1247 A market is granted permission by the King to be held at West Ham on Tuesdays

1308 First recorded Woolwich Ferry

1723 West Ham Church School opens, the first school in the area

1730 Dick Turpin steals two Oxen from a farmer he is working for at Plaistow, the start of his career as a thief and highwayman

1766 Sarah Bonnell dies leaving £3,500 in her will to set up a school for poor girls in the area

1776 First record of The Greengate public house on Barking Road

1809 The famous prison reformer Elizabeth Fry moves to Plashet House in East Ham. You can see her picture on the reverse of any English £5 note

1846 CJ Mare (later Thames Ironworks) engineering and shipbuilding company opens in Canning Town

1850 Rare Norman paintings of roses are discovered on the walls of St Mary Magdalene Church, East Ham

1852 SW Silver establishes a rubber company by the River Thames, founding Silvertown

1855 Prince Albert opens the Royal Victoria Dock

1860 HMS Warrior launches from Thames Ironworks - at the time the largest warship afloat

1861 West Ham, Stratford and South Essex Dispensary (later Queen Mary's Hospital) opens in Stratford

1862 Stratford Co-op open their first shop in Maryland Street

1878 Henry Tate's sugar firm comes to Thames Wharf

1880 Royal Albert Dock opens

1881 Abram Lyle starts a syrup firm at Plaistow Wharf, Silvertown


1884 Theatre Royal opens in Stratford

1892 Keir Hardie is elected as MP in West Ham South, becoming the first ever Labour MP in Britain

1895 Thames Iron Works football team (later to become West Ham United) play their first match

1898 West Ham becomes the first labour controlled Council in Britain

1898 Public electricity supply service is established

1899 A whale is beached at North Woolwich after swimming up the Thames


1900 West Ham United Football Club founded

1902 The District Line is extended to East Ham

1912 The Woolwich Foot Tunnel, crossing under the Thames from Woolwich to North Woolwich in Newham, is opened.

1903 King George V and Queen Mary officially open Newham Town Hall on Barking Road

1904 West Ham electric trams begin operating

1905 Plaistow is connected to the telephone service

1905 The Prince and Princess of Wales open the new East Ham Technical Institute

1906 Plaistow Triangle Camp established by unemployed men as a protest against the Government

1907 More than 1,000 unemployed residents emigrate to Australia and Canada on Government advice to solve unemployment problems in the area

1909 Forest Gate Public Hall becomes the first roller skating rink in the borough

1909 First purpose built cinema opens in Canning Town

1911 The largest Warship afloat, HMS Thunderer, is launched at Thames Ironworks

1914 100,000 local men, many escaping unemployment, serve in the armed forces during WWI


1915 Air raids on London begin

1916 Jack Cornwell, a local resident, dies in the battle of Jutland aged just 16. He is awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery and Jack Cornwell Street in Manor Park is named after him

1918 Food rationing introduced

1921 King George V Dock opened by King George V

1921 The two firms of Tate's and Lyle's join to make one of the world's largest sugar refiners

1922 New paddle steamer ferries - Squires and Gordon replace old ones on the Woolwich Free Ferry service

1923 West Ham United play Bolton Wanderers in the first ever Wembley FA Cup Final, with a record crowd of 150-200,000

1923 Whitfield & Co convert the old tram depot into a chocolate factory in Plaistow

1926 School leaving age raised to 15 for all West Ham children

1929 East Ham Memorial Hospital officially opened by Queen Mary

1936 Five members of the British Olympic water polo team come from Plaistow Swimming Club

1936 Daisy Parsons becomes the first woman Mayor

1937 Albert Dock Hospital opens, replacing the original Seamen's Hospital

1939 48,000 children and expectant mothers are evacuated throughout the year to the safety of the countryside

1939 SS Mauritania enters King George V dock after her first Atlantic crossing, with only inches to spare at the lock gates

1940 First German bombs hit West Ham in August

1940 September London Blitz starts. St John's Church, Hallsville Road School, Silvertown School and Beckton Road schools are all bombed

1944 East Ham singer Vera Lynn becomes the 'forces sweetheart' by travelling to Burma to sing to British troops stationed in the jungle

1945 May VE Day and August VJ Day. Spontaneous parties occur in nearly every street in the borough

1946 Central Line opens between Liverpool Street and Stratford

1947 Keir Hardie estate in Canning Town is opened in attempt to solve the housing shortage left by the blitz

1953 Street parties are thrown throughout the borough to celebrate the Queen's coronation

1961 First tower blocks appear in Canning Town

1963 Beatles appear at Granada, East Ham

1964 West Ham United beat Preston North End 3-2 in the FA Cup Final

1964 Bond film Goldfinger is released starring Plaistow born Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore

1965 The boroughs of West Ham and East Ham join to become the London Borough of Newham

1965 West Ham United beat TSV Munich to win the European Cup Winners' Cup at Wembley

1965 Three members of the Rolling Stones are arrested at a Stratford garage

1966 Three West Ham United players - Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters - are in the England team that win the World Cup

1966 Manor Park band Small Faces hit the top of the UK charts with their single All Or Nothing

1970s Trebor Sharpe, the famous confectioners, closed its East Ham factory.


1975 West Ham United beat Fulham 2-0 to win the FA Cup

1980 West Ham United beat Arsenal 1-0 in the FA Cup Final

1982 Thames Barrier begins operating

1987 Official opening of London City Airport by the Queen

1987 Stanley Kubrick transformed Gallions Reach, the site of the old Beckton Gas Works, into a Vietnam film set for Full Metal Jacket

1987 London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) sign an agreement to work together with Newham Council to regenerate the borough

1992 The University of East London is founded

1996 Stratford-based fashion designer Alexander McQueen becomes the youngest 'British Designer of the Year'

1997 New Canning Town Bus/DLR/Rail interchange station opened

1999 University of East London's new campus opens beside the Royal Docks



1999 The appearance of the Millennium Dome greatly changes the view across the river

1999 Stratford-born Lennox Lewis becomes undisputed heavyweight champion of the world

2000 ExCeL Conference and Exhibition Centre opens next to Royal Victoria Dock

2000 Thames Barrier Park is opened by Ken Livingstone, London's first elected Mayor

2000 The rebuilt Stratford Station is completed

2001 Newham has been named as the most ethnically diverse borough in Britain in the 2001 census figures with more than 110 languages spoken

2002 Sir Robin Wales becomes Newham's first elected Mayor

2002 HRH Princess Royal attends Newham City Farm's 25th birthday celebrations

2002

2002 Queen Elizabeth II visits Newham during her Golden Jubilee year and officially opens West Ham United's Dr Martens Stand

2002 Theatre Royal, Stratford East reopens after extensive refurbishment

2003 The British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA) national conference is held in Newham highlighting the success of regeneration projects in the borough

2003 The Your Newham Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) is allocated £13.33million to work with local organisations to improve the quality of life in Newham, the highest amount allocated in London

2004

2004 100 children join celebrities from the world of sport, television and music to help pledge Newham Council's support to winning the 2012 Olympics

2005 The International Olympic Committee tour the proposed Games site

2005 West Ham United are promoted back to the Premiership after winning the Championship Play Off Final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium

2005 Forest Lane Park, Stratford Park and Central Park all receive the prestigious Green Flag Award, the national standard of excellence for parks and green spaces in England and Wales

2005 London wins the right to host the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. Newham celebrates as a host borough

2005 The Queen joins the Mayor for a tour of the Olympic area

2006 The Government approves a £200 million programme to rebuild and refurbish all of Newham's secondary schools

2006 Newham Council has been recognised as a centre of excellence in the way it involves hard to reach groups in culture and sport. The borough has been awarded Beacon Council status

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