1885 in the United Kingdom

1885 in the United Kingdom:
Other years
1883 \| 1884 \| 1885 (1885) \| 1886 \| 1887
Individual countries of the United Kingdom
England \| Ireland \| Scotland \| Wales
Sport
1885 English cricket season Football: England

Events from the year 1885 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Monarch — Victoria
Prime Minister — William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal) (until 9 June), Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative) (starting 23 June)

Events

17 January — Mahdist War: British victory at the Battle of Abu Klea.
24 January
- Irish terrorists damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite.^[1]
- Edge Hill College opens in Liverpool.
26 January — Mahdist War: In Sudan, following the Siege of Khartoum, British and Egyptian forces are defeated by the Mahdist Sudanese. The British commander Charles George Gordon is killed.^[2]
23 February — The executioner at HM Prison Exeter fails after several attempts to hang John 'Babbacombe' Lee, sentenced for the murder of his employer Emma Keyse; Lee's sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.
26 February — The Berlin Conference concludes with the major European powers including the United Kingdom establishing their spheres of influence in the "scramble for Africa".^[2]
14 March — Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado opens at the Savoy Theatre in London.^[3]
26 March — First legal cremation in England: Mrs Jeanette Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles",^[4] is cremated by the Cremation Society at Woking Crematorium in Surrey.
31 March — The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.
29 April — Women are permitted to take the University of Oxford entrance examination for the first time.^[5]
5 June — Niger River basin becomes a British protectorate.^[1]
9 June — William Ewart Gladstone's Liberal government is defeated in a vote of no confidence following criticism of the fall of Khartoum and violence in Ireland. Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury forms a new Conservative government.^[2]
18 June — Clifton Hall Colliery disaster: an explosion kills 178 in Salford.
24 June — Lord Randolph Churchill becomes Secretary of State for India.
6–9 July — Eliza Armstrong case: Campaigning journalist W. T. Stead publishes a series of articles in the Pall Mall Gazette entitled The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon exposing the extent of female child prostitution in London.^[2]
20 July — Professional football is legalised.^[5]
22 July — Caister Lifeboat capsizes: 8 of 15 crew are killed.
7 August — Criminal Law Amendment Act passes through Parliament, raising the age of consent from 13 to 16, and thereby outlawing child prostitution. The Labouchere Amendment to the Act outlaws "gross indecency" between males.^[2]
12 September
- Bury F.C., formed in a meeting between the Bury Wesleyans and Bury Unitarians Football Clubs, play at Gigg Lane for the first time, beating a Wigan team 4–3.
- Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord, the all-time largest margin of victory in professional football.
29 September — Opening of the Blackpool tramway, the first to be electrically powered.^[5]
30 September — A British force abolishes the Boer republic of Stellaland and adds it to British Bechuanaland.
October — Third Burmese War begins.^[2]
3 October — Millwall F.C. is founded by workers on the Isle of Dogs in London as Millwall Rovers.
23 November — General election. Liberals under Gladstone hold the largest number of seats, but Salisbury remains Prime Minister with the support of the Irish Party.^[1]
28 November — British occupy Mandalay;^[1] Burma annexed to British India.

Undated

early — John Kemp Starley of Coventry demonstrates the first Rover safety bicycle, the first practical example of the modern bicycle.^[6]
The first modern pedestal flush toilet is demonstrated by Frederick Humpherson of the Beaufort Works, Chelsea.^[7]
Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association established to provide charitable assistance.
Soap manufacturer Lever Brothers founded.^[2]
Completion of Sway Tower in Hampshire, England, designed by Andrew Peterson using concrete made with Portland cement. It remains the world's tallest non-reinforced concrete structure.^[8]^[9]
John Everett Millais granted a baronetcy, the first artist to be honoured with a hereditary title.
"Glasgow Boys" painters first exhibit collectively, at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.
Stanhope Forbes' Newlyn School painting A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach.

Publications

Richard Francis Burton's The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments
Dictionary of National Biography begins publication under the editorship of Leslie Stephen.
A. V. Dicey's text An Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution.
H. Rider Haggard's novel King Solomon's Mines.^[2]
George Meredith's novel Diana of the Crossways.^[2]
Daniel Owen's long novel Hunangofiant Rhys Lewis, Gweinidog Bethel, the first written in Welsh.
Walter Pater's novel Marius the Epicurean.^[2]
Old Testament in the Revised Version of The Bible.^[10]
The magazine The Lady is first published.

Births

15 February — Princess Alice of Battenberg (died 1969)
7 March — John Tovey, admiral of the fleet (died 1971)
11 March — Malcolm Campbell, land and water racer (died 1948)
9 June — John Edensor Littlewood, mathematician (died 1977)
18 August — A. E. J. Collins, cricketer and soldier (died 1914)
11 September — D. H. Lawrence, English author (died 1930)

Deaths

26 January — Charles "Chinese" Gordon, general (killed in battle) (born 1833)
8 April — Susanna Moodie, author (born 1803)
8 August — Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax, politician (born 1800)
1 October — Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, politician and philanthropist (born 1801)
26 November — Thomas Andrews, chemist (born 1813)

References

1 2 3 4 Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 310–311. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 438–440. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
↑ The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
↑ "Cremation". The Times (31405). 27 March 1885. p. 10.
1 2 3 Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
↑ "Icons of Invention: Rover safety bicycle, 1885". Making the Modern World. Science Museum (London). Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
↑ Eveleigh, David J. (2008). Privies and Water Closets. Oxford: Shire Publications. ISBN 978-0-7478-0702-5.
↑ James, J. (1997). All about Sway Tower. Lymington: Lymington Museum Trust.
↑ Trout, Edwin (October 2002). "Sway Tower: an early example of high-rise concrete construction". Concrete: 64–5.
↑ Marlowe, Michael D. "English Revised Version (1881–1895)". Archived from the original on 16 June 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-15.

Years in the United Kingdom

Years in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926

Years in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

1885 in Europe

Sovereign states	Andorra Austria-Hungary Baden Belgium Bulgaria Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Liechtenstein Luxembourg Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Ottoman Empire Portugal Prussia Romania Russia San Marino Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom

Dependencies, colonies and other territories	Cyprus Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Malta

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