1861 in the United Kingdom
UK-related events during the year of 1861
1861 in the United Kingdom |
Other years |
1859 | 1860 | 1861 (1861) | 1862 | 1863 |
Constituent countries of the United Kingdom |
England | Ireland | Scotland | Wales |
Sport |
1861 English cricket season |
Events from the year 1861 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch – Victoria
- Prime Minister – Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Liberal)
Events
- 1 January – first steam-powered merry-go-round recorded, in Bolton.[1]
- 15 February – about 350 convicts held on St Mary's Island at Chatham Dockyard take over their prison in a riot.[2]
- 20 February – storms damage the Crystal Palace in London and cause the collapse of the steeple of Chichester Cathedral.[3]
- 21 to 26 March – major fire in Southwark destroys several buildings.[4]
- 30 March – William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium.
- 7 April – United Kingdom census. The population is more than double that of 1801 and those living in urban areas are in a majority.
- 12 April – American Civil War breaks out, leading to Lancashire Cotton Famine (1861–1865).
- 13 May – British government resolves to remain neutral in the American Civil War.[4]
- 17 May – Thomas Cook runs the first package holiday from London to Paris.[3]
- July – outbreak of yellow fever onboard paddle frigate HMS Firebrand in the West Indies kills 52.[5]
- 31 July – Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act codifies company law.[4]
- 6 August – Criminal Law Consolidation Acts (drafted by Charles Sprengel Greaves) granted Royal Assent, generally coming into effect on 1 November. The death penalty is limited to murder, embezzlement, piracy, high treason and to acts of arson perpetrated upon docks or ammunition depots; the age of consent is codified as twelve. The Home Secretary takes over the power to reprieve or commute sentences from the judiciary and Privy Council.[6]
- Accessories and Abettors Act, codifying the law on accessories and abettors.
- Coinage Offences Act, codifying the law on counterfeiting of coins.
- Criminal Statutes Repeal Act.
- Forgery Act, codifying the law on forgery.
- Larceny Act, codifying the law on larceny and related offences.
- Malicious Damage Act, codifying the law on criminal damage.
- Offences against the Person Act, codifying the law on violent offence against the person and abortion and creating the offence of "causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving".
- 27 August – last execution in Britain for attempted murder – Martin Doyle in Chester.
- 16 September – Post Office Savings Bank opens.[4]
- 24 October – HMS Warrior, the world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled armoured battleship is completed and commissioned.
- 8 November – Trent Affair: Union captained ship USS San Jacinto intercepts the British mail packet Trent at sea and removes two Confederate diplomats.[7]
- 25 November – a tenement collapses in the Old Town, Edinburgh, killing 35 with 15 survivors.
- 1 December – Trent Affair: British government dispatches its response, partly drafted by The Prince Consort.[8]
Undated
- James Clerk Maxwell demonstrates the principle of three-colour photography (see picture).[9]
- British Empire establishes bases in Lagos to stop the slave trade.
- Perpetual Truce of Peace and Friendship signed between Bahrain and the U.K.
- The Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, Manchester in Salford is consecrated as the oldest purpose-built Greek Orthodox Church in England.
- Construction commences on Royal Museum in Edinburgh.
- Crimean War Memorial unveiled in London, including sculptures of Other Ranks.
- William Morris founds the influential furnishing company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
Publications
- Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.
- Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations complete in book form.
- George Eliot's novel Silas Marner.
- F. T. Palgrave's anthology Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics, 1st edition.
- Charles Reade's novel The Cloister and the Hearth.
- Anthony Trollope's novels Framley Parsonage (book form) and Orley Farm (serialisation begins).
- Mrs Henry Wood's 'sensation novel' East Lynne.
- The anthology Hymns Ancient and Modern.[10] This includes the setting "Eventide" by the music editor William Henry Monk for the hymn Abide with Me.
Births
- 22 January – Maurice Hewlett, historical novelist, poet and essayist (died 1923)
- 15 February
- Halford Mackinder, geographer (died 1947)
- Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician (died 1947)
- 19 February – Henry Horne, 1st Baron Horne, general (died 1929)
- 23 April – Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, soldier, administrator (died 1936)
- 12 June – William Attewell, cricketer (died 1927)
- 16 June – Edith Aitken, headmistress (died 1940)[11]
- 17 June – Sidney Jones, musical comedy composer (died 1946)
- 19 June – Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, soldier (died 1928)
- 20 June – Frederick Hopkins, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (died 1947)
- 9 July – William Burrell, Scottish shipowner and art collector (died 1958)
- 4 August – Henry Head, neurologist (died 1940)
- 10 August – Almroth Wright, bacteriologist, immunologist (died 1947)
- 2 September – Arthur Beresford Pite, architect (died 1934)
- 23 September – Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, poet and novelist (died 1907)
- 12 October – Agnes Jekyll, née Graham, artist, writer on domestic matters and philanthropist (died 1937)
- 16 October – J. B. Bury, historian (died 1927)
- 23 October – Margaret McKellar, Scottish-born Canadian medical missionary (died 1941)
- 8 November – William Price Drury, novelist, playwright and Royal Marines officer (died 1949)
- 10 November – Amy Levy, novelist and essayist (died 1889)
- 10 December – Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick, née Maynard, socialite, socialist, philanthropist and royal mistress (died 1938)
- 18 December – Lionel Monckton, musical comedy composer (died 1924)
- 19 December – Constance Garnett, née Black, literary translator (died 1946)
Deaths
- 17 January – Fanny Fleming, actress (born 1796)[12]
- 29 January – Catherine Gore, novelist and dramatist (born 1798)
- 6 February – Bulkeley Bandinel, scholar-librarian (born 1781)
- 7 February – John Brown, geographer (born 1797)
- 16 March – Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent, mother of Queen Victoria (born 1786 in Germany)
- 8 April – John Bartholomew, Sr., Scottish cartographer (born 1805)
- 24 April – Sir Hedworth Williamson, 7th Baronet, politician (born 1797)
- 13 June – Henry Gray, anatomist (smallpox) (born 1827)
- 18 June – Eaton Hodgkinson, structural engineer (born 1789)
- 29 June – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet (born 1806)
- 6 July – Sir Francis Palgrave, historian (born 1788)
- 29 July – Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, politician (born 1797)
- 3 September – Ernest Edgcumbe, 3rd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, politician (born 1797)
- 4 October – Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, noble (born 1812)
- 5 October – William Ranwell, marine painter (born 1797)
- 13 October – Sir William Cubitt, civil engineer (born 1785)
- 21 October – Edward Dickinson Baker, United States Senator from Oregon, 1860–1861 (born 1811 in the U.K.)
- 13 November
- Arthur Hugh Clough, poet (born 1819)
- Sir John Forbes, royal physician (born 1787)
- John Hodgetts-Foley, politician (born 1797)
- 10 December – Thomas Southwood Smith, physician and sanitary reformer (born 1788)
- 14 December – Albert, Prince Consort, spouse of Queen Victoria (born 1819 in Germany)[13]
References
- ^ "Fairground Rides – A Chronological Development". National Fairground Archive. University of Sheffield. 2007. Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ^ Hastings, Paul; Coulson, Ian. "Life in Kent Gaols before 1877". Here's History Kent. Archived from the original on 26 February 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ^ a b Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ^ a b c d Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 282–283. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ HMS Firebrand Memorial.
- ^ "Timeline of capital punishment in Britain". Retrieved 2 February 2011.
- ^ Fairfax, D. Macneil (1885). "Captain Wilkes's Seizure of Mason and Slidell". In Johnson, Robert Underwood; Buel, Clarence Clough (eds.). Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: North to Antietam. pp. 136–9.
- ^ Ferris, Norman B. (1977). The Trent Affair: a Diplomatic Crisis. pp. 52–53. ISBN 0-87049-169-5.
- ^ The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
- ^ "A History of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd". SCM-Canterbury Press. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
- ^ "Aitken, Edith". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58463. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Gilliland, J. "Fleming, Fanny". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9692. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Albert, Prince Consort | Biography, Children, & Facts". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- v
- t
- e
1707–1800 ← Years in the United Kingdom (1801–present)
United Kingdom
of Great Britain
and Ireland
- 1801
- 1802
- 1803
- 1804
- 1805
- 1806
- 1807
- 1808
- 1809
- 1810
- 1811
- 1812
- 1813
- 1814
- 1815
- 1816
- 1817
- 1818
- 1819
- 1820
- 1821
- 1822
- 1823
- 1824
- 1825
- 1826
- 1827
- 1828
- 1829
- 1830
- 1831
- 1832
- 1833
- 1834
- 1835
- 1836
- 1837
- 1838
- 1839
- 1840
- 1841
- 1842
- 1843
- 1844
- 1845
- 1846
- 1847
- 1848
- 1849
- 1850
- 1851
- 1852
- 1853
- 1854
- 1855
- 1856
- 1857
- 1858
- 1859
- 1860
- 1861
- 1862
- 1863
- 1864
- 1865
- 1866
- 1867
- 1868
- 1869
- 1870
- 1871
- 1872
- 1873
- 1874
- 1875
- 1876
- 1877
- 1878
- 1879
- 1880
- 1881
- 1882
- 1883
- 1884
- 1885
- 1886
- 1887
- 1888
- 1889
- 1890
- 1891
- 1892
- 1893
- 1894
- 1895
- 1896
- 1897
- 1898
- 1899
- 1900
- 1901
- 1902
- 1903
- 1904
- 1905
- 1906
- 1907
- 1908
- 1909
- 1910
- 1911
- 1912
- 1913
- 1914
- 1915
- 1916
- 1917
- 1918
- 1919
- 1920
- 1921
- 1922
- 1923
- 1924
- 1925
- 1926
United Kingdom
of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland
- 1927
- 1928
- 1929
- 1930
- 1931
- 1932
- 1933
- 1934
- 1935
- 1936
- 1937
- 1938
- 1939
- 1940
- 1941
- 1942
- 1943
- 1944
- 1945
- 1946
- 1947
- 1948
- 1949
- 1950
- 1951
- 1952
- 1953
- 1954
- 1955
- 1956
- 1957
- 1958
- 1959
- 1960
- 1961
- 1962
- 1963
- 1964
- 1965
- 1966
- 1967
- 1968
- 1969
- 1970
- 1971
- 1972
- 1973
- 1974
- 1975
- 1976
- 1977
- 1978
- 1979
- 1980
- 1981
- 1982
- 1983
- 1984
- 1985
- 1986
- 1987
- 1988
- 1989
- 1990
- 1991
- 1992
- 1993
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- 1999
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2004
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
- 2008
- 2009
- 2010
- 2011
- 2012
- 2013
- 2014
- 2015
- 2016
- 2017
- 2018
- 2019
- 2020
- 2021
- 2022
- 2023
- 2024