1851 Owens College was founded based on the bequest of John Owens
1866 The chair of Civil and Mechanical Engineering was founded at Owens College with support from local industrialists
1868 Osborne Reynolds was appointed Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering
1872 Incorporated the Royal School of Medicine and Surgery, which had been formed in 1824 as a medical school owned by doctors
1873 J. J. Thomson was awarded one of the first engineering certificates
1873 The college was transferred from Quay Street to a larger building in Oxford Street
1880 Owens College became the first constituent part of the federal Victoria University, England’s first civic university, which later included colleges in Liverpool and Leeds.