1894 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1894 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events

15 February – 04:51 GMT, French anarchist Martial Bourdin attempts to destroy the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London with a bomb but succeeds only in killing himself through its accidental explosion.
1 March – Local Government Act creates a system of urban and rural districts with elected councils, with elected civil parish councils in rural areas, reforms the boards of guardians of poor law unions, and gives women, irrespective of marital status, the right to vote and stand in local elections.
2 March – William Ewart Gladstone resigns as Prime Minister over high Navy estimates.
5 March – Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery becomes Prime Minister and forms a minority Liberal Party government.
11 April – Britain establishes a Protectorate over Uganda.
12 April – the annual Budget establishes death duties with effect from 2 August.
16 April – Ardwick Association Football Club changes its name to Manchester City F.C.
21 April – debut of the George Bernard Shaw play Arms and the Man in London.
23 April – Howard Ruff founds the Royal Society of St George, to foster the love of England and to strengthen England and the Empire by spreading the knowledge of English history, traditions and ideals.
14 May – Blackpool Tower opened in Blackpool, Lancashire, as a visitor attraction.
21 May – the Manchester Ship Canal is officially opened, linking the previously landlocked city of Manchester to the Irish Sea.
6 June – Ladas becomes the first horse to win the Epsom Derby for owner Lord Rosebery, the Prime Minister.
23 June – a firedamp explosion at Albion Colliery, Cilfynydd, Glamorgan, kills 290 coal miners and 123 horses underground.
30 June – Tower Bridge in London opened for traffic.
September – British Association for the Advancement of Science inaugurates an Ethnographic Survey of the United Kingdom.
28 September – Michael Marks forms the partnership of Marks & Spencer with Thomas Spencer, opening its first store in Manchester.
13 October – Everton and Liverpool Football Clubs meet in the first Merseyside derby.
17–18 October – First Kinetoscope parlour in the UK opens in London.
December – Frederick Bremer, a plumber and gasfitter from Walthamstow, runs the first British four-wheeled petrol-engined motor car on the public highway.

Undated

Argon discovered by Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay.
Patrick Manson develops the thesis that malaria is spread by mosquitoes.
Alfred Harmsworth buys the London Evening News newspaper.
Grace Kimmins founds the Guild of the Brave Poor Things for the education of crippled boys.
The National College of Music is founded by the Moss family in London.
Spillers Records is founded in Cardiff; by 2010 it will be regarded the world's oldest surviving record shop.

Publications

Edward Carpenter's book Homogenic Love, and its place in a free society.
Arthur Conan Doyle's collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
George du Maurier's novel Trilby.
Robert Hichens' anonymous satirical novel The Green Carnation.
Anthony Hope's novel The Prisoner of Zenda; also his collected sketches The Dolly Dialogues, the first major commission for the illustrator, Arthur Rackham.
Rudyard Kipling's story collection The Jungle Book.The Yellow Book begins publication.

Births

18 January – Ethel Haythornthwaite, born Ward, environmental campaigner
30 January – Sybil Cholmondeley, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, socialite and aristocrat
10 February – Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
7 March – Frank Halford, aeronautical engineer
5 April – Chesney Allen, entertainer and singer
25 April – Billy Smart Sr., circus owner
2 May – Joseph Henry Woodger, theoretical biologist
4 May - Mary Louisa Avery, mother, grandmother and great grandmother
9 May – Benjamin Graham, born Grossbaum, economist in the United States
1 June – Percival Mackey, pianist, composer and bandleader
6 June – Violet Trefusis, writer and socialite
23 June – King Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor
26 July – Aldous Huxley, novelist
28 July – Freda Dudley Ward, born Winifred Birkin, socialite
24 August – Elisha Scott, Northern Irish footballer
13 September – J. B. Priestley, novelist and playwright
24 September – Tommy Armour, golfer
1 October – Beatrice Green, labour activist
21 November – Max Miller, born Thomas Sargent, stand-up comedian
24 November – Herbert Sutcliffe, cricketer
7 December – Freddie Adkins, cartoonist
10 December – William Sydney Marchant, colonial official
25 December – Xenia Field, councillor, horticulturalist and author

Deaths

20 January – Robert Halpin, mariner and cable layer
27 January – Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, sculptor and natural history artist
8 February – R. M. Ballantyne, Scottish author of juvenile fiction
11 February – Margaret Henley, inspiration for the name Wendy in Peter Pan
15 February – Martial Bourdin, French anarchist
9 April – Arthur Hill Hassall, physician, microbiologist and chemical analyst
29 April – Augusta Theodosia Drane, religious writer and Catholic prioress
23 May – Brian Houghton Hodgson, civil servant, ethnologist and naturalist
14 June – John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge, Lord Chief Justice
5 September – Augusta Webster, poet
20 October – James Anthony Froude, historian and religious controversialist
3 December – Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author
19 December – James Allen Harker, entomologist
24 December – Frances Buss, pioneer of women's education
29 December – Christina Rossetti, poet