The BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, better known as the Proms, were the brainchild of the Victorian impresario Robert Newman, manager of Queen's Hall, who wanted to bring classical music to a wider audience by offering low ticket prices and a more informal atmosphere.

In 1895, he recruited the services of a young conductor, Henry Wood, for the first Promenade concert. "I am going to run nightly concerts to train the public in easy stages", Newman explained to Wood, "gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music."

The Proms are now in their 114th season. Here we choose our pick of the ten key moments in Proms history. Click on the links to read the original reports from The Times.

1895 Henry Wood conducts the first Promenade concert at Queen's Hall. 'Mr H. J. Wood's debut', wrote the Times correspondent, 'was little short of a triumph'

1901 Edward Elgar's 'Pomp and Circumstance March No 1', Land of Hope and Glory, recieves an encore on its premiere

1927 The BBC takes over the Proms, saving them from financial demise and resulting in a new audience of wireless listeners

1941 The Proms move to their new home, the Royal Albert Hall

1944 Sir Henry Wood conducts the Proms on their fiftieth anniversary, in what turned out to be his final season. Sir Henry's last concert was on July 28. He died three weeks later, aged 75

1961 The Glyndebourne Opera Company perform the first complete opera, Don Giovanni

1963 The appearance of conductors Georg Solti, Leopold Stokowski and Carlo Maria Giulini herald a new era for the Proms as an international festival of music. Solti conducted the third act of Wagner's Götterdämerung to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth

1966 The first foreign ensemble, the Moscow Radio Orchestra, appear, peforming an all-Russian programme

1967 Sir Malcolm Sargent receives a standing ovation on his final appearance at the Royal Albert Hall, after handing the conductor's baton to Colin Davis. He died from cancer later that year

1970 Soft Machine cause controversy by becoming the first pop group to perform at the Proms