The first World Snooker Championship was held in 1927.
The inaugural championship took place in England, with Joe Davis defeating Tom Dennis 20–11 in the final. Davis also made the event’s first century break, scoring 100 during the tournament.
The championship was originally known as the Professional Snooker Championship. Joe Davis dominated its early history and won every edition from 1927 through 1946, apart from the years when the event was not staged because of the Second World War.
The modern championship is strongly associated with the Crucible Theatre, but that venue did not host the event until 1977. The first championship therefore belongs to an earlier period of professional snooker, decades before the tournament acquired its present television-era identity.