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The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Bristol, England.
- 803 – St James' Priory founded.[1]
- ca.1000 – A Saxon settlement began to grow up at the junction of the rivers Frome and Avon.[2]
- 1009 – Market active.[3]
- 12th C. – College Green created.[2]
- 1129 – St James' Priory founded.[2]
- 1140 – St Augustine's Abbey founded.[1]
- 1141 – February: Stephen, King of England imprisoned in Bristol Castle after the Battle of Lincoln.
- 1147 – Bristol fair active.[3]
- 1172 - Charter from Henry II.[2]
- 13th C. – Society of Merchant Venturers formed.
- c.1220 – Bristol Cathedral construction begins.
- c.1223 – Grey friary founded.[1]
- 1224 - Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany imprisoned in Bristol Castle under relatively comfortable conditions, almost to her death in 1241.
- c.1228 – Blackfriars Dominican priory established.
- 1290 – Jews expelled.[4]
- 1292 – Church of St Mary Redcliffe built.[5]
- 1295 – Parliamentary representation begins.
- 1373 – Bristol becomes a county corporate;[5] Redcliffe becomes part of Bristol.[2]
- 1470 – St Stephen's Church rebuilt.[2]
- c.1478–1479 – Ricart's Maiores Kalendar of Bristol started.[6]
- 1497 – May: Italian-born adventurer John Cabot sets sail on the ship Matthew (principally owned by Richard Amerike) looking for new lands to the west.[7]
- 1498 – May: Cabot sets sail on his second voyage to the Americas; he is never heard of again.[8]
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- 1504 – Chapel of the Three Kings of Cologne built.[2]
- 1542 – See of Bristol established.[2]
- 1552 – Society of Merchant Venturers chartered.
- 1580 – Red Lodge Museum established.
- 1595 – Merchant Venturers' School founded.
- 17th C. – The trade in African slaves flourishes.[2]
- 1643 – July: Bristol in the English Civil War: Bristol taken by forces of Prince Rupert.[5]
- 1644 – Fort at St. Michael's Hill rebuilt.[9]
- 1645 – September: Bristol taken by forces of Cromwell.[5]
- 1656 – Bristol Castle demolished.[10]
- c. 1670 – King William Ale House built as a refuge for poor women.
- 1691
- Bristol Corporation of the Poor founded.[9]
- Almshouse established at St. Michael's Hill.[9]
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- 1701 – Merchants' hall built.[1]
- 1702 – Bristol Post-Boy newspaper begins publication.
- 1710 – Colston's Hospital founded.[5]
- 1708 – Unrest.
- 1709 – St James's Square laid out.[11]
- 1712 – Custom House built.[11]
- 1717 – William Cossley bookseller in business.[12]
- 1725 – Farley's Bristol News-Paper begins publication.[13]
- 1727 – Dowry Square laid out.[11]
- 1729 – Walter Churchman patents his invention for making chocolate.[14]
- 1737 – Bristol Royal Infirmary opens.
- 1738 – William Champion patents a process to distill zinc from calamine using charcoal in a smelter.
- 1739 – New Room (Methodist chapel) built.
- 1740 – Merchant Tailors' Guild Hall built.
- 1741 – King Square laid out.[11]
- 1743 – The Exchange built.[1]
- 1747 – Bristol becomes Britain's busiest slave trading port.[15]
- 1753 – Economic unrest.[5]
- c.1759 – Joseph Fry begins chocolate manufacture.
- 1766 – Theatre opens.[1]
- 1767 – Bristol Gazette newspaper begins publication.[16]
- 1768 – Bristol Bridge built.[1]
- 1769 – St Nicholas Church rebuilt.[2]
- 1770 – Bristol porcelain manufacture begins;[17][18] Bristol blue glass is also first produced at about this date.
- 1773 – Bristol Library Society founded.[19]
- 1779 – Stapleton Prison built to hold naval prisoners of war captured during the American Revolutionary War.
- 1786
- Infirmary opens.[1]
- Wills, Watkins & Co. open a tobacconists' shop which becomes W.D. & H.O. Wills.
- 1788 – John Wesley gives speech against slavery.[15]
- c.1790 – Berkeley Square laid out.
- 1791 – Christ Church with St Ewen and Equestrian Theatre[20] built.
- 1793 – 30 September: Bridge riot.
- 1793–1813 – Stapleton prison used for French prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars.[21]
- 1796 – John Harvey & Sons, importers of Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry, founded.[22]
- 1799 – Pneumatic Institution established.
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- 1803 – Bristol Dock Company incorporated.[2]
- 1804 – Stapleton prison enlarged.
- 1809 – Bristol Harbour formed.[2]
- 1810 – Commercial Rooms built.[1]
- 1821
- 13 April: John Horwood hanged at the New Gaol for the murder of Eliza Balsom.[23]
- 28 May: Population enumerated as 52,889.[1]
- 1823
- Chamber of Commerce founded.[2]
- Bristol Institution opens.[24]
- Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery established.
- 1830 – New cattle market opens.
- 1830s – Clifton becomes part of city.[25]
- 1831 – October: Queen Square riots[15] – 4 rioters killed and 86 injured by cavalry charge in Queen Square.
- 1832
- 4 Queen Square rioters charged and hanged.
- Bristol Mechanics' Institution building opens.[24]
- Holy Trinity Church built.
- 1836 – Zoological Gardens open.[26]
- 1837 – Passage to St Vincent's Cave opens.[27]
- 1838 – 8 April: Paddle steamer SS Great Western (launched 1837) begins her first voyage to the United States.[28]
- 1840
- 31 August: Bath–Bristol section of Great Western Railway begins operating and Bristol Temple Meads railway station opens.[2]
- Bristol and Clifton Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society instituted.[29]
- 1841
- 14 June: First section of Bristol and Exeter Railway opens to Bridgwater.
- 30 June: Great Western Railway opens throughout between London and Bristol;[5] Bristol Temple Meads railway station substantially complete.
- 1842
- Synagogue opens in Park Row.[4]
- Buckingham Baptist Chapel built.
- 1843 – 19 July: Iron steamship SS Great Britain launched.
- 1844 – Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts founded.
- 1847 – Horfield Barracks completed.[30]
- 1850
- Bristol, West of England and South Wales Permanent Building Society formed.
- Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Apostles (Roman Catholic) consecrated.
- Clifton Victoria Baths opened.
- 1858
- Western Daily Press newspaper begins publication.[16]
- Bristol General Hospital opens.[2]
- 1861 – Durdham Down and Clifton Down rights acquired.
- 1862
- Bristol Naturalists' Society established.
- Clifton College opens.[2]
- 1864
- Clifton Suspension Bridge opens.[5][2]
- Avonside Engine Company in business.
- 1865
- 1867 – Bristol Beacon concert hall opens as Colston Hall.[2]
- 1870 – Gloucestershire County Cricket Club formed.
- 1871 – Bristol Museum and Library established.[32]
- 1872 – Bristol Harbour Railway opened.[33]
- 1873 – Bristol Trades Council founded.[34]
- 1875 – Bristol Tramways (horse-drawn) begin operation.
- 1876
- University College, Bristol opens.[5]
- The Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society founded.
- 1877 – Avonmouth dock opens.[5]
- 1884 – Clifton Antiquarian Club founded.
- 1887
- 1 October: Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company formed by merger of the Bristol Tramways Company and the Bristol Cab Company[35][36] and begins a horse-bus service to Clifton.[37]
- Bristol Camera Society established.[31]
- Bristol Home for Lost and Starving Dogs opens.[38]
- 1889
- Labour strike.[5]
- Bristol Choral Society founded.
- March: Flood.[5]
- 1892 – Labour strike.[5]
- 1893 – Brazil, Straker & Co (motor vehicle manufacturers) in business.
- 1895 – Bristol Tramways begin operating with electric traction.
- 1898 – Cabot Tower built on Brandon Hill.[5]
- 1899 – The chief magistrate becomes a lord mayor.[2]
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- 1901
- 1904
- Shirehampton becomes part of city.
- Area of city: 17,004 acres.[2]
- 1905 – Bristol Kyrle Society founded.[40]
- 1906
- January: Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company introduces its first motor buses.
- 4 October: Great Western Railway opens Bristol Harbour Extension Railway and Canon's Marsh goods branch.[33]
- Bristol Central Library opened.[2]
- 1908 – Royal Edward Dock opens at Avonmouth.[2]
- 1909 – University of Bristol receives royal charter.
- 1910 – British and Colonial Aeroplane Company in business.[41]
- 1912 – Bristol Hippodrome opens.
- 1914 – 29 June: International Exhibition opens at the "White City", Ashton Gate, becoming a military depot soon after the outbreak of war.[42]
- 1916
- August: First tanks shipped to France from Avonmouth.
- 9 September: Bristol F.2 Fighter aircraft first flies.
- 1926 – Hanham Colliery closes.
- 1929 – Bristol Record Society founded.
- 1930 – Whitchurch Airport begins operating.
- 1932
- 23 February: Old Market riot.
- 7 March: Bristol Evening Post newspaper begins publication.[16]
- 1933
- 1934 – 18 September: BBC Bristol Studios open.
- 1938 – Ritz Cinema opens.[43]
- 1940 – 2 November: Bristol Blitz (aerial bombing by German forces) begins.
- 1941 – 11 April: Bristol Tramways abandoned due to bomb damage to its electric power supply.
- 1944 – 15 May: Bristol Blitz ends.
- 1945 – Bristol Cars in business.
- 1946 – Bristol Old Vic theatre company and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School established.
- 1956 – 17 April: Chew Valley Lake (1,200 acres (4.9 km2)) in Somerset is inaugurated as a reservoir for the Bristol area by the Queen.
- 1957 – Bristol Airport opens.
- 1958 – Bristol bus station opens.
- 1959 – Bristol Siddeley aero engine manufacturer in business.
- 1963 – 30 April: Bristol Bus Boycott.
- 1968 – World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association headquartered in city.
- 1969 – 9 April: British prototype Concorde airliner first flies from Filton.
- 1970
- 5 July: SS Great Britain returns to Bristol.
- 4 September: BBC Radio Bristol begins broadcasting.
- Purdown BT Tower, for telecommunications and a radio repeater, is built.[44]
- Bristol Polytechnic established from Merchant Venturers Technical College.
- 1972 – 1 May: Bristol Parkway railway station opens.
- 1973 – 29 June: Clifton Cathedral (Roman Catholic) consecrated.
- 1974
- 1 April: Bristol becomes part of the county of Avon
- May: Avonmouth Bridge opens in Shirehampton.
- c. July: Ashton Court Festival begins.
- 1977 – Gay Pride begins.[45]
- 1978
- Royal Portbury Dock opens.
- Castle Park laid out.
- Bristol Gay Centre founded.[45]
- 1980 – 2 April: St. Pauls riot.
- 1984
- 1 May: Old Profanity Showboat opens.
- Bristol Community Church organised.
- 1986 – Show of Strength Theatre Company formed.
- 1991 – 27 January: Following its purchase by the Chiltern Radio Group, Bristol station FTP is replaced by Galaxy Radio.
- 1992
- 16 July: Hartcliffe riot.
- University of the West of England granted university status.
- 1996
- 1 April: County of Avon abolished; Bristol once again becomes both a city and a county.
- 24–27 May: First International Festival of the Sea held in and around the Harbour; replica 15th-century ship Matthew dedicated.
- 19 July: MoD Abbey Wood opened at Filton.[46]
- City of Bristol College established by merger of Brunel College and South Bristol College.
- 1998 – Tobacco Factory Theatre established.
- 2000 – Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory theatre company founded.
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- 2001 – Bristol Royal Hospital for Children building opens.
- 2003 – Plain Clothes Theatre Productions formed.
- 2004 – Bristol Shakespeare Festival begins.
- 2006 – Redland Green School built.
- 2007 – 26–27 May: Dot to Dot Festival first held in Bristol.
- 2009 – The Bottle Yard Studios open as a television and film production facility.
- 2010 – Brunel Institute opens.[47]
- 2011
- 21 April: Stokes Croft riot, including an attack on a locally controversial newly opened Tesco store.
- Bristol becomes a "city of sanctuary" for refugees.[48]
- 2012 – 19 November: Architect George Ferguson takes office as the first elected Mayor of Bristol.[49]
- 2020
- 10 February: Councillors reject a proposed expansion of Bristol Airport, by 18 votes to seven, on the grounds that it would exacerbate climate change, damage the health of local people, and harm flora and fauna.[50]
- 7 June: The 1895 statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century merchant, slave trader, MP and philanthropist, is pulled down by anti-racism protesters.[51]
- 2 December: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: Bristol enters Tier 3, the strictest level of restriction.[52]
- 3 December: An explosion at a waste water treatment works in Avonmouth kills 4.[53]
- 2022 – 4 September: Bristol Zoo closes at its Clifton site.[54]
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- History of Bristol
- Timelines of other cities in South West England: Bath, Exeter, Plymouth
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