Liverpool Firsts
- 1639 Jeremiah Horrocks of Toxteth: the first observation of the transit of Venus
- 1643 The 1st of 3 sieges of Liverpool by Prince Rupert took place in May
- 1644 The 2nd of 3 sieges of Liverpool by Prince Rupert took place in June
- 1644 The 3rd of 3 sieges of Liverpool by Prince Rupert took place in September
- 1644 Prince Rupert's Cottage, so called because he resided there for a few days during the siege of Liverpool, was on the east side of Everton Village Green
- 1647 Liverpool was made a free and independent port, no longer subject to Chester
- 1648 The first recorded cargo from America lands in Liverpool
- 1650 The council passed an order creating Liverpool’s fire brigade: “That the bailiffs cause leather buckets and four or six hooks to be made for pulling down any house being on fire – which God defend”
- 1673 Sir John Crosse lives in a fine mansion in Dale Street. This is the family who founded the 1st free grammar school in Liverpool and after whom Crosshall Street is named
- 1673 The 2nd Liverpool Town Hall was built on the site of the High Cross at High Street in front of the original town hall
- 1679 Liverpool's mayor founds the first charity for sailors
- 1700 St Peter's church was erected in Church Street which remained unpaved until 1760 and unflagged until 1816
- 1700 Liverpool’s population 5,714.
- 1700 The first recorded Liverpool slave ship, the 'Liverpool Merchant', sold a cargo of 220 slaves in Barbados
- 1704 The Crown gave permission to build St George's Church on the site of the castle in Castle Street. It wasn't opened until 1834
- 1708 The first reference to scouse (by Ned Ward in The Wooden World Dissected)
- 1709 First dock in the world was constructed in Liverpool
- 1709 First cargo of cotton traded in Liverpool
- 1712 - Liverpool's first newspaper, the Liverpool Courant, is published
- 1715 Steer's Old Dock in Canning Place is the world’s first enclosed wet dock controlled by floodgates
- 1725 - John Chadwick drew up the first surveyed map of Liverpool, for which he was rewarded by a grant of £6 from the Town Council. This map shows thirty-seven streets in existence
- 1753 Growth of Liverpool. in this year there were 3,700 houses and 20,000 inhabitants. Seven years later, in 1760, there were 4,200 houses and 25,000 inhabitants
- 1754 Liverpool’s third Town Hall built, designed by John Wood the Elder of Bath
- 1756 - Liverpool's second newspaper, the Williamson's Advertiser, is published on 28th May
- 1758 Building of the Lyceum, the first circulating library
- 1759 Molly Bushell first made and sold her toffee from her home on Everton Brow
- 1759 A French ship menaced Liverpool causing the people of the town to build a battery next to St Nicholas' Church. It was armed with 14 good guns
- 1763 The first lighthouses to use parabolic mirrors are built by Liverpool's dock Master at Hoylake and Bidston
- 1766 Two stage coaches per day operate between Liverpool and London taking 3 days in winter and 2 in summer
- 1769 Joseph Williamson, 1769-1841, famous for digging and excavating a network of tunnels eminating from Edge Hill
- 1770 Work begins on the Leeds-Liverpool canal, the longest and highest in Britain, finished in 1816
- 1770 The cotton trade began with America. The imports being three bags from New York, four bags from Virginia and Maryland, and three barrels from North Carolina
- 1770 St. Anne’s Church on St. Anne Street. The first use of iron columns to hold up balconies.
- 1770 Anfield was originally known as Hangfield
- 1772 The theatre Royal was opened in Williamson Square
- 1773 In Liverpool there were 5928 inhabited houses, 412 uninhabited houses, with a population of 34,407
- 1774 Matthew Dobson, a Liverpool physician, discovered the link between suger and diabetes
- 1775 The White House and Ranelagh Tea Gardens were situated where the Adelphi Hotel now stands
- 1776 The World First Lifeboat Station at Formby Point
- 1778 The Dispensary was established in North John Street for the poor of the parish. It was moved to Church Street in 1782
- 1780 The stocks, used for punishment, were situated on Church Street opposite the Blue Coat School
- 1780 The ducking post, used for punishment, was situated on a pond, called The Flashes, at the top of Marybone near Vauxhall Road
- 1780 There was an infirmary on the top of Shaws Brow, where St Georges Hall now stands
- 1780 Brownlow Hill was so called after Mr Lawrence Brownlow, a gentleman who owned much property there
- 1780 Mount Pleasant was originally known as Martindales Hill and was quite a country walk at this time
- 1780 Richmond Row was named after the esteemed and respected Dr Sylvester Richmond and housed the kennels of the Liverpool Hunt Club
- 1780 Bold Street was named after the Bold family, who possessed property in it. Late in the eighteenth century there was still a dairy farm in the street, and a well of good water
- 1785 Islington was known as Folly Lane, an area of farmland and countryside which was being developed with Norton Street and Stafford Street being formed. There was a smithy and forge in Stafford Street
- 1786 Great Howard Street houses the first purpose built prison
- 1790 At this time Rose Hill near Scotland Road was in the suburbs and considered very fashionable
- 1790 World's first American consul, James Maury, is posted to Liverpool
- 1791 The first school for the blind opens in London-road, at the corner of Hotham-street
- 1792 A new street was being laid out by Lord Molyneux. It was called Lord Street
- 1792 At the north end of Castle Street, and the west end of Dale Street, the Fair of Liverpool used to be held
- 1793 Liverpool becomes the first and only municipality with the right to issue its own money
- 1793 An order was made by the Council to build St Lukes Church on Berry Street. The foundation stone wasn't laid until 1811 and work started, stopped and restarted until final completion in 1831
- 1794 Messrs. Abbey and Graham purchased a small copper works and converted them into a pottery. The Herculaneum China Ware Manufactory continued until 1833. In 1864, the site was utilized for the Herculaneum Dock
- 1795 Liverpool Town Hall severely damaged by fire, reconstructed by James Wyatt
- 1795 Liverpool has had 4 town halls, all built at the same location in Juggler Street which was later changed to High Street. The current building was completed between 1795 and 1820
- 1796 Captain John MacIver, of the brig 'Swallow', was given a 'letter of Marque', a licence to plunder enemy ships of the realm. He was the uncle of David MacIver, one of the founders of the Cunard Line
- 1797 The Liverpool Athenaeum founded. In 1799 it was opened in Church Street as a centre of literary activity in Liverpool
- 1800 Liverpool’s population reaches 77,708
- 1803 Liverpool Underwriter's Association is the world's first
- 1803 The Lyceum News Room was erected on the site of a timber-yard in Bold Street at a cost of £11,000
- 1808 The Corn Exchange was opened in Brunswick Street at a cost of £10,000
- 1810 On a Sunday morning, 15 minutes before the service was due to start, the tower at Our Lady and St Nicholas church gave way and the spire crashed into the body of the church, killing 25 children and a bell ringer
- 1812 The only assassination of a British Prime Minister. Spencer Percival was shot by bankrupt Liverpool merchant John Bellingham
- 1812 Britain’s first balloon ascent by J Sadler of Liverpool. In 1824, he was ‘thrown out of his balloon near Blackburn, which caused his death’
- 1813 Liverpool’s first outdoor public sculpture (Nelson Monument in Exchange Flags), first paid for by public subscription.
- 1814 St George's, in Everton, is the world's first all cast iron framed church
- 1817 Gas was introduced to the town of Liverpool and used to light the street lamps much more effectively than the original oil lamps
- 1817 The Royal Institution, Colquitt Street was opened in a house purchased from Thomas Parr which, together with alterations, cost £14,000
- 1819 The Tower of Liverpool was demolished so that Water Street could be widened
- 1820 The whole of the land from Everton Village to Brunswick Road was pasture land
- 1820 At this time, Low Hill was a rough, sandy lane with a large house near the West Derby Road, 2 low cottages opposite Phythian Street and a public house on the corner of the Prescot Road
- 1821 The population of Liverpool was 118,972. The total number of houses occupied were 19,007
- 1822 St. John's Market was constructed in Great Charlotte Street
- 1822 Early Liverpool Humour? Roger James, who founded James Street, was described by Sir Edward Moore, at one time the largest property owner in Liverpool, as 'a very honest man, and a good woman to his wife
- 1822 James Muspratt opens an alkali works in Vauxhall - the origins of ICI
- 1823 First mechanics lending library is opened
- 1824 Castle Street and Lord Street were lighted by gas for the first time, and the lighting gradually spread to the whole town
- 1825 World's first school for deaf people
- 1826 The Amphitheatre was opened in Great Charlotte Street. It was erected for equestrian and dramatic exhibitions and had extensive stabling for the large stud of horses
- 1827 The Bank of England decided to open a branch in Liverpool, and purchased for the purpose the house built between the year 1730- 1740 by Thomas Steers, the engineer who constructed the old dock
- 1829 Two pillars, called respectively the North and South Bootle Landmarks, were erected in Bootle Bay to enable mariners entering the river to take their bearings, and they stood on what is now the site of the Alexandra Dock
- 1829 St James's Cemetery was consecrated at St. James's Mount and has become additionally important since it has been selected as the site for the Liverpool Cathedral
- 1830 World's first inter-city passenger railway line built by Liverpool & Manchester Railway Company
- 1830 World's first tunnel bored under a Metropolis. The Wapping Tunnel from Edge Hill to the south end docks.
- 1830 The world's first train shed and large wooden station roof are built at Crown Street station
- 1830 At the opening of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, the local MP, William Huskisson fell under a train and was the first railway fatality
- 1830 The first public train ran from Liverpool to Manchester on September 16, 1830, carrying 130 passengers, and accomplished the journey of 31 miles in one hour and fifty minutes
- 1830 A small wooden theatre, known as Holloway’s Sans Pareil, in Great Charlotte Street had pantomimes at Christmas. It charged 3d in the pit and 6d in the gallery
- 1831 The population had grown to 165,221
- 1831 Joseph Williamson, 1769-1841, famous for digging and excavating a network of tunnels eminating from Edge Hill, gave sufficient stone to build St Judes church, Hardwick Street
- 1835 The Liverpool Institute grew out of the old Mechanics' Institute, which, commencing in School Lane, was moved to the Union News Rooms, Slater Street. Then land was purchased in Mount Street, and the foundation stone of the new building was laid by Lord Brougham, on July 20
- 1836 Whilst boring a tunnel from Edge Hill to Lime Street station, workmen were astonished to find the earth giving way under their feet as Joseph Williamson's men were digging their own tunnel underneath
- 1836 A tunnel bored from Edge Hill to Lime Street station. The tunnel was made into a large open cutting in the 1880s, however one very small section still remains and is the oldest tunnel in use in the world under streets.
- 1836 Edge Hill station was moved from the head of the Wapping Tunnel at Edge Hill to the head of the Lime Street Tunnel. Today it is the world's oldest used station.
- 1836 Liverpool City Police force is formed
- 1837 Liverpool starts Britain's first chess club
- 1838 The foundation stone was laid for St George's Hall which was opened in 1854
- 1838 Built in Liverpool, the paddle steamer 'Royal William' was the first to cross the Atlantic to New York, under continuous steam. The passage, with 32 passengers, took 19 days and 14 and a half days to return. She was sold in 1880, for £11
- 1838 The first travelling Post Office operates between Liverpool and Birmingham
- 1839 Laird’s shipyard built the world’s first screw propelled steamer, Robert F. Stockton, a 63ft tug for use on North American waterways.
- 1839 The start of the world’s greatest steeple chase at Aintree race course
- 1840 The foundation stone was laid for the Liverpool College on Shaw Street which was opened in 1843
- 1840 The pig market was transferred from Rumford Place to Great Howard Street
- 1840 Cunard's wooden paddle-steamer Britannia is the first scheduled transatlantic passenger service
- 1840 Liverpool appoints Britain's first borough engineer
- 1840 Welsh National Eisteddfod held in Liverpool (and in 1851, 1884, 1900 and 1929)
- 1841 Brunswick Buildings: the first purpose-built office block
- 1841 The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (later RSPCA) is founded
- 1842 First public baths and wash-houses, founded by Kitty Wilkinson, in Upper Frederick St.
- 1844 Blackburne House is the first girl's day grammar school in England
- 1844 Thomas Fresh appointed Liverpool's first public health officer
- 1845 Liverpool is the destination of the first package tour organised by Thomas Cook of Leicester
- 1845 Liverpool is the subject of the first holiday brochure written by Thomas Cook for the Leicester to Liverpool railway package tour (15 shillings 75p, 1st class, 10 shillings 50p, 2nd class)
- 1846 Albert Dock opened by Prince Albert, now the country’s largest group of Grade 1 listed buildings
- 1847 The population now numbers 340,000, exclusive of the large numbers residing in the suburbs of Toxteth, Wavertree, West Derby, Everton, Bootle, and many other districts immediately beyond the township boundary
- 1847 The ships entering the port number 21,000 per annum, and their tonnage exceeds 3,000,000
- 1847 Most of the windmills, still valuable property, are in use, but the stage-coaches, with their bustle, excitement, and triumphant horns, are gone. The railway has come and the age of steam has arrived, and the water of the Mersey is daily beaten into foam by many paddle-boats
- 1847 The world’s first purpose designed and built public park, Birkenhead Park. (Central Park in New York is based on it)
- 1847 Dr William Duncan becomes the world's first Medical Officer of Health
- 1847 Liverpool appoints Britain's first borough engineer
- 1848 - Liverpool Borough Engineer implements the first integrated sewerage system in the world
- 1848 First British trades council. Liverpool Trades Guardian Association
- 1848 Albert Dock is the first non-combustible warehousing system in the world
- 1848 Albert Dock is the world's first warehouses to use hydraulic hoists.
- 1848 St. Georges Hall has the world's first ever air-conditioning system.
- 1848 Lime Street Station has the world's largest single span roof.
- 1850 Liverpool is the first borough to start a library committee
- 1850 Royal Liver Friendly Society (a burial club) formed, it later became a major insurance company that built the Royal Liver Buildings
- 1851 The first provincial Children's Hospital opens in the city (Upper Hill Street)
- 1852 The number of docks becomes 24, and their acreage, including quays, is 200, in addition to which there are 15 graving docks. Modern Liverpool is at hand, and its population is as energetic and confident as at any other period
- 1856 The Birkenhead Dock Company, unable to work the docks profitably, transferred ownership to the Corporation of Liverpool who, by Act of Parliament, the following year transferred ownership to The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board
- 1856 The 21 ton Horsfall Gun - the largest in the world - is built at the Mersey Forge in Sefton Street; it could fire a 300lb cannon ball five miles
- 1857 The value of exports in the UK amounted to £110 million, £55 million of which passed through Liverpool
- 1857 On average every 16 years, from 1749 to 1857, Liverpool doubled the tonnage that entered the port. 1749 - 28,250 tons, 1764 - 56,499, 1780 - 112,000, 1796 - 224,000, 1811 - 611,190, 1827 - 1,225,313, 1841 - 2,425,461, 1857 - 4,645,362
- 1857 Liverpool Rugby Club is the world's first rugby club.
- 1857 World’s largest water works to supply Liverpool with water at Rivington Pike, piping water 27 miles.
- 1858 The world's first steel ship, the Ma Roberts, built for Dr. Livingstone's African exploration by the Laird shipyard.
- 1859 The first nurse paid to look after the poor (employed by William Rathbone)
- 1859 The first tramway in the UK, was opened at Liverpool Docks.
- 1860 Picton Library was Britain's first purpose built public library
- 1860 The world’s first ‘street tramway’ ran from Woodside to Birkenhead Park
- 1860 Britain's first ecumenical missionary conference was held in Liverpool
- 1861 A gun made by the Liverpool firm Fawcett and Preston, fires the first shot of the American Civil War
- 1862 Pedestrian safety islands in the middle of streets were first introduced in Liverpool
- 1862 First provincial school of nursing set up in Liverpool
- 1862 Laird shipyard build the American Confederate CSS Alabama commerce raider. This ship sunk 65 ships with a predominately Liverpool crew. A total never been equalled by any ship since
- 1862 The Jones Quiggin shipyard built the first steel ship to cross the Atlantic, the Banshee. Built for the Confederate states of America as a fast blockade runner
- 1864 The first slum clearance scheme gives the Medical Officer power to demolish unsafe and unfit buildings
- 1864 Oriel Chambers, Water Street, is the world's first metal framed glass curtain walled building. Designed by architect Peter Ellis, it comprises 43,000 sq ft (4,000 m2) set over five floors
- 1865 The last act of the American Civil War was the surrender to the Mayor of Liverpool of the Confederate ship Shenandoah, by her captain James Waddell, at the Town Hall
- 1865 The last official lowering of the American Confederate flag was in the River Mersey when the CSS Shenandoah was handed over to Captain Paynter of the Royal Navy.
- 1866 Liverpool carried out and financed the first ever Atlantic telegraph cable
- 1867 Britain's first steamroller is bought by Liverpool
- 1867 Liverpool Velocipedes is the country's first cycling club
- 1867 World’s largest train station span was built at Lime Street station. It spanned 200 ft - 61 metres
- 1867 The One O'Clock Gun is fired for the first time
- 1868 Liverpool is the first borough to secure an Act of Parliament to establish a tram network
- 1869 St Martins Cottages, Silvester Street are the first municipal housing in Britain
- 1870 Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants based at 24 North John street (now Old Hall Street) is the first in Britain
- 1875 The first British disarmament campaign held by the Liverpool Peace Society
- 1876 Britain's first gorilla arrives at Liverpool Docks
- 1876 The landing stage at the Pier Head is the largest floating structure in the world.
- 1877 The Walker Art Gallery is the first UK public art gallery
- 1879 World’s first mechanically propelled submarine, Resurgam, built at Birkenhead
- 1880 Queen Victoria grants Liverpool the right to call itself a city (11th may)
- 1880 The Rev. Canon J. C. Ryle, M.A., was consecrated the first Bishop of Liverpool, and his enthronement took place on July 1, the Church being designated the pro-Cathedral
- 1880 T.P. O’Connor elected as the first Irish Nationalist MP to represent an English constituency (Liverpool Exchange)
- 1880 Liverpool starts work on the largest artificial reservoir in Europe to supply Liverpool with water, at Vyrnwy in Wales.
- 1881 The University was established in 1881 as University College Liverpool
- 1881 S.S. Ceylon began her world-wide cruise, beginning in Liverpool
- 1883 The Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children - forerunner of the NSPCC - is founded on April 19th by T.F. Agnew and Samuel Smith
- 1883 Northern Hospital has the first purpose-built ambulance
- 1886 The first major under-river tunnel is built under the Mersey
- 1886 The world's first cut into rock underground rail station at James Street.
- 1888 Everton FC are one of the founding clubs of the first football league competition
- 1889 Liverpool Gas Company installs the first pre-payment gas meters in Cazneau Street
- 1889 Liverpool's police force is the first to wear rubber-soled boots for night duty
- 1891 Everton FC are the Football League Champions
- 1891 John Brodie invents the goal net, which is first used by Everton FC
- 1892 Liverpool Football Club is formally established on 15 March 1892
- 1892 Liverpool University opens the first Marine Biological Station
- 1892 The world’s first purpose built football ground is opened at Goodison Park for Everton FC
- 1893 The world's first electric elevated urban railway, the Liverpool Overhead Railway
- 1893 The world's first automatic signalling used on the Overhead Railway
- 1893 The world's first all-electric colour light signalling used on the Overhead Railway
- 1893 League of Welldoers, based in Limekiln Lane, was founded by Lee Jones of Runcorn
- 1893 On August 3rd, Queen Victoria grants Liverpool the right to have a Lord Mayor
- 1894 First ever radio broadcast made by Oliver Lodge, Liverpool University professor of physics
- 1895 First British School of Architecture and Applied Art was inaugurated in Liverpool
- 1896 The x-ray is used in medical diagnosis for the first time at the Southern Hospital
- 1897 The Original Liverpool Tart recipe
- 1898 First city to employ a municipal bacteriologist
- 1898 School of Tropical Medicine is the first founded in the UK
- 1898 The Corporation acquired the area around St John's church and churchyard, demolished the church, converted the churchyard into a public garden under the title of St. John's Gardens, and threw it open to the public in the year 1904
- 1900 Liverpool’s population reaches 684,947
- 1901 The largest tobacco warehouse in the world built at Stanley Dock. It was built with 27 million bricks, has 36 acres of storage space and could hold 70,000 hogsheads of tobacco
- 1901 Liverpool runs the first anti-tuberculosis campaign in Britain
- 1901 Seaforth Sands on the Overhead Railway installs the first escalator in a railway station
- 1901 Patent for Meccano taken out by Liverpudlian Frank Hornby and manufactured in Liverpool
- 1901 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions
- 1902 The interconnected enclosed docks system is the largest in the world
- 1902 Ronald Ross, of The School of Tropical medicine is awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for connecting the mosquito with malaria
- 1902 Hatton Garden fire station has its first motor fire engine
- 1903 Liverpool’s first regular tram service began between the Pier Head and St Helens
- 1904 The University of Liverpool founded the first School of Veterinary Science in the country
- 1904 Foundation stone of Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral is laid
- 1905 The world's first pre-cast concrete building - Eldon Street apartments
- 1906 Everton FC wins the FA Cup for the 1st time. Everton 1-0 Newcastle United
- 1906 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 2nd time
- 1907 The Liver Buildings is the first large scale ferro-concrete building in the world
- 1907 The Liver Buildings is Europe's first skyscraper
- 1907 The Liver Buildings has the world’s largest clock-faces
- 1908 Boy Scouts: Birkenhead was the home of the first ever scouts group
- 1909 Eleanor Rathbone becomes the first woman councillor
- 1909 Woolworths opens its first British store on Church Street
- 1911 The Royal Liver Building Clock, the biggest in Britain, started at the moment of King George V’s Coronation, June 22nd
- 1912 First automatic telephone exchange is installed in Liverpool
- 1913 New York World carries the first 'word cross', or crossword, compiled by Liverpudlian Arthur Wynne
- 1913 Eleanor Rathbone founded the first Women's Association in Liverpool
- 1913 Liverpool-born John Archer is elected Britain's first black mayor, in Battersea
- 1913 In Liverpool, Britain’s first Flag Day was held in aid of the Council of Social Service
- 1915 Everton FC are the Football League Champions for the 2nd time
- 1919 Liverpool Police Force is the first, and only, police force to strike
- 1919 The first flat slab reinforced concrete building in the UK, was erected at Garston. The Bryant & May art-deco match factory
- 1919 The world's first Department of Oceanography opens at Liverpool University
- 1920 The world’s first all welded hulled ship, Fullagar, built by the Laird’s shipyard
- 1922 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 3rd time
- 1923 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 4th time
- 1924 Lister Drive power station has the first hyperbolic cooling tower
- 1925 Crosshall Street hosts the country's first Juvenile Court
- 1927 The Bluecoat is the first British Arts centre
- 1927 West Derby is the site of the first municipal Jewish cemetery
- 1927 Margaret Beavan became Liverpool’s first woman Lord Mayor
- 1928 William (Dixie) Dean of Everton FC, scores a record 60 goals in a season in the leagues top-flight division
- 1928 Everton FC are the Football League Champions for the 3rd time
- 1932 The first purpose-built boxing stadium was opened in Bixteth Street
- 1933 Dr R.J. Minnitt at Liverpool's Maternity Hospital uses gas and air in childbirth for the first time
- 1933 Foundation stone of Liverpool’s Roman Catholic Cathedral laid
- 1933 Liverpool Airport (now John Lennon Airport) opened at Speke
- 1933 Everton FC wins the FA Cup for the 2nd time. Everton 3-0 Manchester City
- 1934 Liverpool Police are the first force to use two-way radios
- 1934 Tatler, on Church Street, is first provincial news theatre
- 1934 Mersey road tunnel opens. At 2.3 miles (3.7 km) long, it is the longest subaqueous road tunnel in the world.
- 1934 - Everton FC are the Football League Champions for the 4th time
- 1935 Everton FC are the first football team to be televised live; vs. Arsenal
- 1936 The Liverpool Corporation Act is the first giving the council the right to buy, sell and develop land
- 1936 Speke sees the first purpose-built municipal industrial estate
- 1937 Liverpool's population reached 867,000
- 1939 Everton FC are the Football League Champions for the 5th time
- 1943 Richard Burton makes his theatrical debut at the Royal Court
- 1944 Chung Hua Chow Pao is Britain's first Chinese newspaper
- 1946 Liverpool FC's Jack Balmer becomes the first player to score three consecutive hat-tricks
- 1947 - Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 5th time
- 1947 The Port of Liverpool led Britain and the world in the use of radar technology to make navigation safer installing the first non-military onshore radar station in Britain
- 1948 The Mersey Ferries were the first to have a radar system for safe navigation in fog
- 1949 South Liverpool FC are the first club to permanently install and play under floodlights
- 1950 The first helicopter service flies from Liverpool to Cardiff
- 1950 HMS Ark Royal, the world’s first purpose built angled flight deck aircraft carrier, was built at Laird’s shipyard
- 1952 Hospital radio starts in Liverpool
- 1952 First package holiday flight departs from Liverpool airport
- 1952 The Albert Dock complex is listed as the largest collection of grade 1 listed buildings in the UK
- 1953 Liverpool's Lita Roza is the first woman to top the pop charts with 'How Much is that Doggy in the Window?'
- 1958 Everton FC are the first English football club to install undersoil pitch heating
- 1959 National Westminster opens the first drive-through bank in Princes Road
- 1959 Liverpool holds the UK's first mass x-ray campaign
- 1960 Martin's Bank Head Office in Liverpool is the first bank to use a computer
- 1960 The Beatles were formed in Liverpool
- 1961 St. George’s School Wallasey is the first successful 100% solar heated building in the UK. Also the most northerly substantial solar building
- 1962 The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company is the first port authority to use a computer
- 1962 The Beatles release their 1st single, Love Me Do
- 1962 The world’s first hovercraft service from Wallasey to North Wales
- 1963 The Beatles have their 1st No.1 charts single with Please Please Me
- 1963 The Beatles have their 1st No.1 charts album with the LP Please Please Me
- 1963 Everton FC are the Football League Champions for the 6th time
- 1964 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 6th time
- 1965 Liverpool FC wins the FA Cup for the 1st time. Liverpool 2-1 Leeds United
- 1966 Everton FC wins the FA Cup for the 3rd time. Everton 3-2 Sheffield Wednesday
- 1966 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 7th time
- 1967 Liverpool’s Roman Catholic Cathedral consecrated. It has the largest panel of stained glass in the world
- 1967 World's best selling poetry book published by Liverpool 8 Poets
- 1969 The Beatles are the only musicians to achieve five Diamond albums, signifying U.S. sales of 10 million copies or more
- 1970 Liverpool Museum opens the first public planetarium in the UK outside London
- 1970 Everton FC are the Football League Champions for the 7th time
- 1971 Knowsley Safari Park opens as the largest in Europe, with the largest herd of African elephants outside of Africa
- 1971 Kingsway, the second Mersey Tunnel was opened
- 1972 Seaforth Dock opened as the largest in the UK with the largest lock gates in the world
- 1972 A small section of the original 1936 Lime Street rail tunnel at Edge Hill station becomes the oldest used rail tunnel in the world, after the closure of the Crown Street Tunnel in Liverpool
- 1973 Liverpool FC wins the UEFA Cup for the 1st time
- 1973 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 8th time
- 1974 Liverpool FC wins the FA Cup for the 2nd time. Liverpool 3-0 Newcastle United
- 1976 Liverpool FC wins the UEFA Cup for the 2nd time
- 1976 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 9th time
- 1977 Liverpool FC wins the European Super Cup for the 1st time
- 1977 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 10th time
- 1978 Liverpool Anglican cathedral completed after 77 years of construction. Britain's largest, with the world's largest Gothic arches, organ and the highest and heaviest bells. Also the world’s longest nave and largest tower
- 1979 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 11th time
- 1980 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 12th time
- 1981 Liverpool FC wins the League Cup for the 1st time. Liverpool 2-1 West Ham (Replay)
- 1982 Liverpool FC wins the League Cup for the 2nd time. Liverpool 3-1 Tottenham
- 1982 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 13th time
- 1983 Liverpool FC wins the League Cup for the 3rd time. Liverpool 2-1 Manchester Utd
- 1983 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 14th time
- 1984 Liverpool FC becomes the first club to win three major trophies in one season. The League Championship (15), the League Cup and the European Cup.
- 1984 The first British International Garden Festival is held in Liverpool
- 1984 Everton FC wins the FA Cup for the 4th time. Everton 2-0 Watford
- 1985 Everton FC are the Football League Champions for the 8th time
- 1986 World’s longest mural at Alder Hey hospital
- 1986 Liverpool FC wins the FA Cup for the 3rd time. Liverpool 3-1 Everton
- 1986 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 16th time
- 1987 Everton FC are the Football League Champions for the 9th time
- 1988 Liverpool FC are the Football League Champions for the 17th time
- 1989 Liverpool FC wins the FA Cup for the 4th time. Liverpool 3-1 Everton
- 1990 The Roy Castle Foundation for Lung Cancer Research is the world's first dedicated cancer research centre.
- 1990 Liverpool FC achieves a record 18 league titles
- 1992 Liverpool FC wins the FA Cup for the 5th time. Liverpool 2-0 Sunderland
- 1995 Everton FC wins the FA Cup for the 5th time. Everton 1-0 Manchester United
- 1995 Liverpool FC wins the League Cup for the 5th time. Liverpool 2-1 Bolton
- 2001 Liverpool is named World Capital of Pop Music with 53 No. 1 chart hits since 1953.
- 2001 Liverpool FC wins the FA Cup for the 6th time. Liverpool 2-1 Arsenal
- 2001 Liverpool FC wins the League Cup for the 6th time. Liverpool 1-1 Birmingham (Pens 5-4)
- 2001 Liverpool FC wins the UEFA Cup for the 3rd time. Liverpool 5-4 Deportivo Alavés
- 2001 Liverpool FC wins the European Super Cup for the 2nd time. Liverpool 3-2 Bayern Munich
- 2003 Everton FC are the first English football club to play 100 seasons in the English top-flight division
- 2003 Liverpool FC wins the League Cup for the 7th time. Liverpool 2-0 Manchester Utd
- 2003 Liverpool JM university installs the world's largest fully robotic telescope in the Canary Islands
- 2003 Liverpool named Capital of Culture 2008
- 2004 St. Georges Hall was voted, by the European Architectural Commission, the finest public building constructed in Europe in the past 200 years
- 2004 Oldest timepiece maker in the world – Sewills. Established 1800.
- 2004 Liverpool named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO
- 2004 Liverpool was named IT and Telecommunications Capital of Europe by Foreign Direct Investment magazine
- 2005 Liverpool University discovered a new layer near the Earth's core
- 2005 Liverpool FC achieves a British record of 5 European Cup wins
- 2005 The Beatles are the only musicians to achieve six Diamond albums, signifying U.S. sales of 10 million copies or more
- 2005 Liverpool FC wins the European Super Cup for the 3rd time. Liverpool 3-1 (aet) CSKA Moscow
- 2006 World's first zoonosis research centre for animal borne diseases such as birdflue, opened in Liverpool
- 2006 The Beatles so far to date have achieved a record 20 US and 17 UK No 1 singles. They also hold the record for the most No 1 albums of all time, with 15 albums on the US Billboard. They have sold a record, of over a billion worldwide. And still counting
- 2007 World's first oscillating sculpture in Moorfields. A section of a building wall rotates in three dimensions