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Belfast

capital city of Northern Ireland

68 dated entries naming Belfast, drawn from 60 separate years between 1573 CE and 2011 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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16th century

  • 1573September 29 – Essex is granted a commission of "general captainship in all Ulster". His troops encamp for the winter at Belfast while opposition is gathered by Brian O'Neill and Turlough Luineach O'Neill.source

17th century

  • 1613Arthur Chichester, Lord Deputy of Ireland, is created 1st Baron Chichester of Belfast. Belfast is constituted a municipal corporation, comprising a Sovereign, twelve burgesses and a commonalty, with the privilege of sending two representatives to the Parliament of England. The first Sovereign appointed is Thomas Vesey, and the first representatives to parliament are Sir John Blennerhasset, Baron of the Exchequer of Ireland, and George Trevillian.source
  • 1636August 12 – following a public disputation in Belfast, Henry Leslie, Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Connor, sentences Edward Brice, Henry Calvert, James Hamilton, John Ridge and one other non-subscribing Presbyterian minister to silence.source

18th century

  • 1737September 1 – The oldest existing English language newspaper in the world, The News Letter, is founded in Belfast, Ireland.source
  • 1737September 1 – The News Letter is first published in Belfast by Francis Joy, making it the world's oldest existing English language newspaper.source
  • 1740A Dublin–Belfast stage coach service runs.source
  • 1763September – a loaded barge passes from Belfast to Lisburn inaugurating the Lagan Navigation.source
  • 176720 July – Arthur Chichester, 5th Earl of Donegall, grants new leases for most of his property holdings in Belfast, obliging tenants to redevelop.source
  • 1785Belfast Academy (later Belfast Royal Academy) is founded by Rev. James Crombie in Belfast, Northern Ireland.source
  • 179114 October – the Northern Whig Club, a group of nine Belfast Presbyterians, meets with Wolfe Tone and Thomas Russell and forms the Society of United Irishmen to press for liberal non-denominational parliamentary reform.source
  • 1795Society of the United Irishmen members including Theobald Wolfe Tone and Henry Joy McCracken meet at Cavehill to the north of Belfast.source

19th century

  • 1813"Poetical Attempts by Hugh Porter, a County of Down weaver" published in Belfast.source
  • 1815March – poet William Drennan's Fugitive pieces in verse and prose published in Belfast.source
  • 1822Public gas lighting in Belfast.source
  • 182912 July – Orange Institution parades in Belfast are banned, leading to demonstrations and serious rioting in Belfast. This spreads to County Armagh and County Tyrone, lasting several days and resulting in at least 20 deaths.source
  • 1830T. & A. Mulholland open the 8000-spindle York Street flax mill in Belfast.source
  • 1836February – foundation of the Ulster Bank in Belfast.source
  • 184028 July – first permanent presence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ireland when Mormon missionaries John Taylor, William Black and James McGuffie arrive to work in the Newry, Lisburn and Belfast areas. On 31 July Thomas Tait becomes the first convert baptised in Ireland, at Loughbrickland.source
  • 185712 July – in Belfast, confrontations between crowds of Catholics and Protestants turn into 10 days of rioting, exacerbated by the open-air preaching of Evangelical Presbyterian minister "Roaring" Hugh Hanna, with many of the police force joining the Protestant side. There are also riots in Derry, Portadown and Lurgan.source
  • 18621 January – a formal partnership between Edward Harland and Gustav Wilhelm Wolff establishes the Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff.source
  • 187027 August – White Star's first ocean liner RMS Oceanic is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.source
  • 1872Ulster Hospital for Women and Sick Children is opened in Chichester Street, Belfast.source
  • 1882Glentoran F.C. in Belfast in the north of Ireland;source
  • 188317 March Ireland 1–1 Wales (in Belfast)source
  • 18831 November – Mater Infirmorum Hospital in Belfast admits its first patients.source
  • 188426 January Ireland 0–5 Scotland (in Belfast)source
  • 18885 November – Belfast is granted city status by Queen Victoria.source
  • 1890Solitude football ground in Belfast, the home of Cliftonville, is opened, making it the oldest football ground in Ireland.source
  • 18925 March Ireland 0–2 England (in Belfast)source
  • 189516 March Ireland 2–2 Wales (in Belfast)source
  • 189628 March – Tom Gallaher incorporates the Gallaher tobacco business and opens the world's largest tobacco factory in Belfast.source
  • 1899January 14 – The White Star Line's transatlantic ocean liner RMS Oceanic is launched from the Belfast shipyards in Ireland. At 17,272 gross register tons and 704 ft, she is the largest ship afloat at this time.source

20th century

  • 1902May 22 – The White Star Liner SS Ionic is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.source
  • 190222 May – The White Star Liner SS Ionic was launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.source
  • 190222 May – the White Star Liner SS Ionic is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.source
  • 190326 February – The ocean liner SS Columbus was launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.source
  • 1908December 16 – Construction begins on the RMS Olympic, at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast.source
  • 1909The Mater Infirmorum Hospital in Belfast was officially recognised as a university teaching hospital.source
  • 1909March 31 – Construction begins on the RMS Titanic, at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast.source
  • 1910October 20 – The hull of White Star ocean liner RMS Olympic is launched, at the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast.source
  • 1911May 31 – The hull of the RMS Titanic is launched in Belfast, on the same day RMS Olympic starts her sea trials.source
  • 191131 May – launching of the ocean liner RMS Titanic in Belfast. Her sister RMS Olympic sails for Liverpool the same day to take up transatlantic service.source
  • 1914February 26 – The ocean liner that will become HMHS Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, is launched at the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast.source
  • 1920July 21 – The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922) begin with 8,000 Catholic and Socialist workers driven from shipyards and industrial sites in Belfast.source
  • 1928June 28 – The keel of the first 1,000 ft (300 m)-long ocean liner, Oceanic, for the British White Star Line, is laid by Harland and Wolff in Belfast; construction is delayed, and cancelled on 23 July 1929.source
  • 19298 February – A Belfast court sentences Fianna Fáil leader Éamon de Valera to one month in jail for illegally entering County Armagh.source
  • 193427 January – Presentation of Belfast Castle to the City of Belfast by the Earl of Shaftesbury is announced.source
  • 193512 July – Rioting breaks out in Belfast following Orange Order parades. By 21 July nine people have been shot dead and scores injured. Rioting continues to the end of August, by which time eight Protestants and five Catholics have been killed, hundreds injured and over 2,000 homes destroyed (almost all Catholic).source
  • 19357 December – The Strand Cinema is opened in Belfast.source
  • 1936The British Air Ministry forms a new aircraft factory in Belfast, creating a new company owned 50% each by Harland and Wolff and Short Brothers, Short & Harland Ltd.source
  • 193728 July – Assassination attempt on King George VI in Belfast by the Irish Republican Army.source
  • 194115 April – The Belfast blitz: 1,000 people are killed in bombing raids on Belfast. 71 firemen with 13 fire tenders from Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin, and Dún Laoghaire cross the Irish border to assist their Belfast colleagues.source
  • 194226 January – First United States troops for the European Theatre of World War II arrive in the United Kingdom at Belfast.source
  • 195012 March – Llandow air disaster: 83 people die when a plane carrying Welsh rugby fans home from Belfast crashes in South Wales.source
  • 195417 August – Ocean liner SS Southern Cross is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.source
  • 196026 January – First staging of Sam Thompson's play Over the Bridge, at the Empire Theatre, Belfast.source
  • 1962Ulster Hospital for Women and Sick Children is relocated from Belfast to Dundonald and renamed the Ulster Hospital.source
  • 196417 April - The band Them, fronted by Van Morrison, play their first gig at his rhythm and blues Club Rado at the Maritime Hotel, Belfast.source
  • 1971March 5 – In Belfast, a Led Zeppelin show includes the first public performance of "Stairway to Heaven," a song from the band's fourth album.source
  • 1972July 21 – The Troubles: Bloody Friday – 22 bombs planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army explode in Belfast, Northern Ireland; nine people are killed and 130 seriously injured.source
  • 1972July 31 – Operation Motorman 4:00 AM : The British Army begins to regain control of the "no-go areas" established by Irish republican paramilitaries in Belfast, Derry ("Free Derry") and Newry.source
  • 198414 March - Sinn Féin MP Gerry Adams is shot and wounded in Belfast.source
  • 1988March 16 – Milltown Cemetery attack: Three men are killed and 70 wounded in a gun and grenade attack by loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone on mourners at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the funerals of the 3 IRA members killed in Gibraltar.source
  • 1990June 24 – Kathleen Margaret Brown and Irene Templeton are ordained as priests in St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast, becoming the first female Anglican priests in the United Kingdom.source
  • 199914 May - The fully renovated St George's Market in Belfast reopens its doors.source

21st century

  • 20029 January – Holy Cross dispute: Confrontations outside Holy Cross Primary School, a Roman Catholic girls' school in the largely Protestant Ardoyne district, during the afternoon school run, explode into widespread sectarian rioting which spreads across north Belfast and continues on 10 January, when the school is closed.source
  • 200420 December - Northern Bank robbery: A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from Northern Bank's Donegall Square West headquarters in Belfast, one of the largest bank robberies in British history; no-one is ever found directly responsible for the crime.source
  • 2011February 10 - Manx2 Flight 7100, a Fairchild Metro III, crashes on its third attempt at landing at Cork airport, Ireland from Belfast. Six of the twelve passengers and crew are killed.source

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