This is a timeline of sport in Greater Manchester, a ceremonial county in northwestern England.
19th Century 1810s 1816 Manchester Cricket Club is founded
1840s 1842 First use of referee in football. For a match in Rochdale, between the Bodyguards club and the Fearnaught club
1850s 1857 Old Trafford Cricket Ground is opened in Old Trafford, Manchester as the home of Manchester Cricket Club
1860s 1864 Lancashire County Cricket Club is formally constituted at a meeting of thirteen Lancashire cricket clubs in Manchester, with Old Trafford Cricket Ground as its home base 1865 Lancashire County Cricket Club joins the County Championship and plays its initial important match against Middlesex at Old Trafford
1870s 1874 Bolton Wanderers F.C. is formed 1878 Newton Heath LYR Football Club is formed by the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath, Manchester (later known as Manchester United F.C.)
1880s 1880 St Mark's (West Gorton) football club is formed in Manchester 1883 Heaton Norris Rovers is formed (later to become Stockport County F.C.) 1884 10–12 July – Old Trafford Cricket Ground hosts the first Ashes Test in England, which ends in a draw 1885 Bury F.C. is established
1890s 1890 Heaton Norris Rovers are renamed Stockport County F.C. 1893 Manchester Football League is founded 1894 31 March – Notts County F.C. defeat Bolton Wanderers 4–1 in the 1894 FA Cup Final St Mark's (West Gorton) football club and Aldwick Association FC are renamed Manchester City F.C. 1895 Bury F.C. win the Second Division Pine Villa F.C. is founded (later to become Oldham Athletic A.F.C.) 1899 Pine Villa F.C are renamed Oldham Athletic A.F.C.
20th Century 1900s 1900 21 April – Bury F.C. defeat Southampton F.C. 4–0 in the 1900 FA Cup Final 1902 J.H. Davies takes over near bankrupt Newton Heath (L&YR) F.C. and changes its name to Manchester United F.C. 1903 18 April – Bury F.C. defeat Derby County F.C. 6–0 in the 1903 FA Cup Final 1904 23 April – Manchester City F.C. defeat Bolton Wanderers F.C. 1–0 in the 1904 FA Cup Final, to win their first FA Cup 1907 Rochdale A.F.C is founded 1908 Manchester United F.C. win their first league (First Division) title 1909 24 April – Manchester United defeat Bristol City F.C. 1–0 in the 1909 FA Cup Final, to win their first FA Cup Manchester United win the inaugural Charity Shield
1920s 1923 28 April Bolton Wanderers defeat West Ham United F.C. 2–0 in the 1923 FA Cup Final, the first final to be held at Wembley, known as the White Horse Final Manchester City move to Maine Road 1926 24 April – Bolton Wanderers defeat Manchester City 1–0 in the 1926 FA Cup Final Belle Vue Stadium is opened as a greyhound racing track in Belle Vue, Manchester. It has also been used for motorcycle speedway, as the home ground of Elite League team Belle Vue Aces from 1988 until 2015, and from 1999 until 2019 for stock car racing and banger racing 1928 White City Speedway (Manchester) is opened for dirt track racing 1929 27 April – Bolton Wanderers defeat Portsmouth F.C. 2–0 in the 1929 FA Cup Final, to win the FA Cup for the third time
1930s 1930 White City Speedway (Manchester) is closed 1932 Wigan Athletic F.C. is formed 1933 29 April – Everton F.C. defeat Manchester City 3–0 in the 1933 FA Cup Final 1934 28 April – Manchester City defeat Portsmouth F.C. 2–1 in the 1934 FA Cup Final 84,569 watch Manchester City defeat Stoke City at Maine Road in the FA Cup 6th Round, the biggest crowd ever recorded for an English game outside of Wembley Stadium 1937 Manchester City win their first-ever league title 1938 Manchester City become the first and only defending Champions to be relegated
1940s 1948 17 January – 83,260 watch Manchester United vs Arsenal at Maine Road, to become the highest attendance at an English league game 24 April – Manchester United defeat Blackpool F.C. 4–2 in the 1948 FA Cup Final, to end a 37-year trophy drought 1949 24 May – Radcliffe F.C. is founded
1950s 1952 Manchester United win their first top-flight title in 41 years under the guidance of Matt Busby 1953 2 May – Blackpool F.C. defeat Bolton Wanderers 4–3 in the 1953 FA Cup Final, which is still known as the 'Matthews Final' 1955 7 May – Newcastle United F.C. defeat Manchester City 3–1 in the 1955 FA Cup Final Duncan Edwards, 18-year-old Manchester United wing-half, becomes England's youngest international when he plays in a side containing 40-year-old Stanley Matthews, who had played for England before Edwards was born 1956 5 May – Manchester City defeat Birmingham City F.C. 3–1 in the 1956 FA Cup Final. German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann plays through the match despite suffering what an X-ray later confirms as a broken neck, and was able to continue his career Manchester United win the league championship, becoming England's first representatives in the European Cup, in the competition's second season, as the previous league champions Chelsea were blocked from entering the inaugural tournament by the Football Association 1957 4 May – Aston Villa F.C. defeat Manchester United 2–1 in the 1957 FA Cup Final Manchester United win the league title for the second year running 1958 6 February – In an incident known as the Munich air disaster, eight Manchester United players die and two more have their careers ended by injury after a plane crash at Munich-Riem Airport. Manager Matt Busby is badly injured and spends two months in hospital recovering from multiple injuries 3 May – Bolton Wanderers defeat Manchester United 2–0 in the 1958 FA Cup Final Former Manchester United and Manchester City winger Billy Meredith dies aged 83
1960s 1960 Oldham Athletic, league runners-up 45 years earlier, finish second from bottom in the Fourth Division but retain their league status after the Football League's members vote for Gateshead to go down and Midland League champions Peterborough United to go up for the 1960–61 season 1961 Manchester City sell 21-year-old Scottish striker Denis Law to Torino of Italy in the first £100,000 deal involving a British club 1962 26 April – Norwich City F.C. defeat Rochdale A.F.C 3–0 in the 1962 Football League Cup Final (first leg) 1 May – Norwich City F.C. defeat Rochdale A.F.C 1–0 in the 1962 Football League Cup Final (second leg) 1963 25 May – Manchester United defeat Leicester City F.C. 3–1 in the 1963 FA Cup Final, winning the FA Cup for the first time in 15 years and their first major trophy since the Munich air disaster five years earlier Curzon Ashton F.C. is founded in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester 1965 Manchester United win their first league title since the Munich air disaster Eric Brook, all-time record goalscorer for Manchester City, dies at the age of 57 1966 Manchester United's Bobby Charlton is voted European Footballer of the Year Ramsbottom United F.C. is founded 1967 Manchester United win the league championship – their fifth under Matt Busby and their seventh of all time, and last for the next 26 years, until the formation of the Premier League Goalkeeper Harry Gregg leaves Manchester United after 10 years during which he established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the English game, but with no medals to show for it: he had missed the 1963 FA Cup final due to injury and had not played enough games to qualify for a medal when United won the league in 1965 and 1967 1968 29 May – Manchester United defeat S.L. Benfica 4–1 in 1968 European Cup Final Manchester City wins the league championship for only the second time in their history George Best, 22, is voted European Footballer of the Year after a brilliant season which was rounded off by scoring a goal in the European Cup final Matt Busby is knighted after guiding Manchester United to the European Cup title 1969 26 April – Manchester City defeat Leicester City F.C. 1–0 in the 1969 FA Cup Final Sir Matt Busby retires after 24 years as manager of Manchester United and is replaced by 32-year-old reserve team coach Wilf McGuinness
1970s 1970 7 March – Manchester City defeat West Bromwich Albion F.C. 2–1 in the 1970 Football League Cup Final 29 April – Manchester City defeat Górnik Zabrze 2-1 in the 1970 European Cup Winners' Cup Final Wilf McGuinness is sacked after 18 months in charge of Manchester United. Sir Matt Busby takes control of first-team affairs until the end of the season 1971 1 July – Manchester United appoint Leicester City F.C.'s Frank O'Farrell as their permanent successor to Wilf McGuinness 1972 December – Manchester United sack manager Frank O'Farrell and replace him with Scottish national coach Tommy Docherty 1973 28 April – Scarborough F.C. defeat Wigan Athletic 2-1 in the 1973 FA Trophy Final Bobby Charlton and Denis Law both leave Manchester United after long and illustrious careers 1974 2 March – Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. defeat Manchester City 2–1 in the 1974 Football League Cup Final George Best finally leaves Manchester United after three years of uncertainty fuelled by off-the-field problems. He joins Stockport County Manchester United are relegated to the Second Division for the first time since the 1930s. Their fate is ironically sealed when former player Denis Law scores the winning goal for Manchester City at Old Trafford with his final touch in league football, but Birmingham City's victory would have condemned them to relegation regardless of the outcome of United's game 1975 Manchester United are promoted back to the First Division one season after losing their top-flight status 1976 28 February – Manchester City defeat Newcastle United F.C. 2–1 in the 1976 Football League Cup Final 1 May – Southampton F.C. defeat Manchester United 1–0 in the 1976 FA Cup Final 1977 21 May – Manchester United defeat Liverpool F.C. 2–1 in the 1977 FA Cup Final 7–12 July – In the Second Test of the 1977 Ashes series at Old Trafford Cricket Ground England defeat Australia by 9 wickets July – Tommy Docherty is sacked as manager of Manchester United just weeks after guiding them to FA Cup victory. He is replaced by Dave Sexton 1978 Wigan Athletic are elected to the Football League in place of Southport 1979 12 May – Arsenal F.C. defeat Manchester United 3–2 in the 1979 FA Cup Final
1980s 1980 Manchester United chairman Louis Edwards, 65, dies of a heart attack weeks after being accused of financial irregularities by ITV. Control of the club passes to his son Martin 1981 9 May – Manchester City draw 1–1 with Tottenham Hotspur F.C. in the 1981 FA Cup Final 14 May – Tottenham Hotspur defeat Manchester City 3–2 in the 1981 FA Cup Final replay 13–17 August – In the Fifth Test of the 1981 Ashes series at Old Trafford Cricket Ground England defeat Australia by 103 runs Ron Atkinson replaces Dave Sexton as manager of Manchester United. Three months after his appointment, West Bromwich Albion midfielder, Bryan Robson, follows his old manager to Old Trafford for an English record fee of £1.75 million 1983 26 March – Liverpool F.C. defeat Manchester United 2–1 in the 1983 Football League Cup Final 21 May – Manchester United draw 2–2 with Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. in the 1983 FA Cup Final 26 May – Manchester United defeat Brighton and Hove Albion 4–0 in the 1983 FA Cup Final replay, to win their first major trophy under the management of Ron Atkinson Sharp Electronics become the first official sponsors of Manchester United Manchester United and England winger Steve Coppell retires from playing at the age of 28 due to a knee injury 1984 Manchester United sell England midfielder Ray Wilkins to A.C. Milan for £1.5 million and replace him with Scotland and Aberdeen's Gordon Strachan for £500,000 1985 18 May – Manchester United defeat Everton F.C. 1–0 in the 1985 FA Cup Final 1 June – Wigan Athletic defeat Brentford F.C. 3–1 in the 1985 Associate Members' Cup Final