Liverpool - Firsts and Other Facts
432 - St Patrick said to have sailed from the River Mersey on his mission to Ireland
ELEVENTH CENTURY1007 - First mention of the River Mersey, in a deed from the reign of Ethelread II, the name is old English from Maere, meaning boundary
TWELFTH CENTURY1166 - First mention of Liverpool, in a deed of the Earl of Mortain, later King John.
THIRTEENTH CENTURY1207 - King John signed a Royal Charter, creating the borough of Liverpool, on Tuesday 28th August 1207.
1235 - Liverpool Castle built (near the modern Derby Square, demolished 1721).
1272 - First census, population 840.
1282 - First Mersey ferry, established by monks at Birkenhead Priory.
FOURTEENTH CENTURY1351 - First recorded mayor, William, son of Adam.
SIXTEENTH CENTURY1515 - Liverpoolâs first Town Hall built.
1522 - First grammar school (founded by John Crosse of Crosse-Hall).
1580 - Liverpoolâs first Town Council.
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY1647 - Liverpool was made a free and independent port, no longer subject to Chester.
1648 - First recorded cargo from America landed at Liverpool.
1650 - The council passed an order creating Liverpoolâs fire brigade: âThat the bailiffs cause leather buckets and four or six hooks to be made for pulling down any house being on fire â which God defendâ.
1676 - Liverpoolâs second Town Hall built.
1679 - Liverpoolâs Mayor founded the worldâs first charity for sailors.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY1700 - Liverpoolâs population 5,714. The first recorded Liverpool slave ship, the Liverpool Merchant, sold a cargo of 220 slaves in Barbados.
1708 - The first reference to scouse (by Ned Ward in The Wooden World Dissected).
1709 - First cargo of cotton traded in Liverpool.
1715 - Worldâs first wet dock controlled by floodgates (Steerâs Old Dock, Canning Place).
1754 - Liverpoolâs third Town Hall built, designed by John Wood the Elder of Bath.
1758 - First circulating library (Lyceum).
1763 - Liverpoolâs Dock master built the first lighthouses to use parabolic mirrors (at Hoylake and Bidston).
1774 - Matthew Dobson, a Liverpool physician, discovered the link between suger and diabetes.
1776 - First public use of Ether as an anaesthetic. Liverpoolâs first newspaper published (Liverpool Advertiser).
1786 - Europeâs first purpose built prison (Great Howard Street).
1790 - Worldâs first American Consul (James Maury).
1791 - First school for blind people (Commutation Row, and later London Road in 1800).
1793 - The only municipality with the right to issue its own money (300.00 pounds).
1795 - Liverpool Town Hall severely damaged by fire, reconstructed by James Wyatt.
1797 - The Liverpool Athenaeum founded.
NINETEENTH CENTURY1800 - Liverpoolâs population 77,708.
1803 - First underwriters association (Liverpool underwriters Association).
1812 - The only assassination of a British Prime Minister. Spencer Percival was shot by bankrupt Liverpool merchant John Bellingham. Britainâs first balloon ascent by J Sadler of Liverpool. In 1824, he was âthrown out of his balloon near Blackburn, which caused his deathâ.
1813 - Liverpoolâs first outdoor public sculpture (Nelson Monument in Exchange Flags), first paid for by public subscription.
1814 - Worldâs first cast iron church (St Georges, Everton).
1823 - First mechanics lending library.
1825 - Worldâs first school for deaf people.
1830 - Worldâs first train shed and first large wooden railway station roof at Crown Street Station). First railway passenger fatality (William Huskisson).
1835 - Worldâs first railway timetable published (Lacyâs).
1838 - First travelling Post Office (a horse box fitted out as a sorting office) ran between Liverpool and Birmingham on 6th January.
1840 - Worldâs first scheduled transatlantic passenger service (the wooden paddle-streamer Britannia owned by Samuel Cunard). Britainâs first Borough Engineer appointed. Welsh national Eisteddfod held in Liverpool (and in 1851, 1884,1900 and 1929). Worldâs first photograph developing and printing service.
1841 - Society for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals, later RSPCA, founded. First British purpose-built office block (Brunswick Buildings).
1842 - Worldâs first public Baths and Wash-houses founded by Kitty Wilkinson (Upper Frederick Street).
1844 - First girlâs day grammar school in England (Blackburne House).
1846 - Albert Dock opened by Prince Albert, now the countryâs largest group of Grade 1 listed buildings.
1847 - Worldâs first Medical Officer of Health (Dr William Duncan).
1848 - First British trades council (Liverpool Trades Guardian Association).
1850 - First borough to establish a Library Committee. Royal Liver Friendly Society (a burial club) formed, it later became a major insurance company that built the Royal Liver Buildings.
1851 - First provincial childrenâs hospital (Upper Hill Street).
1857 - Worldâs first Rugby Club (Liverpool Rugby Club). Britainâs first Chess Club (Liverpool Chess Club).
1859 - First nurse to be paid for looking after the poor (employed by William Rathbone).
1860 - First purpose built public library.
1861 - Britainâs first ecumenical conference. First shot in the American Civil War was fired from a gun made by Liverpool firm Fawcett and Preston (also see 1865).
1862 - First provincial School of Nursing.
1864 - First major Slum Clearence Scheme, the Liverpool Sanitary Amendment gave the Medical Officer of Health the power to order the demolition of unsafe and unfit buildings.
1865 - The last confederate ship to surrender at the end of the American Civil War (Shenandoah, 6th November, to the Mayor at Liverpool Town Hall).
1867 - Liverpool Corporation brought Britainâs first steamroller. Britainâs first cycling club (Liverpool Velocipedes). Worldâs largest train shed (200 ft/61 meters).
1868 - First borough to secure and Act of Parliament to establish a tram system.
1869 - Britainâs first municipal housing (St Martins Cottages, Silvester Street).
1870 - First society of accountants (Liverpool Society of Accountants).
1875 - First disarmament campaign (Liverpool Peace Society)
1877 - First British public Art Gallery (Walker art Gallery)
1880 - Queen Victoria grants Liverpool the right to call itself a city (11th may). Liverpoolâs first Bishop appointed (Rev John Ryle). T.P. OâConnor elected as the first Irish Nationalist MP to represent an English constituency (Liverpool Exchange).
1883 - The Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, later the NSPCC, founded on April 19th by T.F. Agnew and Samuel Smith.
1884 - Britainâs first woman to qualify as a doctor opens a practice in Liverpool.
1886 - First under-river railway tunnel constructed under the River Mersey. First purpose-built ambulance in Britain (at the Northern Hospital)
1889 - First pre-payment gas meters installed by the Liverpool Gas Company (Cazeneau Street). Liverpoolâs Police Force the first to be equipped with rubber soled boots for night duty.
1890 -
Football goal nets invented by ex-City Engineer John Brodie.1892 - The first Marine Biological Station (at Liverpool University).
1893 - Worldâs first overhead electric railway opened by the Marquis of Salisbury on February 4th. League of Welldoers founded by an American, Lee Jones. Queen Victoria grants Liverpool the right to have a Lord Mayor (August 14th).
1895 - First British School of Architecture and Applied Art.
1896 - First British use of x-ray in medical diagnosis (at the Southern Hospital).
1897 - First to employ women health visitors.
1898 - First to appoint a Municipal Bacteriologist.
1899 - Britainâs first School of Tropical Medicine opened on April 22nd.
TWENTIETH CENTURY1900 - Liverpoolâs population 684,947. The largest tobacco warehouse in the world built at Stanley Dock. It was built of 27 million bricks, has 36 acres of storage space and could hold 70,000 hogsheads of tobacco.
1901 - Britainâs first anti-tuberculosis campaign. First escalator in a railway station (at Seaforth Sands Station, on the Overhead Railway). Patent for Meccano taken out by Frank Hornby.
1902 - Britainâs first motor fire engine (at Hatton Garden Fire Station).
1903 - Liverpoolâs first regular tram service began between the Pier Head and St Helenâs.
1904 - Foundation stone of Liverpoolâs Anglican Cathedral laid. University of Liverpool the first in Britain to establish a school of Veterinary Science.
1909 - Britainâs first woman Councillor (Eleanor Rathbone). Britainâs first Woolworthâs opened at 25 Church Street.
1911 - The Royal Liver Building Clock, the biggest in Britain, started at the moment of King George Vâs Coronation, June 22nd.
1912 - First automatic telephone exchange.
1913 - Britainâs first Flag Day held, in aid of the Council of Social Service. The worldâs first crossword puzzle was compiled by Liverpool born Arthur Wynne and appeared in the New York World.
1919 - First and only Police Force to go on strike. First department of Oceanography (at Liverpool University).
1924 - First hyperbolic cooling tower in Britain (at Lister Drive power station).
1927 - Liverpoolâs first woman Lord Mayor (Margaret Bevan). First British Arts Centre (Bluecoat).
1932 - First purpose built boxing stadium in Britain (Bixteth Street).
1933 - Foundation stone of Liverpoolâs Roman Catholic Cathedral laid. First use of gas and air in childbirth (Dr R.J. Minnett at the Maternity Hospital). Liverpool Airport opened at Speke.
1934 - First Mersey Tunnel opened (Queensway). First British police force to use a two way radio communications system. First provincial news theatre (the Tatler in Church Street).
1936 - First act giving a council the right to buy, sell and develop land (Liverpool Corporation Act). First purpose built municipal industrial estate (Speke).
1937 - Liverpool highest recorded population 867,000.
1944 - Britainâs first Chinese newspaper (Hua Chow Pao).
1946 -
First footballer to score three consecutive hat-tricks (Jack Balmer, playing for Liverpool FC).1947 - Worldâs first Radar Lighthouse.
1952 - First hospital radio service. Britainâs first package holiday flight (from Liverpool Airport).
1953 - Liverpool singer Lita Roza the first British woman to top the chats (How Much is that Doggy in the Window?).
1959 - Britainâs first drive-in bank (National Westminster Bank in Princeâs Road). First mass x-ray campaign.
1960 - First bank in the world to use a computer (Martinâs)
1962 - First port in Britain to use a computer (Mersey Docks & Harbour Company).
1964 - First Police Force to use closed-circuit television.
1967 - First seminar in Britain for orchestra conductors (held by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra). Liverpoolâs Roman Catholic Cathedral consecrated.
1970 - Britainâs first public planetarium (Liverpool Museum).
1971 - Second Mersey Tunnel opened (Kingsway).
1978 - Liverpoolâs Anglican Cathedral is consecrated. The worldâs largest Anglican Cathedral has the worldâs largest organ and highest and heaviest peal of bells.
1984 -
First football club to win three major competitions in one season (Liverpool FC).TWENTY FIRST CENTURY2005 - Liverpool FC win their 5th European Cup and just compound the fact that they are bloody brilliant at footy.
2007 - Liverpool celebrates its 800th birthday and it's the big team reach their 7th European Cup Final.
2008 - Liverpool is European Capital of Culture.
But we knew all that anyway didn't we? :
My Dad lives in Liverpool. And my uncle and 2 aunties plus all my cousins and extended family.
I'm dead proud to be a Scouser and will be more so after Wednesday night...