Manchester has long been a city to pave the way with the wealth of innovations, economy and ideas of society it has produced over the decades. The world's first industrial city that split the atom, created the programmable computer and produced countless musical movements, plus being the home of two world-famous football teams; Manchester is a city to be admired and replicated; not just in the UK but worldwide.

We've been quoted to be a city which thinks a table is for dancing on and which has 'everything but a beach'. We love some of the 'firsts' of our home city...

1653 The nation's first free public library opened, founded using money donated by wealthy Mancunian Humphrey Chetham. It is still there, located a short walk from church!

1761 The Bridgewater Canal opened; the first totally artificial waterway independent of natural rivers.

1803 John Dalton's atomic theory with its pioneering work on the constitution of elements was the precursor of all modern chemistry.

1825 Glasgow born, Manchester mill owner Charles Mackintosh took out a patent for a practical waterproof fabric. In a city famed for rain, the irony of creating raincoats is not lost on us!

1830 The world's first true railways started operating from a purpose-built station on Liverpool Road.

1888 The first professional football league was formally created in the Royal Hotel, Manchester.

1904 Frederick Royce met Charles Rolls in the Midland Hotel and set up the famous company which bears their names.

1917 Ernest Rutherford discovered how to split the atom at The University of Manchester.

1919 Alcock and Brown, both Manchester Central High School students, were the first to fly the Atlantic Ocean non-stop.

1948 The first computer with a stored programme and memory, nicknamed 'baby', was developed at Manchester University.

2002 The Commonwealth Games, held in Manchester, became the largest multi-sport event ever hosted in the UK.

2007 !Audacious Church was born.

2010 Scientists at The University of Manchester were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for inventing graphene, the world's thinnest material.