1899 in the United Kingdom

1899 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1897 | 1898 | 1899 | 1900 | 1901

Sport

1899 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

Events from the year 1899 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch — Queen Victoria
• Prime Minister — Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative)

Events

• 6 January — Lord Curzon becomes Viceroy of India.
• 25 February — In an accident at Grove Hill, Harrow, Edwin Sewell becomes the world's first driver of a petrol-driven vehicle to be killed; his passenger, Maj. James Richer, dies of injuries three days later.^[1]
• 9 March — Charles C. Wakefield begins the lubricating oil company which will become Castrol.
• 27 March — Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmits a radio signal across the English channel.^[2]
• 1 May — The National Trust acquires its first part of Wicken Fen, making it the UK's oldest wetland nature reserve.
• 17 May — Foundation stone of the Victoria and Albert Museum is laid by Queen Victoria, her last public engagement^[2] – a week before her 80th birthday. Now in the 62nd year of her reign, she is Britain's longest-serving monarch of all time.^[3]
• 19 June — Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations premieres in London.
• 22 June–27 June — The highest ever recorded cricket score, 628 not out, is made by A. E. J. Collins.
• 6 September — The White Star Line's transatlantic ocean liner RMS Oceanic sails on her maiden voyage. At 17,272 gross tons and 704 ft (215 m), she is the largest ship afloat, following scrapping of the SS Great Eastern a decade earlier.^[4]
• 9 October — First motor bus in London.^[5]
• 11 October — Second Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.^[2]
• 13 October — Second Boer War: Siege of Mafeking begins.
• 15 November — The American Line's SS St. Paul becomes the first ocean liner to report her imminent arrival by wireless telegraphy when Marconi's station at The Needles contacts her 66 nautical miles off the coast of England.
• 24 November — Mahdist War: Decisive British and Egyptian victory at the Battle of Umm Diwaykarat ends the war in Sudan.
• 8 December — The Aldeburgh life-boat capsizes on service: seven of the eighteen crew are killed.^[6]
• 15 December — Glasgow School of Art opens new building, the most notable work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.^[7]
• 31 December — A large standing stone at Stonehenge falls over.

Undated

• Raising of school leaving age in England and Wales to twelve.^[8]
• Oxo beef stock cubes introduced by Liebig's Extract of Meat Company.
• The British Mutoscope and Biograph Company's King John (a very short silent film) becomes the first known film based on a Shakespeare play.
• Bede declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII, the only Englishman so named.^[9]
• Flying Fox wins the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the Epsom Derby, 2,000 Guineas and St Leger.

Publications

• Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness.
• E. W. Hornung's first A. J. Raffles novel The Amateur Cracksman.
• Rudyard Kipling's poem The White Man's Burden and his novel Stalky & Co.
• E. Nesbit's children's novel The Story of the Treasure Seekers.
• Clarence Rook's allegedly documentary The Hooligan Nights; Being the Life and Opinions of a Young and Impertinent Criminal Recounted by Himself.

Births

• 11 January — Eva LeGallienne, actress (died 1991)
• 17 January — Nevil Shute, author (died 1960)
• 21 January — John Bodkin Adams, suspected serial killer (died 1983)
• 3 February — Doris Speed, actress (died 1994)
• 1 June — Edward Charles Titchmarsh, mathematician (died 1963)
• 7 June — Elizabeth Bowen, novelist (died 1973)
• 1 July — Charles Laughton, actor (died 1962)
• 13 August — Alfred Hitchcock, film director (died 1980)
• 27 August — C. S. Forester, novelist (died 1966)
• 29 September — Billy Butlin, holiday camp pioneer (died 1980)
• 2 December
  • John Barbirolli, conductor (died 1970)
  • John Cobb, racing car and motorboat driver (died 1952)
• 15 December — Harold Abrahams, athlete (died 1978)
• 16 December — Noël Coward, actor, playwright, and composer (died 1973)

Deaths

• 6 February — Prince Alfred (born 1874)
• 5 December — Henry Tate, sugar magnate (born 1819)

References

See also