1868 in the United Kingdom
 1868 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1868 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch – Victoria
- Prime Minister – Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (Conservative) (until 27 February); Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative) (starting 27 February, until 1 December); William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal) (starting 3 December)
- Parliament – 19th (until 11 November), 20th (starting 10 December)
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] and it becomes a protectorate.
- 14 March – Eliza Lynn Linton's article "The Girl of the Period" is published in the Saturday Review.
- 2 April – last public hanging of a woman in Britain – Frances Kidder outside Maidstone Prison by William Calcraft for drowning her stepdaughter.[3]
- 9–13 April – expedition to Abyssinia: At the Battle of Magdala, Robert Napier decisively defeats the emperor Tewodros II.
- 25 April – HMS Repulse, the last wooden battleship constructed for the Royal Navy, is launched as an ironclad (with auxiliary steam propulsion) at Woolwich Dockyard.
- 10–11 May – "Murphy riots" against Irish people in Ashton-under-Lyne.[4]
- 26 May – last public hanging in Britain – Fenian bomber Michael Barrett outside Newgate Prison in London by William Calcraft for his part in the Clerkenwell explosion of 1867.[5]
- 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]
- July – the Summer assize for Berkshire is moved from Abingdon to Reading,[6] effectively making the latter the county town.
- 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 by William Calcraft.[5]
- 20 August – Abergele train disaster kills 32 passengers and a fireman.
- 20 October – astronomer Norman Lockyer observes and names the D3 Fraunhofer line in the solar spectrum and concludes that it is caused by a hitherto unidentified chemical element which he later names helium.[7]
- 12 November – Archibald Tait is offered the post of Archbishop of Canterbury.
- 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
- Church rate ceases to be compulsory.[8]
- Pharmacy Act 1868 regulates the profession of pharmacist and restricts sale of poisons and dangerous drugs.
- The Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust is founded by Philip Rose as The Foreign & Colonial Government Trust, the world's first collective investment scheme.[9]
- Thomas Henry Huxley discovers what he thinks is a primordial matter and names it bathybius haecklii (he admits his mistake in 1871).
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, film 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)
- 25 February – James Parke, 1st Baron Wensleydale, judge (born 1782)
- 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
- ^ a b c d e f 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. 289–290. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ Beadle, Jeremy; Harrison, Ian (2007). Firsts, Lasts & Onlys: Crime. London: Robson Books. ISBN 978-1-905798-04-9.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b "Timeline of capital punishment in Britain". Retrieved 2 February 2011.
- ^ "Berkshire Quarter Sessions". Jackson's Oxford Journal. 4 July 1868.
- ^ Hampel, Clifford A. (1968). The Encyclopedia of the Chemical Elements. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. pp. 256–268. ISBN 0-442-15598-0.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Fixsen, Rachel (27 October 2000). "There's life in the old investment trust yet!". The Independent. London. Retrieved 4 November 2007.