1879 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1879 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative

Events

* 8 January - British army occupies Kandahar in Afghanistan.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 303-304|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
* 11 January - Anglo-Zulu War begins.
* 22 January - Zulu troops massacre British troops at the Battle of Isandlwana. At Rorke's Drift, outnumbered British soldiers drive the attackers away after hours of fighting.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 12 March - Anglo-Zulu War: At the Battle of Intombe, a British force over one-hundred strong is ambushed and destroyed by Zulu forces.
* 13 March - Marriage of The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria, to Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia.
* 28 March - Anglo-Zulu War: British forces suffer a defeat at the Battle of Hlobane.
* 29 March - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
* 3 April - Anglo-Zulu War: British forces successfully lift the two-month Siege of Eshowe.
* 26 May - Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.
* 14 June - Sidney Faithorn Green, an Anglican priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices.
* 4 July - The Anglo-Zulu War effectively ends with British victory at the Battle of Ulundi.
* 19 August - The foundation of Eddystone Lighthouse laid by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales.
* 18 September - Blackpool Illuminations lit for the first time.
* October - First female students admitted to Oxford University.
* November–March 1880 - probably the longest ever fog in the city's history engulfs London."The London Encyclopaedia", Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert, Macmillan, 1995, ISBN 0-333-57688-8]
* 27 October - "Liverpool Echo" newspaper first published.
* 15 December–23 December - Second Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at the Siege of the Sherpur Cantonment.
* 28 December - The Tay Bridge Disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passes over it, killing 78.
* 30 December - "The Pirates of Penzance" is first performed in Paignton, Devon.

Undated

* Electric street lighting introduced in London, initially on the Thames Embankment and Waterloo Bridge.

Publications

* Serialisation of the Anthony Trollope novel "The Duke's Children".

Births

* 1 January - E. M. Forster, writer (died 1970)
* 26 February - Frank Bridge, composer (died 1941)
* 5 March - William Beveridge, economist and social reformer (died 1963)
* 26 April - Owen Willans Richardson, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1959)
* 29 April - Thomas Beecham, conductor (died 1961)
* 19 May - Viscount Waldorf Astor, businessman and politician (died 1952)
* 25 May - Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-British business tycoon, politician and writer (died 1964)
* 30 May - Colin Blythe, cricketer (died 1917)
* 13 August - John Ireland, composer (died 1962)
* 27 December - Sydney Greenstreet, actor (died 1954)

* Joseph Campbell, poet and lyricist (died 1944)
* Robert Wilson Lynd, essayist and writer (died 1949)

Deaths

* 25 February - Charles Peace, criminal (executed) (born 1832)
* 10 August - George Long, classical scholar (born 1800)
* 5 November - James Clerk Maxwell, physicist (born 1831)
* 6 December - William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland, (born 1800)

References

ee also