1868 in the United Kingdom

1868 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1866 | 1867 | 1868 | 1869 | 1870

Sport

1868 English cricket season

Events from the year 1868 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch — Victoria
• Prime Minister —
  • until 27 February: The Earl of Derby (Conservative
  • 27 February-1 December: Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative)
  • starting 3 December: William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal)

Events

• 2 January — British Expedition to Abyssinia: Robert Napier leads an expedition to free captive British officials and missionaries.^[1]
• 9 January — Penal transportation from Britain to Australia ends with arrival of the convict ship Hougoumont in Western Australia after an 89-day voyage from England.
• 13 February — The War Office sanctions the formation of what will become the Army Post Office Corps.
• 27 February — Benjamin Disraeli succeeds the Earl of Derby as Prime Minister following Derby's resignation due to ill-health.
• 12 March — Britain annexes Basutoland.^[2]
• 9–13 April — Expedition to Abyssinia: At the Battle of Magdala, Robert Napier decisively defeats the emperor Tewodros II.
• 10–11 May — "Murphy riots" against Irish people in Ashton-under-Lyne.^[3]
• 26 May — Last public hanging in Britain — Fenian bomber Michael Barrett outside Newgate Prison in London for his part in the Clerkenwell explosion of 1867.^[4]
• 29 May — Capital Punishment Amendment Act abolishes public hanging in Britain.
• 2 June — The first Trades Union Congress is held in Manchester.^[1]
• 29 June — The Press Association founded in London.^[1]
• 17 July — Judicial decision of the House of Lords in Rylands v Fletcher, a leading case in English tort law, establishing a standard of strict liability in negligence actions.
• 13 August — First non-public hanging in Britain — Thomas Wells inside Maidstone Prison.^[4]
• 20 August — Abergele train disaster kills 32 passengers and a fireman.
• 15–24 November — General election, the first under the extended franchise of the Reform Act 1867: Liberal Party victorious.^[2]
• 24 November — The Smithfield Meat Market opens in London.^[1]
• 3 December — William Ewart Gladstone becomes Prime Minister.
• 10 December
  • Whitaker's Almanack first published.^[1]
  • The world's first traffic lights are installed in Parliament Square in London.^[1]

Undated

• Cardwell Reforms abolish flogging in the peacetime British Army.
• Church Rate ceases to be compulsory.^[5]
• Joseph Norman Lockyer discovers the chemical element helium.
• Thomas Henry Huxley discovers what he thinks is a primordial matter and names it bathybius haecklii (he admits his mistake in 1871)
• Archibald Campbell Tait enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Publications

• Wilkie Collins' novel The Moonstone.
• Queen Victoria's diary Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands, from 1848 to 1861.

Births

• 7 February — Aleen Cust, Irish veterinary surgeon (died 1937)
• 22 February — David Devant, stage magician (died 1941)
• 22 March — Alfred Fowler, astronomer (died 1940)
• 25 March — William Lockwood, cricketer (died 1932)
• 10 April — George Arliss, actor (died 1946)
• 28 April — Lucy Booth, Salvationist, fifth daughter of William and Catherine Booth (died 1953)
• 6 June — Robert Falcon Scott, explorer (died 1912)
• 7 June — Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect (died 1928)
• 6 July — Princess Victoria (died 1935)
• 14 July — Gertrude Bell, archaeologist, writer, spy and administrator (died 1926)
• 7 August — Granville Bantock, classical composer and conductor (died 1946)

Deaths

• 10 February — David Brewster, scientist, inventor and writer (born 1781)
• 28 March — James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, military leader (born 1797)
• 2 May — James Wilson Carmichael, marine painter (born 1800)
• 7 May — Henry Peter Brougham, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1778)
• 29 July — John Elliotson, doctor and author (born 1791)
• 17 August — Duncan Forbes, linguist (born 1798)
• 24 September — Henry Hart Milman, historian and ecclesiastic (born 1791)
• 27 October — Charles Thomas Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury (born 1794)

References

1. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
2. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 289–290. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
3. Moody, T. W.; et al., eds. (1989). A New History of Ireland. 8: A Chronology of Irish History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-821744-2.
4. "Timeline of capital punishment in Britain". Retrieved 2011-02-02.
5. Ellens, J. P. (1987). "Lord John Russell and the Church Rate Conflict: the Struggle for a Broad Church, 1834–1868". The Journal of British Studies. 2: 232–257.

See also