1861 in the United Kingdom 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 – the Tooley Street 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 AffairUnion captained ship USS San Jacinto intercepts the British mail packet Trent 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 doi :10.1093/ref:odnb/58463 . (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) ^ Gilliland, J. "Fleming, Fanny". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 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 Dependencies and
