A Manchester Timeline
Our timeline can show only a small part of Manchester's rich history. For a considerably expanded view of the events, large and small, which comprise the history of the city, you may find it both helpful and entertaining to refer to The Manchester Historical Recorder. This publication is available from our online shop as a PDF download. Members can access the book in our Document Collection.
Manchester Historical Recorder
The Manchester Historical Recorder is a book published around 1876 which sets out notable events in Manchester from 500BC up to the time of publication. Aside from important historical events, it records the deaths of prominent local people and gives details of boiler explosions, floods, notable visitors and the establishing of important Manchester institutions.
1500 - 1600 - 1700 - 1800 - 1900 - 2000
1422 - First stone of the Collegiate Church laid (28 Jul)
1520 - Free Grammar School founded
1573 - First register of the Collegiate Church. Records the burial of Robert Fisher (1 Aug)
1596 - Manor of Manchester purchased by Sir Nicholas Mosley (28 Mar)
1500 - 1600 - 1700 - 1800 - 1900 - 2000
1642 - Manchester besieged by Royalist troops (25 Sep)
1645 - Outbreak of a great plague. Many died
1693 - Cross Street Independent chapel founded
1500 - 1600 - 1700 - 1800 - 1900 - 2000
1712 - St. Ann's Church consecrated (17 Jul)
1745 - Prince Charles Edward Stuart arrives in Manchester (29 Nov)
1752 - First issue of The Manchester Mercury newspaper published (3 Mar)
1756 - St. Mary's Church consecrated (29 Sep)
1769 - St. John's Church consecrated (7 Jun)
1781 - Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society established
1787 - Angel Meadow Cemetery consecrated (21 Sep)
1788 - St. Michael's Church, Angel Meadow, consecrated (20 May)
1788 - St. James's Church, George Street consecrated (18 Aug)
1500 - 1600 - 1700 - 1800 - 1900 - 2000
1806 - Portico, Mosley Street opened
1810 - Thomas Henshaw died leaving £20,000 to establish an asylum for the blind (4 Mar)
1815 - Walker's Croft cemetery consecrated (1 Jan)
1819 - Peterloo massacre (16 Aug)
1821 - First issue of The Manchester Guardian published (5 May)
1821 - Rusholme Road Dissenters' Cemetery opened (16 May)
1823 - Royal Manchester Institution for the for the Promotion of Literature, Science and the Arts founded (1 Oct)
1824 - Vegetarian Society founded in Manchester
1825 - First issue of The Manchester Courier newspaper published (1 Jan)
1825 - Deaf and Dumb School, Stanley Street, Salford opened (9 Feb)
1830 - Manchester to Liverpool Railway opened (15 Sep)
1832 - James Palfreyman becomes first victim of Asiatic Cholera epidemic in Manchester (24 May)
1832 - Manchester and Salford each awarded two Members of Parliament under the Reform Act (9 Aug). Mark Phillips and Rt. Hon. C. P. Thompson elected for Manchester and Joseph Brotherton and William Garnett for Salford (13/14 Dec)
1835 - Armenian silk merchants first arrive in Manchester
1836 - Maria Malibran dies following performance at Manchester Music Festival (23 Sep)
1837 - Ardwick Cemetery opened (13 Apr)
1837 - The School for the Deaf and Dumb and Henshaws Asylum for the Blind opened at Old Trafford with a procession (21 Jun)
1837 - Manchester General Cemetery at Harpurhey opened (1 Sep)
1838 - Manchester constituted as a borough (1 Nov)
1839 - The Manchester Athenaeum, Bond Street, designed by James Barry, opened (28 Oct)
1841 - Census Day (6 Jun)
1845 - Manchester Town Council purchased the manorial rights from Sir Oswald Mosley for £200,000 (24 Jun)
1847 - Manchester becomes a diocese separate from Chester (1 Sep). James Prince Lee appointed the the first Bishop of Manchester (Oct)
1851 - Census Day (30 Mar)
1851 - Owens College opened (18 Mar) merged with Manchester Victoria University 24 Jun 1904)
1857 - Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition, Old Trafford. Possibly the largest art exhibition ever held in the world with 12,000 exhibits (5 May - 17 Oct)
1858 - Manchester Great Synagogue consecrated (11 Mar)
1861 - Census Day (7 Apr)
1866 - Philips Park Cemetery opened (Roman Catholic section, 24 Aug; Unconsecrated section,1 May 1867; Consecrated section 2 Aug 1867)
1868 - First meeting of the Trades Union Congress held at the Mechanics Institute in David Street, Manchester (2-6 Jun)
1870 - James Fraser appointed second Bishop of Manchester (25 Mar)
1871 - Census day (2 Apr)
1877 - The present Manchester Town Hall opened (13 Sep)
1878 - Newton Heath Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Football Club formed, becoming Manchester United in 1902
1879 - Southern Cemetery opened (26 Sep)
1880 - St. Mark (West Gorton) Football Club formed, becoming Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894
1881 - Census Day (3 Apr)
1886 - James Moorhouse enthroneds as third Bishop of Manchester (18 May)
1887 - Artist Laurence Stephen Lowry born (1 Nov)
1887 - Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at Salford Racecourse (14 Dec - 30 Apr 1888)
1891 - Census Day (5 Apr)
1891 - Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, second visit to Manchester (July)
1892 - Manchester Crematorium opened (2 Oct)
1500 - 1600 - 1700 - 1800 - 1900 - 2000
1903 - Edmund Arbuthnott Knox appointed as fourth Bishop of Manchester
1903 - Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at Belle Vue, Manchester. Third and final visit (15 Apr - 2 May)
1911 - Census Day (2 Apr)
1914 - War declared on Germany (28 Jul)
1918 - Armistice declared (11 Nov)
1921 - All motor vehicles required to display a vehicle excise duty (tax) disk (from 1 Jan). Abolished Oct 2014. (See also our blog - Taxing Times
1921 - William Temple appointed fifth Bishop of Manchester (15 Feb)
1921 - Education Act extended school leaving age to 14 and introduced free primary education
1921 - Austen Chamberlain appointed Leader of the House of Commons, succeeding Bonar Law. (1 Apr)
1921 - Manchester Guardian celebrates its centenary (5 May)
1921 - Defence Force established to deal with expected general strike (9 Apr) Demobilised 9 Jul. (See also our blog - Give Peace a Chance)
1921 - Coal miners begin strike (15 Apr). Not supported by rail and transport workers (Black Friday) (See also our blog - Baby it's Cold Outside)
1921 - Census Day, postponed from 24 April owing to industrial unrest (19 Jun)
1921 - Hyde War Memorial unveiled (25 Jun)
1921 - Prince of Wales visits Manchester (7 Jul)
1921 - Clayton War Memorial unveiled (21 Aug)
1921 - R38 Airship crashes due to structural failure. 45 killed, 5 survivors. (23 Aug)
1921 - Albert Einstein visits Manchester (30 Sep)
1921 - Stalybridge War Memorial inaugurated (6 Nov)
1921 - Anglo-Irish Treaty signed (6 Dec)
1922 - Empire Settlement Act enacted (29 May) See also Exodus web site
1922 - First broadcast from Manchester (Metro-Vicks, Trafford park) by BBC station 2ZY (16 Nov)
1929 - Frederic Sumpter Guy Warman aoopinted sixth Bishop of Manchester
1934 - Manchester Central Library opened by King George V (17 Jul)
1939 - Picasso's Guernica exhibited in Manchester (1 Feb)
1939 - War declared on Germany (1 Sep)
1940 - The Manchester Blitz. 684 people killed and extensive damage to the city (22-24 Dec)
1945 - End of war in Europe (2 Sep)
1947 - William Derrick Lindsay Greer appointed seventh Bishop of Manchester
1952 - HM Queen Elizabeth II becomes monarch (6 Feb)
1961 - Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut, visited Manchester (14 Jul)
1964 - Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society established
1970 - Manchester Metropolitan University created from Manchester Polytechnic
1970 - Patrick Campbell Warman appointed eighth Bishop of Manchester
1974 - Creation of Greater Manchester borough (1 Apr)
1976 - Artist Laurence Stephen Lowry died (23 Feb)
1978 - Stanley Booth-Clibborn appointed ninth Bishop of Manchester (5 Sep)
1986 - Greater Manchester borough abolished (31 Mar)
1996 - Provisional IRA bomb explodes in Corporation Street causing extensive damage, but fortunately no fatalities (15 Jun)
1997 - Christopher John Mayfield appointed tenth Bishop of Manchester
1500 - 1600 - 1700 - 1800 - 1900 - 2000
2002 -Nigel McCulloch appointed eleventh Bishop of Manchester
2002 - Urbis Museum opened (27 Jun). Closed and re-opened as the National Football Museum 6 Jul 2012
2002 - Manchester hosted Commonwealth Games (25 Jul - 4 Aug)
2004 - Manchester Victoria University and University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) merge to create University of Manchester (1 Oct)
2013 - David Stuart Walker enthroned as twelfth Bishop of Manchester (30 Nov)
2017 - Suicide bomber explodes bomb at Manchester Arena. 23 killed. (23 May)
2021 - HRH Prince Philip died aged 99 years (9 Apr)
2022 - HM Queen Elizabeth II died aged 96 years (8 Sep)
MANCHESTER & LANCASHIRE FHS was formed in 1964 and is now one of the largest family history societies in the world. Although the Society is united by a common interest in Genealogy and Family History, members also pursue interests in closely related fields.
