For further dates of industries, population and churches etc. please see the relevant pages.
This list is only a start and is being added to regularly. Eventually, I will be expanding the descriptions of many of the currently sparsely commentated events. I hope that for the present it will at least serve as a useful reference.
| Year | Event |
 | |
| 1548 | Hammer mill built at Handsworth |
| 1591 | First furnace for melting and casting iron built at Hol Brook, Perry Barr |
| 1615 | Second furnace for melting and casting iron built at Hockley Brook, Aston |
| 1635 | Building of Aston Hall completed |
| 1643 | Government troops plunder Birmingham in the Civil War |
| 1683 | 202 forges in the town |
| 1690 | Original church of St Martin modernized |
| 1726 | First Turnpike Act, subsequent revenue enables roads to be improved |
| 1728 | Matthew Boulton born |
| ca.1742 | Aris's Gazette established, Birmingham's first newspaper |
| 1762 | Boulton's Soho Works completed |
| 1765 | Taylor's and Lloyd's bank opened at Dale End |
| 1765 | Lunar Circle formed (renamed 1775 Lunar Society) |
| 1768 | Birmingham Canal Act leads to Birmingham linking with Bristol and Liverpool via Stourbridge |
| 1769 | Street Commission established |
| 1772 | Papier mâché patented by Henry Clay |
| 1773 | Assay Office opened |
| 1774 | Watt and Boulton form their partnership |
| 1775 | John Taylor dies |
| 1779 | General Hospital opens with about 100 beds |
| 1779 | St Philip's consecrated |
| 1779 | Birmingham Library formed by 19 subscribers |
| 1781 | William Hutton's (b. Derby 1723) History of Birmingham first published |
| 1781 | Birmingham Metal Company set up by brass makers |
| 1783 | Birmingham Commercial Committee formed |
| 1783 | Control of Birmingham's poor law transferred from the parish to the Board of Guardians |
| 1786 | Development of the Calthorpe Estate begins |
| 1790 | Birmingham Mining and Copper Company formed |
| 1791 | Priestley Riots |
| 1792 | Dispensary founded in Temple Row |
| 1794 | Drought and subsequent poor harvest |
| 1796 | Boulton & Watt build a new foundry at Soho |
| 1800 | Riots at protest against potato and bread prices |
| 1800 | Philosophical Institution formed (Cannon Street building opened in 1814) |
| 1809 | Matthew Boulton dies |
| 1811 | John Bright born in Rochdale |
| 1812 | Attwood's campaign against the government's Orders in Council |
| 1812 | Deaf and Dumb Asylum opened |
| 1813 | Gun Proof House opened |
| 1813 | Erdington National School, High Street Erdington, opened |
| 1814 | Academy of Arts formed |
| 1816 | The radical working-class Hampden Club founded by George Edmonds |
| 1817 | John Gosling erects the first gasworks and lays pipes through Birmingham |
| 1820 | Theatre Royal rebuilt in New Street with seating for 2,500 people |
| 1823 | Fever Hospital opened |
| 1823 | Eye Hospital opened at Cannon Street. In 1883 it moves to Temple Row |
| 1824 | Cadbury's Chocolate Factory established |
| 1825 | Birmingham and Staffordshire Gas Light Company opens in West Bromwich |
| 1825 | Radical Birmingham Journal founded |
| 1826 | Birmingham Waterworks Company established by Act of Parliament |
| 1826 | Birmingham Mechanics' Institute founded but closed due to debt in 1842 |
| 1830 | Birmingham Temperance Society formed |
| 1831 | Church rate abolished by radicals |
| 1832 | Birmingham becomes a parliamentary borough with 2 MPs |
| 1832 | Botanical gardens opened |
| 1833 | Owen's altruistic Equitable Labour Exchange opened for the relief of poverty |
| 1834 | Athenic Institute opened for public sports |
| 1835 | Market Hall opened |
| 1835 | Municipal Corporation Act passed. This led to Birmingham receiving a charter in 1838 |
| 1836 | Birmingham Church Building Society founded |
| 1837 | Elkington's electroplating works opened in Newhall Street |
| 1837 | Victoria acceeds to the throne |
| 1837 | Birmingham to Liverpool (-Manchester) railway line opened |
| 1838 | Birmingham receives a charter of incorporation making it a municipal borough |
| 1838 | Edgbaston, Bordesley (incl. Duddeston and Nechells) incorporated into Birmingham |
| 1838 | Birmingham (Curzon Street) to London railway line opened |
| 1838 | New King Edward Grammar School opened in New Street (founded 1552 by Edward VI) |
| 1839 | Anti-Corn Law League founded in Manchester |
| 1841 | Birmingham & Edgbaston Proprietary School opened at Hagley Road, Five Ways |
| 1842 | Birmingham to Derby railway line opened |
| 1843 | All Saints School opened |
| 1843 | Hebrew National School established in Hurst Street |
| 1843 | Polytechnic Institution founded but closed due to debt in 1848 |
| 1845 | The Chartist John Mason institutes the Central Committee of Trades to coordinate strike activity |
| 1848 | Public Health Act leads to an investigation of health conditions |
| 1849 | Cholera epidemic |
| 1850 | Birmingham Free Industrial School opened in Gem Street |
| 1851 | Improvement Act leads to the municipal corporation taking over sole responsibility for public amenities |
| 1851 | St Martin's Market opened in Jamaica Row |
| 1851 | General Institution for the Blind opened |
| 1851 | 35.5% of Birmingham children 5–15 attend day school |
| 1851 | New Theatre opened in Moor Street but closed again in 1856 |
| 1852 | Workhouse opened in Winson Green |
| 1852 | Midland Institute formed |
| 1853 | Tonks' Colosseum opened at Bingley Hall |
| 1854 | Aston Railway Station opened |
| 1854 | New Street Station opened |
| 1855 | Birmingham & Midland Institute opened to provide a wide range of education, mainly industrial |
| 1856 | Adderley Park (10 acres) opened to the public |
| 1856 | Royal Musical Hall Operetta House opened (orig. as "Music Hall") |
| 1857 | Calthorpe Park (31 acres) opened to the public |
| 1857 | John Bright returned unopposed as MP for Birmingham |
| 1857 | John Frederick Feeney starts the Birmingham Daily Post (late Birmingham Post) |
| 1858 | Aston Park (50 acres) opened by Queen Victoria to the public |
| 1858 | Reformers' Union formed (first meeting held at the Town Hall) |
| 1860 | Woodcock Street baths opened |
| 1861 | Charles Edge completes the building of Birmingham Town Hall |
| 1861 | BSA builds the Small Heath factory |
| 1861 | First Free Public Library opened on Constitution Hill with 6,500 volumes |
| 1862 | 2,000 children under 10 years in employment |
| 1862 | Sutton Coldfield railway station opened |
| 1862 | Northwood Street baths opened |
| 1862 | Handsworth Grammar School opened as The Bridge Trust School |
| 1865 | Birmingham Athletic Club formed |
| 1865 | Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery opened. In 1878 it moves to Aston Hall |
| 1865 | Exchange opened in a building by Edward Holmes at Stephenson Place/New Street |
| 1866 | Birmingham Trades Council formed at the Tamworth Arms in Moor Street |
| 1867 | Factory Act regulates working hours |
| 1867 | Birmingham Education Society and National Education League formed |
| 1868 | Josiah Mason's Erdington Orphanage School opened |
| 1869 | Amendment to the Reform Act on 1867 enfranchises all householders to vote in municipal elections |
| 1869 | Wholesale fishmarket opened corner of High Street and Bell Street |
| 1870 | Forster's Education Act |
| 1870 | Birmingham Daily Mail founded by John Feeney and John Jaffray |
| 1873 | First tramline opened from Colmore Row to Hockley by Birmingham and District Tramway Company |
| 1873 | Cannon Hill Park (57 acres) donated by Louisa Anne Ryland |
| 1874 | Aston Villa Football Club formed |
| 1874 | Harborne railway station opened |
| 1875 | Artisans' Dwellings Act leads to the demolition of the worst slums |
| 1875 | Public Health Act |
| 1875 | Gas Committee formed with Chamberlain as Chairman |
| 1876 | Tame and Rea District Drainage Board established to improve drainage |
| 1876 | King's Norton railway station opened |
| 1876 | Highgate Park (8 acres) opened |
| 1876 | Summerfield Park (12 acres) opened |
| 1877 | Burbury Street Recreation Ground (4 acres) opened |
| 1878 | 3 year work starts on the building of Corporation Street through the worst slums |
| 1879 | Yeoville Thomason's Council House opened in Colmore Row |
| 1879 | Small Heath Park (41 acres) opened |
| 1880 | Mason College opened - later becomes Birmingham University |
| 1880 | Handsworth College opens |
| 1884 | Saltley filtration plant reconstructed |
| 1884 | Vegetable Market opened in Smithfield |
| 1885 | Jaffray Hospital, Wood End Lane, Erdington, opened |
| 1885 | Art Gallery opened |
| 1888 | John Bright dies |
| 1889 | Queen Victoria declares Birmingham a city |
| 1889 | Victoria Law Courts opened in Corporation Street |
| 1890 | General Post Office built at Victoria Square |
| 1891 | Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital opened in Edmund Street |
| 1891 | Harborne, Balsall Heath, Saltley and Little Bromwich brought into the city |
| 1896 | Handsworth Wood railway station opened. It closed again in 1941 |
| 1901 | Queen Victoria dies |
| 1907 | Grove Lane Baths, Handsworth, opened |
| 1909 | Quinton incorporated into Birmingham |
| 1911 | Handsworth, Aston, Erdington, King's Norton, Northfield and Yardley incorporated into Birmingham |
| 1928 | Perry Barr incorporated into Birmingham |
| 1931 | Castle Bromwich (west), Lyndon, Minworth (west) and North Sheldon incorporated into Birmingham |
| 1964 | Bull Ring shopping centre opened by Prince Philip |
| 1974 | Birmingham becomes part of the newly formed county of West Midlands |
