The 2027 edition of Wimbledon runs from 28 June to 11 July, 150 years after the first Championships. The All England Club is selling the fortnight on the strength of that anniversary, and the arithmetic needs one footnote. War and a pandemic have cost eleven summers, so next year's edition will be the 140th Championships, not the 150th. These are the ten moments that shaped them.

1. 1877: 22 entrants and a crowd of 200

The All England Club gave one of its croquet lawns at Worple Road to the new game of lawn tennis in 1875. Two years later it staged a championship, and the story goes that the money was needed to repair the club's pony-drawn roller. There was one event, the gentlemen's singles. Twenty-two men entered, 200 people watched the final, and Spencer Gore, a local man who preferred cricket and doubted the game would last, became the first champion.

2. 1884: The women arrive, on half fees

Women were admitted seven years later, on second-class terms. The club added a ladies' singles only a fortnight before the 1884 Championships, charged the women half the men's entry fee and made them wait until the gentlemen's singles had finished. Thirteen entered. Maud Watson, 19, beat her elder sister Lilian in three sets to become the first ladies' champion. The gentlemen's doubles joined the programme the same year.

3. 1922: Church Road, a gong and the wettest fortnight

In 1922 the Championships moved to Church Road, where the new Centre Court was built for 13,500 people amid forecasts that it would become a white elephant. King George V and Queen Mary opened it on 26 June, the King striking a gong three times. The fortnight that followed was the wettest in the tournament's history. Suzanne Lenglen became the first singles champion crowned on the new court, beating Molla Mallory 6-2, 6-0 in 23 minutes.

4. 1915 to 2020: Eleven summers lost

The First World War cost four Championships and the Second cost six. On 11 October 1940 a bomb hit Centre Court, and when play resumed in 1946 the court was 1,200 seats short. The only other interruption came in 2020, when the pandemic forced the first cancellation since the war. Those eleven missing years are why 2026 was the 139th Championships, and why the anniversary edition will be the 140th.

5. 1968: Wimbledon goes open

Until 1968 the Championships were for amateurs. That summer Wimbledon went open, admitting professionals, and the Open Era brought prize money with it. Rod Laver won the gentlemen's singles and Billie Jean King the ladies'. The 2026 prize fund was £64.2 million.

6. 1977: A centenary, a museum and Virginia Wade

The club marked the centenary of the Championships by opening the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. Virginia Wade supplied the rest. At her 16th attempt, and in front of Queen Elizabeth II in her Silver Jubilee year, she beat Chris Evert in the semi-finals and Betty Stöve in the final. No British woman has won the singles since.

7. 2007: Equal prize money

In February 2007 chairman Tim Phillips announced that men and women would be paid the same at Wimbledon, saying the time had come to eliminate the difference. Venus Williams had argued for equal pay in 2005 and again in a newspaper column in 2006. That summer she won the ladies' singles, beating Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-1, and became the first woman to collect a champion's cheque equal to the men's.

8. 2009: A roof over Centre Court

The retractable roof was ready for the 2009 Championships and was first closed for a match in the fourth round, when rain interrupted Dinara Safina's win over Amélie Mauresmo. Andy Murray followed them on court and beat Stan Wawrinka in five sets, the first match played from start to finish under the roof and later into the night than any Wimbledon match before it.

9. 2013: Murray ends the wait

Fred Perry's third title in 1936 was the last by a British man for 77 years. Murray ended the wait in 2013, beating Novak Djokovic in the final, and won again in 2016. Perry has had a bronze statue at the club since 1984, 50 years after his first title. The club's stated ambition is to unveil one of Murray at the 2027 Championships, with Murray helping to design it.

10. 2025: The line judges leave

In October 2024 the club announced that electronic line calling would replace line judges on all 18 Championships courts and in qualifying, ending 147 years of human calls. Chief executive Sally Bolton said testing at that summer's Championships had shown the technology was robust enough. Jannik Sinner and Iga Świątek won the first Championships without line judges, and Sinner defended his title in 2026.

What 2027 brings

The Hill beside No. 1 Court, where fans without Centre Court tickets watch on the big screen, was due to be remodelled after this year's Championships, with about 20 per cent more capacity and better wheelchair access, and to reopen for 2027 as part of the anniversary. Beyond the Hill and the Murray statue, no wider programme for the 150th year had been announced by 22 September. The anniversary Championships begin on Monday 28 June.