The English Channel saw the first woman to fly over it in 1912; the Rush-Bagot Treaty was signed in 1818 between the USA and Canada; the Apollo 16 mission to land on the moon and bring back samples, lifted off in 1972; the Treaty of Accession was signed in Athens in 2003; and the Battle of Megiddo kicked off in 15th century BC sometime just after breakfast.
All of this pales into insignificance with the most important event to ever happen on the 16th of April: it was the day Manchester City FC was born.
Tomorrow will see our 120th birthday, and whilst we may have been showing our age during the 1980s and 1990s, today we look young and sprightly like a young and sprightly thing.
Twenty-seven matches we have played on our birthday, and it took quite a long seventy-one years until we lost – stupid Crystal Palace – in fact our record stands at a rather admirable PL:27 W:15 D:8 L:4 GF:53 GA:23 GD:+30.
Of those twenty-seven, twenty-five of them have been league matches, with one UEFA Cup match (Hamburg) and one FA Cup match (Manchester United), which we both won, thank you very much for asking. I guess what that means is that the omens are good for tomorrow’s match versus Sunderland.
Sorry about that Black Cats...
Do you recall our 100th birthday, however? Don’t worry if you can’t because after drawing against Norwich City 1-1 (thanks, Uwe), the fans all went home and … that was about it. Shelia Smith, the 96th Mayor of Manchester at that time, did a talk at the Manchester Town Hall to some current and ex players, and a selected few fans that evening, but it was all a rather muted affair.
Really can’t wait for our 200th birthday celebrations …
Anyway, we are 120 years young tomorrow, or at least we are if you discount the previous fourteen years when we seemed to change the name of the club every other week. But do you know what the name “Manchester City” actually means? For the answer to that, you need to go ask the FA.
Around the time Ardwick had changed their name to MCFC, Newton Heath applied to also change their name, and they wanted to be called simply ‘Manchester’. At the time there was a rugby team that went by that name, and, naturally, they objected.
However, it was the FA who put a stop to it; they pointed in the direction of Manchester City FC and declared that we were the official team of the City of Manchester, and that there was only ever going to be one.
...City Blogger...
"Of course, Newton Heath eventually became Manchester United in 1902, so obviously someone at the FA had forgotten what they had said just eight years earlier."
So what have we accomplished in those one hundred and twenty years? For a start we’ve played 4,396 league matches, not including the three scrubbed off the records due to the minor inconvenience of WW2 getting in the way.
We’ve won ten league titles (and holding the rather dubious position of winning the most 2nd tier titles, but then that’s not too surprising when you consider we have been relegated and promoted a massive twenty-four times), five FA Cups, three League Cups, four Shields (although they don’t really count), and the UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup.
Our wins, much like buses, have tended to all come at the same time though: early 1900s, mid 1930s, late 1960s, and today.
I am not privy as to what City have planned for tomorrow, if they have anything planned at all, but I hope that you will all join me in raising a glass (or several) to Joshua Parlsby, who was the club’s secretary in 1894.
It was he who convinced the FA and the football league that we should take the place of Ardwick FC, even though there were many who had reservations about the idea. Without his brilliance/expert blagging at getting them to change their minds, we may not have even had the chance to celebrate out 1st Birthday, let alone our 120th.
Happy Birthday, Manchester City.
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