- According to legend William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby School, allegedly picked up the ball in 1823 and invented rugby although there is no evidence to support this myth. In the 1850s and 1860s Rugby School football became popular throughout the UK.
- Leeds and Huddersfield formed the first rugby clubs in 1864, Hull in 1865 and York in 1868. Hundreds more were formed in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria in the 1870s and 1880s.
- Yorkshire rugby clubs started the Yorkshire Cup competition in 1876 which attracted bigger crowds than the FA Cup Final!
- The Rugby Football Union was concerned at the growing dominance of the working class northern clubs and introduces strict amateur rules in 1886.
- Clubs in Yorkshire propose that players be paid six shillings when they miss work due to attending matches (broken-time payments). The Rugby Football Union voted down the proposal and began widespread suspensions of northern clubs and players.
- In 1895 21 leading Lancashire and Yorkshire clubs met at the George Hotel in Huddersfield. They were being threatened with expulsion from the Rugby Football Union if they could not prove their amateurism. They voted unanimously to form the Northern Rugby Football Union and to allow broken-time payments.
- In 1897 the Northern Rugby Football Union reduces the value of all goals to two points, tries worth three points and abolished the line-out to make the game more exciting.
- The first international match was played at Wigan in 1904.
- In 1906 rucks and mauls are replaced by play-the-ball and the number of players is reduced from fifteen to thirteen a side and modern Rugby League was born.
- The Northern Union changed its name to the Rugby Football League in 1922.
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