1878 – first (recorded) 100 kg. lift overhead (Alfred Pallavicini)
1885 – first Russian club, St. Petersburg (Vladislav Frantsevich Krayevsky)
1890 – first national federation, Austria
1891 – first World Championship, London (repetition and alternate pressing, with 25 kg. or 38 kg. in each hand, Edward Lawrence Levy); Wilhelm Türk C&J 143 kg.
1894 – IOC founded (204 nations today)
1896 – first Olympic Games, Athens (one-hand lift, 71 kg., Launceston Elliot; two-hand lift, 111.5, Viggo Jensen)
1896 – first European Championship, Rotterdam
1898 – second World Championship, Vienna (Wilhelm Türk C&J 150 kg.)
1904 – two-hand lift (Periklis Kakousis, 111.7 kg.), all-around dumbell (Oscar Osthoff)
1905 – IWF founded (189 nations today)
1905 – right-, left-hand snatch, press, C&J
1919 – first 100 kg. Snatch (Karl Morke)
1920 – one-hand Snatch, one-hand C&J, C&J
1924 – one-hand Snatch, one-hand C&J, Press, Snatch, C&J
1926 – first Double Bodyweight C&J (Andreas Stadler, 120/60)
1928 to 1972 – Press, Snatch, C&J
1928 – first 350 kg. 3-lift Total (El-Sayed Nosseir)
1928 – first olympic 150 kg. C&J (Arnold Luhaäär)
1936 – first 400 kg. 3-lift Total (Josef Manger)
1947 – first 450 kg. 3-lift Total (John Davis)
1948 – first 150 kg. Press (John Davis)
1954 – first 150 kg. Snatch (Norbert Schemansky)
1955 – first 500 kg. 3-lift Total (Paul Anderson)
1960 – first Double Bodyweight Press (Yevgeny Minayev, 120/60)
1960 – first 200 kg. C&J (Yury Vlasov)
1961 – first 550 kg. 3-lift Total (Yury Vlasov)
1962 – first 2.5 Bodyweight C&J (Yoshinobu Miyake, 140/56)
1962 – first Double Bodyweight Snatch (Yoshinobu Miyake, 118.5/58.5)
1967 – first 200 kg. Press (Leonid Zhabotinsky)
1969 – first Asian Championships
1970 – first 600 kg. 3-lift Total (Vasily Alekseev)
1972 – last Press WR 236.5 kg. (Vasily Alekseev)
1972 – last 3-lift Total WR 645 kg. (Vasily Alekseev)
1972 – first 400 kg. 2-lift Total (Vasily Alekseev)
From 1973 – Snatch, C&J
1975 – first World Junior Championships, Marseille
1976 – first 250 kg. C&J (Gerd Bonk)
1976 – first 200 kg. Snatch (Khristo Plachkov)
1980 – first Oceania Championships, Melbourne
1982 – first 450 kg. 2-lift Total (Anatoly Pisarenko)
1983 – first Triple Bodyweight C&J (Stefan Topurov, 180/60)
1984 – The Friendship Games (Druzhba-84) was an international multi-sport event held in 1984 in the USSR and eight other socialist states which boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Some fifty states took part in the competition. While the boycotting countries were represented by their strongest athletes, other states sent their reserve teams, consisting of athletes who failed to qualify for Los Angeles. Weightlifting (held in Bulgaria) was dominated by USSR and Bulgaria (10 medals each, all exceeded Olympic Gold medalists), 30 world records broken.
1985 – first World Masters Championships, Toronto
1987 – first women World Championships, Daytona (Cai Jun)
1988 – first 2.5 Bodyweight Snatch (Naim Suleymanoglu, 150/60)
1988 – first women European Championships, San Marino (Roberta Sforza)
1988 – first women Asian Championships, Jakarta
1988 – first women Double Bodyweight C&J (Xing Fen, 87.5/43.5)
1988 – first women 100 kg. Snatch (Han Changmei)
1991 – first women 250 kg. Total (Li Yajuan)
1992 – first women 150 kg. C&J (Li Yajuan)
1993, 1998 – IWF changed its weight classes, nullifying earlier records. Many of the old records still stand today.
1995 – first women World Junior Championships, Warsaw
2000 – first women Olympics, Sydney (Tara Nott)
2000 – first women 300 kg. Total (Ding Meiyuan)
2004 – first women Double Bodyweight Snatch (Nurcan Taylan, 95/47.21)
2007 – first women 2.5 Bodyweight C&J (Chen Xiexia, 120/48)
2009 – first World Youth Championships, Chiang Mai (Okur Saziye)
2009 – oldest person to C&J 100 kg., age 76 (Don Ramos)
2010 – oldest person to C&J Bodyweight, age 82 (Dan Takeuchi, 77/72.5)
2010 – first Youth Olympic Games, Singapore (Tian Yuan)
2012 – first women 150 kg. Snatch (Tatiana Kashirina)