1878 in the United Kingdom
Events from the year 1878 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Events
- 14 January – Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates the telephone to Queen Victoria.
- 23 January – [Benjamin Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield|Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield|Disraeli] orders British fleet to the Dardanelles.
- 8 February – the British fleet enters Turkish waters and anchors off Constantinople. Russia threatens to occupy Constantinople but does not act.
- 11 February – first weekly weather report published in the UK.
- 24 February – anti-Russian demonstrations in Hyde Park, London.
- 12 March – Britain annexes Walvis Bay.
- 15 March – restoration of the Scottish hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, carried out on the instructions of Pope Leo XIII.
- 24 March – the Royal Navy frigate capsizes off the Isle of Wight, killing all but two of the 319 crew.
- 25 March – Russia rejects a British proposal to lay the Treaty of San Stefano before a European congress.
- 27 March – in anticipation of war with Russia, Disraeli mobilizes the reserves and calls Indian troops to Malta.
- 28 March – Stoke City F.C. move into their new stadium at the Victoria Ground, beating Talke Rangers 1–0 in a friendly in their first game there.
- 25 May – opening of Gilbert and Sullivan's opera HMS Pinafore, at the Opera Comique on the Strand, London with a first run of 571 performances.
- 29 May – Foreign Office clerk Charles Thomas Marvin leaks the text of the following day's secret convention with Russia to the newspapers; he is arrested, but it is discovered that he has committed no offence in English Law at this time.
- 31 May – the Imperial German Navy ironclad turret ship is accidentally rammed and sunk by on manoeuvres off Folkestone with the loss of more than 275 crew.
- 1 June – the North British Railway's first Tay Bridge across the Firth of Tay at Dundee in Scotland is opened to public rail services; it is the world's longest bridge at this date.
- 4 June – Cyprus Convention: the Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title.
- 7 June – an underground explosion at Wood Pit, Haydock, kills at least 189.
- 10 June – Konrad Korzeniowski, the future novelist Joseph Conrad, sets foot on English soil for the first time, at Lowestoft from the SS Mavis.
- 4 July – Public Health Act obliges parishes to provide a supply of "wholesome water" within reasonable distance of every home.
- 7 August – the Christian Mission, co-founded by General William and Catherine Booth in London in 1865, has its name changed to The Salvation Army.
- 3 September – over 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat collides with the Bywell Castle in the River Thames.
- 11 September – an underground explosion at Abercarn in Monmouthshire kills 268 coal miners.
- 12 September – Cleopatra's Needle erected on the Victoria Embankment in London, having arrived in England on 21 January.
- October – the University of London becomes the first in the UK to admit women on equal terms with men.
- 14 October – the world's first recorded floodlit football fixture is played at Bramall Lane in Sheffield.
- 28 October – the first floodlit rugby match is played in Salford.
- 21 November – Syria–Lebanon campaign commences when the British attack Ali Masjid in the Khyber Pass.
- 26 November – James McNeill Whistler's libel case against critic John Ruskin over a review of the painting of the Thames Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket is decided in the High Court of Justice in London. Whistler wins a farthing in nominal damages and only half of the substantial costs.
- 13 December – Electric street lighting introduced in London, initially on the Thames Embankment, followed by Waterloo Bridge.
- 18 December – Joseph Swan of Newcastle announces his invention of an incandescent light bulb.
- 30 December – Henry Irving's production of Hamlet, with himself in the title rôle playing opposite Ellen Terry as Ophelia, opens at the Lyceum Theatre, London.
Undated
- Dentists Act 1878 limits the title of "dentist" and "dental surgeon" to qualified and registered practitioners.
- William Crookes invents the Crookes tube which produces cathode rays.
- The following English Association football clubs are formed:
- * Everton F.C. in Liverpool, formed as St Domingo.
- * Grimsby Town F.C., formed as Grimsby Pelham.
- * Ipswich Town F.C., formed as Ipswich Amateur Football Club.
- * Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Football Club, the team that will become Manchester United.
- * West Bromwich Albion F.C.
- International Tea Co. Stores established.
- William Frederick Yeames paints And When Did You Last See Your Father?.
Publications
A Dictionary of Music and Musicians edited by George Grove begins publication.- Thomas Hardy's novel The Return of the Native is serialised.
- Richard Jefferies' collected essays The Gamekeeper at Home.
Births
- 4 January
- * A. E. Coppard, short story writer and poet
- * Augustus John, painter
- 6 January – Marian Ellis, later Marian Cripps, Baroness Parmoor, pacifist
- 7 January – Samuel James Cameron, obstetrician
- 19 January – Herbert Chapman, football manager
- 23 January – Rutland Boughton, composer
- 3 March
- * Richard Meinertzhagen, soldier, intelligence officer and ornithologist
- * Edward Thomas, poet and writer
- 16 April – Owen Thomas Jones, geologist
- 26 April – Eric Campbell, silent film star
- 1 June – John Masefield, poet and novelist
- 28 June – Evan Roberts, preacher
- 20 July – Denis Eden, painter
- 24 July – Lord Dunsany, author
- 23 November – Frank Pick, transport administrator and exponent of industrial design
- 1 September – J. F. C. Fuller, major-general and strategist
- 3 September – Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers, née Dorothea Katherine Douglass, tennis player
- 5 September – Barry Domvile, admiral and Nazi sympathiser
- 18 September – Robert Brooke-Popham, air chief marshal
- 31 December – Caradoc Evans, writer
Deaths
- 12 March – Sir William Gibson-Craig, advocate and politician
- 16 March – William Banting, undertaker and dietician
- 19 March – Henry Liddell, 1st Earl of Ravensworth, politician
- 27 March – Sir George Gilbert Scott, architect
- 18 April – Charles Fox, Quaker scientist
- 25 April – Anna Sewell, author
- 28 May – John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 6 June – Robert Stirling, clergyman and inventor
- 17 June – Sir William Miles, 1st Baronet, politician
- 22 July – Samuel McGaw, Victoria Cross recipient
- 30 September – Evan James, poet, lyricist of the Welsh national anthem
- 20 November – William Thomas (Islwyn), Welsh poet
- 14 December – Princess Alice, member of the royal family
- 24 December
- * Lucy Anderson, pianist
- * Sister Dora, Anglican nun and nurse
- 31 December – Sir James Matheson, Scottish politician