| 17 March 461 | St Patrick died in Saul, Co Down. |
| 797 | The book of Kells was made by Irish Monks. |
| 1608 | Bushmills Distillery began producing whiskey. |
| August 1752 | A meeting of leading inhabitants of Belfast led to the founding of the Belfast Charitable Society. |
| 1755 | Arthur Guiness began brewing a dark brown stout. |
| 7 August 1771 | The foundation stone of what became known as Clifton House was laid. |
| 17 September 1774 | Hospital opened for admission of the sick. |
| May 1841 | Belfast workhouse admitted its first inmates. |
| 4 January 1842 | Newtownards workhouse admitted its first inmates. The site was on the site which is now known as the Ards Hospital. |
| 1845 | Great Irish Famine – two thirds of Ireland’s stable crop, the potato, was destroyed which lead to the death of an estimated one million people and the emigration of a further one million. |
| 1847 – 1864 | Griffiths Valuation published. |
| 31 March 1901 | Census took place – population was 4, 458, 775 |
| 31 March 1909 | Construction of RMS Titanic began. |
| 2 April 1911 | Census took place – population was 4, 390, 219 |
| 2 April 1912 | RMS Titanic departs Belfast for Southampton. |
| 14 April 1912 | At 23:40, RMS Titanic hits iceberg – over 1500 people drowned. |
| 18 April 1912 | Carpathia arrives in New York with survivors of the Titanic on board. |
| 28 September 1912 | Ulster Covenant was signed in protest against the third Home Rule Bill. |
| 1914 – 1918 | First World War |
| 3 May 1921 | Northern Ireland is established. |
| 1922 | At the beginning of the Civil War, a fire broke out in Public Record Office in Dublin which destroyed many Irish records. |
| 29 September 1939 | Mini census takes place so that National Identity Cards could be issued. |
| 1940 – 1950 | Magdalene Laundries were a church run social service for ‘fallen’ women during this period. |
| 1941 | No census was taken due to the second World War. |
| 7/8 April 1941 | Belfast Blitz - first raid – eight Luftwaffe bombers destroyed the aircraft fuselage factory and the docks. |
| 15/16 April 1941 | Belfast Blitz – second raid - bombing lasted five hours – 180 bombers dropped 673 bombs and 29,000 incendiaries mainly on residential streets in the docklands. |
| 4/5 May 1941 | Belfast Blitz – third raid – bombing lasted three hours – 204 bombers dropped 237 tons of high explosives and 96,000 incendiaries on the city and docklands. |