Timeline of Cardiff history

Caer is Welsh for fort and -dyf is in effect a form of Taf (Taff), the river which flows by Cardiff Castle.

[4] 1081: William the Conqueror led an army through southern Wales and may have erected defences at Cardiff on the site of the old Roman fort.

[5] 1111: Cardiff town walls were first mentioned by Caradoc of Llancarfan in his book Brut y Tywysogion.

[3] 1315: Llywelyn Bren, a great-grandson of Ifor Bach,[9] attacked Cardiff Castle.

[3] 1574: Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, began restoration work to Cardiff Castle.

[13] 1766: John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute married into the Herberts, the great local landowning family.

[5] 1774: An Act of Parliament established the Improvement Commissioners, responsible for paving, cleaning streets and providing oil lamp lighting in Cardiff.

[5] 1794: Glamorganshire Canal opened, it ran from Merthyr Tydfil to the sea at Cardiff.

[8] 1832: A new county gaol was built in the Spital Field (the site of the present Cardiff Prison).

Thomas Revel Guest became the first elected Mayor of Cardiff[15] and also Judge of the Borough Court of Record.

The line was extended from Navigation House to Merthyr Tydfil in 1841 (the Taff Vale Railway, DSM Barrie 1969).

[16] 1855: The Taff Vale Railway began a train service from the Rhondda Valley to Cardiff.

[16] 1873: Swiss Bridge, Cardiff Castle built for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute.

[5] 1882: Opening of the new Cardiff Free Library, Museum and Schools for Science and Art in The Hayes.

[8] 1884: The Cardiff Arms Park hosted its first international match, a rugby union encounter between Wales and Ireland.

1885/6: In the rugby season, Frank Hancock Cardiff RFC, introduced new 'two-centre' tactical innovation, since adopted worldwide.

[8] 1894: Cardiff Masonic Hall Company Ltd was established after purchasing the thirty-year-old Methodist chapel at Guildford Street.

1895: The first Welsh Grand National hunt race was run at Ely Racecourse.

[8] 1913: The record amount of around 10.7 million tons of coal were exported through Cardiff docks.

[5] 1919: Four days of race riots take place in June, leading to the deaths of three men.

1932: The first miners' hunger march to start in Cardiff, left for London to protest about unemployment.

[5][25] 1941: The heaviest German Luftwaffe raid of World War II, the Cardiff Blitz, occurred; 156 people were killed.

[5] 1946: Welsh National Opera staged its first productions at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

[5][26] 1954: Cardiff Airport moved from Pengam Moors to its current home in Rhoose.

[5] 1958: The British Empire and Commonwealth Games opened at Cardiff Arms Park.

[5][29] 1967: Glamorgan County Cricket Club played their first game at Sophia Gardens, having moved from Cardiff Arms Park.

[5] 1976: James Callaghan, MP for Cardiff, became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

[5] 2008: Cardiff International Pool opened to the public at the International Sports Village in Cardiff Bay on 12 January, replacing the Wales Empire Pool that had been demolished in 1997 to make way for the Millennium Stadium.

[41] 2011: Wales voted in favour of extending the lawmaking powers of the Welsh Assembly in a national referendum.

The 2011 Census showed that the population of Cardiff was 346,100, its highest actual recorded figure.