The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Łódź, Poland.
Prior to 19th century
1332 - Łódź mentioned as the village Łodzia in a document of Duke Władysław the Hunchback of the Polish Piast dynasty 1423 - Łódź granted city rights by Polish King Władysław II Jagiełło 1487 - Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon visited Łódź. 1496 - Polish King John I Albert confirmed the establishment of two annual fairs and a weekly market in Łódź. 1793 City annexed by Prussia in the Second Partition of Poland and included within the newly formed province of South Prussia. Population: 190.
19th century
1806 - Town joins the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw. 1815 - Town becomes part of Russian client state Congress Poland per Congress of Vienna. 1820 - Antoni Czarkowski becomes mayor. 1824 - Lodka settlement developed. 1827 - K.F. Wendisch factory in business. 1828 - Slazaki settlement developed. 1829 - Population: 4,273. 1837 - Ludwig Geyer factory in business. 1839 - White Factory built. 1852 - Industrialist Karl Scheibler in business. 1860 - Population: 31,500. 1861 - Stara Synagogue built. 1863 31 January: A Polish insurgent unit entered the city without a fight in the first days of the January Uprising, and seized weapons and 18,000 rubles for the uprising. 18 June: Clash between Polish insurgents and Russian troops.Zieliński, p. 35 29 September: Clash between Polish insurgents and Russian troops.Zieliński, p. 47 Lodzer Zeitung bilingual Polish-German newspaper begins publication. 1866 - Koluszki-Łódź railway begins operating. 1867 Congress Poland forcibly integrated with of the Russian Empire. Sudden death of Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge before his scheduled performance at a local theater. 1868 - Łódź Fabryczna railway station built. 1870 - Studio Theatre opened. 1872 - Moscow-Łódź railway begins operating. 1878 - Manufaktura textile mill built. 1881 Great Synagogue built. Population: 49,592. 1884 - Alexander Nevsky Cathedral built. 1888 - Karl Scheibler's Chapel built. 1892 - Izrael Poznański factory built. 1897 - Population: 314,780. 1899 First cinema in Poland (Gabinet Iluzji) founded by brothers Władysław and Antoni Krzemiński. Hazomir Choral Society founded. 1900 - Population: 351,570.
20th century 1900s–1930s
1901 - Krzemiński cinema active. 1902 - Łódź Kaliska railway station built. 1904 - Ezras Israel Synagogue built. 1905 - 21–25 June: Łódź insurrection. 1908 - ŁKS Łódź football club (later multi-section club) founded. 1910 - Widzew Łódź football club formed. 1914 11 November: Battle of Łódź begins near city. December: Germans in power. 1915 - becomes part of city. 1918 - Poland regains independence and the city becomes again part of Poland. 1920 - Catholic Diocese of Łódź established.
1922 - City becomes capital of Łódź Voivodeship (province). 1925 - Łódź Airport opens. 1928 - Osiedle Montwiłła-Mireckiego luxury neighborhood founded. 1930 Stadion Widzewa (stadium) opens. Municipal Museum of History and Art inaugurated. December: Monument of Polish national hero Tadeusz Kościuszko unveiled at Plac Wolności in the city center. 1931 January: Museum of Ethnography established. ŁKS Łódź wins its first Polish men's volleyball championship. 1937 - HKS Łódź wins its first Polish women's volleyball championship.
World War II (1939–1945)
1939 2 September: Germany carried out first air raids, bombing the airport and the Łódź Kaliska train station. 3 September: Further air raids carried out by Germany. The Germans bombed a railway station in the Widzew district, a power plant, a gas plant, a thread factory and many houses. 5 September: The Germans air raided the airport again. 6 September: The Germans air raided a historic palace which housed the command of the Polish Łódź Army. 6 September: the Citizens' Committee of the City of Łódź established. 6–8 September: Battle of Łódź during the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II. 9 September: German troops entered the city, beginning of the German occupation. 11 September: The Germans issued the first occupation decrees. 12 September: The German Einsatzgruppe III entered the city to commit various crimes against the population. 12–15 September: The Germans carried out searches of local county offices and Polish police buildings. 16 September: Local administration took over by a German official, D. Leiste from Rhineland. 21 September: The Germans carried out mass searches in the present-day district of Chojny. September: The Germans carried out first arrests of Poles as part of the Intelligenzaktion and established first prisons for arrested Poles.Wardzyńska, p. 203 12 October – 4 November: City becomes seat of Nazi German General Government of occupied Poland. 31 October: A German transit camp for Poles arrested in the Intelligenzaktion established in the present-day district of Ruda Pabianicka. November: Radogoszcz concentration camp established by the Germans. Its prisoners were mostly people from Łódź, Pabianice and other nearby settlements. 9 November: City annexed directly into Nazi Germany; the Germans destroyed the monument of Polish national hero Tadeusz Kościuszko. 9 November: First prisoners detained in the Radogoszcz concentration camp. November: Hundreds of Poles from Łódź and the region massacred by the Germans in the forest in the present-day district of Łagiewniki as part of the Intelligenzaktion.Wardzyńska, p. 204 City renamed "Litzmannstadt" to erase traces of Polish origin. 11 December: The Germans massacred 70 Polish prisoners of the Radogoszcz camp in Łagiewniki. 13 December: The Germans massacred 40 Polish prisoners of the Radogoszcz camp in Łagiewniki. December: 65 prisoners from the transit camp in Pabianice deported to the Radogoszcz concentration camp and then massacred in Łagiewniki. 31 December: First expulsions of Poles from Osiedle Montwiłła-Mireckiego carried out.Abramowicz, p. 30 Hundreds of Poles from Łódź massacred by the Germans in the nearby village of Lućmierz-Las.Wardzyńska, p. 205
1940 14–15 January: German police and Selbstschutz carried out mass expulsions of Poles from Osiedle Montwiłła-Mireckiego.Abramowicz, p. 32 February: More prisoners from the liquidated transit camp in Pabianice imprisoned in the Radogoszcz camp; Radogoszcz camp converted into the Radogoszcz prison. February: Łódź Ghetto formed. Hundreds of Poles from Łódź massacred by the Germans in the nearby village of Lućmierz-Las. March: 11 Polish boy scouts from Łódź massacred by the Germans in the Okręglik forest near Zgierz. April–May: The Russians committed the large Katyn massacre, among the victims of which were over 1,200 Poles, who either were born or lived in Łódź or the region before the war. 1941 March: German transit prisoner-of-war camp Dulag 240 established. June: German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft II relocated from Barth to the present-day district of Ruda Pabianicka. July: Dulag 240 camp relocated to Jabłonna. November: 5,007 Romani people deported by the Germans from German-occupied Burgenland to Łódź and imprisoned in a new German camp.
1942 January: The Germans dissolved the camp for Romani people and exterminated its prisoners in the Chełmno extermination camp. 9 October: Two prisoners of war escaped from the Stalag Luft II in the only known case of a successful escape from the camp. German concentration camp for kidnapped Polish children of 2 to 16 years of age established in the city. It was nicknamed "little Auschwitz" due to its conditions. 1943 April: Subcamp of the Stalag XXI-D POW camp established. The Germans established a forced labour camp for around 800 English prisoners of war in the Olechów neighbourhood. 1944 August: Łódź Ghetto liquidated. September: Most POWs transported from Stalag Luft II to the Stalag Luft III camp in Żagań. 21 November: Stalag Luft II POW camp liquidated. 1945 German concentration camp for kidnapped Polish children disestablished. 17 January: City taken by the Soviet Army and afterwards restored to Poland.
1945–2000
1945 Łódź University of Technology, University of Łódź and Public Academy of Arts established. Dziennik Łodzki newspaper begins publication.
1946 - Retkinia included within city limits. 1947 - Animation studio Se-ma-for founded in Łódź. 1948 - National Film School in Łódź established. 1950 - Medical Academy of Łódź established. 1953 - ŁKS Łódź wins its first Polish men's basketball championship. 1957 - Russkiĭ Golos newspaper begins publication. 1958 Łódź Heat Power Stations commissioned. ŁKS Łódź wins its first Polish football championship. 1960 - Central Museum of Textiles established.
1967 ŁKS Łódź wins its first Polish women's basketball championship. Grand Theatre opens. 1968 Ballet festival begins. Start Łódź wins its first Polish women's volleyball championship. 1973 - National choreographic competition begins. 1974 - Population: 784,000. 1975 Stadion ŁKS (stadium) built. Museum of the City of Łódź active. 1978 - Monument of writer Władysław Reymont unveiled. 1981 April: Łódź co-hosts the 1981 European Wrestling Championships. Widzew Łódź wins its first Polish football championship. Protest against food shortage. 1983 Anilana Łódź wins its first Polish men's handball championship. ŁKS Łódź wins its first Polish women's volleyball championship. Budowlani Łódź wins its first Polish rugby championship. 1984 - Monument of Stanisław Staszic unveiled in the Staszic Park in the city center. 1991 - 2 October: Visit of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. 1992 - Roman Catholic Diocese of Łódź promoted to archdiocese. 1996 - KP Łódź beach soccer team founded. 1998 - Higher School of Art and Design established. 2000 - Monument of Pope John Paul II unveiled at the Piotrkowska Street.
21st century
2001 - Twin town partnership signed between Łódź and Örebro, Sweden. 2002 Jerzy Kropiwnicki becomes mayor. Population: 785,134; province 2,612,900. 2004 - Łódź Biennale active. 2006 - Manufaktura shopping mall opens.
2008 19 May: Twin town partnership signed between Łódź and Szeged, Hungary. September: Open-air Museum of the Łódź Wooden Architecture opened. 2009 Arena Łódź opens. Łódź co-hosts the EuroBasket 2009. 2010 - Hanna Zdanowska becomes mayor. 2011 - Łódź co-hosts the EuroBasket Women 2011. 2013 Rail freight transport between Łódź and China started. 10 November: Khachkar commemorating the victims of the Armenian genocide unveiled. 2014 - Łódź co-hosts the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship. 2015 - Twin town partnership signed between Łódź and Chengdu, China. 2017 June: Łódź hosts the 2017 Łódź Sevens tournament of the 2017 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series. December: Łódź co-hosts the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship. 2018 - Łódź hosts the first ever Mixed Doubles Łódź curling tournament. 2019 May–June: Łódź co-hosts the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup. November: Honorary Consulate of Armenia opened in Łódź.
See also Łódź history History of Łódź List of mayors of Łódź List of years in Poland
References
This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia and Polish Wikipedia.
Bibliography in English
Zysiak, Agata et al. From Cotton and Smoke: Łódź - Industrial City and Discourses of Asynchronous Modernity, 1897-1994 (Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press, 2019). online review
in other languages
External links
Europeana. Items related to Łódź, various dates. Map of Łódź, 1967