(With some broader Hubei events and events of influence nearby)
Last Updated: 3 March, 2020
845BCE Huanggang becomes capital of Huang
191 Battle of Xiangyang - Sun Jian, father of Sun Quan defeated and killed, passing territory to Liu Bei
202 Battle of Xiakou
206 Hanyang walls built
208 Battle of the Red Cliffs near Wuhan
222 Battle of Yiling (Yichang)
223 Wuchang walls built
223 Yellow Crane Tower built in Wuchang by Sun Quan
700s Cui Hao writes famous poem about Yellow Crane Tower
982 Hubei comes mostly under Jinghubei Circuit
1279 Hubei comes under Mongol control
1331 Hubei affected by black death
1371 Wuchang built up by Zhou Dexing
1635 Hankou occupied by rebels under Zhang Dashou
1643 Hankou occupied by rebels under Zhang Xianzhong
1646 Shifang'an 十方庵 Ten Position Temple set up in Hankou
1688 Hankou occupied by rebels under Xia Fenglong
1757 Major flood hits Wuhan area
1788 Major flood hits Wuhan area and central China; bursting of dikes at Jingzhou
1796 Xiangyang was a center in the White Lotus Rebellion, under Wang Cong'er
1798 Failed White Lotus attack on Hankou under Zhang Hanchao
1801 Major flood hits Wuhan area
1801 Food protest in Hankou
1807 Reconstruction of Yangzi and Han river dikes
1807 Reconstruction of Hanyang prefectural school and county schools
1809 Reestablishment of the Qingquan Shuyuan
1810 Major fires hit Hankou
1820 Missionary Francis Regis Clet executed in Wuchang
1845 Uprising in Wuchang, leadership claimed by Green Lotus
1846 Major fires hit Hankou
1848 Major flood hits Wuhan area
1849 Major flood hits Wuhan area; dikes collapse and sections of Hankou collapse
1849 Major fires hit Hankou
1852 Battle of Wuchang, city falls to Taiping forces following January
1852.12.23 Hanyang walls overcome and town occupied
1853.1.12 Taiping forces occupy Wuchang
1853 Full Taiping occupation of Wuhan area
1853.2 Qing general Xiang Rong retakes Wuhan cities
1853 Taiping retake Hanyang and Hankou in the fall during Western expedition, fail to take Wuchang, then chased away by Qing general Jiang Zhonglie
1854.2 Wuhan cities taken by Taiping rebels again
1854.10 Zeng Guofan’s Hunan Army recaptures Wuchang for Qing; Qing commander Guanwen captures Hanyang
1854 Hanyang and Hankou fall to Taiping rebels again
1855.4 Taiping forces recapture Wuchang
1855 Qing summer seige launched; Hankou changes hands several times as least defended
1856.12 Qing recaptures Wuchang and Hanyang
1858 Treaty of Tianjin, Hankou designated as one of new treaty ports.
1858 James Bruce, Lord Elgin in Hankou
1861 Wuhan concession established in Hankou
1861.3.17 Taiping forces capture nearby Huangzhou and threaten Wuhan again
1861.3.22 Harry Parkes arrives in Huangzhou with Hope’s expedition and warns Taiping general Chen Yucheng against any attack on Hankou
1861.3 Vice Admiral Hope's flotilla reaches Hankou, opens treaty port
1861.6 Taiping forces under Li Xiucheng arrive at Wuchang but leave without attacking at end of month
1861 Robert Wilson, Anglican missionary first visit to Hankou with Rev. Griffith John
1860s American Naval Yangzi patrol operates waters off Hankou
1861.11 Wuhan customs established
1861 Griffith John opens mission in Hankou
1861 Hankou Martyrs' Shrine, memorializing Taiping war deaths
1862 English Wesleyan Methodist Mission at Hankou opens with Josiah Cox
1864 Major fires hit Hankou
1864-7 Nian rebels repeatedly raid the areas around Hankou
1864.5 F. Porter Smith, Methodist medical missionary arrives in Hankou with Wesleyan Missionary Society
1864-5 Hankou walls built
1864-8 Walter Medhurst is British consul at Hankow
1864.7 Hankow Medical Mission Hospital of the Wesleyan Missionary Society opens in Hankou
1864 Destructive fires spread in Hankou
1865 David Hill and William Scarborough missionaries arrive in Hankou
1866 Wuchang Wesleyan mission in southern Wuchang opens
1867 London Mission Hospital established in Hankow
1867 F. P. Napier joins D. Hill as missionary in Wuchang
1870 Dr E. P. Hardey arrives to replace F P Smith
1872 Rev. J. W. Brewer arrives to lead Wuchang Wesleyan mission
1873 Russians start a brick-tea factory in Hankou, several more to follow
1873 Zhaowen Xinbao (昭文新報), said to be first Chinese newspaper founded by a Chinese, launches in Hankou
1874 Rev. Joseph Race arrives in Hankou for missionary work
1874 Temperance Hall established by American consul in Hankou
1875 Dr Mackenzie arrives to work in London Mission Hospital
1875 A. W. Nightingale and W. S. Tomlinson arrives in Hankou for missionary work
1876 Yiling opens to foreign trade under Chefoo Convention
1876 Hankou Tract Society founded
1878 Hankow Golf Club founded
1879 John Fordham, methodist missionary sets up clinic in Hankou
1882 Strike of construction workers against British Consulate
1882 Mutiny at Wuchang
1883 New regulations set by tea hongs
1883 First recorded attacks on a foreigner (British doctor) in Hankou
1883.5 Hankou uprising of Buddhist millenarians
1884 Hankow Tract Society becomes Central China Tract Society
1884 Major flood hits Wuhan area
1887 Major fires hit Hankou
1888 Cholera outbreak in the summer
1889 The Margaret Women’s Hospital established with a small medical school
1889 Zhang Zhidong appointed as Huguang (Hunan and Hubei) governor-general based at Wuchang. Holds position on an off until 1907
1890 Zhang Zhidong established the Lianghu Shuyuan (两湖书院) in Wuhan
1891 Hanyang Arsenal established by Zhang Zhidong
1891 "Yangtze riot" in spring and summer
1891 Two Englishmen murdered in Wuxue
1891 Swedish Covenant mission established in Wuchang
1891 Cotton mills built at Wuchang
1892 Major fires hit Hankou
1893 (1896?) Hanbao (汉报) newspaper launched by Hankou Tea Guild (or later by Japanese interests?)
1893 Zhang Zhidong establishes the Self-Strengthening School (自强学堂) in Wuchang; eventually becomes part of the new Wuhan University
1893 Wuchang Textile Bureau established by Zhang Zhidong
1894 Thousands of Hankou stallkeepers clash with militia and destroy government buildings
1894.4 Hanyang Arsenal completed
1894.6 Hanyang Arsenal suffers major damage in fires
1895 Hanyang arsenal rebuilt
1895 German concession in Hankou established
1895 Famine brings flood of refugees into Wuchang
1895 Standard Oil Company opens office in Hankou
1895 Hankou industrial revolution gets underway
1896 Russian lease formally establishes concession.
1896 Beijing to Hankou railway construction authorized by imperial edict
1896.6 French concession leased.
1897 Belgian purchase of land and attempt to establish a concession
1898 Japanese concession in Hankou established
1898 French municipal council created
1898 Missionary boys school, later to become Griffith John College
1899 Cercle Gaulois club for French
1899-1900 British concession expels its Chinese residents
1900 Hanbao newspaper suppressed by Zhang Zhidong
1900 Tang Caichang returns to Hankou from Shanghai and Japan and leads uprising league with Kang Youwei. “Central Army” commanded by Fu Cixiang and Lin Gui
1900.8.18-21 Secret society members flood the city and fires break out in Hankow
1900.2.22 Tang Caichang, Lin Gui, Fu Cixiang and a Japanese accomplice arrested, all but the last executed. The rebellion ends in Hankow
1900.9 Tang Caichang arrested and beheaded
1901 Terminus hotel established in French concession
1902 French concession expanded by half
1902 Japanese concession expanded from 128m2 to 300m2
1902 Astor House hotel established in French concession
1902 Japanese consulate built
1902 Song Jiaoren comes to Wuchang and attends Boone Memorial School
1903 Russian municipal council created
1903 Hankou station building
1904 the Science Tutoring Institute (科学补习所) founded by Song Jiaoren in Wuchang
1904 Huang Xing passes through Wuchang, plots uprising, but it is exposed.
1904.10.24 Huang Xing’s arrest is ordered and he flees to Shanghai
1904 Song Jiaoren flees for Japan
1905 Hankow Race Club and Recreation Ground opened
1905 Copper and mind employees strike in Hankou
1905 Boycott against American goods in Hankow over immigration restrictions
1905 Beijing to Hankou train line complete
1905.11 Wang Xianqian forms the Canton-Hankow Railway Fundraising and Land-Buying Company
1906 Japanese Cotton Trading Co. opened in Hankou
1906 Society of Daily Improvement, discussion group for political radicals hold weekly meetings
1907 Power station build, providing electricity to German Concession
1907 Association to Prepare for Constitutional Government founded in Hubei
1907 Copper and mind employees strike in Hankou again
1908 Russian Club moves to new location
1908 Griffith John College opens near Hankou
1908 Belgian attempt to establish a concession finally rebuffed
1908.1 Hubei begins preparations for provincial assembly (80 members) elections under viceroy Zhao Erxun
1908.5.12 Departing viceroy Zhao Erxun makes last visit to Hankou, police order streets cleared
1908.5.13 Police station attacked and burned in Hankou
1908.5.14 Shops around Hankou closed in a strike
1909 Election of the provincial assembly in Hubei
1909 Managers of the Hankou benevolence halls form the Hankow Benevolent Association to coordinate charitable efforts
1909 Water tower built near Bund by Cai Fuqing and Liu Xinsheng
1909 Workers attempt to destroy the dyeworks and fight Hankou police
1909.10 Zhang Zhidong dies
1909.12 Home of Liu Renxiang attacked
1909.12 Tea-Brick factory workers strike
1910 Leading bank in Hankou collapses
1910 Deep recession for Hankou
1910.1.24 First petition for national parliament submitted with heavy Hubei participation
1910.4 Tea-Brick factory workers strike again, attack Russian tea-brick factory in British Concession
1910.4 Wuchang Cotton Mill goes on strike
1910.6.16 Second petition for national parliament submitted
1911.1.21-23 Attack on British police after rickshaw driver becomes ill and dies in police custody; customs office attacked
1911.5 Railways nationalized
1911.10.10 Wuchang Uprising
1911.10 Hankou, except the Bund burned down by imperial troops
1911.10-12 Large scale destruction around Wuhan
1911.10.28 Reinforcements come to rebels in Wuhan, including Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren
1911.11.27 Hanyang falls to Qing forces
1911.12.1 Three day truce called, later extended
1912 First census in Hankou
1913 Edward L. Arndt serves as missionary for Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Hankou
1914-15 Hupeh Special Medical College active
1914; 1916-7 Boone University Medical School in Wuchang active
1914-18 Protestant Episcopal Church hospital active at Wuchang
1917 German concession returned to Chinese control, becomes Special Administrative District under provincial control
1918 Wuchang-Changsha railway line completed and eastern wall dismantled
1919 Hongkong & Shanghai Bank building completed
1919-1927 Hankow Conferences, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
1920 Missionary Edward Galvin active in Hanyang to 1952
1920.9 Chinese temporarily assume control of Russian concession
1920 National City Bank of New York building
1921 Yokohama Specie Bank building
1921 Mutiny of warlord Wang Zhanyuan’s troops leads to destruction in Wuchang
1922-38; 1947-9 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod seminary at Hankow
1922 Custom House building
1923 Apostolic Prefecture of Hanyang established
1924.5.30 Russian concession formally returned to Chinese control; British concession returned?
1925.5.23 Strike at British-American Tobacco factory
1926.10 Northern Expedition reaches the Yangzi valley and Wuhan chosen as provisional capital
1926.12 Mikhail Borodin arrives in Hankou
1927 Wuhan becomes seat of left KMT under Wang Jingwei
1927.1.4-5 British marines clash with crowd, some Chinese killed; concession overrun by Chinese
1927.1.27 O'Malley agrees to Chinese law for British subjects
1927.2.19 Chen-O'Malley Agreement, British concession in Hankou turned over and becomes special administrative district no. 3
1927.3.10 KMT hold CEC Third Plenum, issue program on peasantry
1927.4.3 Hankou Incident, attack on Japanese concession and riots
1927.4.27 Fifth national congress of the communist party in Hankou, including M.N. Roy, Wang Jingwei, and Chen Duxiu
1927.6.1 Stalin’s telegram to M.N. Roy, Borodin and Chen Duxiu asking CCP to make heavy demands on KMT to change its structure, rather than equal cooperation, accelerating CCP and KMT split.
1927.6.3 Open letter KMT from CCP in Wuhan
1927.6.13 Wuhan government leaders return from trip to Hunan
1927.6.15 Chen Duxiu wires Moscow to tell Stalin he will carry out his order at an opportune time
1927.6.23 Central Committee of CCP in Wuhan orders Shanghai committee to prepare to launch a militant anti-imperialist movement.
1927.7.1 Last plenum of Central Comittee of CCP held in Wuhan.
1927.7.6 Wang Jingwei makes proposal for financial planning to deal with costs for eastern expedition.
1927.7.10 Borodin reveals new instructions of Comintern requiring replacement of the leadership of the CCP and that CCP should withdraw from the KMT
1927.7.13 Borodin and Qu Qiubai leave Wuhan for Lushan
1927.7.15 715 Incident Nanjing-Wuhan split
1927 Guangxi warlords establish power in the split by end of year
1928-1949 Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati manage a small hospital in Wuchang, led by Mary Roberta Cahill
1929-37 Wuhan under CC Clique control
1929-49 Notre Dame Mission runs Good Counsel Girls' Middle School in Wuchang
1930 Nationalist party closes two out of three Wuchang based universities, leaving missionary-run university under new leadership.
1931.8 Major flood hits Wuhan and Yangzi
1932 University of Hong Kong buys large book collection from Hankow Club library
1932 Wuhan University completed
1935 Flood around Wuhan
1935 Major student demonstrations in Wuhan against government
1936 Yang Qingshan, Wuhan mob boss assassinated Yang Yongtai in Wuchang
1937.12 Wuhan becomes capital of China
1937.12 Lao She arrives in Wuhan
1938 “Wuhan Spring”
1938.1 Guo Moruo arrives in Wuhan, eventually comes to lead cultural propaganda in the city
1938.1 Wen Yiduo arrives in Wuhan
1938.1.24 Han Fuju executed in Wuhan
1938.2 Japanese air strike on Wuhan
1938.3 People’s Political Council (guomin canshenghui) created with 200 members, half of which have no KMT connections
1938.3 All China Writers Association (wenxie) convenes in Wuchang
1938.3.29 Special Congres of the KMT opens (guomindang linshi quanguo daibiao dahui)
1938.5 Fall of Xuzhou makes Wuhan the next major target
1938.6 Chinese government declares evacuation of government to Chongqing; Much of infrastructure of Wuhan dismantled under scorched earth policy
1938.6-10 Battle of Wuhan ("Battle of Wuchang and Hankow")
1938.6.15 Defensive stronghold at Anqing falls
1938.6.29 Japanese gunboats overcome river barriers at Madang
1938.7 People’s Political Council (guomin canshenghui) meets in Wuhan
1938.7.28 Jiuzhang falls
1938.7.13 Wuchang bombed
1938.8 Japanese concession seized
1938.9.29 Japanese capture river fortress Tianjiazhen using poison gas
1938.10.25 Wuhan capitulates
1938.10.26 Japanese entry into Hankou and Wuchang after Chinese withdrawal
1938.10.27 Japanese capture Hanyang
1938.10 Japanese concession in Hankou reestablished
1938 Severe flooding in Wuhan and other areas
1938.11.12 Chiang Kaishek burns Changsha to the ground.
1940 Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang
1941 Hankow Club formally liquidated
1943 Vichy Frances returns French concession in Hankou
1944.12 American bombing of Hankou from Chengdu (Operation Matterhorn) destroyed much of the city’s infrastructure
1946 France returns French concession (again?) in Hankou
1949.5.16 Fall of Wuhan
1950 Xiangyang and Fancheng become Xiangfan
1951 Lutheran Church in China holds council meeting under Yu Jun ending missionary ties.
1954 Yangzi Floods cause mass destruction in Yichang and Wuhan, including plague
1955 Construction of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge begins
1957 Major flood hits Wuhan area
1957.10 Wuhan river bridge completed
1966.4.25 Cultural Revolution comes to Wuhan when Hubei Provincial Party Committee declares the need for a cultural revolution under Wang Renzhong
1966.6.2 Posters for cultural revolution appear at Wuhan Institute of Topography
1966.6.3 Hubei Prov Party Comm. declares need for ‘unity of students’ thinking’ kicking off rallies
1966.6.11 Big character posters attacking Song Kanju First Secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee
1966.7.16 Mao Zedong swims in Yangzi near Wuhan
1966.7.18 Mao Zedong denounces the work teams as attempt at controlled mobilization
1966.8.9 Hubei Daily prints the Sixteen Articles but fails to use red ink
1966.8.16 Wuhan’s first Red Guards already marching in streets, day after Mao meets a million red guards in Beijing
1966.8.31 Beijing students in Wuhan demand meeting with governor, refused
1966.8 Violence against the four olds in Wuhan by Red Guards, dozens beaten to death.
1966.8 Beijing students begin to arrive in Wuhan as part of ‘exchange revolutionary experiences’ (chuanlian)
1966.8.17 First secret workers’ radical group formed at No 2 Machine Tool factory
1966.9.4 Hubei Prov. Party Committee meet with students from Beijing in Wuchang stadium
1966.9 Proliferation of minority organizations in colleges in Wuhan, usually called Mao Zedong Thought Red Guards
1966.10 Students, regardless of family origins allowed to join Red Guards in every school in Wuhan; divide into two camps in most schools: original Red Guards and Mao Zedong Thought Red Guards (Thought Guards)
1966.10.26 Wuhan Thought Guard HQ established
1966.11 Network of workers and students in Wuchang proclaim “Bombard the Hubei Prov. Party Comm.”
1966.11.1 Thought Guards disrupt the Hubei Prov. Party Comm. meeting
1966.11.9 Worker Rebel organization establish Worker’s Headquarters
1966.11.9 Second Headquarters occupy offices of Hubei Daily
1966.12.2 Federation of Revolutionary Labourers established, starting with Wuhan Machine factory; conservative to moderate
1966.12.15 Hubei Daily stops publication in submission to rebels
1966.12.18-19 Rebels raid HQ of Red Guards and of Federation of Revolutionary Labourers
1966.12 Party leadership make various self-criticisms
1966.12.25 Wang Renzhong brought back to Wuhan from Guangdong by rebels
1966.12.27 Rebels form United Command Post for Struggling against Wang Renzhong
1966.12.29 Red Guard HQ raided
1966.12.31 Wuhan Evening News closed down
1967.1.1-3 Three mass rallies to denounce Wang Renzhong
1967.1 Wuhan now completely in the hands of rebels
1967.7 Wuhan incident; July 20 incident; armed conflict between factions in cultural revolution
1988 Gezhouba Dam completed
1993 Three Gorges Dam construction begins
1998 Yangzi Floods
2000 Crash of Wuhan Flight 343 in Hanyang
2010 Xianfan becomes Xiangyang
2010 Dragon King Temple rebuilt in Wuhan
These timeline events are assembled from a variety of sources, especially from books and articles found on this Zotero Bibliography.
Please send additions and corrections to both this timeline and to the Zotero bibliography to Konrad M. Lawson (kml at huginn.net, @kmlawson)