The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Liverpool, England.
Prior to 18th century
Year Date Event 4000 BCE The Calderstones are erected. 902 Vikings and Irish people who left Ireland and were permitted by Anglo-Saxon rulers to settle in Wirral and would make the first known settlement near what would later become Liverpool. 1089 The West Derby Hundred is recorded in the Domesday Book. 1150 Birkenhead Priory, the oldest surviving building on Merseyside and credited with establishing the Mersey Ferry. 1207 28 August Liverpool and its market is chartered by King John. 1229 Charter granted by Henry III authorizing a merchants' guild. 1237 Liverpool Castle was built. 1266 Liverpool passed into the hands of Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster. 1292 John De More becomes Lord Mayor of Liverpool. 1295 Borough sends two members to the first royal parliament. 1349 The Black Death plague hits Liverpool, killing 240 of its population of 1,000 people.1361England first used Liverpool to launch a major military intervention into Ireland, led by Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence ( the third son of king Edward III, this marked the first time the English crown staged a massive state-funded royal expedition out of Liverpool, Edward III ordered “ the whole navey of the land” to gather at the port of Liverpool the intervention led to the Statutes of Kilkenny. 1385 The Stanley family acquired the Knowsley estate. 1495 Knowsley Hall built as a residence by Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby 1565 The first official list of Liverpool ships recorded 12 vessels, the largest being the 40-ton barque Eagle.1577The earliest documented Horse racing in Liverpool area took place intermittently on the sands of Crosby Beach for about 200 years, with the final meeting at the site occurring in 1786. 1588 Humfraye Brooke, a prominent Liverpool shipowner, merchant and sea captain, who is best remembered for providing England with its crucial first warning of the Spanish Armada while outward bound on a trading voyage from Liverpool to the Canary Islands Brooke spotted the Biscayan division of the advancing Spanish fleet sailing north, recognising the imminent danger he sailed at maximum speed to Plymouth, he successfully delivered the first intelligence to Englands military commanders - including Sir Francis Drake allowing the English fleet time to prepare. 1598 Speke Hall (house) built. 1615 Tue Brook House built. 1639 Astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks is one of the first to observe a Transit of Venus. 1640 Population is 1000.1643Parliamentarian forces ( Roundhead) captured Liverpool from the Royalist (Cavalier) turning it into a key military stronghold, in the English Civil War. 1644June The Kings nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine led a brutal siege against Liverpool it took his forces days of bloody fighting to capture Liverpool Castle. 1647Liverpool was officially declared a free and independent port, free from the restrictions imposed by Chester, as the river Dee began to silt up, Chester's fortunes declined as Liverpool began to prosper, Liverpool had taken over Chester as the main port to trade with Ireland, this was short-lived after the Irish Rebellion of 1641. 1674 Town Hall rebuilt. 1648 The first cargo from Virginia of America to Liverpool arrives aboard the Friendship, a vessel of 30 tons under the command of Captain James Jenkinson. The trade focused on exchanging goods like cloth, coal and salt from Lancashire and Cheshire regions for American products such as sugar and tobacco.1660The Restoration of the English monarchy of Charles II of England in 1660 marks the start of Liverpools rapid rise as a port and ship owning centre. 1666The Antelope ship, pioneer of Liverpools global Transatlantic West Indies merchant trade, carrying local goods and returning with Sugarcane from Barbados. 1684 Richard Atherton becomes Lord Mayor of Liverpool and secures the surrender of the Liverpool Charter, which was delivered to George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, known as Judge Jeffreys, at Bewsey Old Hall in 1684. The notes on the Liverpool Charters refer to Atherton as the first modern Mayor of Liverpool.1685King's Regiment (Liverpool) founded, one of the oldest line infantry regiments of the British Army. 1690June 11William III of England departed for Ireland from Hoylake Merseyside, William gathered a massive armarda of roughly 300 ships and thousands of troops along the Wirral Peninsula, this critical journey directly set the stage for this decisive clash against the deposed Catholic James II of England at the Battle of the Boyne. 1699 1 December The Liverpool Merchant sails from Liverpool, marking the beginning of the Liverpool slave trade.
18th century Year Date Event 1700 The slave ship Blessing begins operating. Population is 5,714. 1702 Croxteth Hall (house) built. 1704 Woolton Hall (house) built. 1708 Blue Coat School founded. 1715 Opening of the world's first enclosed commercial wet dock; the Old Dock. 1717 Bluecoat Chambers built. 1718 Blue Coat hospital opens. 1720 Population is 10,446. 1722 Ranelagh Gardens opens. 1724 25 August Animal painter George Stubbs is born. 1726 Liverpool Castle demolished. "Ye Hole in Ye Wall" pub on Hackins Hey opens. John Okill shipbuilder, on Nova Scotia Docks. 1730 Black people in Liverpool is the oldest and longest established black community in UK and Europe. 1734 Financier Robert Morris is born on Dale Street.1736Allerton Hall built. 1737 Canning Dock built.1739The most intense period of Liverpool state-sanctioned Piracy known as Privateering took place between 1739-1815, during wartime Liverpool merchants heavily outfitted privateers to plunder enemy ships transforming the city into the Privateering capital of Great Britain. 1740 Jewish community established, being the first in Northern England. Stanley Street becomes the location for Liverpool's first Synagogue in 1751. 1741 , a 681-ton, 44-gun, fifth-rate frigate, is launched by shipbuilder John Okill, the first Royal Navy ship named after the city. 1742 Rathbones in business.174322 June King's Regiment (Liverpool) goes into battle in the Battle of Dettingen during the War of the Austrian Succession. 1744March France declared war on Britain Liverpool merchants armed and outfitted four privateers to raid enemy shipping. Old Noll : 22 guns 180 men was 250-ton heck boat
. Terrible: 22 guns 180 men Thurloe: 12 gun 100 men Admiral Blake 1745Williamson Square laid out 174511 May King's Regiment (Liverpool) goes into battle in the Battle of Fontenoy during the War of the Austrian Succession, the regiment participation in the era is commentated on the Monument to the King's Liverpool Regiment. 1748 John Newton's workplace and later home for sixteen years from 1748 to 1764. He later wrote "Amazing Grace". 1749 Royal Infirmary opens. 1752 Richard Chaffers starts a Liverpool porcelain business. 1753 Salthouse Dock built. 1754 Liverpool Town Hall built.1756-1763Seven Years' War, over 306 privateers Letter of marque were taken out by Liverpool merchants to plunder French and Spanish ships during the conflict. 1756 Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser begins publication. 1757 Sankey Canal opens and Henry Berry is appointed engineer. 10 June The privateer is launched. 1758 Fawcett, Preston and company, the engineering company established by George Perry with William Fawcett joining the company in 1784. Circulating library established. 10 February , 28-gun Coventry-class frigate built by Liverpool shipbuilders John Gorill and William Pownall. 11 March , 32-gun Venus-class frigate built by Liverpool shipbuilders John Okill 1759 First recorded cotton dealing in Liverpool, 28 bags of Jamaican cotton.1760 Casartelli Building built. 1761 H & C Grayson Ltd shipbuilding established in 1760, Peter Baker established shipbuilding company Baker & Co. near Salthouse Dock. 1763 Octagon Chapel, Liverpool built. Leasowe Lighthouse built, located on the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, is widely recognised as the world's oldest brick-built lighthouse, it was commissioned by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company to guide ships safely into the Port of Liverpool, William Hutchinson installed what may have been the first Parabolic reflector in a Lighthouse.1764Liverpool Dock Master William Hutchinson recorded the world's first extended tide measurements. 1766 City directory published. 1768 Politician and writer Thomas Creevey is born. 1770 Richard and George Holden to derive the first reliable publicist accessibility tide tables 1771 Bidston lighthouse built. George's Dock opens.1772Scotland Road laid out. 1773 Shipowner merchant brought commercialisation and mass production of Marsala wine to the British Empire. Duke's Dock built. Peter Baker & Co. Shipbuilding Company built the Kent, a 1,100-ton ship, which was the largest ever constructed in Liverpool at that time. 1775 Banastre Tarleton leads the British Legion in the American War of Independence, during the war Liverpool engaged as the premier prize-taking port on the British mainland, local merchants secured an estimated 1384 Letter of marque to target American, French and Spanish shipping. 1776 Robert Morris, a Liverpool native, one of the principal financiers of the American Revolution and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. 1776–1777 William Hutchinson established the world's first recorded lifeboat station on Formby beach.17778 May HMS Harpy launched by John Fisher shipyards. 1778 120 privateers were fitted out in Liverpool, carrying 1,986 guns and 8,745 men. Joseph Heap & Sons established, operating the Diamond H Shipping Line. The firm used its own fleet to import rice from India and Burma. 22 March 24-Gun Porcupine-class post ship built by Liverpool John Fisher shipyards 25 June 24-Gun Sixth-rate Sloop Porcupine-class post ship built by Peter Baker, She was captured by her Spanish prisoners in 1780 during the Anglo-Spanish War. 28 October During the Anglo-French War the privateer , owned by Peter Baker, captured the French East Indiaman . 1779 Carnatic Hall built. The Liverpool Medical Library founded, one of the oldest in the world and served as the foundation for what is now the Liverpool Medical Institution.1779-178012th Earl of Derby, who lived in Knowsley Hall just outside Liverpool, was pivotal figure in Horse racing history starting the Epsom Oaks in 1779 and Epsom Derby in 1780.178023 January HMS Nemesis, 28-gun Enterprise-class frigate of the Royal Navy built and launched by Liverpool shipyards John Smallshaw & Co after Jolly, Leathers and Barton. 1780 24 January launched by Peter Baker shipbuilding, she served during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned thirty years. 20 May 32-gun Fifth-rate Frigate built by John Fisher shipbuilding of Liverpool. 1781 12 March 10 April 50-gun Portland-class Fourth-rate Frigate built by Peter Baker shipbuilding.