria

1895 Albert Dock built

1895 10th July, new Riverside railway station, Prince’s Dock formally opened

1896 First ever feature film Liverpool Scene’s by Lumiere Brothers

1896 5th October Palm House, Sefton Park officially opened

1896 X-rays first used in Liverpool for medical diagnosis

1896 Canada dock branch 1 built

1896 4th January Liverpool Cotton Exchange opened

1896 Liverpool Self-Propelled Traffic association formed

1897 Liverpool is first to employ women health visitors

1897 William Crawford starts biscuit manufacture in Binns Road, Liverpool

1898/1899 22 April, School of Tropical Medicine opened (world’s first)

1898 Philharmonic pub

1898 1st April Birkenhead Municipal Borough formed into one civil parish

1898 Crosby lighthouse burnt down

1898 First electric trams run in city

1899 Canada graving dock built

1899 6th September 1st sailing of ‘Oceanic’

1900 World’s biggest bonded warehouse built at Stanley Dock

1900 31st July George’s Dock closed

1900 18 – 21st September start of Eisteddfod at Liverpool

1900 Liverpool Exhibition

1901 Sandon half-tide dock

1901 First escalator in a railway station

1901 1st August Victoria Park, Birkenhead opened

1901 14th August electrification of Birkenhead tramway system

1902 June 1st, use of illuminated tram car(for Edward VII coronation)

1902 Huskinsson dock branch 1 built

1903 Canada dock branch 2 built

1903 Work starts on Liverpool’s first ring road Queen’s Drive

1903 3rd May electrification of Mersey railway line

1903 Hamilton Square gardens opened to public (previously private)

1903 15th July University granted charter status

1904 19th July foundation stone of Anglican Church laid

1905 Runcorn transporter bridge

1905 Queen’s dock branch 2

1906 Statue of Queen Victoria unveiled in Derby Square

1906 Blue Coat school moves to Wavertree

1906 King’s dock branches 1 and 2 opened

1906 Queen’s graving dock

1906 30th November opening of new Cotton Exchange

1907 Garston public baths opened

1907 Meccano registered by Frank Hornby

1907 15th July opening of new Mersey Docks & Harbour Board offices

1907 August 28th commemoration of Liverpool’s First Charter

1907 16th November maiden voyage of Maurentania from Liverpool

1907 7th September maiden voyage of Lusitania from Liverpool

1908 First scout troop in world formed in Birkenhead

1908 20th October new south dock at Garston opened

1909 Wellington memorial

1909 Britain’s first woman councillor (Eleanor Rathbone)

1909 First Woolworth’s in Britain opened in Church Street

1910 19th July Royal charter granted to Wallasey

1910 29th November plane flight across Mersey and back

1910? Alder Hey Children’s Hospital

1910 Estate bought for development of Liverpool Garden Suburb (Wavertree)

1911 20th July Royal Liver Friendly Society building opened – Liver building clock started at exact moment of coronation of King George V (22 June)

1911 28th June Liverpool dock workers strike

1911 Bowring Park (Roby) becomes first municipal golf course in England

1913 11th July King’s visit

1913 4th June Old Swan Library opened by Cllr EC Given

1913 Liverpool Exhibition

1913 6th December new reservoir (connected to Vyrnwy) opened

1915 1st coal raised from Cronton colliery

1916 Cunard building opened

1916 29th October inauguration of Jewish centre at 6 Princes Road

1917 Airfield created at Hooton Park (site closed 1957)

1919 First ever police strike in Liverpool

1920 30th August Liverpool Courier fails to appear for first time in 112 (due to printers strike)

1921 15th August Alwen reservoir opened (supplying Birkenhead)

1922 2nd October former city cathedral (St Peter’s) demolished

1922 16th December Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight opened

1923 Littlewoods founded

1924 Carnegie Welfare Centre, Oxford Street opened

1924 30th April new air service between Belfast & Liverpool

1924 19th July Anglican cathedral consecrated by Archbishop of Canterbury

1925 4th May first juvenile court in the country opened in Liverpool

1925 Stoves Ltd, gas appliance manufacturers opened (Whiston/Rainhill)

1925 December construction work starts on Liverpool side of Mersey (Queensway) Tunnel

1926 10th March, digging work starts on Birkenhead side of Queensway Tunnel

1926 Start of Norris Green housing estate

1926 Sir Henry Seagrave raises world speed record on Birkdale Sands

1927 Liverpool’s first ever woman mayor (Margaret Bevan)

1927 19th July Gladstone Docks opened

1927 Work on Liverpool’s first ring road at Queens Drive completed

1928 March work starts on East Lancs Road

1928 December Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead opened

1928 3rd April Boreholes from Birkenhead and Liverpool sides for Mersey Tunnel works meet midway

1928 3rd July 1st meeting of Liverpool & District Aero Club at Hooton

1929 5th August Eistedfood opens at Sefton Park

1929 First Boy Scouts International Jamboree held at Arrowe Park

1930 Start of Dovecot housing estate

1931 Britain’s first training centre for guide dogs opened at Wallasey

1931 17th April Bromborough Dock officially opened

1932 22nd April Trafalgar Dock opened

1933 28th April Bidston Dock opened

1933 1st July Speke airport opens as the UK’s first provincial airport (owned by Corporation)

1933 British Interplanetary Society founded in Liverpool (first in world)

1933 5th June foundation stone of roman Catholic Cathrdral laid

1934 18th July Queensway Road tunnel opened under Mersey by King George V

1934 18th July East Lancs Road officially opened by King George V

1934 Walton Hall Park opened by King George V

1934 Merger of Cunard & White Star

1935 King & Queen visit to celebrate 25th anniversary of reign

1936 Myrtle Gardens flats built (on site of Liverpool Orphanage)

1936 Work starts on first purpose-built municipal industrial estate (Speke)

1936 1st round trip Atlantic fight- UK takeoff at Birkdale Sands

1937 13th April ‘Ark Royal’ launched at Birkenhead

1938 Royal Visit

1938 Fazakerley Day Open air School for Delicate Children opened

1939 19th June new Philharmonic Hall opens

1939 31st August Instructions for evacuation of children given

1939 Royal ordnance factory at Kirkby

1940 Hawker hurricane plane crashes into Mersey

1940 Internment camp set up at Huyton

1941 8th – 15th May Liverpool blitz

1944 Britain’s first Chinese newspaper (Hua Chow Pao)

1947 End of illuminated tram car

1948 Ness Gardens given to Liverpool University

1948 14th March ceremony for electrification of Wirral railway line (also last day of steam trains)

1950 Britain’s first scheduled passenger helicopter service ran from Speke airport (Liverpool’s to Cardiff)

1955 May – June seaman’s strike (Liverpool and London)

1956 30 December Closure of overhead railway

1957 Cavern Club opens

1957 14th September Last trams in Liverpool

1958 7th May – visit of Queen Mother

1958 Kirkby UDC

1959 19th November – visit of Princess Margaret to Liverpool

1960 Martin’s bank, Liverpool first in country (or world?) to use a computer

1961 Runcorn Road bridge

1963 Car plant completed by Ford at Halewood

1967 Liverpool Roman Catholic Cathedral consecrated

1970 Liverpool polytechnic (formally Liverpool ‘Mechanic’s & Apprentices’ Library) (later became JMU)

1970 Britain’s first public planetarium (Liverpool Museum)

1971 Knowsley Safari Park

1972 M52, M62 motorway

1972 Kingsway Road Tunnel under Mersey opened

1973 Croxteth Park given to public by Countess of Sefton

1977 21st June consecration of Anglican Cathedral by Queen Elizabeth II

1978 Princess Anne visit

1979 Visit of Queen Elizabeth II

1981 Toxteth riots

1981 Liverpool police first to use tear gas against rioters

1982 Papal visit

1984 8th May International Garden Festival

1989 Liverpool Film Office

1989 Hillsborough disaster

1989 Pyramid Shopping Centre, Birkenhead opened

1992 Mural in James Street station – largest work of art in a British railway station

1994 17th May Royal Philharmonic plays inside Queensway tunnel to commemorate 60th anniversary of tunnel

1995 Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts opened

1996 Work begun on world’s first lung cancer research centre

1997 Conservation Centre opened in former Midland Railway goods depot (country’s only conservation centre for public art)

1997 Liverpool University offers Master of Business Administration Football Industries degree

1997 Grand National disrupted by bomb scare

1998 Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine granted Freedom of the City on it’s centenary

2001 Production of hard soap ends at Port Sunlight