Olympic Charter
Between 1862 and 1867, Liverpool held an annual Grand Olympic Festival. Devised by [[John Hulley]] and Charles Melly, these games were the first to be wholly amateur in nature and international in outlook. The programme of the first modern Olympiad in [[Athens]] in 1896 was almost identical to that of the Liverpool Olympics. In 1865, Hulley co-founded the National Olympian Association in Liverpool, a forerunner of the [[British Olympic Association]]. Its articles of foundation provided the framework for the [[Olympic Charter|International Olympic Charter]].