| Principal events | |
| 1863 | The Metropolitan Railway opened the world's first underground railway on 10th January between Bishop's Road, Paddington, and Farringdon Street. |
| 1890 | The City and South London Railway opened the world's first deep-level electric railway on 18th December from King William Street in the City of London under the River Thames to Stockwell. |
| 1902 | Formation of the Underground Electric Railway Company of London (known as the Underground Group). Mergers brought all lines except the Metropolitan into the Group by the First World War. |
| 1933 | The Underground Group and the Metropolitan Railway become part of the London Passenger Transport Board which assumed control of over 170 railway, bus, tram, trolleybus and coach undertakings in the London area. |
| 1948 | The London Passenger Transport Board, which was placed under Government control as an emergency measure during the 1939-1945 war, is officially nationalised and becomes the London Transport Executive, part of the British Transport Commission which also controlled British Railways, docks, canals, airlines and road freight. |
| 1963 | The London Transport Executive becomes the London Transport Board, reporting directly to the Minister of Transport. |
| 1970 | The Underground and the Greater London area bus network pass to the London Transport Executive, reporting to Greater London Council. |
| 1984 | London Regional Transport (LRT) created, reporting to the Secretary of State for Transport. The London Regional Transport Act contained provision for setting up subsidiary companies to run the Underground and bus services. |
| 1985 | Incorporation of London Underground Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of LRT. |
| 1988 | Ten individual line business units created to manage the Underground lines. |
| Other Dates | |
| 1843 | Opening of the Thames Tunnel, constructed by the Brunels. It was purchased by the East London Railway company for £200 000 in 1865. The first trains ran through the tunnel in 1869 (now part of the East London Line.) |
| 1868 | Opening of the first section of the Metropolitan District Railway from South Kensington to Westminster (now part of the District and Circle Lines). |
| 1870 | Opening of the first tube tunnel, from the Tower to Bermondsey. At first used by cable cars, then converted to a pedestrian footway but closed when Tower Bridge was opened in 1894 (now carries water pipes.) |
| 1884 | Completion of what is now the Circle Line. |
| 1900 | Royal opening by the Prince of Wales of the Central London Railway from Shepherd's Bush to Bank (the "Twopenny Tube", now part of the Central Line). |
| 1905 | District and Circle Lines electrified. |
| 1906 | Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (now part of the Bakerloo Line) opened from Baker Street to Kennington Road (now Lambeth North). Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (now part of the Piccadilly Line) opened between Hammersmith and Finsbury Park. |
| 1907 | Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (now part of the Northern Line) opened from Charing Cross to Golders Green and Highgate (now Archway). Albert Stanley (later Lord Ashfield) appointed General Manager of the Underground Electric Railway Company of London Limited. |
| 1908 | Adoption of the "Underground" name on stations. Electric ticket-issuing machine introduced. |
| 1911 | First escalators in service, at Earl's Court Station. |
| 1913 | First appearance of the "bulls-eye" symbol on Underground railways. |
| 1916 | Edward Johnston designed a distinctive new sans-serif type-face for the Underground, for use in all publicity material and signing. A development of this design is still used. |
| 1923 | Central overhaul depôt opened at Acton. |
| 1929 | Manually operated doors on tube trains completely replaced by mechanical doors. |
| 1933 | First Underground map in diagrammatic form, devised by Harry Beck. |
| 1940 | From September, tube station platforms were used as air raid shelters - this continued until May 1945. Aldwych branch closed until 1946 and used to store British Museum treasures. |
| 1952 | First aluminium train entered service on the District Line. |
| 1955 | First system of programme machine signalling introduced at Camden Town. |
| 1961 | End of steam and electric locomotive haulage of London Transport passenger trains. |
| 1962 | First experiments in automatic train operation carried out on the District Line between Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park. |
| 1968 | The Victoria Line opened in stages - Walthamstow Central to Highbury & Islington (September); and on to Warren Street (December). |
| 1969 | Royal opening of the Victoria Line by HM The Queen with the extension from Warren Street to Victoria. |
| 1971 | Last steam shunting and freight locomotive withdrawn from service. The Victoria Line extended to Brixton. |
| 1975 | Fatal accident on the Northern Line at Moorgate in which forty-three people were killed. New safety measures introduced. |
| 1977 | Royal opening of Heathrow Central on the Piccadilly Line by HM The Queen. |
| 1979 | Opening of the Jubilee Line. |
| 1983 | Dot matrix train destination indicators introduced on platforms. |
| 1984 | The Hammersmith & City and the Circle Lines were converted to one-person operation. |
| 1986 | The Piccadilly Line extended to serve Heathrow Terminal 4. |
| 1987 | Tragic fire at King's Cross killed 31 people. New self-service ticket machines introduced throughout the network. |
| 1988 | New passenger security measures installed for trials, before being adopted system-wide. Go-ahead given for the £555 million Central Line modernisation, including new trains and signalling. |
| 1989 | Fire Precautions (Sub-Surface Railway Stations) Regulations introduced, following the Fennell Report into the King's Cross fire. |
| 1992 | The London Underground Customer Charter launched. |
| 1993 | £70 million Angel Station reconstruction completed. |
| 1993 | Work started on the £2.85 billion Jubilee Line Extension. |
| 1994 | Penalty Fares introduced. London Underground took over the Waterloo & City Line and responsibility for the stations on the Wimbledon branch of the District Line from Putney Bridge to Wimbledon Park. Aldwych Station and the Central Line branch from Epping to Ongar closed. |
| 1999 | Opening of extended Jubilee Line and through services from Stanmore to Stratford. |