1861 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1859 | 1860 | 1861 | 1862 | 1863

Sport

1861 English cricket season

Events from the year 1861 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom
• Prime Minister - Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Liberal

Events

• 20 February - Storms damage the Crystal Palace in London and caused the collapse of the steeple of Chichester Cathedral.^[1]
• 21 March to 26 March - Major fire in Southwark destroys several buildings.^[2]
• 30 March - Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of Thallium (see Discovery of the chemical elements).
• 13 May - British government pledges to remain neutral in the American Civil War.^[2]
• 17 May - Thomas Cook runs the first package holiday from London to Paris.^[1]
• 31 July - Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act codifies company law.^[2]
• 27 August - Last execution in Britain for attempted murder — Martin Doyle in Chester.
• 16 September - Post Office Savings Bank opens.^[2]
• 24 October - The HMS Warrior, the world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled armored battleship was completed and commissioned.
• 25 November - Tenement collapses in the Old Town of Edinburgh and buries 50 — rescuers find 15 of them alive.

Undated

The first colour photograph by James Clerk Maxwell.

• James Clerk Maxwell demonstrates the principle of three-colour photography (see picture).^[3]
• The death penalty is limited to murder, embezzlement, piracy and to acts of arson perpetrated upon docks or ammunition depots.
• British Empire establishes bases in Lagos to stop the slave trade.

Publications

• Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management published.
• George Eliot's novel Silas Marner.
• Anthony Trollope's novel Framley Parsonage.

Births

• 12 June - William Attewell, cricketer (died 1927)
• 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)
• 23 September - Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, poet and novelist (died 1907)
• 16 October - J. B. Bury, historian (died 1927)

Deaths

• 29 January - Catherine Gore, novelist and dramatist (born 1799)
• 16 March - Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent and mother of Queen Victoria (born 1786, Germany)
• 29 June - Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet (born 1806)
• 14 December - Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, husband of Queen Victoria (born 1819)

References

See also