| 8th Century
|
| AD 731 |
Bede makes first mention of 'Loidis' |
| 11th
Century |
| 1069 |
Leeds escapes the Harrying of the North; Bramley,
Beeston etc destroyed |
| 1086 |
Leeds Mentioned in Domesday Book |
| 1089 |
Ralph Paynel gives property including the Parish
church to Holy Trinity, York |
| 12th
Century |
| 1152 |
Kirkstall Abbey founded |
| 1155 |
Knights Templar take over Newsam |
| 1185 |
First fulling mill in England recorded at Temple
Newsam |
| 13th Century
|
| 1207 |
Maurice Paynel grants Leeds a charter
|
| 1258 |
Market operating in Leeds |
| 14th Century Top
of the page |
| 1341 |
Market operating on a Monday |
| 1322 |
Mention of the first bridge over River Aire - probably
one since 11th century |
| 15th Century Top
of the page |
| 1469 |
Woollen industry well established in Leeds
|
| 16th Century
|
| 1539 |
Kirkstall Abbey dissolved |
| 1552 |
Leeds Grammar School established
|
| 1560 |
First map of Leeds |
| 17th Century Top
of the page |
| 1615 |
Moot Hall built in Briggate |
| 1624 |
John Harrison builds new grammar school |
| 1626 |
King Charles I grants charter
|
| 1634 |
John Harrison builds St John's Church |
| 1643 |
Battle of Briggate; Parliamentary victory |
| 1645 |
Bubonic plague kills 1325 people |
| 1661 |
Second charter gives Leeds a mayor |
| 1663 |
Farnley Wood Plot to overthrow Charles II |
| 1684 |
Market moved from Leeds Bridge to Briggate |
| 1694 |
George Sorocold constructs water supply in Leeds
|
| 18th
Century Top
of the page |
| 1711 |
New Moot Hall opened |
| 1715 |
Ralph Thoresby publishes Ducatus |
| 1718 |
Leeds Mercury founded |
| 1745 |
Mob attacks John Wesley in the town |
| 1754 |
Leeds Intelligencer, now Yorkshire Post,
founded |
| 1755 |
Street lighting introduced |
| 1758 |
First railway act establishes Middleton Railway |
| 1767 |
Joseph Priestley becomes minister at Mill Hill Chapel
|
| 1768 |
Leeds Library founded |
| 1770 |
Act passes to allow Leeds and Liverpool Canal to
be built |
| 1771 |
Leeds Infirmary opens on Infirmary St. |
| 1775 |
White Cloth Hall built in the Calls |
| 1777 |
Assembly Rooms opened |
| 1781 |
John Wesley preaches to over one thousand people
in the town |
| 1792 |
John Marshall moves his flax mill from Adel to Holbeck
|
| 1792 |
Benjamin Gott commenced building his mill at Bean
Ing |
| 19th
Century Top
of the page |
| 1801 |
Edward Baines purchases the Leeds Mercury
and makes regular use of editorials |
| 1812 |
Matthew Murray's steam engines begin operating on
Middleton Railway |
| 1816 |
Leeds and Liverpool Canal completed |
| 1819 |
Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society established
|
| 1822 |
Joshua Tetley buys Sykes's Brewery |
| 1832 |
Cholera epidemic strikes in Leeds |
| 1832 |
Leeds granted 2 members of Parliament - John Marshall
jun and T B Macaulay elected
|
| 1834 |
First railway from Leeds runs to Selby |
| 1835 |
Municipal Reform Bill gives town new corporation
- George Goodman first mayor |
| 1841 |
New Parish Church opens |
| 1842 |
Chartists 'Plug Riots' in town |
| 1847 |
Typhus epidemic in Leeds |
| 1847 |
Armley Jail opened |
| 1847 |
First synagogue opened |
| 1848 |
Some 2000 die in cholera epidemic |
| 1848 |
Leeds Moral and Industrial Training School opened
- will eventually become St James's |
| 1858 |
Queen Victoria opens Town Hall |
| 1861 |
Corn Exchange opened |
| 1868 |
New Infirmary on Great George Street opened |
| 1871 |
Leeds School Board formed |
| 1871 |
First horse trams introduced |
| 1873 |
Bewerley Street, the first School Board purpose-built
school opened |
| 1874 |
Yorkshire College of Science - eventually to become
Leeds University - opened |
| 1878 |
John Barran opens Moorish-Venetian style ready-made
clothing factory in Park Square |
| 1878 |
First shopping arcade opened - Thornton's Arcade
|
| 1881 |
Gladstone heard by a crowd of 30,000 in Coloured
Cloth Hall |
| 1884 |
Michael Marks opens stall in Leeds market |
| 1889 |
Thoresby Society founded |
| 1889 |
Headingley sports ground developed |
| 1890 |
Yorkshire Evening Post established |
| 1893 |
Leeds becomes a city |
| 1897 |
Mayor becomes a Lord Mayor |
| 20th
Century Top
of the page |
| 1903 |
City Square opened |
| 1903 |
Leeds Daily News becomes Yorkshire Evening
News |
| 1904 |
Leeds University established |
| 1904 |
New St Anne's Cathedral opened |
| 1908 |
Mrs Pankhurst addresses mass meeting of suffragettes
on Woodhouse Moor |
| 1911 |
Children strike in Leeds schools |
| 1916 |
Battle of the Somme - estimated virtually every street
in Leeds lost one man killed |
| 1924 |
2LS begins broadcasting from Leeds |
| 1925 |
Montague Burton's is the largest and most popular
clothing factory in Europe |
| 1926 |
General Strike - serious rioting in Vicar Land and
Duncan Street |
| 1931 |
Leeds and Bradford take over Yeadon airport |
| 1933 |
Civic Hall opened by George V |
| 1933 |
BBC opens Boradcasting House on Woodhouse Lane |
| 1941 |
Worst air raid on Leeds - 60 killed |
| 1945 |
Alice Bacon [Lab] elected as city's first woman MP
|
| 1959 |
Trams cease to operate in the city |
| 1961 |
Leeds Triennial Music Festival established |
| 1965 |
Parking meters introduced in city |
| 1965 |
Leeds Civic Trust established |
| 1965 |
ASDA begins operations at Cross Gates |
| 1970 |
Leeds Polytechnic formed |
| 1974 |
Leeds becomes a metropolitan borough |
| 1978 |
Opera North based at the Grand Theatre |
| 1981 |
Riots in Chapeltown |
| 1981 |
Radio Aire begins broadcasting |
| 1982 |
Queen opens Henry Moor Sculpture Gallery |
| 1983 |
BBC TV ends the Good Old Days at City Varieties
after 30 years |
| 1985 |
Concord Multi-Faith Resources Centre opened |
| 1990 |
West Yorkshire Playhousee opened |
| 1991 |
Census shows 6% of population from ethnic minority
groups |
| 1992 |
Polytechnic becomes Leeds Metropolitan University
|
| 1996 |
Leeds one of the hosts for European Football Championships
|
| 1998 |
Super bus lanes introduced |
| 1998 |
European Union funds experiment in car sharing on
Stanningley Road |
| 21st Century Top
of the page |
| 2001 |
Super tram service announced
|
| 2007 |
Leeds celebrates the 800 year anniversary of the
first charter |
| 2008 |
First Cabinet meeting ever held in Leeds on Friday
28th November |