From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UK-related events during the year of 1861
Events from the year 1861 in the United Kingdom .
Incumbents
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 and those living in urban areas are in a majority.
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]
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 .
Publications
Births
Frederick Hopkins
22 January –
Maurice Hewlett , historical novelist, poet and essayist (died 1923)
15 February
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)
16 June –
Edith Aitken , headmistress (died 1940)
[11]
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)
10 December –
Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick , née Maynard, socialite, socialist, philanthropist and royal mistress (died 1938)
18 December –
Lionel Monckton , musical comedy composer (died 1924)
19 December –
Constance Garnett , née Black, literary translator (died 1946)
Deaths
Albert, Prince Consort
17 January –
Fanny Fleming , actress (born 1796)
[12]
29 January –
Catherine Gore , novelist and dramatist (born 1798)
6 February –
Bulkeley Bandinel , scholar-librarian (born 1781)
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
10 December –
Thomas Southwood Smith , physician and sanitary reformer (born 1788)
14 December –
Albert, Prince Consort , spouse of Queen Victoria (born 1819 in Germany)
[13]
References
^
"Fairground Rides – A Chronological Development" . National Fairground Archive .
University of Sheffield . 2007. Archived from
the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011 .
^ 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 .
^
a
b Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006.
ISBN
0-14-102715-0 .
^
a
b
c
d Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 282–283.
ISBN
0-7126-5616-2 .
^
HMS Firebrand Memorial.
^
"Timeline of capital punishment in Britain" . Retrieved 2 February 2011 .
^
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.
^ Ferris, Norman B. (1977). The Trent Affair: a Diplomatic Crisis . pp. 52–53.
ISBN
0-87049-169-5 .
^ The Hutchinson Factfinder . Helicon. 1999.
ISBN
1-85986-000-1 .
^
"A History of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd" . SCM-Canterbury Press. Archived from
the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2011 .
^ "Aitken, Edith".
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi :
10.1093/ref:odnb/58463 . (Subscription or
UK public library membership required.)
^ Gilliland, J. "Fleming, Fanny".
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi :
10.1093/ref:odnb/9692 . (Subscription or
UK public library membership required.)
^
"Albert, Prince Consort | Biography, Children, & Facts" . Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved 10 April 2021 .
1861 in Europe
Sovereign states States with limited recognition Dependencies and other entities