1884 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1884 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch — Queen Victoria
• Prime Minister — William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal

Events

• 4 January — The Fabian Society is founded in London.^[1]
• 18 January — Dr William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the UK.
• 26 January–29 March — The first British Home Championship is held between the football teams of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
• 1 February — First fascicle of what will become the Oxford English Dictionary is published.^[1]
• 15 February — Emma Keyse is murdered and John 'Babbacombe' Lee is suspected.
• 22 April — Colchester earthquake: four die in the UK's most destructive earthquake.
• 8 July — The NSPCC is founded as the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.^[1][2]
• 28 September — The Marks & Spencer department store chain starts life as Michael Marks’ market stall in Leeds Kirkgate Market, Yorkshire.^[3][4]
• 13 October
  • International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.^[1]
  • Mahdist War: General Charles Gordon besieged in Khartoum.^[5]
• 18 October — University of Wales, Bangor founded.
• 2 November — The "Home Office Baby" is delivered to the Home Office.
• 4 December — Tom Dudley and Edwin Stephens are convicted of murder in the survival cannibalism case of R v. Dudley and Stephens.
• 9 December — Dudley and Stephens receive the mandatory death penalty with a recommendation for clemency.
• 10 December — Third Reform Act gives farm workers the vote, subject to the same restrictions as already applied elsewhere.^[5]
• 13 December — Dudley and Stephens are told that the death penalties have been commuted to six months' imprisonment.

Publications

• A New English Dictionary on historical principles, part 1, edited by James A. H. Murray.
• Arnold Toynbee's lectures (collected posthumously) Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in England.

Births

• 18 January — Arthur Ransome, author and journalist (died 1967)
• 13 March — Sir Hugh Walpole, novelist (died 1941)
• 10 May — Olga Petrova, English-born actress (died 1977)
• 19 December — Stanley Unwin, publisher (died 1968)

Deaths

• 1 March — Isaac Todhunter, mathematician (born 1820)
• 28 March — Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, member of the royal family (born 1853)
• 5 April — John Wisden, cricketer and creator of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (born 1826)
• 10 September — George Bentham, botanist (born 1800)
• 6 November — Henry Fawcett, statesman, economist and Postmaster General (born 1833)

References

See also