1839    The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for war with Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War.

1841    The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China later formally cedes.

1906    A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong.

1941    World War II: Hong Kong falls to the Japanese Imperial Army.

1942    {{USS|Grouper|SS-214|6}} torpedoes ''Lisbon Maru'' not knowing she is carrying British PoWs from Hong Kong

1945    Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.

1945    World War II: The surrender of the Japanese troops in Hong Kong. The surrender is accepted by the Royal Navy Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt.

1946    Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong.

1967    The establishment of TVB, the first wireless commercial television station in Hong Kong.

1969    The United Kingdom introduces the British fifty-pence coin, which replaced, over the following years, the British ten-shilling note, in anticipation of the decimalization of the British currency in 1971, and the abolition of the shilling as a unit of currency anywhere in the world. (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, etc., had already abolished the shilling in favor of a decimal currency with exactly 100 pence per pound sterling or dollar, whichever was applicable.}