# Timeline of Brighton

The following is a timeline of the history of Brighton, England.

## 18th century

| Year | Event |
| 1730s | Richard Russell begins to prescribe the medicinal use of seawater at Brighthelmstone for his patients |
| 1771 | Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn, and brother of George III, visits Brighton |
| 1786 | George, Prince of Wales, and the future George IV rents a farmhouse in Brighton |
| 1787 | George, Prince of Wales, and the future George IV begins construction of the Royal Pavilion |

## 19th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1823 | | Brighton's first pier, the Chain Pier, is built. |
| 1828 | 11 June | Sussex County Hospital (now Royal Sussex County Hospital) opens in Brighton |
| 1837 | 27 March | Death of Maria Fitzherbert, longtime companion of the future King George IV of the United Kingdom at her home in Steine House, Brighton. |
| 1839 | 1 March | Sussex County Cricket Club formed, the first county cricket club. |
| 1840 | 11 May | The first railway line in Sussex, from Brighton to Shoreham opens. |

## 20th century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 1926 | 11 May | Angry confrontations known as Battle of Lewes Road take place in Brighton during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike. |
| 1940 | | German air raids on Sussex begin, those in Brighton being known as the Brighton Blitz. |
| 1945 | 8 May | VE Day marks the end of the war in Europe. |
| 1961 | August | Charter granted to the University of Sussex, the first university in Brighton and Sussex. |
| 1965 | 14 June | Bishop David Cashman is made the first bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Arundel and Brighton. |
| 1966 | | Sussex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was designated; it was revoked in 2010 upon the establishment of the South Downs National Park. |
| 1967 | | The first Brighton Festival and Brighton Fringe are held |
| 1968 | | Sussex Police is formed. |
| 1972 | October | Sussex Gay Liberation Front holds a demonstration in favour of gay rights, a precursor to the annual Brighton Pride event |
| 1974 | April | Brighton hosts the 19th Eurovision Song Contest, where Sweden's ABBA wins with their song Waterloo at Brighton Dome. |
| 1974 | | As part of the Local Government Act 1972 the Lord Lieutenancy of Sussex replaced with one each for East and West Sussex which are made ceremonial counties. |
| 1982 | | At a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Brighton, delegates vote for a moratorium on commercial whaling. |
| 1984 | 12 October | Brighton bombing assassination attempt on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher |

## 21st century

| Year | Date | Event |
| 2000 | | Brighton and Hove is granted city status |
| 2011 | 1 April | South Downs National Park becomes fully operational. |
| 2014 | | UNESCO designates land between the Rivers Adur and Ouse to be the Brighton and Lewes Downs Biosphere Reserve, Sussex's first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. |
| 2018 | | The Rampion Wind Farm becomes operational, a wind farm that lies off the Sussex coast between Worthing and Seaford. |
| 2018 | 3 October | Prince Harry and Meghan Markle make their first official visit to Brighton as Duke and Duchess of Sussex |
| 2020 | 6 February | The first case in Brighton of COVID-19 was reported when a man who returned from Singapore and France to Brighton on 28 January |
| 2021 | March | DEFRA announces a bylaw first proposed by the Sussex IFCA to prevent trawling on 304 square kilometres (117 sq mi) of sea bed off the coast of Sussex. The law should help the rewilding and regeneration of the Sussex kelp forest. |