Events from the year 1878 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch Queen Victoria
• Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative)

Events

• January Cleopatra's Needle arrives in London.
• 14 January Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates the telephone to Queen Victoria.^[1]
• 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.^[1]
• 24 February Anti-Russian demonstrations in Hyde Park, London.
• 12 March Britain annexes Walvis Bay.^[2]
• 15 March Restoration of the Scottish hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, carried out on the instructions of Pope Leo XIII.
• 24 March The frigate Eurydice sinks, killing 300.
• 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.^[3]
• 25 May First performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's opera HMS Pinafore, at the Opera Comique on the Strand, London.^[2]
• 4 June Cyprus Convention: The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title.^[1]
• 7 June An underground explosion at Wood Pit, Haydock, kills at least 189.^[4][5]
• 4 July Public Health (Water) Act obliges parishes to provide a supply of "wholesome water" within reasonable distance of every home.^[6]
• 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.^[7]
• 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.^[8]
• 12 September Cleopatra's Needle erected on the Victoria Embankment.^[1]
• October The University of London becomes the first in the UK to admit women on equal terms with men.
• 14 October The world's first recorded floodlit football fixture is played at Bramall Lane in Sheffield.
• 28 October The first floodlit rugby match is played in Salford.^[9]
• 21 November Second Afghan War commences when the British attack Ali Masjid in the Khyber Pass.
• 18 December Joseph Swan of Newcastle announces his invention of an incandescent light bulb.^[10]

Undated

• Dentists Act limits the title of "dentist" and "dental surgeon" to qualified and registered practitioners.^[11]
• William Crookes invents the Crookes tube which produces cathode rays.^[12]
• The following English Association football clubs are formed:
  • Everton Football Club, formed as St Domingo.
  • Grimsby Town FC, formed as Grimsby Pelham.
  • Ipswich Town Football Club, formed as amateur club Ipswich A.F.C. 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..
• William Frederick Yeames paints And When Did You Last See Your Father?.

Publications

• Serialisation of Thomas Hardy's novel The Return of the Native.
• Richard Jefferies' collected essays The Gamekeeper at Home.

Births

• 4 January Augustus John, painter (died 1961)
• 7 January Samuel James Cameron, obstetrician (died 1959)
• 19 January Herbert Chapman, football manager (died 1934)
• 3 March Edward Thomas, poet (died 1917)
• 16 April Owen Thomas Jones, geologist (died 1967)
• 26 April Eric Campbell, silent film star (died 1917)
• 1 June John Masefield, poet and novelist (died 1967)
• 28 June Evan Roberts preacher (died 1951)
• 24 July Lord Dunsany, author (died 1957)
• 31 December Caradoc Evans, writer (died 1945)

Deaths

• 16 March William Banting, undertaker and dietician (born c.1796)
• 25 April Anna Sewell, author (born 1820)
• 28 May Lord John Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1792)
• 6 June Robert Stirling, clergyman and inventor (born 1790)
• 22 July Samuel McGaw, VC recipient (born 1838)
• 30 August James Geiss, businessman (born 1820)
• 30 September Evan James, poet, lyricist of the Welsh national anthem (born 1809)
• 20 November William Thomas, poet (born 1832)
• 11 December William Thomas, minister and poet (born 1834)
• 14 December Princess Alice, member of the royal family (born 1843)
• 31 December James Matheson, Scottish politician (born 1796)

References

See also