1880 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1880 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch â Victoria
- Prime Minister â Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative) (until 21 April), William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal) (starting 23 April)
Events
- JanuaryâMarch â great fog continues to engulf London.[1]
- 21 January â an underground firedamp explosion at Fair Lady Pit, Leycett, in the North Staffordshire Coalfield, kills 62 coal miners.[2][3]
- 31 January â training frigate HMS Atalanta leaves Bermuda bound for Falmouth but is lost in the Atlantic with all 281 on board.
- 2 February â the first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia arrives in London aboard the SS Strathleven.[4]
- 8 March â the Conservative Party lose the general election to the Liberal Party.[5]
- 19 March â Rev. Sidney Faithorn Green is imprisoned for over 2 years in Lancaster Castle and will be deprived of his parish in Manchester as a result of proceedings under the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874.
- 3 April â Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Pirates of Penzance has its London debut at the Opera Comique on the Strand.[6]
- 18 April â William Ewart Gladstone succeeds Benjamin Disraeli as Prime Minister. This is Gladstone's second term as prime minister.[5]
- 19 April â Second Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at the Battle of Ahmed Khel.
- 20 April â Victoria University chartered and incorporates Owens College, Manchester.
- 20 May â foundation stone laid for Truro Cathedral in Cornwall, the first to be built on a new site since the 13th century.[7]
- 15 July â an underground firedamp explosion at Risca Colliery in the Crosskeys district of Monmouthshire kills 120 coal miners[8][9] and 69 horses.[10]
- 27 July â Second Anglo-Afghan War: Afghan victory at the Battle of Maiwand.
- 2 August â Time in the United Kingdom: Greenwich Mean Time adopted as the legal standard throughout Great Britain by the Statutes (Definition of Time) Act.[11]
- 26 August â Elementary Education Act ("Mundella's Act") enforces school attendance up to the age of ten in England and Wales.[12]
- 1 September â Second Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at the Battle of Kandahar.
- 6â8 September â first cricket Test match held in Britain.[6]
- 8 September â an underground explosion at Seaham Colliery, County Durham, kills 164 coal miners.[13]
- October â Irish tenants ostracise landholder's agent Charles Boycott.[6]
- 29 October â Wells lifeboat disaster: RNLI life-boat Eliza Adams of Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, capsizes on service; 11 of 13 crew lost.[14]
- 17 November â the University of London awards the first degrees to women.[11]
- 27 November â Rev. Richard Enraght is imprisoned for 49 days in Warwick Prison and deprived of his parish in Birmingham as a result of proceedings under the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874.
- 10 December â an underground firedamp explosion at Naval Steam Colliery, Penygraig, in the Rhondda, kills 101 coal miners.[15]
- 15 December â first performance of a play by Henrik Ibsen in English, The Pillars of Society (under the title Quicksands) at the Gaiety Theatre, London.[16]
- 16 December
- High Court of Justice reorganised into the Chancery, Queen's Bench and the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Divisions, with abolition of the Common Pleas and Exchequer Divisions.
- The Boers declare independence in Transvaal triggering the First Boer War.
- 20 December â First Boer War: British forces defeated in the action at Bronkhorstspruit.
- 24 December â first festival of Nine Lessons and Carols devised by Edward White Benson, at this time Bishop of Truro.[17]
Undated
- Foundation of the David Greig provision merchant chain in London.
- A. & R. Scott begin producing the predecessor of Scott's Porage Oats in Scotland.[18]
Publications
- Benjamin Disraeli's novel Endymion.
- Amelia Edwards' novel Lord Brackenbury.
- Thomas Hardy's novel The Trumpet-Major.
Births
- 28 January â Herbert Strudwick, cricketer (died 1970)
- 8 February â Arthur Greenwood, politician (died 1954)
- 17 February â Reginald Farrer, botanist (died 1920)
- 1 March â Lytton Strachey, biographer and critic, member of the Bloomsbury Group (died 1932)[19]
- 6 March â Jameson Adams, Antarctic explorer, Royal Navy officer and civil servant (died 1962)
- 17 April â Leonard Woolley, archaeologist (died 1960)
- 30 April â Charles Exeter Devereux Crombie, cartoonist (died 1967)
- 25 May â Alf Common, footballer (died 1946)
- 21 June â Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, economist (died 1941)
- 12 August â Radclyffe Hall, author and poet (died 1943)
- 13 August â Mary Macarthur, trade unionist (died 1921)
- 23 August â Wyndham Standing, English actor (died 1963)
- 16 September â Alfred Noyes, poet (died 1958)
- 22 September â Christabel Pankhurst, suffragette (died 1958)
- 23 September â John Boyd Orr, physician and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1971)
- 15 October â Marie Stopes, birth control advocate, suffragette and palaeontologist (died 1958)
- 28 October â Saxon Sydney-Turner, civil servant, eccentric, member of the Bloomsbury Group (died 1962)
- 2 November â John Foulds, classical music composer (died 1939)
- 9 November â Giles Gilbert Scott, architect (died 1960)
- 10 November â Jacob Epstein, American-born sculptor (died 1959)
- 25 November â Elsie J. Oxenham, children's novelist (died 1960)
Deaths
- 27 January â Edward Middleton Barry, architect (born 1830)
- 2 February â Sir George Hamilton Seymour, diplomat (born 1797)
- 3 April â John Laing, bibliographer and Free Church of Scotland minister (born 1809)
- 12 April â Joseph Brown, Roman Catholic bishop (born 1796)
- 6 May â Charles Meredith, Welsh-born politician in Tasmania (born 1811)
- 10 May â John Goss, church composer (born 1800)
- 27 May â Alfred Swaine Taylor, toxicologist, "father of British forensic medicine" (born 1806)
- 30 May â James Planché, dramatist (born 1796)
- 12 July â Tom Taylor, dramatist and journalist (born 1817)
- 15 August â Adelaide Neilson, actress (born 1848)
- 22 August â Benjamin Ferrey, architect (born 1810)
- 9 September â Charles Lowder, Anglican priest prominent in Anglo-Catholicism and humanitarian (born 1820)[20]
- 18 September â Sir Fitzroy Kelly, lawyer and politician, last Chief Baron of the Exchequer (born 1796)
- 23 September â Geraldine Jewsbury, novelist and woman of letters (born 1812)
- 25 September â John Tarleton, admiral (born 1811)
- 5 October â William Lassell, astronomer (born 1799)
- 30 November â Jeanette Threlfall, hymnwriter (born 1821)
- 22 December â George Eliot (Mary Ann Cross), novelist and woman of letters (born 1819)
- 31 December â John Stenhouse, Scottish chemist (born 1809)