Timeline of Glasgow history

This article is intended to show a timeline of the history of Glasgow, Scotland, up to the present day.

500–1099

543: The 12th century Bishop Jocelyn will later claim Glasgow's monastic church was founded by Saint Kentigern, also known as Saint Mungo, in this year; he also claimed that Kentigern found at Glasgow a cemetery which Saint Ninian had hallowed

560: Jocelyn claims Mungo/Kentigern made his first bishop in this year

1100–1199

• 1114: Glasgow is a farming village, with a monastic church and water mill; the reach of Glasgow's bishops extends to Cumbria; the church is elevated to temporary cathedral status by young David of Strathclyde, later David I
• 1123: A cathedral is built over Saint Kentigern's grave, near the site of a Celtic monastery
• 1134: The churches of Saint John and the Holy Sepulchre are in the city; the church of Saint James is dedicated
• 1136: The cathedral is consecrated in the presence of David I
• c1150: The Glasgow Fair is an eight-day event
• 1153: The sacking of Glasgow, and devastation of its surrounding countryside, by Somerled, Lord of Argyll.
• c1174/c1178: William the Lion makes Glasgow an episcopal burgh of barony, and grants Bishop Jocelyn a charter
• 1179?-1199?: Bishop gives abbot and convent of Melrose a plot of land in Glasgow

1200–1299

• 1220s: Early trades in the town include fishermen, millers, bakers, cobblers, painters, and blacksmiths; wooden merchant's houses replace peasant huts
• 1233: Cathedral still under reconstruction
• 1240: Diocesan authorities deeply in debt to bankers from Florence; church over Saint Kentigern's grave being added
• 1246: Dominican order (Blackfriars) building their own church.
• 1258: Work on Kentigern's church complete
• 1274: Diocese includes Teviotdale in Dumfries
• 1286: Glasgow Bridge, made of timber, spans the River Clyde
• 1293: Saint Mary's church is in the town
• 1295: Saint Enoch's church is also in the town, and there is a second water mill beside the Gallowgate

1300–1399

• 1301: Edward I of England visits Saint Kentigern's tomb in the town. Edward forces the townspeople to make a giant wooden siege tower and supply 30 wagons to transport it to Bothwell Castle to besiege it, along with tools, iron and coal; the town has trade in salmon and herring
• 1320: There is a St Thomas's Church in the town, with a Florentine Dean
• c1330-1350: The west end of the cathedral is completed

1350: The Black Death hits the town

1400–1499

• c1400: Population estimate: 1,500-2,000
• 1410: The wooden bridge across the River Clyde is replaced by an arched stone bridge.
• 1431: William Elphinstone is born. He later obtained a papal bull for the University of Aberdeen in 1494, and introduced printing to Scotland in 1507
• 1438: Bishop's Palace is built
• 1450: Glasgow is a "burgh of regality"
• 1451: the University of Glasgow is established by bull of Pope Nicholas V, and founded by Bishop Turnbull, beside Blackfriars monastery
• 1453: John Stewart, Glasgow's first Provost, gives a grant of privileges to the university
• 1460: There is a grammar school in the city; "fulling" is carried on; an extension to the college is begun (finished 1660)
• 1464: St Nicholas Hospital is in the city
• 1471: Provands Lordship, Glasgow's oldest dwelling-house, is built
• 1475: The Greyfriars (Franciscans)are granted a tenement and lands on the High Street; St Ninian's Hospital is established
• 1478: Other stone houses are built in Glasgow
• 1492: Pope Innocent VIII makes the See of Glasgow an Archbishopric – Robert Blackadder is the city's first archbishop

1500–1599

• c1500: Population estimate is 2,500 – 3,000
• 1504: Plague hits Glasgow; the city is eleventh among Scottish burghs for taxation revenue
• c1510: The Bishop's Palace is extended
• 1516-1559: The city's craft guilds are incorporated
• 1518: The university becomes more active
• 1520: The archdiocese now includes the former diocese of Argyll
• 1525: James Houston founds the Tron Church
• 1535-1556: Glasgow pays 1.5% – 3% of total Scottish burgh taxes
• 1544: Siege of castle; estimated population is 3,000
• 1556: Estimated population c4,500
• 1560: The burgh of Glasgow is now represented in the Parliament of Scotland
• 1570: Andrew Melville rejuvenates the university
• 1574: Plague hits the city again
• c1576: The council mill is rebuilt
• 1579: The city's cathedral is saved from demolition by craftsmen threatening to riot
• 1581: Glasgow pays 66% of upper Clyde customs tax
• 1584: Plague
• 1589: Golf is played on Glasgow Green
• 1593: Emergence of the Presbytery of Glasgow in the new self-governing church
• 1594: Glasgow is now fifth in ranking of Scottish burghs, paying 4.5% of export customs

1600–1699

• 1600: Population estimates for the city vary between 5000 and 7500
• 1604: 361 craftsmen work in fourteen trades, including two surgeons and 213 merchants
• 1605: The Trades House and Merchants House combine to form the first town council
• 1610: The General Assembly approves the restoration of diocesan episcopacy in Scotland
• 1611: Glasgow becomes a royal burgh, with a population of about 7600
• 1615: The Jesuit John Ogilvy is hanged for saying Mass
• 1621: Glasgow pays 3%-10% of Scottish customs duties
• 1625: The first quay is built at Broomielaw
• 1626: The Tolbooth is constructed
• 1636: There are 120 students at the university
• 1638: Covenanters at the General Assembly plan to abolish bishops
• 1639: Glasgow the 3rd richest burgh in Scotland, one-fifth as rich as Edinburgh; Hutcheson's Hospital is founded
• 1641: Hutchesons' Grammar School is founded for orphan boys; 50 buildings erected in Trongate
• 1645: Montrose enters city, celebrates victories
• 1645-1646: Plague hits city
• 1649: Glasgow displaces Perth as Scotland's 4th trading centre; pays 6.5% of customs duties
• 1652: Major fire makes about a thousand families homeless; an early fire engine from Edinburgh helps put out the blaze
• 1655: Glasgow trades in coal, hoops, meal, oats, butter, herring, salt, paper, prunes, timber, and hides: goat, kid, and deerskins
• 1656: Glasgow is described as a "flourishing city", with "strong stone walls"
• 1659-1665: Bridgegate merchants' house is rebuilt
• 1660: A coal pit is reported in the Gorbals
• 1661: Several pits reported
• 1662: A post office opens
• 1663: Alexander Burnet is appointed archbishop
• 1668: Land is purchased for a new harbour – later Port Glasgow
• 1669: Burnet resigns the archbishopric, objects to Act of Supremacy
• 1670: Glasgow displaces Aberdeen and Dundee to become Scotland's second trade city
• 1673: Colonel Walter Whiteford opens city's first coffee house
• 1675: Magistrates take action against unauthorised prayer meetings
• 1677: Another major fire hits the city
• 1678: First stagecoaches run to Edinburgh
• 1680: The city's population is perhaps around 12,000, with 450 traders, 100 trading overseas
• 1688: Broomielaw Quay is reconstructed following dredging of the River Clyde
• 1690 Glasgow is re-chartered as a royal burgh; the city has an early Bank of Scotland branch

1700–1799

• 1702: the University of Glasgow has around 400 students
• 1706: Anti-unionists riot; Glasgow is a major smuggling port
• 1707: Act of Union

1710: The city's population is estimated to be 13,000; over 200 shops are open; much of the city is liable to flooding

• 1712: Glasgow owners own 4% of Scottish fleet, 46 vessels
• 1715: Glasgow Courant newspaper appears
• 1718: Possible date for first Glasgow vessel to sail to America
• 1719: Cotton printing has begun
• 1720: Glasgow's estimated population is 15,000
• 1721-1735: James Anderson builds "Andersontown" (modern-day Anderston) village
• 1725: Glasgow occupied by General Wade's army; protests and street violence against liquor tax
• 1726: Daniel Defoe describes Glasgow as "The cleanest and best-built city in Britain"; 50 ships a year sail to America
• 1729: The Glasgow Journal newspaper is published
• 1730: The Glasgow Linen Society is formed
• 1735: The city's ship-owners own 67 ships
• 1736: The first history of Glasgow is published by John McUre
• 1737-1760: A new Town Hall is built west of the Tolbooth
• 1738: The Anderston Weavers' Society is formed
• 1740: Approximately 685,000 m of linen is made in Glasgow, some of which is sent to London
• 1740-1741: The Foulis brothers begin printing
• 1742: Delft pottery is manufactured in the city
• 1743: The Foulis brothers become printers to the university
• 1745: Tennents open a new brewery in Glasgow
• 1749: A stage coach service opens between Edinburgh and Glasgow
• 1750: There are five sugar refineries in the city
• 1751: The John Smith bookshop is established
• 1753: Foulis Academy is established at the university to promote art and design; turnpiking of main roads from Glasgow; the city's involvement in the tobacco trade is reflected in the naming of Virginia Street
• 1755: The estimated population of Glasgow is 23,500
• 1757: 2.2 million metres of linen are produced in the city
• 1760: Glasgow enjoys a wave of prosperity; there are 13 professors at Glasgow University
• 1763: David Dale opens a draper's shop in the city; regular coaches run from Glasgow to Greenock
• 1765: Joseph Black discovers latent heat
• 1769: Tennents brewers is now a large industry; James Watt patents his steam engine condenser
• 1771: The Scottish economy is boosted by trade through Glasgow
• 1775: Trade with America in tobacco, sugar, and cotton – the city's prosperity is at its height
• 1776: Adam Smith, a professor at Glasgow University, publishes Wealth of Nations
• 1779: Mobs protest against the Catholic Relief Act
• 1780: The construction of the Forth and Clyde Canal is completed
• 1781: Vessels of over 30 tons can now reach Broomielaw Quay
• 1782-1783: The Forth and Clyde Canal enables grain from London to ease famine in Glasgow
• 1783: Glasgow Chamber of Commerce is founded by Patrick Colquhoun – the first in Britain
• 1785: A hot air balloonist flies from Glasgow to Hawick in the Borders; the firm of Thomsons is formed as bankers
• 1796: The Royal Technical College (which will later become The University of Strathclyde) is founded
• 1798: The Merchant Banking Company of Glasgow fails
• 1799: Demonstrations over bread prices; trade in tobacco and rum declines

1800–1899

• 1800: The River Clyde is 14 ft (3.1m) deep, and supports 200 wharves and jetties; there is a large Gaelic community in the city
• 1800: The Glasgow Police Act is passed by Parliament allowing the creation of the first modern preventative police force
• 1803: Dorothy Wordsworth visits Glasgow
• 1807: Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery opens off the high street, adjacent to the then campus of Glasgow University
• 1809: General Association of Operative Weavers is formed
• 1810-1814: Glasgow Asylum for Lunatics is built in Dobbies Loan
• 1813: Weavers fail in bid for fair wages
• 1814: Glasgow Green is Europe's first public park
• 1815: The Glasgow Herald is published twice-weekly
• 1818: Public supply of gas begins in the city
• 1820: "Radical War"
• 1825: the University of Glasgow, still located in the High Street, has over 1200 students and about 30 professors; 10 coaches run to Edinburgh daily
• 1827: The Argyll Arcade opens
• 1828: James Beaumont Neilson makes breakthrough in iron-smelting technology; a total abstinence society is formed
• 1832: The city benefits from increased representation under the Great Reform Bill
• 1835–1874: The Liberals represents Glasgow in Parliament
• 1836: The Forth and Clyde Canal has increased traffic in goods and passengers
• 1837: Violent cotton-spinners strike; the leaders are sentenced to transportation
• 1841: Chartist demonstration is addressed by Fergus O'Connor
• 1842: Glasgow slums "the filthiest in Britain"; opening of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and Glasgow Queen Street railway station
• 1843: Disruption of the Church of Scotland
• 1844: Glasgow Stock Exchange opens
• 1846: Burgh boundaries are more than doubled to 5,063 acres (20.49 km²)
• 1848: 100,000 people gather on Glasgow Green to support Chartists
• 1851: Glasgow is Scotland's largest city, with a population of 329,096; over 18% are Irish-born; Portland St suspension footbridge is built
• 1851–1854: Victoria Bridge is built at Stockwell Street
• 1858–1859: St Vincent Street Church is built by Alexander "Greek" Thomson
• 1859: Loch Katrine water supply is opened by Queen Victoria
• 1863: Dr Henry Littlejohn becomes the city's first medical officer
• 1865: Dr Edward William Pritchard is the last person to be publicly hanged in the city, for poisoning his wife and mother-in-law
• 1866: The City Improvement Trust clears slums and constructs new roads and buildings
• 1867: Queen's Park F.C. is founded
• 1868-1870: The University of Glasgow buildings at Gilmorehill are built to designs by George Gilbert Scott
• 1872: Rangers F.C. is founded
• 1876: Partick Thistle F.C. is founded
• 1883: The Boys' Brigade is founded
• 1887: Celtic F.C. is founded
• 1888: International Exhibition (1888)
• 1896: Opening of the Glasgow Subway

1900–1999

• 1901: Glasgow International Exhibition (1901)
• 1902: 20 football fans die in the first Ibrox disaster; magistrates ban barmaids
• 1903: Charles Rennie Mackintosh builds Miss Cranston's Tearooms
• 1904: The Kings' and Pavilion Theatres open
• 1905: Theatre Royal opens
• 1905–1907: The Caledonian Railway extends the Central Hotel
• 1907–1911: New buildings for the Mitchell Library are constructed
• 1909: Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art opens
• 1910: Emigration leads to 20,000 housing vacancies in Glasgow
• 1911: International Exposition (Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry) at Kelvingrove; Glasgow's population is 785,000
• 1914: Tramcars cover wide routes around Glasgow
• 1919: Large strike for a 40-hour week. Home Secretary Winston Churchill orders the army with tanks into Glasgow's George Sq whilst Glasgow soldiers are confined to barracks.
• 1921: Sinn Féiners murder policeman
• 1923: Glasgow railways are grouped as part of the new London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS)
• 1925: There are approximately 200 miles (320 km) of tramlines and 1100 trams in and around the city
• 1926: Violence during General Strike
• 1929: Hogmanay cinema fire causes stampede which kills 69 children in Glen Cinema; Glasgow has nearly 100 cinemas
• 1931: The Glasgow population peaks at 1,088,000 thus becoming Britain's 2nd biggest city.
• 1932: The Dental Hospital in Sauchiehall Street is built
• 1934: Unemployed "Hunger marchers" shunned by Ramsay MacDonald; RMS Queen Mary launched
• 1935: Glasgow's subway becomes electric
• 1936: Overcrowding exists in 29% of Glasgow's houses
• 1937: Citywide automatic telephone dialling becomes available
• 1938: Glasgow hosts Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938 at Bellahouston Park
• 1939: World War II: Glasgow naval base HMS Spartiate opens
• 1940: Bomb hits Merkland Street subway station, closes underground for four months
• 1941: Bombing raids on Clydebank, 500 killed
• 1944: Glasgow trams carry about 14 million passengers
• 1946: Glasgow naval base HMS Spartiate closes
• 1949: Trolley buses introduced, condemned by pedestrians as the "whispering death"
• 1950: Eye infirmary demolished
• 1951: Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) is formed by merger
• 1952-1955: Union Bank of Scotland absorbed by Bank of Scotland
• 1958: William Burrell dies, bequeaths Burrell Collection; Lanarkshire County Council moves its headquarters from Ingram Street to Hamilton
• 1960: Duke Street prison closed; Glasgow electric Blue Train system starts
• 1962: Last route of the Glasgow Corporation Tramways closes
• 1964: University of Strathclyde established; Beeching closes low-level (Argyle) line
• 1966: Buchanan Street and St Enoch railway stations close
• 1967: Celtic F.C. first British winners of European Cup; RMS QE2 launched; trolley-buses withdrawn
• 1969: Last daily steamers from Bridge Wharf
• 1970: M8 motorway and Kingston Bridge open
• 1971: 66 football fans die in the second Ibrox disaster; Government refuse to save Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
• 1975: British Army tackle rubbish caused by dustmans strike; Glasgow becomes the home of Strathclyde Region's headquarters; the city sees the start of Britain's first mass-circulation daily newspaper workers' cooperative when the Scottish Daily News opens in Albion Street in May, as well as the country's first newspaper work-in when it folds after six months.
• 1977: Glasgow Subway closes for extensive modernisation (reopening in 1980)
• 1978: The Rev Geoff Shaw, first Convener of Strathclyde Regional Council (and former leader of Glasgow Corporation), dies in office aged 52
• 1979-1980: Low level Argyle Line re-opens
• 1982: Roy Jenkins wins Hillhead by-election for the newly formed Social Democratic Party
• 1983: Burrell Collection opens; launch of the Glasgow's miles better campaign
• 1985: Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre opens; Glasgow population is 734,000
• 1988: The Glasgow Garden Festival hosts this year's National Garden Festival and attracts 4.3 million visitors.
• 1989: High number of poll tax arrears; St Enoch Centre opens
• 1990: Cultural city of Europe; McLellan Galleries re-opens; Glasgow Royal Concert Hall completed; the QE2 returns to the river Clyde to mark the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Cunard Steam Ship Company.
• 1993: Glasgow Caledonian University established; Opening of the new St Mungo's Museum, the UK's only Museum of Religion, next to the city's 13th century cathedral.
• 1996: Glasgow Festival of Visual Arts; opening of the Gallery of Modern Art in the former Stirling's Library; first Glasgow International Festival of Design
• 1996–1999: Festival of Architecture and Design
• 1997: Opening of new £38 million Clyde Auditorium at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre.
• 1999: Glasgow is UK City of Architecture and Design; Buchanan Galleries open; millennium celebrations; The Rt Hon Donald Dewar (MP and MSP for Glasgow Anniesland) become the first First Minister of Scotland

2000–2015

• 2002: Final of UEFA Champion's League held at Hampden Park. Real Madrid beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1.
• 2002: 2002 Glasgow floods: 200 people evacuated from Greenfield and Shettleston, contaminated water supply affects 140,000 residents across the city.
• 2004: Stockline Plastics factory explosion, Nine people dead, 37 injured, 15 seriously.
• 2005: The city launches a bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
• 2006: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum reopens after its three-year, £27.9million restoration.
• 2007: Final of UEFA Cup held at Hampden Park on 16 May, Scotland's first terrorist attack after the Lockerbie bombing fails at Glasgow Airport, Glasgow awarded 2014 Commonwealth Games
• 2011: Glasgow Subway modernisation works begin with refurbishment of Hillhead subway station.
• 2012: Glasgow hosts the preliminary football matches of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
• 2013: 2013 Glasgow helicopter crash: A police helicopter crashes into the Clutha Vaults pub in central Glasgow, killing 10 and injuring 32.
• 2014: 2014 Commonwealth Games take place in Glasgow.
• 2014: 2014 Glasgow bin lorry crash: A Glasgow City Council bin lorry collides with pedestrians in Queen Street; 6 people are killed and 10 injured.

See also

• Glasgow
• Scotland
• History of Scotland
• Timeline of Scottish history

References

• The Oxford Companion to Scottish History, ed. Michael Lynch, Oxford University Press, 2001
• The Making of Scotland, Robin Smith, Canongate Books, 2001
• The Hutchinson Encyclopedia, 1997 ed., Helicon Publishing Ltd, 1996
• Chronicle of Britain, Chronicle Communications Ltd, 1992
• Glasgow Guide

Further reading

Published in the 18th century

• . (1871 reprint)
• . (1887 reprint)

Published in the 19th century

• • 1818 ed.
  • 1825 ed.

Published in the 20th century