Timeline of Influence
1756
1759
Value of the ‘toy trade’ in Birmingham was put at £600,000 (5/6ths exported) with 20,000 people working in the industry
1760
Benjamin Franklin and Matthew Boulton conducted experiments on electricity and sound
1761
1763
1765
Founding of the Birmingham Bank – the ancestor of Lloyds Bank, today
1765
Soho Manufactory on Handsworth heath is completed and becomes Birmingham’s main tourist attraction
1766
1768
Captain James Cook embarks on his first round-the-world voyage
1772
1773
The Birmingham Assay Office opens for the first time
1779
The Birmingham Library is established
1780
Joseph Priestley arrives in Birmingham
1782
Richard Lovell Edgeworth returned to Ireland
1789
Outbreak of the French Revolution
1791
The Priestley Riots in Birmingham
1802
1802 – 1809
The decline and eventual demise of the original Lunar Society
1824
John Cadbury opened his shop on Bull Street
1852
Snow Hill railway station is opened as Livery Street Station
1863
Soho Manufactory is demolished
1873
Joseph Chamberlain becomes Mayor of Birmingham
1875
Riots on Navigation Street leads to 12 arrests and the murder of a police constab
1879
Birmingham Council House is completed and opened
1900
The University of Birmingham, Birmingham’s first university, is established
1901
Queen Victoria died
1914
Outbreak of World War I
1939
Outbreak of World War II
1943
Birmingham is bombed by German aircraft
1964
The Bull Ring Shopping Centre opens
1973
A redesigned Birmingham Central Library is opened
1974
Creation of the West Midlands County, resulting in Birmingham becoming a metropolitan borough, no longer in Warwickshire
1975
Birmingham Central Mosque is officially opened, becoming the largest mosque in Western Europe
2001
2002
Millennium Point is opened by Queen Elizabeth II
2003
The new Bullring shopping centre opens
2005
A tornado causes approx. 30 injuries, and around £40 million damage
2007
The refurbishment of Baskerville House completed
2010
The new Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham opens
2013
A redesigned Birmingham Central Library is opened
2015
A refurbished New Street Station with Grand Central Shopping Centre opens