From receiving our Royal Charter in 1900 to appointing the first female professor at a UK university in 1949, Birmingham has always been a university of firsts; doing things a little differently to make the most impact on people’s lives.
Here are some of the incredible achievements made by Birmingham
in the first half-century of its existence as the UK’s first civic university, including seminal breakthroughs in research, three Nobel Prize winners and landmarks in the development of our campus.
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Date
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Fact
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1900
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The University of Birmingham receives its Royal Charter.
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1900
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Florence Price becomes the first woman to matriculate and take a medical (MBChB) degree.
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1902
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Sir William Ashley founds the Faculty of Commerce; the first of its kind in Britain leading to the establishment of the University's Business School; ranked as one of the best business schools in the world for its MBA teaching.
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1905
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Sir Edward Elgar becomes the Peyton Professor of Music; he is succeeded in 1908 by his friend, Granville Bantock, who became instrumental in founding the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO).
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1908
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The Birmingham Law School is established.
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1909
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The Aston Webb Building is officially opened by King Edward VII.
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1909
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The 325-foot (100metre) clock tower nicknamed ‘Old Joe’ in honour of our founder Joseph Chamberlain, was completed; it is the tallest free-standing clock tower in the world.
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1914- 1918
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The University’s Great Hall was used as the First Southern General Hospital during World War I contributing significantly to the 130,000 servicemen treated in Birmingham during the conflict.
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1922
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Francis William Aston receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for inventing the Mass Spectrometer.
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1932
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The University opens the Guild of Students building; one of the longest established students' unions in the UK.
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1937
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Sir Norman Haworth receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on carbohydrates and synthesising Vitamin C.
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1937
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Lord Robert Cecil is awarded the Noble Peace Prize for his work in assisting in the establishment of the League of Nations.
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1939
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The magnificent Barber Institute of Fine Arts, designed by Robert Atkinson, is opened; the publicly accessible collection of art contains works from artists as diverse as Van Gogh and Botticelli to Picasso and Magritte.
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1946
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Sir Peter Scott founds the Severn Wildfowl Trust (later to become the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust) in 1946; he is knighted in 1973, the same year he becomes Chancellor of the University of Birmingham.
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1946
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Birmingham offers the first ever sports-based degree.
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1947
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The School of Education is established; it is now one of the largest schools of education in the UK contributing significantly to the lives of thousands of school children locally and nationally every year.
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1949
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Birmingham-born Dame Hilda Rose becomes the first female professor of the University's Medical School.
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