End of First Century BC
A large settlement of the Celtic Catuvellauni developed and was known as Verlamion.
AD50
The Roman City of Verulamium founded.
AD60
Verulamium destroyed by Queen Boudicca (Boadicea).
Third Century (circa AD250)
Alban a citizen of Verulamium martyred for his Christian faith.
450 (circa)
By this date the Roman City had almost ceased to exist.
793
St Albans Abbey “founded” by King Offa of Mercia. Eventually the town of St Albans grew up around the Abbey.
948
St Albans School is founded by Abbot Ulsinus (Wulsin).
1086
At the time of Domesday Book about 500 people lived in the town.
1140
Sopwell Nunnery is founded by Abbot Geoffrey de Gorham.
1213
Council held at the Abbey at which Barons and Churchmen first discussed their grievances – this was the first step towards the Magna Carta of 1215.
1217
After Magna Carta was ignored by the King, the barons invited French help to depose John. The Dauphin of France occupied the town and a month later, an army led by the notorious Faulkes de Breaute sacked St Albans, leading to the Dauphin returning to despoil the town.
1349
The Black Death caused many deaths in the town and Abbey.
1381
The Peasants Revolt gave the townsmen an opportunity to press their claims again. The abbots warrens and woods were broken into, four houses destroyed and the Abbot’s prison broken open. In the retribution that followed, 17 men were hanged and many of the leading townsmen imprisoned. John Ball, one of the national leaders of the rebels, was brought from Coventry and tried in front of the King, in the Moot Hall. He was condemned to drawing, hanging, beheading, disembowelling and quartering!
1455
The First Battle of St Albans opened the War of the Roses. The Lancastrian army led by King Henry VI occupied the town but the Yorkist forces of the Earl of Warwick managed to break in and a battle took place in the town centre. King Henry was wounded by an arrow and captured.
1461
The Second Battle of St Albans led to victory for the Lancastrians under Queen Margaret, who brought her forces down Watling Street from Dunstable. Much of the fighting took place on Bernards Heath on the north of the town and the Yorkists in retreat left the King (who had been released from his first captivity at St Albans and then retaken) sitting under an oak tree on Nomansland common.
1539
The Abbey was dissolved on Dec. 5th by King Henry VIII.
1553
King Edward VI granted a charter to the town by which it became a Borough with a Mayor and Corporation. The King sold the Abbey Church to the town for £400.
1555
George Tankerfield, a protestant Yorkshire baker was brought from London and burnt to death on Romeland – as an example to others.
1642
During the English Civil War the town sided with Parliament but was largely unaffected by the conflict.
1643
The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire was arrested by Captain Oliver Cromwell after he had unwisely read a Royal Proclamation, from the steps of the Eleanor Cross. Later that year the town was the headquarters of the Earl of Essex’s Parliamentary Army.
1645
The New Model Army was reviewed by Fairfax at St Albans.
1648
An Army Council was held in the Abbey Church which effectively sealed the fate of King Charles I.
1852
The town was deprived of representation in Parliament because of bribery and corruption at elections.
1858
St Albans Abbey railway station was opened by the London and North Western Railway.
1868
St Albans railway station was opened by the Midland Railway.
1877
The Abbey Church was granted Cathedral status and the town a City charter.
1899
St Albans' first museum was opened.
1881
The city’s original football club, St Albans FC was founded. This became defunct in 1904. The current club, St Albans City FC was founded in April 1908.
1908
The first cinema in Hertfordshire was opened on London Road, now site of The Odyssey Cinema. St Albans City Football Club was founded.
1916
In September, following an attack on St Albans, the German airship SL 11 became the first airship to be brought down over England.
1939
The opening of the Verulamium Museum was the culmination of almost a decade of inspired planning and tireless excavation both within the Roman settlement and in the neighbourhood.
1972
The first meeting of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) was held in St Albans on 20 November 1972, at the Farriers Arms pub which has a blue plaque commemorating the event. The organisation still has its head office in Hatfield Road. The local branch holds an annual beer festival in St Albans.
1974
St Albans City Council, St Albans Rural District Council and Harpenden Town Council are merged to form St Albans District Council as part of a much wider local government reorganisation.