Habitation in and around Portsmouth can be traced back to Roman Britain. In 1194, King Richard granted market town status to Portsmouth.  Portsmouth has a great naval history. The oldest dry dock in the world, the No. 1 Dock, was ordered built by King Henry VII in 1495.  In the early 1800s, the world's first mass production line was developed in the Portsmouth Dockyard's Block Mills. Portsmouth is considered to be the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. In the mid 1800s, Portsmouth became the world's most fortified town as France threatened to invade this important naval base. At the height of the British Empire, Pax Brittanica , Portsmouth was consider the world's greatest naval port.  During the Second World War, Portsmouth was heavily bombed by the German Airforce and resulted in 930 deaths. Later, in 1944, Portsmouth became the embarkation point for the allied DDay invasion of France.  In 1982, at the start of the Falklands War, the Portsmouth naval base dis...