Timeline of Marseille

Prior to 17th century

600 BC - Massalia founded by Phocaean Greeks (approximate date).

49 BC - Siege of Massilia.

1st century AD - Roman Catholic diocese of Marseille established.

415 AD - Abbey of St. Victor founded (approximate date).

470 - Town taken by forces of Visigoth Euric.

6th century - Port in operation.

839 - Town "sacked by Saracens."

1214

Town becomes a republic.

Notre-Dame de la Garde built.

1252 - Town "taken by Charles of Anjou."

1262 - Revolt against Angevins.

1348 - Bubonic plague outbreak.

1365 - Abbey of St. Victor building constructed.

1423 - Sack of Marseille by Aragonese.

1453 - Fortifications constructed.

1481 - Marseille united with Provence.

1486 - Marseille becomes part of France.

1524 - Town besieged by forces of Francis I.

1531 - Château d'If built.

1542 - Église Saint-Ferréol les Augustins (church) dedicated.

1593 - Hotel Dieu (hospital) founded.

1599 - Marseille Chamber of Commerce founded.

17th-18th centuries

1619 - Église Saint-Cannat (church) dedicated.

1640 - Maison du Refuge established.

1649 - Plague.

1660 - Fort Saint-Jean built.

1672 - Café in business.

1673 - Marseille City Hall built.

1702 - Marseille Observatory built.

1720-21 - Great Plague of Marseille.

1726 - Academy of Science established.

1749 - Almshouse built.

1770 - City directory published.

1778

Chateau Borely built.

Fossati fountain erected.

1781 - Navette de Marseille created.

1787 - Grand-Théâtre opens.

1789 - April: "Revolutionary commotions" occur.

1790

Marseille becomes part of the Bouches du Rhône souveraineté.

Jacobin Club founded.

1793 - August: "Marseilles opposes the revolutionary government, and is reduced."

1796 - Public library founded.

1800s-1840s

1800 - Population: 96,413.

1801

Canton of Marseille-1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 created.

Musée des beaux-arts de Marseille founded.

1802 - Lycée Thiers (school) and Jardin botanique E.M. Heckel (garden) established.

1803

Santon Fair begins.

Cabinet of Natural History founded.

1808 - 26 February: Birth of Honoré Daumier.

1810 - Société de médecine de Marseille established.

1811 - Obelisk erected in the Place Castellane.

1819 - Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Marseille founded.

1820 - Population: 101,217.

1827

Le Sémaphore newspaper begins publication.

Société de statistique de Marseille established.[1]

1836 - Population: 148,597.

1837 - Porte d'Aix (arch) inaugurated.

1846 - Journal de Marseille newspaper begins publication.

1848

Paris–Marseille railway begins operating.

Gare de Marseille-Saint-Charles opens.

1849 - Canal de Marseille opens.

1850s-1890s

1851

Messageries Maritimes shipping company in business.

Population: 195,258.

1852 - Prison Chave built on Boulevard Chave.

1853 - La Joliette dock constructed.

1854 - Jardin zoologique de Marseille (zoo) opens.

1855 - Phare de Sainte Marie built.

1856

Population: 233,817.

Cimetière Saint-Pierre established.

1857 - Alcazar (Marseille) theatre opens.

1858

Marseille–Ventimiglia railway begins initial operation.

Palais du Pharo built.

1860

Exchange built.

Race track in business.

1862 - Marseille Courthouse built.

1863 - Grande synagogue de Marseille built.

1864

Rue de la République (Marseille) opens.

Notre-Dame de la Garde rebuilt.

1865 - Société Marseillaise de Crédit (bank) and Priory of St. Madeleine founded.

1866 - Population: 300,131.

1868 - Le Petit Marseillais newspaper begins publication.

1869 - Palais Longchamp built.

1872 - Business school established.

1876

Le Petit Provençal newspaper begins publication.

Horse-drawn tram begins operating.

1877 - Société de géographie de Marseille established.[2]

1878 - Saint-Lazare Convent consecrated.

1881

Italian-French ethnic unrest.

Population: 360,099.

1883 - Marseille coat of arms design adopted.

1884 - Marseille cholera epidemic.

1885 - Soleil du Midi newspaper begins publication.

1891 - École d'ingénieurs de Marseille (school) founded.

1892 - Funicular of the Notre-Dame de la Garde church begins operating.

1893

Marseille Cathedral consecrated.

Institut Colonial de Marseille founded.

1894 - Monument des Mobiles erected.^(fr)

1897 - Excursionnistes Marseillais (hiking club) formed.

1899

Olympique de Marseille soccer team formed.

2500th anniversary of founding of Marseille.

1900s-1940s

1901

"Dock strike."

Population: 491,161.

1902 - "Strike of sailors."

1903

July: 1903 Tour de France cycling race passes through Marseille.

September: Bubonic plague outbreak.

1906 - Exposition coloniale de Marseille (1906) held.

1909

"Tigeress escapes; terrorises the town."

Société linnéenne de Provence founded.

1911 - Population: 550,619.

1913 - Fountain installed in the Place Castellane.

1916 - Musée Cantini founded.

1917 - Le Petit Nice restaurant in business.

1919 - 13 November: Grand Théâtre burns down.^(fr)

1922

Marseille Provence Airport opens.

Colonial exhibition held.

1923 - Monument aux héros et victimes de la mer erected.

1924 - Opera House built.

1926 - Musée Grobet-Labadié opens.

1927 - Monument aux morts de l'Armée d'Orient et des terres lointaines erected.

1931 - Population: 800,881.

1933 - Film Studios Pagnol established.

1934 - October 9: King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou assassinated by Bulgarian terrorist Velicko Kerin.

1936 - Population: 914,232.

1937 - Stade Vélodrome opens.

1938

21 September: Marseille train robbery.

28 October: Marseille fire (1938).

1939 - Baumettes Prison built.

1940 - Bombing by German and Italian forces.

1941 - Combat (French Resistance) active.

1942 - November: German occupation begins.

1943 - Old Port area evacuated and demolished.

1944

Bombing by Allied forces.

August: Battle of Marseille; German occupation ends.

La Marseillaise newspaper in publication.

Gaston Defferre becomes mayor.

1946

Arrondissements of Marseille created.

Jean Cristofol becomes mayor.

Population: 636,264.

1947

November: Labor unrest.

Michel Carlini becomes mayor.

1950s-1990s

1952 - Cité radieuse housing complex built.

1953

Gaston Defferre becomes mayor again (remains in office until 1986).

La Tourette housing complex built.

1955 - Affaire du Combinatie vendetta killings of the criminal Marseille milieu occur.

1958 - Marseille twinned with Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; Antwerp, Belgium; Copenhagen, Denmark; Genoa, Italy; Haifa, Israel; and Hamburg, Germany.

1960s - La Castellane neighborhood built.

1961 - Marseille twinned with Kobe, Japan.

1962

A50 autoroute opens.

Or Thora Synagogue established.

Population: 778,071.

1965 - March: Marseille municipal election, 1965 held.

1967 - Marseille Old Port Tunnel opens.

1968

A7 autoroute opens.

Marseille twinned with Dakar, Senegal.

Population: 889,029.

1970 - University of Provence established.

1972

A55 autoroute opens.

Ballet National de Marseille founded.

Marseille twinned with Odessa, Ukraine.

1973 - 14 December: Algerian consulate bombed.

1975

Er Rahmaniyyà group formed.

Population: 908,600.

1977

Marseille Metro Line 1 begins operating.

CMA CGM shipping company established.

1979 - Marseille-Cassis Classique Internationale footrace begins.

1981 - Rodéo (riot).

1982

PLM Law effected.

Marseille becomes part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.

1983

SNCF TGV Sud-Est train begins operating.

Marseille History Museum opens.

1984

Marseille Metro Line 2 begins operating.

Marseille twinned with Piraeus, Greece.

1986

March: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional election, 1986 held.

Robert Vigouroux becomes mayor.

1987

Jardin de la Magalone becomes property of the city.

Marseille twinned with Shanghai, China.

1989 - Marseille Festival of Documentary Film begins.

1991 - La Commanderie opens.

1993 - Tunnel Prado-Carénage opens.

1995

June: Marseille municipal election, 1995 held.

Jean-Claude Gaudin becomes mayor.

Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l'Océanie founded.

Musée de la Faïence de Marseille opens.

1997 - La Provence newspaper in publication.

1999 - Population: 795,518.

2000s

2001

Parc du 26e Centenaire inaugurated.

Municipal Archives of Marseille moves to the former Tobacco factory of Marseille.

2004 - Marseille twinned with Marrakech, Morocco.

2006

École centrale de Marseille created.

Marseille twinned with Glasgow, UK.

2007

Marseille tramway begins operating.

Labor strike.

Construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor begins in Cadarache, in vicinity of Marseille.

2008 - Population: 851,420.

2009 - Collège Ibn Khaldoun opens.

2010s

2010

March: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional election, 2010 held.

Garbage strike occurs.

2011

Cornerstone of Grand Mosque of Marseille laid.

Population: 850,636.

2012 - Place des Capucines pedestrianized.

2013

Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations opens.

City designated a European Capital of Culture.

2014 - March: Marseille municipal election, 2014 held.

2015

9 February: Shooting occurs in La Castellane.

September: Drug ring trial begins.

December: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional election, 2015 held.

Marseille tramway Line 3 begins operating.

Cantons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 created per 2014 France cantonal redistricting.

2016 - Metropolis of Aix-Marseille-Provence established.