Chronology of the Coventry Area
(1900 - present)
| 1901 | Census - population of Coventry: 62,000 |
| 1901 | First definite record
of films shown in Coventry at the Hertford Street Empire. Boer
War (1899-1902) news pictures also shown |
| 1904 | Courtaulds sets
up in Foleshill, Coventry |
| 1904 | First Rover cars produced in the
city |
| 1907 | Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine, born in Coventry |
| 1910 | BSA takes over Daimler |
| 1911 | Sinking of Coventry
Colliery - the associated rail branch was built in 1919 |
| 1911 | Five cinemas open in Coventry during the year |
| 1914-18 | World War I |
| 1916 | GEC opens
factory at Copsewood Grange - now New Century Business Park |
| 1918 | Coventry created a separate Diocese |
| 1918 | Geoffrey de Freville
founds Alvis for tank and aero parts |
| 1919 | Broadgate riots - reflecting
the discontent over the post war inflation and unemployment |
| 1919 | Coventry City Football Club elected into the Second Division of the Football (Soccer) League from the Southern League |
| 1928 | Local Government reforms add 3,530 hectares to the area of the city |
| 1930 | Lady Herbert's Garden opened in Coventry |
| 1931 | The super Gaumont Cinema opens in Coventry |
| 1935 | Technical
College opened in Coventry |
| 1936 | Coventry Airport opened |
| 1938 | Hawker
Aircraft Company merges with Armstrong Siddeley Ltd to form Hawker
Siddeley Aircraft company based at Bagington Airport, Coventry |
| 1939-45 | World War II |
| 1939-45 | War took timber from the Coventry area woods including Wrautums Wood conifer plantation |
| 1940 | Nylon yarn first produced in UK in Coventry |
| 1940 | 14 November: Coventry City centre destroyed in a German air raid attack. In subsequent raids the city suffered
further extensive damage |
| 1942-5 | Lancaster Bombers built at Bagington |
| 1946 | June: The levelling stone laid in Coventry City centre marking the start of reconstruction |
| 1948 | Princess Elizabeth opens the
Broadgate area |
| 1948-9 | Bagington Airport became a key maintenance
centre in the Berlin Air Lift |
| 1955 | Coventry is booming, unemployment
at its post-1945 lowest: 526 people or a rate of 0.3% |
| 1958 | Belgrade Theatre opened |
| 1958 | The Circular Market Hall opened |
| 1960 | Herbert Art Gallery opened |
| 1960 | M6 to the north of Coventry opened |
| 1961 | Criterion Theatre opened in Earlsdon |
| 1963 | Coventry's new Cathedral
consecrated |
| 1965 | University of Warwick opened in Coventry |
| 1966 | Coombe Abbey Country Park opened to public (115 hectares) |
| 1973 | An ancient hand held axe thought to be 60,000 years old found in the Brandon Marsh Nature Centre |
| 1974 | Inner ring road completed
- the first in the UK |
| 1974 | Reform of local government: Coventry
becomes part of the new West Midlands county - further extension
of the city by 1,894 hectares to 9,654 hectares |
| 1976 | City Centre Sports Centre opened |
| 1979 | Peugeot acquires the Rootes Group |
| 1980 | Radio Mercia starts to broadcast |
| 1980-1983 | Severe slump in the city's economy - unemployment rises to over 20% |
| 1984 | Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher opened the University of Warwick Science Park |
| 1985 | Coventry Cable TV begins operating |
| 1986 | West Midlands County
abolished. Coventry becomes, de facto, a County Borough again |
| 1987 | Coventry City Football Club win the FA Cup for the first time |
| 1988 | Westwood Business Park opened. Barclays Bank announces their relocation to the Park |
| 1989 | Coventry Eastern By pass (A46) opened
leading to the development of Cross Point Business Park, Leofric Business Park and Binley Business Park |
| 1990 | Coventry-Warwickshire
Radio (CWR) and Radio Harmony begin to broadcast |
| 1990 | Kuwait invaded
by Iraq leading to the Gulf War in 1991. Coventry based Matrix Churchill, an Iraqi owned firm, taken over. The government involvement with the firm later caused a stir: Scott Enquiry 1995 |
| 1990 | Cathedral Lanes, development financed by Kuwait Investment Office, opened |
| 1991 | West Orchards Shopping Centre opened |
| 1991 | 19th Census, population
of Coventry: 306,000 (adjusted) |
| 1991 | M40 opened |
| 1992 | Coventry
Polytechnic awarded University status as Coventry University |
| 1994 | Coventry Colliery, the city's last pit, closed by British Coal in 1993, taken over by Coal Investments Plc as a private pit, one of the first privatised pits in the UK |
| 1996 | Coventry celebrates the
Centenary of the Motor Car - 100 years since the first British produced car was built in Coventry |
© 1996 Coventry City Council. City Development Directorate. Myles Mackie
Page updated 20.10.96 by Ecosaurus: coventry@ecosaurus.co.uk