• 14 January –
Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates the
telephone to
Queen Victoria. • 23 January –
Disraeli orders British fleet to the
Dardanelles. • 8 February – the British fleet enters Turkish waters and anchors off
Constantinople.
Russia threatens to occupy Constantinople but does not act. • 11 February – first weekly weather report published in the UK. • 15 March –
restoration of the Scottish hierarchy of the
Roman Catholic Church, carried out on the instructions of Pope Leo XIII. • 24 March – the
Royal Navy frigate capsizes off the
Isle of Wight, killing all but two of the 319 crew. • 25 March – Russia rejects a British proposal to lay the
Treaty of San Stefano before a European congress. • 27 March – in anticipation of war with Russia, Disraeli mobilizes the reserves and calls Indian troops to
Malta. • 28 March –
Stoke City F.C. move into their new stadium at the
Victoria Ground, beating Talke Rangers 1–0 in a friendly in their first game there. • 25 May – opening of
Gilbert and Sullivan's opera
HMS Pinafore, at the
Opera Comique on the
Strand, London • 31 May – the
Imperial German Navy ironclad
turret ship is accidentally rammed and sunk by on manoeuvres off
Folkestone with the loss of more than 275 crew (an event witnessed by
Arthur Sullivan). • 1 June – the
North British Railway's first
Tay Bridge across the
Firth of Tay at
Dundee in Scotland is opened to public rail services; it is the world's longest bridge at this date. • 4 June –
Cyprus Convention: the
Ottoman Empire cedes
Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title. • 10 June – Konrad Korzeniowski, the future novelist
Joseph Conrad, sets foot on English soil for the first time, at
Lowestoft from the SS
Mavis. • 4 July – Public Health (Water) Act obliges
parishes to provide a supply of "wholesome water" within reasonable distance of every home. • 7 August – the Christian Mission, co-founded by (the now) General
William and
Catherine Booth in
London in 1865, has its name changed to The
Salvation Army. • 3 September – over 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat collides with the
Bywell Castle in the
River Thames. • 11 September – an underground
explosion at
Abercarn in
Monmouthshire kills 268
coal miners. • 12 September –
Cleopatra's Needle erected on the
Victoria Embankment in London, having arrived in England on 21 January. • 21 November –
Syria–Lebanon campaign commences when the British attack
Ali Masjid in the
Khyber Pass. • 26 November –
James McNeill Whistler's
libel case against critic
John Ruskin over a review of the painting of the Thames
Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket (in which Whistler is described as "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face") is decided in the
High Court of Justice in London. Whistler wins a
farthing in nominal damages and only half of the substantial costs. • 13 December – Electric
street lighting introduced in London, initially on the
Thames Embankment (using
Yablochkov candles, a form of
arc lamp first demonstrated in London in 1876), followed by
Waterloo Bridge. • 30 December –
Henry Irving's production of
Hamlet, with himself in the title rôle playing opposite
Ellen Terry as
Ophelia, opens at the
Lyceum Theatre, London.
Undated •
Dentists Act 1878 (
41 & 42 Vict. c. 33) limits the title of "dentist" and "dental surgeon" to qualified and registered practitioners. •
William Crookes invents the
Crookes tube which produces
cathode rays. • The following English
Association football clubs are formed: •
Everton F.C. in Liverpool, formed as St Domingo. •
Grimsby Town F.C., formed as Grimsby Pelham. •
Ipswich Town F.C., formed as Ipswich Amateur Football Club (they will not turn professional until 1936). • Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Football Club, the team that will become
Manchester United. •
West Bromwich Albion F.C. •
International Tea Co. Stores established. •
William Frederick Yeames paints
And When Did You Last See Your Father?. ==Publications==