1299: First recorded settlement in Silesia, ruled by Polish Silesian Piast dynasty

1335: Territory becomes part of Crown of Bohemia

1526: Territory passed to Austrian Habsburg Monarchy

1598: First documented settlement in Katowice area

1742: Territory becomes part of Prussian empire during First Silesian War

1788: Area’s first mine opens

1822: Katowice’s population hits 100 homestead mark

1847: Railway station built

1865: Municipal rights awarded to ‘Kattowitz’

1871: Kattowitz is incorporated into German Empire

1875: Kattowitz’s population records 11,000 residents

1897: Granted rights as a city

1922: Katowice becomes part of Second Polish Republic after WWI and Silesian Uprisings (1918-21); granted autonomy by the Polish Sejm

1939: Occupied by Nazi Germany

1945: Katowice is ‘liberated’ by Soviets after WWII
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1953: Renamed 'Stalinogród' by Polish communist government

1956: Former name of Katowice restored

1981: Martial law declared, Wujek mine strike and massacre

1983: The Pope visits Katowice
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1989: Party-free elections in Poland; Communist regime crumbles

2004: Poland enters the European Union

2006: Pigeon Fair Disaster - 65 killed and 170 injured when Katowice convention centre roof collapses

2010: Polish President Lech Kaczyński and 95 other Polish delegates die in a plane crash near Smoleńsk, Russia, plunging the country into mourning

2012: Poland successfully co-hosts the Euro 2012 football tournament with neighbouring Ukraine

2015: Katowice designated UNESCO 'City of Music'

2018: Katowice hosts COP24 - the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the 24th 'Conference of the Parties' to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the third to be held in Poland.