1861 in the United Kingdom

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United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1861 in the United Kingdom United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Other years
1859 | 1860 | 1861 | 1862 | 1863
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)
  • Parliament –

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.
  • 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[]

The first colour photograph by James Clerk Maxwell.
  • 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[]

Births[]

Frederick Hopkins
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 18 December – Lionel Monckton, musical comedy composer (died 1924)
  • 19 December – Constance Garnett, née Black, literary translator (died 1946)

Deaths[]

Albert, Prince Consort
  • 29 January – Catherine Gore, novelist and dramatist (born 1798)
  • 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)[11]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Fairground Rides - A Chronological Development". National Fairground Archive. University of Sheffield. 2007. Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ a b Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  4. ^ a b c d Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 282–283. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
  5. ^ HMS Firebrand Memorial.
  6. ^ "Timeline of capital punishment in Britain". Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Ferris, Norman B. (1977). The Trent Affair: a Diplomatic Crisis. pp. 52–53. ISBN 0-87049-169-5.
  9. ^ The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
  10. ^ "A History of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd". SCM-Canterbury Press. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  11. ^ "Albert, Prince Consort | Biography, Children, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
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