Beginnings of the city?s history
150?80 B.C. Settlement of the Celtic Raurica tribe on the banks of the Rhine at Voltaplatz
80 B.C. Fortified Raurica settlement on the Münsterhügel
44 or. 43 BC. Foundation of Colonia Raurica, later Augusta Raurica (Augst), by the Roman military commauander Lucius Munacius Plancus
374 AD. The name Basilia (Basel) is first mentioned in connection with a visit to the bend in the Rhine by Emperor Valentinian I 7th century The seat of the bishop is definitively transferred from Kaiseraugst to Basel

Bishops and Basel
7th century The seat of the bishop is definitively transferred from Kaiseraugst to Basel
890 Basel becomes part of the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy
917 The city and the Carolingian cathedral are destroyed by plundering tribes of Hungarian horsemen
1006 Emperor Henry II takes Basel as a pledge against the later annexation of all Burgundy to the German Empire
1019 Consecration of the Cathedral in the presence of Henry II
1061 Imperial Diet together with synod. Election of the (anti-) Pope Honorius II
1090 First ring of city walls under Bishop Burkard von Fenis
1225 Construction of the first permanent Rhine bridge under Bishop Heinrich von Thun (today: Mittlere Rheinbrücke built from stone in 1903-06). The same bishop also draws up the first guild charter and appoints a council

Rise of the bourgeoisie
1348/49 Plague epidemic, massacre of the Jews
1356 The strongest known earthquake and subsequent fire destroy a part of the city and the cathedral
1373 The Bishop grants the town the right to mint coins and levy customs
1392 Basel purchases the town on the right bank of the Rhine from the bishop (unification of Greater and Lesser Basel)
1398 Completion of the outer town fortifications
1400 The town begins to acquire the land around it
1431?1448 1448 The 17th general church council meets in Basel. 1439 election and 1440 coronation of the (anti-) Pope Felix V
1433 Start of paper production
1444 Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs (26. August): At the very gates of Base,l a greatly outnumbered contingent of Swiss troops fights against an army of mercenaries under the French dauphin
1460 Opening of Basel University, the oldest in present-day Switzerland
1462 Introduction of book printing
1471 Emperor Frederick III grants Basel the right to hold two fairs per year

Basel in the Confederation
1501 Basel becomes a full member of the Confederation
after 1500 Cultural blossoming: amongst others, the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, painters Ambrosius and Hans Holbein the Younger, and sculptor Martin Hoffmann work in Basel
1529 Triumph of the Reformation. The bishop had already left the city for Porrentruy
from 1560 Religious refugees from Italy and France win decisive influence over trade and export business
1646/47 Basel.s Mayor Johann Rudolf Wettstein takes part in the peace congress in Westphalia. In the peace treaty of 1648, the independence of the Swiss Confederation from the German Empire is recognised
1661 The Council and University buy the private Amerbach Cabinet and open it to the public in 1671 as one of the first art collections in the world
1670 Licensing of multi-start looms by the Council. Basel subsequently develops into an international centre of the silk indurstry
1798 «Basel Revolution»: The people of the country part of the canton are placed on an equal legal footing with the people of the city
1815 Founding of the Basel Mission Company
1833 Separation of the Canton of Basel into the two half-cantons of Basel-City and Basel-Country

Industrialisation
1844 Basel is the first town in Switzerland to be connected by a railway (Basel-Strasbourg line
1859 Begin of the industrial production of dyes. Law on the expansion of the town passed in the same year (demolition of the mediaeval town walls)
1875 New constitution. This puts an end to the regime of rule by the guilds (and also abolishes the office of mayor)
1897 Theodor Herzl organises the 1st World Zionist Congress in Basel
1904 Start of modern Rhine shipping as far as Basel
1912 World Peace Congress in the Cathedral (Socialist International)
1917 First Swiss Industries Fair

Modern Basel
1946 Opening of Basel-Mulhouse binational airport (today EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg)
1970 Swiss Indoors tennis tournament held for the first time
1973 First European Clock and Jewellery Fair (today Baselworld)
1989 European Ecumenical Congress «Peace in Justice»
1996 Amalgamation of the two chemical companies Ciba and Sandoz to form the new Novartis group
1997 Opening of Fondation Beyeler in Riehen with the art collection of husband and wife gallery owners Hildy and Ernst Beyeler
1998 Merger of Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft and Schweizerischer Bankverein into UBS, one of world?s leading finance institutes, with headquarters in Zurich and Basel
2001 The fairs of Basel and Zurich merge into Messe Schweiz, based in Basel
2001 Inauguration of the multifunctional «St. Jakob-Park» stadium, designed by Basel architects Herzog & de Meuron. This wins the Pritzker Prize the same year, the most significant international award for architects
2006 New Cantonal Constitution enters into force back to Basel Info