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In Warwickshire, while playing football at Rugby School, William Webb Ellis picks up the ball and runs. He is credited with the creation of Rugby Union, Rugby League, and American Football.
West Bromwich’s George Salter and Co. produced the first bathroom scale. The company would also go on to make the typewriter - another 'first' for the UK. The smoke alarm was patented by Birmingham's George Andrew Darby in 1902, while Birmingham-born Walter Griffiths built the first portable vacuum cleaner.
Lawn tennis is invented and first played in Birmingham. Major Harry Gem creates the game with JBA Perera in a back garden in Ampton Road, Edgbaston.
William McGregor of Aston Villa FC invites 11 clubs - including Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion - to play regularised games of football. The Football League is created.
In Cradley Heath, the National Federation of Women Workers strike in response to poor working conditions. After ten weeks of industrial action, 60% of employers agree to pay the minimum wage.
Birmingham businessman Oscar Deutsch founds the Odeon chain of cinemas. Along with Birmingham-born film pioneers Michael Balcon and Victor Saville, he is instrumental in starting the UK's film industry.
The Archers is broadcast for the first time in Birmingham. It has since attracted more than five million listeners across the country.
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ match with Budapest Honved is instrumental in the formation of the European Cup, now known as the Champions League. Wolverhampton Wanderers’ match with Budapest Honved is instrumental in the formation of the European Cup, now known as the Champions League. Birmingham City becomes the first English club side to play in European competition when they played their first match in the 1955–58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup on 15 May 1956.
Coventry-born Delia Derbyshire creates the original theme tune to Doctor Who. A pioneer of electronic music, Delia’s recording was created before the availability of commercial synthesisers. Each note was individually created by cutting, splicing, speeding up and slowing down segments of analogue tape.
The two-tone music genre is developed in Coventry. West Midlands bands such as The Specials, The Beat and The Selecter are at the forefront of two-tone scene - a fusion of ska, reggae and rocksteady with elements of punk rock and new wave.
West Bromwich Albion become the first professional British football club to field three black players. Laurie Cunningham, Brendon Batson and Cyrille Regis begin their journey to inspire a generation of black players in the UK.
Wolverhampton-born Robert Plant’s Led Zeppelin is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Birmingham-based Black Sabbath would follow in their footsteps just 11 years later. Influenced by the sounds of the region, Black Sabbath would go on to create a new style of rock, heavy metal, that took the world by storm.
Wolverhampton-born Jacqui Oatley opens doors for women in the broadcasting world when she becomes the first female to commentate on BBC's Match of the Day.
Walsall’s Ellie Simmonds wins double Paralympic Gold at the Summer Olympics in Beijing at the age of just 13, triumphing in the 100m and 400m freestyle swimming events.
Walsall-born Jorja Smith wins Best British Female at the Brit Awards and is nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
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