The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Manchester in North West England.
Pre 1000 – Romans build a wooden fort at Mamucium in the Castlefield area. 200 – Wooden fort replaced by a stone one. A small settlement develops around the fort. 407 – Roman army leaves Britain and Roman forts and towns are abandoned. c. 870 – Nico Ditch dug.
1000–1299 1080s – Area around "Mamecester" held by Roger the Poitevin before being granted to Albert de Gresle. 1100s – Hulme Hall owned by John de Hulme. 1227 – 19 August: Charter granted for an annual fair, at Acresfield (the later St Ann's Square).
14th century 1300s (probable) – Buckton Castle built. 1301 – Manchester granted a charter from Thomas Gresley making it a baronial borough, governed by a reeve. 1315 – Manchester serves as the starting point for Adam Banastre's rebellion. 1330 – Lady Chapel (Chetham Chapel) of St Mary's Church built. 1343 – First reference to the Hanging Bridge. c. 1350 – Flemish weavers introduce the textile industry. 1368 – Salford Old Bridge built across the River Irwell connecting with Manchester.
15th century 1421 – Thomas la Warre, 5th Baron De La Warre, lord of the manor and rector of Manchester, raises St Mary's into a collegiate church. The adjacent Hanging Bridge probably also rebuilt at this time. 1465 – Nave of St Mary's Church begun.
16th century 1515 – 2 July: Manchester Grammar School endowed by Bishop Hugh Oldham, the first free grammar school in England. c. 1538 – The manor of Manchester passes from the De la Warres to the West family. 1552 – The building that becomes the Old Wellington Inn constructed.
17th century 1603 – The plague strikes Manchester. Up to a quarter of the population die. 1620 – Fustian woven in Manchester for the first time. 1637 – Silk woven in Manchester for the first time. 1639 – 24 November (Julian calendar): William Crabtree becomes one of the two first and only scientific observers of a transit of Venus, probably from his home in Broughton. 1642 – July–September: English Civil War – Royalists try to capture Manchester but fail. On 12 July in a scuffle following Lord Strange's initial attempt to seize the militia magazine for the Royalists, Richard Percival, a linen weaver, is killed, reckoned as the first casualty in the war. 1644 – May: Civil War – Prince Rupert of the Rhine and his Royalist army camp at 'Barloe More', near the fort of the River Mersey at Didsbury, en route to the Battle of Marston Moor. A year later, Parliamentary troops under William Brereton muster at the same place. 1654 – 3 September: Major-General Charles Worsley of Rusholme becomes the first Member of Parliament for Manchester in the First Protectorate Parliament. 1656 – Mid: Chetham's Hospital, founded by bequest of Sir Humphrey Chetham (d. 1653) as a school, admits its first poor children; the Chetham's Library opens in the same year as Britain's first free public library. 1687 – 18 May: First known Manchester Racecourse meeting on Kersal Moor. 1694 – 24 June: A Dissenters' Meeting House, the predecessor of Cross Street Chapel, opened by Henry Newcome.
18th century 1710s 1712 – 17 June: St Ann's Church, sponsored by Ann, Lady Bland, consecrated. 1715 – Jacobite rising of 1715: Early May: James Stuart proclaimed King James III in Manchester. 28 May–23 June: 1715 England riots by Jacobites extend to Manchester. On 10 June a mob sacks the Cross Street Chapel in Manchester, going on to destroy others in the area. November: Charles Wills assembles royal troops in Manchester to march against the Jacobites. 1719 – Publication of the first newspaper to be printed in Manchester and the first book, John Jackson's Mathematical Lectures read to the Mathematical Society in Manchester, printed by Roger Adams.
1720s 1724–1727 – Daniel Defoe's A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain published, describing Manchester as 'one of the greatest, if not really the greatest meer village in England'. 1729 – First Cotton Exchange built.
1730s 1730 – Sawyers Arms public house first licensed. 1734–1736 – Mersey and Irwell Navigation completed up to Manchester; a quay is built on the River Irwell in 1735.
1740s 1745 – 25 November: Jacobite rising of 1745: The rebel army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart enters Manchester on its march into England and a Manchester Regiment of around 300 is raised. On 8 December the forces retreat through Manchester. On both occasions the troops probably ford the River Mersey at Didsbury.
1750s 1752 – Foundation of what will become the Manchester Royal Infirmary as a cottage hospital in Garden Street, Shudehill, by surgeon Charles White, moving to Lever's Row (Piccadilly) in 1755. 1753 – The first theatre opens in Manchester. 1759 – 23 March: Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, authorised to construct the Bridgewater Canal; he appoints James Brindley as engineer.
1760s 1760 – Garratt Mill and Meredith's Factory, early cotton mills water powered by the River Medlock, built and cotton first exported from Manchester. 1761 17 July: The Bridgewater Canal opened to bring coal from the Duke of Bridgewater's Worsley Navigable Levels to Stretford. Blackfriars Street footbridge built across the River Irwell. Approximate date: Cross Street Chapel becomes a Unitarian meeting house. 1763 – Manchester Lunatic Asylum built next to the infirmary. 1765 – By 1 August: The Bridgewater Canal extended to Castlefield. The first Duke's Warehouse built here in 1771.
1770s 1772 Sir Thomas Egerton commissions James Wyatt to rebuild Heaton Hall. First directory of Manchester published, The Manchester Directory by Elizabeth Raffald. 1774/6 – St Chad's Roman Catholic chapel established in Rook Street. 1775 – 5 June: The first Theatre Royal opens in Spring Gardens. 1777 – 14 September: Manchester shaken by an earthquake powerful enough to ring the bells of several churches. 1778 – Strangeways Brewery founded by grain merchants Thomas Caister and Thomas Fry.
1780s 1781 28 February: Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester founded. "Manchester Infirmary, Lunatic Asylum and Public Baths" opens near Piccadilly as the country's first public baths. 1782 – Shudehill Mill opened as a cotton mill by Arkwright, Simpson and Whitenburgh. 1783 – First guidebook to Manchester published, A Description of Manchester by "a native of the town", James Ogden. 1785 12 May: James Sadler makes a balloon ascent from Manchester. 17 July: Fairfield Moravian Church opened in Fairfield, Droylsden. With its surrounding settlement it has been founded by Benjamin La Trobe as a centre for evangelistic work for the Moravian Church in the Manchester area. New Bailey Bridge completed across the River Irwell connecting with Salford. Borelle Dyeworks established at Blackley. 1786 Following dissolution of the Warrington Academy, the Manchester Academy opened in Mosley Street by Presbyterian Dissenters. It relocates to York between 1803 and 1840, to London in 1853 and to Oxford in 1889. History of the Jews in Manchester: About 14 Jewish families settle in Manchester. 1788 11 December: First stone of St Peter's Church, Peter Street, laid.
1790s 1790 By 1 May: Piccadilly Mill in Auburn Street in operation; owned by Peter Drinkwater, it is the first cotton mill in Manchester to be directly powered by a steam engine. An attempt to introduce power weaving at a Knott Mill factory resisted by the workers. St Mary's Hospital founded as the "Lying-in Charity" by Dr Charles White in a house in Old Bridge Street, Salford; in 1795 it becomes the Manchester Lying-in Hospital. First Jewish burial ground leased. 1792 Manchester and Salford Police Act creates Police Commissioners responsible for providing a night watch and fire engines and for maintaining, cleaning, draining and lighting (by oil) the streets within the ancient township. Workhouse opens in New Bridge Street. 1793 – 15 April: Manchester Penny Post launched, the first such service in the English provinces. 1794 6 September: St Peter's Church on Peter Street consecrated. 31 October: John Dalton delivers a pioneering paper on colour blindness (a condition which he has inherited) to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society a few weeks after joining. St Mary, Our Lady of the Assumption, Roman Catholic Church dedicated in Mulberry Street. William Green's map of Manchester published. 1795–1797 – The first of the McConnel & Kennedy Mills, a steam powered cotton mill in Ancoats, built by James M'Connel and James Kennedy. 1796 Autumn: Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal substantially completed. End: The Ashton Canal opens from Ducie Street through Ancoats. 1797 – Food riots. 1798 Old Mill, the first part of the Murrays' Mills cotton mill complex on Redhill Street, Ancoats, completed, the oldest mill in the city to survive. Nathan Mayer Rothschild moves from Frankfurt in the Holy Roman Empire to England, settling up in business as a textile trader and financier in Manchester. 1799 – Soup kitchens provided.
19th century 1800s 1800 – Ashton Canal physically connected with the Rochdale Canal at Piccadilly. 1801 – 10 March: First national census. The population of Manchester is 78,727. 1803 21 October: John Dalton's atomic theory and list of molecular weights first made known at a lecture in Manchester. Volunteer militia formed. 1804 – 21 December: Rochdale Canal opens from Dale Street throughout, the first to cross the Pennines. 1805 – Rochdale Canal extended through Deansgate Tunnel to Castlefield. 1806 The Portico Library, designed in the Greek Revival style by Thomas Harrison, opens as a subscription library and newsroom; its first secretary is Dr Peter Mark Roget. Galloway, Bowman form a partnership as millwrights. 1807 – 12 July: The second Theatre Royal opens on Fountain Street. 1808 – December: Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal physically connected by locks with the River Irwell in Salford. 1809 – : New Cotton Exchange on Market Street opens. 1808 – Regent Bridge completed across the River Irwell connecting Hulme with Regent Street, Salford.
1810s 1810 Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity formed. Derryfield renamed Manchester, New Hampshire, after its English counterpart. 1812 – Food riots in Shudehill and Deansgate. 1814 – Chorlton New Mills, a cotton mill at Chorlton-on-Medlock, established, the oldest mill of flameproof construction in Manchester to survive. 1815 – The number of cotton warehouses in Manchester's Cottonopolis reaches 1,819. 1816 Manchester gains a piped water supply. Manchester Cricket Club founded. 1817 c. 28 February: Foundation stone laid for Strangeways (toll) Bridge across the River Irwell connecting Strangeways with Greengate, Salford. 10 March: The Blanketeers set out to march to London; 160 are arrested at Stockport on 11 March. November: William Fairbairn, who moved to Manchester in 1813, sets up his own business, which becomes the Ancoats ironfoundry and engineering works of William Fairbairn & Sons. First Manchester gasworks erected by the Commissioners of Police at St Mary's Parsonage, Water Street. The world's first municipal installation to sell gas to the public; it also provides street lighting. 1818 – First Manchester Golf Club founded. 1819 – 16 August: Peterloo Massacre in St Peter's Field: a cavalry charge into a crowd of protesters results in 15 deaths and over 400 injuries.
1820s 1820 – The stone Blackfriars Street road bridge across the River Irwell replaces a footbridge. 1821 – 5 May: The Manchester Guardian newspaper founded by John Edward Taylor and fellow members of the Portico Library and Little Circle. 1822 – Chios massacre and Greek War of Independence lead to establishment of a refugee Greek community in Manchester. 1823 1 October: Royal Manchester Institution established. School for the deaf and dumb established in Stanley Street.