page_title: Timeline of the history of Gibraltar
section_title: Until the Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of the history of Gibraltar / British rule / Until the Second World War
context_page_description: The history of Gibraltar portrays how The Rock gained an importance and a reputation far exceeding its size, influencing and shaping the people who came to reside here over the centuries.
context_section_description: 1814 – Outbreak of malignant fever.
  1815 – The civilian population of Gibraltar was about 10,000 people (two and a half times the size of the garrison). Genoese constituted about one-third of the civilian population (a large number of immigrants had arrived from Genoa at the beginning of the century). The rest were mainly Spaniards and Portuguese fled from the war, and Jews from Morocco.
  1817 – The first civil judge was established.
  1830 – The British government changes the status of Gibraltar from The town and garrison of Gibraltar to the Crown Colony of Gibraltar. Thus, the responsibility for its administration is transferred from the War Office to the new Colonial Office.
  Legal institutions and the Gibraltar Police Force were established.
  1832 – The Church of the Holy Trinity, built for the needs of Anglican worshippers among Gibraltar's civil population, is completed. (Ten years later it will become the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity).
  1842 21 August – The Church of England Diocese of Gibraltar was founded by Letters Patent and took over the pastoral care of the chaplaincies and congregations from Portugal to the Caspian Sea. George Tomlinson is enthroned as the first Bishop of Gibraltar. The Church of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar becomes Cathedral for the Diocese.
  1842 – Official Coins of the Realm were struck for Gibraltar by the Royal Mint. Coins were issued in ½, 1 and 2 Quart denominations. 
  1869 – The Suez Canal was opened. It heavily increased the strategic value of the Rock in the route from the United Kingdom to India. Gibraltar economy, mainly based on commercial shipping and import-export trade, takes a new income source with the opening of a coaling station for the new steam ships.
  1891 17 March – America-bound steamer Utopia slammed in heavy weather into the iron-plated British battleship HMS Anson and sank in the Bay of Gibraltar; 576 people died.
  1894 – The construction of the dockyards started.
  1908 5 August – The British Ambassador in Madrid informed the Spanish Minister of State 'as an act of courtesy', of the British Government's intention to build a fence along the line of British sentries on the isthmus to prevent smuggling and reduce sentry duty. According to the British government, the fence was erected 1 metre inside British territory. Spain currently does not recognize the fence as the valid border, since it claims the fence was built on Spanish soil. Even though Spain, the United Kingdom and Gibraltar are all part of the European Union, the border fence is still relevant today since Gibraltar is outside the customs union. The border crossing is open 24-hours a day as required by EU law.
  1921 – Gibraltar was granted a City Council status in recognition for its contribution to the British war efforts in World War I. The council had a small minority of elected persons. First elections held in Gibraltar.
  1936–1939 – After the United Kingdom recognised the Franco's regime in 1938, Gibraltar had two Spanish Consulates, a Republican one and a Nationalistic one. Several incidents took place during the Spanish Civil War which affected Gibraltar. In May 1937, HMS Arethusa had to tow HMS Hunter into port after Hunter hit a mine off Almeria that killed and wounded several British sailors. In June 1937, the German pocket battleship Deutschland arrived in Gibraltar with dead and wounded after Republican planes bombed it in Ibiza in retaliation for the Condor Legion's bombing of Guernica. In August 1938, the Republican destroyer Jose Luis Diez took refuge in Gibraltar after taking casualties from the guns of the National cruiser Canarias. The one incident that resulted in the death of Gibraltarians occurred on 31 January 1938 when the insurgent submarine General Sanjurjo sank the SS Endymion, a small Gibraltar-registered freighter taking a cargo of coal to Cartagena, which was chartered by the Republican government. Eleven members of her crew were killed.
caption: Characters of Gibraltar (R.P. Napper, 1863; private collection)
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS CORPORATION", "Image Model": "C765UZ", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "CAMEDIA Master 4.2", "Image DateTime": "2005:12:17 14:03:47", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "262", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1842", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8893", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/8", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Creative", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:12:06 12:16:20", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:12:06 12:16:20", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "63/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1566", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1240", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1710", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}