Be !nventive

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1965

The Theatre in Education movement, pioneered by Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre in 1965, introduced a new way of teaching children about life and spread worldwide.

1930

Coventry-born pilot and engineer Frank Whittle filed his first patent for the turbo-jet in 1930. It was the Germans who first tested jet propulsion in flight, but it was Whittle’s engine that became the basis of post-war civil aviation.

1954

In 1954 the Standard Motor Company of Coventry unveiled the first diesel-engined private car.

1950s

The disc brake was pioneered by a Jaguar/Dunlop partnership in the early 1950s, and was used in the company’s world-beating generation of Le Mans sports cars.

1997

A consortium of Coventry engineering companies, led by Coventry University, made a key contribution to Thrust SSC, the current World Land Speed Record holder.

2004

Jaguar introduced the motor industry’s first weight-saving aluminium body shell in 2004, an innovation that is now being copied by rivals..

1951

In 1951, as part of its plans to re-build the city after the war, Coventry City Council introduced Britain’s first smokeless zone, covering the new city centre.

1973

People, the forerunner of the Green Party in the UK, is founded in Coventry by political activists Tony and Lesley Whittaker.

1980

In 1980, Coventry company DVW designed and manufactured the world’s first rugged portable computer.

2007

Companies at Coventry University’s Serious Games Institute are working on neurosky research, moving objects on a screen using only brain activity.

The Institute is also host to companies working on virtual commerce and virtual environments for the teaching of Disaster Management.

2008

Coventry-based Rapide Communications launched a system to capture and analyse feedback from customers that won the Innovation Through Technology prize awarded by the British Chambers of Commerce in 2008.

2009

Work by researchers at Coventry University and in China has developed a new surgery-free treatment for liver and kidney cancer, using ultrasound.

1944

In 1944, Coventry set up the first international friendship link with Stalingrad, pioneering the idea of town twinning.

1940s

Coventry Cathedral’s mission of Peace and Reconciliation, launched the day after the destruction of the cathedral in 1940 has grown into a worldwide ministry.

1960s

Home Helps, Meals on Wheels and Comprehensive Schools were among the social policy advances piloted in Coventry during the 1960s.

1966

The first beat officer from an ethnic minority started work out on the streets with Coventry police in 1966.

1980s

In the 1980s, Coventry was the first city in Britain to introduce a bylaw banning drinking in public. It has been widely emulated since.

1043

Godiva and Leofric’s church begins to turn scattered dwellings into a town.

1273

First record of wool being exported from Coventry.

1300s

Coventry’s weaving industry produces a high quality dye, much in demand, that gives rise to the expression ‘True as Coventry Blue’.

1345

Coventry’s new municipal charter is the first of its kind in England.

1360

Coventry’s new town wall, begun five years earlier, appears on the first modern map of England.

1377

Coventry is said to be the third richest city in England, with a major export trade in wool through the Hanseatic League.

1405

A Coventry school of glass painters produces city-born John Thornton, who designs the Great East Window in York Minster, the greatest work in mediaeval English stained glass.

1520

The Mayor orders a detailed count to be taken of the city’s population, the earliest surviving urban census in England.

1627

A silk weavers’ company is founded in Coventry, the first mention of this new trade.

1650s

Clock-making is first mentioned in Coventry. With Shoreditch in London and Prescott near Liverpool, the city later becomes one of the principal centres of the watch trade in Britain.

1700

A ribbon-weaving works is founded in the city, creating a trade that will become its staple industry for 150 years.

1860s

James Starley and the Coventry Machinists’ Company begin making improvements to bicycles imported from France.

1870s

Starley goes into business on his own and makes so many innovations in cycle manufacture, notably the differential gear, that he is regarded as the Father of the Cycle Industry.

1885

Starley’s nephew, John Kemp Starley, invents the Rover safety cycle, the ancestor of all modern bicycles.

1894

An electric car appears on the streets of Coventry for the first time.

1896

Harry Lawson founds the British motor industry in a former cotton mill in Coventry.

1900

For the first time, a motor car is used for a wedding and for a funeral in Coventry, creating a national trend.

1904

Courtaulds in Coventry invents artificial silk.

1912

Coventry engineer Charles Humpherson invents traffic indicators to be fixed on cars.

1941

In the wake of the Blitz, city councillors approve by a huge majority Donald Gibson’s radical plans for a new Coventry.

1948

Work starts on Coventry’s traffic-free shopping centre, the first in Europe.

1962

Consecration of the city’s new Cathedral, a symbol of Britain’s recovery from World War Two and an unrivalled showcase of post-war British art.

1978

Global pressure group the International Lesbian and Gay Association founded in Coventry during a conference of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.

1979

2-Tone music from Coventry, spearheaded by The Specials and The Selecter, takes the national scene by storm.

1999

Coventry Cathedral is voted the nation’s favourite 20th century building in a national poll.

2003

A Demos/RICS study ranks Coventry 6th among 40 British cities for the number of patent applications per head of population.

2005

Growing Business magazine rates Coventry the 5th best place to do business in Britain.

2008

Masterplanners Jerde unveil their ideas for a second re-invention of Coventry’s retail heart.

2009

Britain’s only virtual training centre for the construction industry opens at Coventry University.