Events from the year1878 in theUnited Kingdom.

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

• 14 January –Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates thetelephone toQueen Victoria.^[1]
• 23 January –Disraeli orders British fleet to theDardanelles.
• 8 February – the British fleet enters Turkish waters and anchors offConstantinople.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 inHyde Park, London.
• 12 March – Britain annexesWalvis Bay.^[2]
• 15 March –restoration of the Scottish hierarchy of theRoman Catholic Church, carried out on the instructions of Pope Leo XIII.
• 24 March – theRoyal Navy frigateHMS Eurydice (1843) capsizes off theIsle of Wight, killing all but two of the 319 crew.
• 25 March – Russia rejects a British proposal to lay theTreaty of San Stefano before a European congress.
• 27 March – in anticipation of war with Russia, Disraeli mobilizes the reserves and calls Indian troops toMalta.
• 28 March –Stoke City F.C. move into their new stadium at theVictoria Ground, beating Talke Rangers 1–0 in a friendly in their first game there.^[3]
• 25 May – opening ofGilbert and Sullivan's operaHMS Pinafore, at theOpera Comique on theStrand, London^[2] with a first run of 571 performances.
• 29 May – Foreign Office clerkCharles Thomas Marvin leaks the text of the following day's secret convention with Russia to the newspapers; he is arrested, but it is discovered that he has committed no offence in English Law at this time.^[4]
• 31 May – theImperial German Navy ironcladturret shipSMS Grosser Kurfürst (1875) is accidentally rammed and sunk bySMS König Wilhelm on manoeuvres offFolkestone with the loss of more than 275 crew (an event witnessed byArthur Sullivan).
• 1 June – theNorth British Railway's firstTay Bridge across theFirth of Tay atDundee in Scotland is opened to public rail services; it is the world's longest bridge at this date.^[5]
• 4 June –Cyprus Convention: theOttoman Empire cedesCyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title.^[1]
• 7 June – an undergroundexplosion at Wood Pit,Haydock, kills at least 189.^[6][7]
• 10 June – Konrad Korzeniowski, the future novelistJoseph Conrad, sets foot on English soil for the first time, atLowestoft from the SSMavis.
• 4 July – Public Health (Water) Act obligesparishes to provide a supply of "wholesome water" within reasonable distance of every home.^[8]
• 7 August – the Christian Mission, co-founded by (the now) GeneralWilliam andCatherine Booth inLondon in 1865, has its name changed to TheSalvation Army.^[9]
• 3 September – over 640 die when the crowded pleasure boatPrincess Alice collides with theBywell Castle in theRiver Thames.
• 11 September – an undergroundexplosion atAbercarn inMonmouthshire kills 268coal miners.^[10]
• 12 September –Cleopatra's Needle erected on theVictoria Embankment in London, having arrived in England on 21 January.^[1]
• October – theUniversity 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 atBramall Lane inSheffield.
• 28 October – the first floodlit rugby match is played inSalford.^[11]
• 21 November –Syria–Lebanon campaign commences when the British attackAli Masjid in theKhyber Pass.
• 26 November –James McNeill Whistler'slibel case against criticJohn Ruskin over a review of the painting of the ThamesNocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket (in which Whistler is described as "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face")^[12] is decided in theHigh Court of Justice in London. Whistler wins afarthing in nominal damages and only half of the substantial costs.^[13]
• 13 December – Electricstreet lighting introduced in London, initially on theThames Embankment (usingYablochkov candles, a form ofarc lamp first demonstrated in London in 1876), followed byWaterloo Bridge.^[2]
• 18 December –Joseph Swan ofNewcastle announces his invention of anincandescent light bulb.^[14]
• 30 December –Henry Irving's production ofHamlet, with himself in the title rôle playing oppositeEllen Terry asOphelia, opens at theLyceum Theatre, London.^[15]

• Dentists Act 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. 33) limits the title of "dentist" and "dental surgeon" to qualified and registered practitioners.^[16]
• William Crookes invents theCrookes tube which producescathode rays.^[17]
• The following EnglishAssociation 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 becomeManchester United.
  • West Bromwich Albion F.C.
• International Tea Co. Stores established.
• William Frederick Yeames paintsAnd When Did You Last See Your Father?.

• A Dictionary of Music and Musicians edited byGeorge Grove begins publication.
• Thomas Hardy's novelThe Return of the Native is serialised.
• Richard Jefferies' collected essaysThe Gamekeeper at Home.

• 4 January
  • A. E. Coppard, short story writer and poet (died 1957)
  • Augustus John, painter (died 1961)
• 6 January – Marian Ellis, laterMarian Cripps, Baroness Parmoor, pacifist (died 1952)
• 7 January –Samuel James Cameron, obstetrician (died 1959)
• 19 January –Herbert Chapman, football manager (died 1934)
• 23 January –Rutland Boughton, composer (died 1960)
• 3 March
  • Richard Meinertzhagen, soldier, intelligence officer and ornithologist (died 1967)
  • Edward Thomas, poet and writer (killed in action 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)
• 20 July –Denis Eden, painter (died 1949)
• 24 July –Lord Dunsany, author (died 1957)
• 23 November –Frank Pick, transport administrator and exponent of industrial design (died 1941)
• 1 September –J. F. C. Fuller, major-general and strategist (died 1966)
• 3 September –Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers, née Dorothea Katherine Douglass, tennis player (died 1960)
• 5 September –Barry Domvile, admiral and Nazi sympathiser (died 1971)
• 18 September –Robert Brooke-Popham,air chief marshal (died 1953)^[18]
• 31 December –Caradoc Evans, writer (died 1945)

• 12 March –Sir William Gibson-Craig, advocate and politician (born 1797)
• 16 March –William Banting, undertaker and dietician (born c.1796)
• 19 March –Henry Liddell, 1st Earl of Ravensworth, politician (born 1797)
• 27 March –Sir George Gilbert Scott, architect (born 1811)
• 18 April –Charles Fox, Quaker scientist (born 1797)
• 25 April –Anna Sewell, author (born 1820)
• 28 May –John Russell, 1st Earl Russell,Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1792)
• 6 June –Robert Stirling, clergyman and inventor (born 1790)
• 17 June –Sir William Miles, 1st Baronet, politician (born 1797)
• 22 July –Samuel McGaw,Victoria Cross recipient (born 1838)
• 30 September –Evan James, poet, lyricist of the Welsh national anthem (born 1809)
• 20 November –William Thomas (Islwyn), Welsh poet (born 1832)
• 14 December –Princess Alice, member of the royal family (diphtheria) (born 1843)
• 24 December
  • Lucy Anderson, pianist (born 1797)
  • Sister Dora, Anglican nun and nurse (born 1832)
• 31 December –Sir James Matheson, Scottish politician (born 1796)

• 1878 in the United Kingdom
• Years of the 19th century in the United Kingdom
• 1878 by country
• 1870s in the United Kingdom
• 1878 in Europe

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