Timeline of Łódź

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Łódź, Poland.

Prior to 19th century

 * 1332 - Łódź mentioned as the village Łodzia in a document of Duke Władysław the Hunchback of the Polish Piast dynasty
 * 1423 - Łódź granted city rights by Polish King Władysław II Jagiełło
 * 1487 - Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon visited Łódź.
 * 1496 - Polish King John I Albert confirmed the establishment of two annual fairs and a weekly market in Łódź.
 * 1793
 * City annexed by Prussia in the Second Partition of Poland and included within the newly formed province of South Prussia.
 * Population: 190.

19th century

 * 1806 - Town joins the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw.
 * 1815 - Town becomes part of Russian client state Congress Poland per Congress of Vienna.
 * 1820 - Antoni Czarkowski becomes mayor.
 * 1824 - Lodka settlement developed.
 * 1827 - K.F. Wendisch factory in business.
 * 1828 - Slazaki settlement developed.
 * 1829 - Population: 4,273.
 * 1837 - Ludwig Geyer factory in business.
 * 1839 - White Factory built.
 * 1852 - Industrialist Karl Scheibler in business.
 * 1860 - Population: 31,500.
 * 1861 - Stara Synagogue built.
 * 1863
 * 31 January: A Polish insurgent unit entered the city without a fight in the first days of the January Uprising, and seized weapons and 18,000 rubles for the uprising.
 * 18 June: Clash between Polish insurgents and Russian troops.
 * 29 September: Clash between Polish insurgents and Russian troops.
 * Lodzer Zeitung bilingual Polish-German newspaper begins publication.
 * 1866 - Koluszki-Łódź railway begins operating.
 * 1867
 * Congress Poland forcibly integrated with of the Russian Empire.
 * Sudden death of Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge before his scheduled performance at a local theater.
 * 1868 - Łódź Fabryczna railway station built.
 * 1870 - Studio Theatre opened.
 * 1872 - Moscow-Łódź railway begins operating.
 * 1878 - Manufaktura textile mill built.
 * 1881
 * Great Synagogue built.
 * Population: 49,592.
 * 1884 - Alexander Nevsky Cathedral built.
 * 1888 - Karl Scheibler's Chapel built.
 * 1892 - Izrael Poznański factory built.
 * 1897 - Population: 314,780.
 * 1899
 * First cinema in Poland (Gabinet Iluzji) founded by brothers Władysław and Antoni Krzemiński.
 * Hazomir Choral Society founded.
 * 1900 - Population: 351,570.

1900s–1930s

 * 1901 - Krzemiński cinema active.
 * 1902 - Łódź Kaliska railway station built.
 * 1904 - Ezras Israel Synagogue built.
 * 1905 - 21–25 June: Łódź insurrection.
 * 1908 - ŁKS Łódź football club (later multi-section club) founded.
 * 1910 - Widzew Łódź football club formed.
 * 1914
 * 11 November: Battle of Łódź begins near city.
 * December: Germans in power.
 * 1915 - becomes part of city.
 * 1918 - Poland regains independence and the city becomes again part of Poland.
 * 1920 - Catholic Diocese of Łódź established.
 * 1922 - City becomes capital of Łódź Voivodeship (province).
 * 1925 - Łódź Airport opens.
 * 1928 - Osiedle Montwiłła-Mireckiego luxury neighborhood founded.
 * 1930
 * Stadion Widzewa (stadium) opens.
 * Municipal Museum of History and Art inaugurated.
 * December: Monument of Polish national hero Tadeusz Kościuszko unveiled at the Plac Wolności ("Freedom Square") in the city center.
 * 1931
 * January: Museum of Ethnography established.
 * ŁKS Łódź wins its first Polish men's volleyball championship.
 * 1937 - HKS Łódź wins its first Polish women's volleyball championship.

World War II (1939–1945)

 * 1939
 * 2 September: Germany carried out first air raids, bombing the airport and the Łódź Kaliska train station.
 * 3 September: Further air raids carried out by Germany. The Germans bombed a railway station in the Widzew district, a power plant, a gas plant, a thread factory and many houses.
 * 5 September: The Germans air raided the airport again.
 * 6 September: The Germans air raided a historic palace which housed the command of the Polish Łódź Army.
 * 6 September: the Citizens' Committee of the City of Łódź established.
 * 6–8 September: Battle of Łódź during the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II.
 * 9 September: German troops entered the city, beginning of the German occupation.
 * 11 September: The Germans issued the first occupation decrees.
 * 12 September: The German Einsatzgruppe III entered the city to commit various crimes against the population.
 * 12–15 September: The Germans carried out searches of local county offices and Polish police buildings.
 * 16 September: Local administration took over by a German official, D. Leiste from Rhineland.
 * 21 September: The Germans carried out mass searches in the present-day district of Chojny.
 * September: The Germans carried out first arrests of Poles as part of the Intelligenzaktion and established first prisons for arrested Poles.
 * 12 October – 4 November: City becomes seat of Nazi German General Government of occupied Poland.
 * 31 October: A German transit camp for Poles arrested in the Intelligenzaktion established in the present-day district of Ruda Pabianicka.
 * November: Radogoszcz concentration camp established by the Germans. Its prisoners were mostly people from Łódź, Pabianice and other nearby settlements.
 * 9 November: City annexed directly into Nazi Germany; the Germans destroyed the monument of Polish national hero Tadeusz Kościuszko.
 * 9 November: First prisoners detained in the Radogoszcz concentration camp.
 * November: Hundreds of Poles from Łódź and the region massacred by the Germans in the forest in the present-day district of Łagiewniki as part of the Intelligenzaktion.
 * City renamed "Litzmannstadt" to erase traces of Polish origin.
 * 11 December: The Germans massacred 70 Polish prisoners of the Radogoszcz camp in Łagiewniki.
 * 13 December: The Germans massacred 40 Polish prisoners of the Radogoszcz camp in Łagiewniki.
 * December: 65 prisoners from the transit camp in Pabianice deported to the Radogoszcz concentration camp and then massacred in Łagiewniki.
 * 31 December: First expulsions of Poles from Osiedle Montwiłła-Mireckiego carried out.
 * Hundreds of Poles from Łódź massacred by the Germans in the nearby village of Lućmierz-Las.
 * 1940
 * 14–15 January: German police and Selbstschutz carried out mass expulsions of Poles from Osiedle Montwiłła-Mireckiego.
 * February: More prisoners from the liquidated transit camp in Pabianice imprisoned in the Radogoszcz camp; Radogoszcz camp converted into the Radogoszcz prison.
 * February: Łódź Ghetto formed.
 * Hundreds of Poles from Łódź massacred by the Germans in the nearby village of Lućmierz-Las.
 * March: 11 Polish boy scouts from Łódź massacred by the Germans in the Okręglik forest near Zgierz.
 * April–May: The Russians committed the large Katyn massacre, among the victims of which were over 1,200 Poles, who either were born or lived in Łódź or the region before the war.
 * 1941
 * March: German transit prisoner-of-war camp Dulag 240 established.
 * June: German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft II relocated from Barth to the present-day district of Ruda Pabianicka.
 * July: Dulag 240 camp relocated to Jabłonna.
 * November: 5,007 Romani people deported by the Germans from German-occupied Burgenland to Łódź and imprisoned in a new German camp.
 * 1942
 * January: The Germans dissolved the camp for Romani people and exterminated its prisoners in the Chełmno extermination camp.
 * 9 October: Two prisoners of war escaped from the Stalag Luft II in the only known case of a successful escape from the camp.
 * German concentration camp for kidnapped Polish children of 2 to 16 years of age established in the city. It was nicknamed "little Auschwitz" due to its conditions.
 * 1943
 * April: Subcamp of the Stalag XXI-D POW camp established.
 * The Germans established a forced labour camp for around 800 English prisoners of war in the Olechów neighbourhood.
 * 1944
 * August: Łódź Ghetto liquidated.
 * September: Most POWs transported from Stalag Luft II to the Stalag Luft III camp in Żagań.
 * 21 November: Stalag Luft II POW camp liquidated.
 * 1945
 * German concentration camp for kidnapped Polish children disestablished.
 * 17 January: City taken by the Soviet Army and afterwards restored to Poland.

1945–2000

 * 1945
 * Łódź University of Technology, University of Łódź and Public Academy of Arts established.
 * Dziennik Łodzki newspaper begins publication.
 * 1946 - Retkinia included within city limits.
 * 1947 - Animation studio Se-ma-for founded in Łódź.
 * 1948 - National Film School in Łódź established.
 * 1950 - Medical Academy of Łódź established.
 * 1953 - ŁKS Łódź wins its first Polish men's basketball championship.
 * 1957 - Russkiĭ Golos newspaper begins publication.
 * 1958
 * Łódź Heat Power Stations commissioned.
 * ŁKS Łódź wins its first Polish football championship.
 * 1960 - Central Museum of Textiles established.
 * 1967
 * ŁKS Łódź wins its first Polish women's basketball championship.
 * Grand Theatre opens.
 * 1968
 * Ballet festival begins.
 * Start Łódź wins its first Polish women's volleyball championship.
 * 1973 - National choreographic competition begins.
 * 1974 - Population: 784,000.
 * 1975
 * Stadion ŁKS (stadium) built.
 * Museum of the City of Łódź active.
 * 1978 - Monument of writer Władysław Reymont unveiled.
 * 1981
 * April: Łódź co-hosts the 1981 European Wrestling Championships.
 * Widzew Łódź wins its first Polish football championship.
 * Protest against food shortage.
 * 1983
 * Anilana Łódź wins its first Polish men's handball championship.
 * ŁKS Łódź wins its first Polish women's volleyball championship.
 * Budowlani Łódź wins its first Polish rugby championship.
 * 1984 - Monument of Stanisław Staszic unveiled in the Staszic Park in the city center.
 * 1991 - 2 October: Visit of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
 * 1992 - Roman Catholic Diocese of Łódź promoted to archdiocese.
 * 1996 - KP Łódź beach soccer team founded.
 * 1998 - Higher School of Art and Design established.
 * 2000 - Monument of Pope John Paul II unveiled at the Piotrkowska Street.

21st century

 * 2001 - Twin town partnership signed between Łódź and Örebro, Sweden.
 * 2002
 * Jerzy Kropiwnicki becomes mayor.
 * Population: 785,134; province 2,612,900.
 * 2004 - Łódź Biennale active.
 * 2006 - Manufaktura shopping mall opens.
 * 2008
 * 19 May: Twin town partnership signed between Łódź and Szeged, Hungary.
 * September: Open-air Museum of the Łódź Wooden Architecture opened.
 * 2009
 * Arena Łódź opens.
 * Łódź co-hosts the EuroBasket 2009.
 * 2010 - Hanna Zdanowska becomes mayor.
 * 2011 - Łódź co-hosts the EuroBasket Women 2011.
 * 2013 - Rail freight transport between Łódź and China started.
 * 2014 - Łódź co-hosts the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship.
 * 2015 - Twin town partnership signed between Łódź and Chengdu, China.
 * 2017
 * June: Łódź hosts the 2017 Łódź Sevens tournament of the 2017 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series.
 * December: Łódź co-hosts the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship.
 * 2018 - Łódź hosts the first ever Mixed Doubles Łódź curling tournament.
 * 2019
 * May–June: Łódź co-hosts the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
 * November: Honorary Consulate of Armenia opened in Łódź.

in English



 * Zysiak, Agata et al. From Cotton and Smoke: Łódź - Industrial City and Discourses of Asynchronous Modernity, 1897-1994 (Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press, 2019). online review