Timeline
Aranattukara's story beside the history of Thrissur and Kerala.
AranattukaraThrissur & Kerala
- 1790Sakthan Thampuran becomes ruler of Cochin and makes Thrissur his capital.
- 1796Aranattukara's first church, of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, is consecrated on land given by Sakthan Thampuran's decree.
- 1805Death of Sakthan Thampuran.
- 1819A traveller, B.S. Ward, sets out by boat from Aranattukara at 8 a.m. and reaches Kochi that night.
- 1858Fr. Kuriakose Elias Chavara founds the Carmelite monastery at Elthuruth, with the backing of Aranattukara parish.
- 1886Birth of John Mathai, economist and later India's first Railway Minister, who made his home at Lalur.
- 1886English is first taught at the Valiyangadi writing school, the seed of Aranattukara's schools.
- 1887Pope Leo XIII creates the Vicariate of Thrissur; Adolph Medlycott, its first Vicar Apostolic, first lives at Elthuruth.
- 1896St. Sebastian's (West) Church is completed; the parish is split in two.
- 1902The Shoranur–Cochin railway reaches Thrissur; trade begins to leave the waterways.
- 1907St. John's School opens in a new building raised at Antony Tharakan's initiative.
- 1911Pope Pius X makes Antony Tharakan a papal knight — the first such honour in the Thrissur diocese.
- 1922A new English school opens with classes 1–3 and free admission: the beginning of Tharakans School.
- 1936The electricity agitation against handing Thrissur's power supply to private companies.
- 1941At the height of the parish dispute, the Bishop of Thrissur is kept out of the East Church; a disputed wedding goes ahead under court order.
- 1947The Holy Family sisters open a convent at Padinjare Angadi to start high-school classes for girls.
- 1947Indian independence. John Mathai joins Nehru's first cabinet as Railway Minister.
- 1950Infant Jesus Girls' High School becomes a separate school under the convent.
- 1954The Capuchins come to Thrissur district and found Calvary Ashram at Poothole.
- 1956The state of Kerala is formed.
- 1959Death of John Mathai, honoured the same year with the Padma Vibhushan.
- 1964By Bishop George Alappatt's decree, the two Aranattukara parishes are reunited.
- 1973The new St. Thomas Church, built after the reunion, is blessed and dedicated.
- 1976The University of Calicut's Department of Economics opens at the Dr John Matthai Centre, Lalur.
- 1977The School of Drama begins at the Dr John Matthai Centre, with G. Sankara Pillai as its first director.
- 1985The Lalur waste problem first reaches the High Court, which orders the dump to be covered with earth.
- 2000Thrissur becomes a city corporation; Jose Kattukkaran of Aranattukara is its first Mayor.
- 2000The environmental group PLANT is founded in Aranattukara on World Environment Day.
- 2014Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Euphrasia, whose mother came from Aranattukara, are declared saints in Rome.
- 2015The renovated St. Thomas Church, with its new Gothic-style front, is blessed by Mar Andrews Thazhath.