Year Event
1239 Diversion of River Frome to increase quayside in Bristol.
1595 Navigation School founded by Merchant Venturers.
1781 Bath astronomer William Herschel discovers Uranus using telescope of his own design.
1799 Jenner visits city to inoculate against smallpox. Pneumatic Institute opens under direction of Humphry Davy.
1809 Floating Harbour opened.
1818 McAdam appointed surveyor of Bristol roads.  
1820 Albion Dock laid out by Hilhouse, Sons & Co (originally known as New Dockyard).
1821 Bristol Gas Light Company opens new works at St Philips.
1824 Prospectus for Bath and Bristol Railway company published. First proposal for Bristol - London railway (meeting chaired by Thomas Wilson MP). Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution founded.
1825 Opening of Mechanics' Institute in Prince's Street. Bristol Dock Company taken to Court to force them to improve condition of sewers.
1827 Bristol & Gloucestershire railway begun.
1828 Bristol & Gloucestershire and Avon & Gloucestershire Railway Acts. Mr Pocock's experiments with kite power.  
1829 Old mill on Clifton Down fitted with camera obscura.  
1830 First full meeting of Clifton bridge fundraising committee (22 June).
1831 Opening of Bristol College. Meeting to propose creation of General Hospital. Brunel attends ceremony to mark start of work of Clifton Suspension Bridge (21 June).
1832 Brunel begins association with Bristol Docks Company.  
1833 First session of Bristol Medical School. Brunel made chief engineer of the newly formed Great Western Railway (7 Mar) and starts surveying the route. Modernisation of Bristol Docks.  
1834 Bristol, Clifton and West of England Zoological Society formed.
1835 Horse traction Bristol-Gloucestershire Railway in operation. Second Great Western Railway Bill passed in Parliament (31 Aug). GWR accept Brunel's broad gauge proposal (29 Oct). Brunel recommends broadening of Bristol South Lock.
1836 Bristol & Exeter Railway Act. Bristol Steam Navigation Company formed. Conrad Finzel arrives in Bristol to establish steam-driven sugar refinery. Bristol Zoological Gardens open to the public. Foundation stone for Leigh Woods abutment of Clifton Bridge laid (27 Aug). Work starts on ss Great Western in Bristol. Work starts on Box Tunnel.
1837 Launch of hull of the Great Western in Bristol (19 July).
1838 Great Western crosses the Atlantic in 15 days from Avonmouth to New York (April).
1839 Bristol & Gloucestershire Railway absorbed into Bristol & Gloucester Railway and converts from a horse tramway to a locomotive. Construction begins on Great Britain.
1841 Box Tunnel and Bristol Temple Meads station completed. Full London - Bristol route opened (30 June).
1842 Major exhibition at the Mechanics Institute.
1843 Swindon locomotive works opened (1 Feb).
1844 Railway line extended to Exeter.
1845 Opening of Bristol & Exeter station at Temple Meads. Prospectus for Bristol & South Wales Junction Railway issued. Bristol & Gloucester leased to Midland Railway. Athenaeum founded. Maiden voyage of Great Britain. Work begins on new lock at South entrance of Bristol Docks.
1846 Railway line extended to Teignmouth and Newton Abbot.  
1848 Bristol Corporation acquires ownership of the docks (responsibility of Docks Committee). New Dockyard at Chatham renamed Albion Yard.
1851 Partnership of GWR, Bristol & Exeter, and Electric Telegraph Co formed to construct telegraphic line from London to Exeter. Disastrous launch of the paddle steamer Demerara.
1852 Rendel produces plan for non-tidal basin at Avonmouth. New landing stages completed by Bathurst Basin.
1853 Steam carriage service between Bristol and Bath. Bristol United Gas Light Co formed.
1854 Narrow gauge reaches Bristol (Midland Railway).
1857 Rupert Street created by culverting the river Frome.  
1863 Work begins on Bristol & North Somerset railway. Bristol & South Wales Union Railway opened.
1864 Council endorses dock improvements scheme that includes construction of New Junction and North Entrance locks. Avonmouth pier built for railway connection to Hotwells. Launch of largest iron sailing ship - Royal Sovereign - built in port (Patterson's).
1870 Opening of University College.
1877 Completion of Avonmouth docks.
1909 University of Bristol gets Royal Charter.
1910 Founding of Bristol Aeroplane Company. Maiden flight of Bristol Boxkite.
1920 Cosmos of Fishponds staff and assets acquired by Bristol Aeroplane Company.
1932 New world altitude record set by BAC's chief test pilot in aircraft powered by Bristol Pegasus engine.
1945 Car division of BAC formed. Maiden flight of Bristol Freighter.
1949 Maiden flight of Bristol Brabazon.
1952 Maiden flight of Bristol Britannia.
1969 Concorde's maiden flight from Filton
1970 Dorothy Hodgkin, Nobel Prize winning chemist, made Chancellor of University of Bristol.  
1985 Filton-built Giotto spacecraft launched.
1992 Bristol Polytechnic gains university status.
2003 Concorde's last flight to Filton.  
2005 Maiden flight of Airbus A380.