Cardiff's Coal Exchange opened for business on 1 February 1886. This would be the place where the world price for coal was set and where the first ever cheque for 1 million was signed in 1901.

Bute West Dock had opened in 1839 and Bute East Dock in in 1855. By the 1880s business was booming but the coal traders had nowhere to meet. Deals where done in the open in all weathers. Frederick De Courcy Hamilton saw the opportunity and decided to open a club for the Cardiff docksmen on the site of a small residential park in the centre of Mount Stuart Square. The architect was Edwin Seward who also designed the Central Library, Cardiff Royal Infirmary and Turner Gallery in Penarth.

The Exchange thrived and Mount Stuart Square became the commercial hub for Cardiff. At it peak 10,000 people passed through the Exchange every day. As the coal trade declined however, so did the Coal Exchange and trading ceased in 1958. The building nearly became home to the Welsh Assembly in the late 1970s and today it houses offices and hosts the occasional concert. Lots more about Cardiff's history at www.cardiffonfoot.com

Cardiff's great featherweight boxer, Peerless Jim Driscoll died on 30 January 1925. He had won the British and Commonwealth tiles and narrowly missed the world title. Known as The Prince of Wales in Cardiff, 100,000 fans lined his funeral cortege which was led by the military band of the Welch Regiment.

Jim was born in 1880 into an Irish Catholic family on Ellen Street in Newtown, between the railway line and Bute West Dock. His father died when he was still a baby and his mother worked unloading vegetables from ships at Englands Potato Wharf. He started boxing in street fights during his teens and at seventeen he was fighting in boxing booths for a sovereign a time. For an extra crown he would fight with one hand tied behind him but to win you had to hit him on his nose within 60 seconds. He turned professional in 1901 and won 12 fights in his first year with no defeats. He won the British featherweight title in 1906 and the Commonwealth title in 1908.

In 1910 he toured the USA for four months. Although he won ten fights (In four months!) he just failed to take the world title from Abe Attell on a technicality. He refused a re-match because he was due to attend a fund-raiser for the Nazareth House Orphanage in Cardiff. "I never break a promise" he said. American boxing fans loved his fighting style and it was the American press that called him "Peerless".

He won the Lonsdale Belt in 1910 and boxed for the army during the Great War. He gave up professional boxing in 1919 and died of pneumonia just a few years later at his wife's pub, The Duke of Edinburgh on Ellen Street just a few doors down from the house he was born in. As a professional he won 58 matches of which 39 were knockouts. He lost just three. He fought more than 600 fights as an amateur.

Jim lies in Cathays Cemetery and a statue honours his memory. Sadly, the houses on Ellen Street were torn down after the War but Englands Potato Warehouse still stands as a smart apartment block.

Lots more about the life and times of Cardiff at cardiffonfoot.com

Cardiff's most famous daughter, Shirley Bassey, was born on the 8th of January 1937 above the Canadian Cafe at 182 Bute Street, Tiger Bay, Cardiff. The address is significant. Shirley's mum was from the North east of England and her dad was Nigerian, and 1930s Tiger Bay has been described as the "The safest place in Britain for a man of colour". There were very few non white people living in pre-war Britain and outside parts of London and Liverpool Tiger Bay was the only place with a non white majority. The unique dockside culture was described as Indo-Cymric and Afro-Welsh. Loudon Square at the heart of the community was 80% non-white and so ethnically mixed that it was said that "you could see the world in one square mile". The rich ethnic mix gave rise to a distinct musical culture based on calypso and jazz and Tiger Bay was renowned for its clubs. During the war black GIs flocked to Cardiff whenever they got leave resulting in 73 local women marrying US servicemen and settling in the USA, including Shirley's sister, Grace.

Shirley's singing career started in the early 1950s and such was her talent that in just a few years her earnings went from 5 a week to $1800 a week in 1956 in Las Vegas; her first really big break. Her hits include Gold Finger, Diamonds are for Ever and Big Spender. She still performs and long may she continue to do so.

Lots more about the life and times of Cardiff at cardiffonfoot.com.

On 28 December 1910 Cardiff's aviation pioneer and self taught engineer, Ernest Willows, arrived in Paris aboard his airship, The City of Cardiff. He was the first Welshman (and Briton) to arrive in the city by powered flight and he would spend New Year's Eve 1910 flying around the the Eiffel Tower.

1910 was quite a year for Willows and probably the peak of his career. He had been designing and building airships at his Splott workshop for a couple of years and made the news on the 4th of June when he flew across Cardiff and landed in front of City Hall. He repeated the stunt on June 7 and this time he landed in front of a crowd of 40,000. On the 6th of August he became the first man to cross the Bristol Channel by powered flight as he headed to London at night following the headlights of his father's car. He left London for France on the 4th of November and was seen off by Lord Asquith, the Prime Minister, along with David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. He was the first person to make a night crossing of the English Channel.

Sadly, Willows efforts came to little. Whilst Germany developed a very successfully military and civilian airship industry there was little interest in Britain. Both Willows and his main backer, his father, went bankrupt. Willows died in 1926 in a ballooning accident.

So when you wish your loved ones blwyddyn newydd dda this New Year's Eve, raise a glass to the memory of a young Ernest Willows flying his City of Cardiff airship around the Eiffel Tower.

Blwyddyn newydd dda pawb and a happy new year to all from www.cardiffonfoot.com

December 20th is a great anniversary for Cardiff. On this day in 1955 the Home Secretary, Gwilym Lloyd George, son of the great man, declared the city capital of Wales. This was not a certainty. For most of its history Cardiff was a small and insignificant town. There were lots of other towns in Wales that were bigger and more important. Although its town charter dated back to the 12th century, in 1800 the population was still only 2000. All bets would have been on Swansea or Merthyr Tydfil to lead Wales. The town started to grow quickly after the opening of the Bute West Dock in 1839 and was the largest coal port in the world by the end of the century. City status was granted in 1905. The Welsh Office opened in 1964 and the Cardiff finally became a true capital city when the National Assembly first met in 1999.

Phew! My first blog completed! Lots more scribblings about Cardiff's history at cardiffonfoot.com.