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
1953: City is 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
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 Smolensk, Russia, plunging the country into mourning