It was run by the Dining Room Committee of the Carriage and Wagon Works, and was known as the Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Cricket and Football Club.
Only after Newton Heath went bankrupt did Manchester United emerge from the ashes in 1902. Having joined the Football League in 1892, the club has played in one or other of the top two divisions ever since.
With winger Billy Meredith a powerful influence, Manchester United earned their first major honour in 1908 when the club won the championship. It followed up its league success the next year with an FA Cup victory. Although it won the league again in 1911, there followed a notably barren spell lasting until after the Second World War.
During the war, heavy bomb damage meant Manchester United had to temporarily abandon its Old Trafford ground and play matches at their Manchester rivals' Maine Road stadium.
With the end of hositilities, Matt Busby took over as manager and - with the help of captain Johnny Carey - set the club on the path to phenomenal post-war success.
While players such Jack Rowley and Stan Pearson helped them to win the 1948 FA Cup and the 1952 league championship, the club increasingly became renowned for nurturing youthful talent. And so were born the 'Busby Babes': Roger Byrne, Bobby Charlton, Duncan Edwards, Tommy Taylor, and many more.
Qucikly dominating English football, the new team won the First Division in successive seasons before the 1958 Munich air crash claimed the lives of eight players.
From the wreckage, Busby set about building another magnificent team, using the skills of Charlton and Denis Law, and harnessing the teenage talents of George Best. At the height of its power in the mid-Sixties, every Manchester United player was an international.
FA Cup winners in 1963, First Division champions in 1965 and 1967, the pinnacle of the team's achievements was the 4-1 win over Benfica at Wembley in the 1968 European Cup Final.
Managers found it difficult to emulate Busby's success, despite the efforts of men such as Tommy Docherty, Dave Sexton and Ron Atkinson. Only under Alex Ferguson, who took over in 1986, have star players managed to combine to live up to the memory of their heroic predecessors