Timeline of Influence

1700

1756

Outbreak of Seven Years’ War

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

Matthew Boulton acquires a five-year lease on Soho Mill

1763

Launch of Wedgwood’s cream-coloured tableware

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

Matthew Boulton moves into Soho House due to the completion of Soho Manufactory. The early days of the Lunar Society.

1768

Captain James Cook embarks on his first round-the-world voyage

1772

The Birmingham Canal is opened

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

1800

1802

Soho Manufactory’s lighting system is displayed to the public. The first factory to be lit by gas

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

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

Water Hall art gallery opens

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