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Sydney

capital city of New South Wales, Australia

53 dated entries naming Sydney, drawn from 43 separate years between 1770 CE and 2025 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.

Also written as Sydney, New South Wales in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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18th century

  • 1770April 29 – First voyage of James Cook: Captain Cook drops anchor on HMS Endeavour in a wide bay, about 16 km (10 mi) south of the present city of Sydney, Australia. Because the young botanist on board the ship, Joseph Banks, discovers 30,000 specimens of plant life in the area, 1,600 of them unknown to European science, Cook names the place Botany Bay on May 7.source
  • 178826 January – After Botany Bay was decided unsuitable for settlement, the First Fleet sails to Port Jackson and lands at Sydney Cove to establish a settlement (which becomes Sydney).source
  • 178826 January – eleven ships of First Fleet from Botany Bay led by Arthur Phillip land in what would become Sydney, Australia. Britain establishes the prison colony of New South Wales, the first permanent European settlement on the continent.source
  • 1795? - A tornado strikes Sydney, destroying crops and trees in the early settlement, 1st tornado recorded in the BOM's severe weather archives.source
  • 1797March 21 – Battle of Parramatta: Resistance leader Pemulwuy leads a group of aboriginal warriors, estimated to be at least 100, in an attack on a government farm at Toongabbie in Sydney, Australia.source
  • 179911 February – The jail in Sydney is burned by arsonists.source

19th century

  • 180319 September – Alexander leaves Port Jackson to return Teina to New Zealand. Teina has stayed with Governor King while in Sydney and has been given gifts to take back with him, including pigs.source
  • 180723 August – The first dry cleaning business is opened in Sydney by Englishman Robert Davidson.source
  • 18103 May – The Brothers collects two men it had dropped in 1809 on islands on what is now the Dunedin coast at Port Daniel (Otago Harbour), including William Tucker. Tucker is sent to look for other sealers from the Brothers at Stewart Island. It is probably at this time, on the shores of Foveaux Strait, that he steals the Māori preserved head that he later sells in Sydney, thus inaugurating the retail trade of such items.source
  • 181319 April – The Perseverance, leaves Sydney looking for flax trading possibilities in the south of the South Island. During the trip she is the first ship known to have entered Bluff Harbour.source
  • 1815Thomas Kendall has the first book printed in Māori, A korao no New Zealand; or, the New Zealander's first book; being an attempt to compose some lessons for the instruction of the natives, published in Sydney. (see also 1820)source
  • 18243 April – George Clarke arrives in the Bay of Islands having taken passage from Sydney on board the French corvette La Coquille. La Coquille is commanded by Louis Isidore Duperrey, with Jules Dumont d'Urville as second-in-command, and will go on to complete a global circumnavigation.source
  • 1824September 13 – With his crew and 29 convicts aboard the Amity, John Oxley arrives at and founds the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement at what becomes Brisbane, Queensland, in Australia, after leaving Sydney.source
  • 182730 January – The Rosanna leaves the Hokianga Harbour for Sydney signalling the end of the attempt by the 1825 New Zealand Company to settle New Zealand.source
  • 182813 September - Robbers break into the vault of the Bank of Australasia in Sydney - first bank robbery in Australia.source
  • 18303 February – John Guard arrives in Sydney with a cargo of whale oil, the first to be shipped from the South Island.source
  • 183031 July – William Yate returns from 6 months 'training' in printing at Sydney with a printing press. His attempts at printing are not particularly successful. (see also 1834 & 1835)source
  • 1831Joseph Brooks Weller arrives in Otago Harbour on the Sir George Murray and makes an agreement with local Māori claiming territory for King William IV before returning to Sydney.source
  • 183118 April - The Sydney daily newspaper and Australia's oldest newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald is first published.source
  • 1831May 31 – Auxiliary paddle steamer Sophia Jane arrives at Sydney from London, becoming the first steamboat to operate in the coastal waters of New South Wales.source
  • 183125 December – John Guard Junior baptised in Sydney. (see above)source
  • 1836January 12 – HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, reaches Sydney.source
  • 1844February – public ferry service commences between Balmain East ferry wharf and the Australian Gas Light Company wharf at Millers Point, Sydney.source
  • 1855Switzerland opens a consulate in Sydney, Australiasource
  • 18642 June – The schooner Waratah disappears between Sydney and Newcastle, claiming seven lives.source
  • 186924 March – A fatal case of cholera is reported in Sydney.source
  • 187027 August – 3 September: Second visit by Prince Alfred, returning briefly to Wellington before departing for Sydney.source
  • 187926 April – Seventy square kilometres of land in Sydney's Sutherland Shire is proclaimed The National Park (later the Royal National Park).source
  • 18791 July – The Daily Telegraph newspaper is first published in Sydney.source
  • 188020 January – Bushranger Captain Moonlite (real name Andrew George Scott) hanged in Sydney.source
  • 188314 June – A rail service between Sydney and Melbourne commences when the NSW and Victorian rail systems are joined at Albury.source
  • 18853 March – The New South Wales Contingent, consisting of an infantry battalion and an artillery battalion, leaves Sydney to fight in the Sudan Campaign.source
  • 189031 May – The first Australian Championships in Athletics are held under the name Inter Colonial Meet. The men's competition is staged at the Moore Park in Sydney.source

20th century

  • 190721 February – The Bondi Surf Bather's Lifesaving Club is formed at Bondi Beach, Sydney, the first of its kind in the world.source
  • 19088 October – The capital of Australia is chosen, settling a feud between rivals Melbourne and Sydney.source
  • 191416 July – Maurice Guillaux leaves Melbourne to fly to Sydney in a Blériot monoplane in the first delivery of airmail. He arrived in Sydney on 18 July after nine and a half hours of flying time.source
  • 193121 March – The Australian National Airways aircraft Southern Cloud, carrying 8 persons, disappears on a flight between Sydney and Melbourne. The wreckage is not located until 1958.source
  • 193719 November – Hubert Opperman completes an epic bicycle ride from Fremantle, Western Australia to Sydney, taking 13 days, 10 hours and 11 minutes.source
  • 1938February 6 – Black Sunday at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia: 300 swimmers are dragged out to sea in 3 freak waves; 80 lifesavers save all but 5.source
  • 19386 February – Three hundred beachgoers are dragged out to sea when three freak waves strike Bondi Beach in Sydney in an event known as "Black Sunday". A team of eighty surf lifesavers manage to rescue all but five people.source
  • 19471 January – A massive hailstorm strikes Sydney, causing hundreds of injuries and an estimated £1 million damage.source
  • 1953March 3 – CF-CUN, a de Havilland DH-106 Comet 1A of CPAL named Empress of Hawaii, crashed during takeoff from Karachi's Mauripur RAF Station during its delivery flight at 03:35 at 30 m (98 feet) elevation, killing all 11 occupants. The plane was headed to Singapore's Seletar Airport to be flown to Sydney for an inaugural flight to Honolulu on April 28. The crash was found to have been caused by the pilot, who had little experience with the Comet, taking off at night without obeying prescribed takeoff technique.source
  • 195929 July – Qantas launched its first jet service from Sydney to San Francisco via Nadi and Honolulu.source
  • 1971December 30 – The first McDonald's in Australia opens in Yagoona, Sydney.source
  • 19801 May – The Australian branch of Earthwatch Institute is established in Sydney.source
  • 1993September 23 – The International Olympic Committee selects Sydney, Australia, to host the 2000 Summer Olympics.source
  • 1998July 21–September 5 – 1998 Sydney water crisis: suspected contamination by the microscopic pathogens cryptosporidium and giardia of the water supply system of Greater Metropolitan Sydney, Australia.source
  • 2000March 12 – The country competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.source
  • 2000September 15–October 1 – The 2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney, Australia, is the first Olympic Games of the 2000s.source
  • 2000September 15-October 1: 25 athletes from Armenia competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.source

21st century

  • 2014December 15 – Two hostages and terrorist Man Haron Monis are killed in the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney, Australia.source
  • 2022September 22 – October 1 – The 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup is held in Sydney, Australia. In the final, the United States wins 83–61 against China.source
  • 2025December 14 – At least 16 people are killed and 43 injured in a mass shooting, classified as a terrorist attack, by two gunmen at Bondi Beach in Sydney during a celebration for the start of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.source

Named in the same entries