1864 in the United Kingdom
 1864 in the United Kingdom:
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| 1862 | 1863 | 1864 | 1865 | 1866 |
| Sport |
| 1864 English cricket season |
Events from the year 1864 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch — Victoria
- Prime Minister — The Viscount Palmerston (Liberal)
Events
- 11 January — Charing Cross railway station in London opens.[1]
- 11 March — Great Sheffield Flood: the Dale Dike Dam bursts devastating Sheffield.
- 29 March — Treaty of London: Britain voluntarily cedes control of the United States of the Ionian Islands to the Kingdom of Greece with effect from 2 May.[2]
- 7 May — City of Adelaide is launched at Sunderland by William Pile, Hay and Co. for the Australia trade; by 2014 she will be the world's oldest surviving clipper.
- June — Overarm bowling legalised in cricket.
- 20 August — John Alexander Reina Newlands produces the first periodic table of the chemical elements.[3]
- 5–6 September — Bombardment of Shimonoseki: An American, British, Dutch and French alliance engages the powerful feudal Japanese warlord or daimyo Lord Mori Takachika of the Chōshū clan based in Shimonoseki, Japan.
- 28 September — International Workingmen's Association founded in London.[1]
- 10 October — Quebec Conference to discuss plans for the creation of a Dominion of Canada, begins.[2]
- 18 October — Abolition of squadronal colours in the Royal Navy, reserving the White Ensign to the Navy, the Red Ensign to the Merchant Navy and the Blue Ensign to military vessels.[4]
- 2 November — HMS Victoria (1859), the Royal Navy’s last, largest and fastest wooden first-rate three-decker ship of the line to see sea service, enters active service.
- 8 December
- The Clifton Suspension Bridge across the Bristol Avon, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and completed as a memorial to him, opens to traffic.[1]
- James Clerk Maxwell presents his paper A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field to the Royal Society, concluding that light is an electromagnetic wave.[5]
Undated
- Ending of Second Anglo-Ashanti war.
- Oriel Chambers, Liverpool, the world's first metal-framed glass curtain walled building, designed by Peter Ellis (architect), is built.[6]
Publications
- Harry Clifton's song "Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green".
- Charles Dickens's novel Our Mutual Friend (serialisation begins).
- Amelia Edwards' novel Barbara's History.
- John Henry Newman's spiritual autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua.
- James Payn's novel Lost Sir Massingberd (in Chambers's Journal).[7]
- Anthony Trollope's novel The Small House at Allington (publication concludes) and Can You Forgive Her? (publication commences).
- John Wisden publishes The Cricketer's Almanack for the year 1864 (February) which will go on to become the major annual cricket reference publication.
Births
- 8 January — Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence (died 1892)
- 14 February — Israel Zangwill, novelist and playwright (died 1926)
- 20 February — Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson, general (died 1925)
- 12 March — W. H. R. Rivers, psychiatrist (died 1922)
- 22 April — Phil May, caricaturist (died 1903)
- 14 September — Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, politician and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1958)
- 31 October — Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1945)
- 26 November — Edward Higgins, 3rd General of The Salvation Army (died 1947)
Deaths
- 29 January — Lucy Aikin, writer (born 1781)
- 17 June — William Cureton, Orientalist (born 1808)
- 15 September — John Hanning Speke, explorer (born 1827)
- 8 December — George Boole, mathematician and philosopher (born 1815)
- 23 December — James Bronterre O'Brien, Chartist leader, reformer and journalist (born 1804)
References
- ^ a b c Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ^ a b Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 284–285. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ Newlands, John A. R. (20 August 1864). "On Relations Among the Equivalents". Chemical News. 10: 94–95. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ By Order in Council 9 July. "The Birth of Todays Royal Navy's Ensign". Historical Flags of Our Ancestors. NAVA. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
- ^ Maxwell, J. Clerk (1865). "A dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field" (PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 155: 459–512. doi:10.1098/rstl.1865.0008. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
- ^ "History". Oriel Chambers. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
- ^ Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (2nd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.