Events from the year 1863 in the United Kingdom. Quick Facts 1863 in the United Kingdom Other years 1861 | 1862 | 1863 (1863) | 1864 | 1865 Constituent countries of the United Kingdom England | Ireland | Scotland | Wales Sport 1863 English cricket season Close Incumbents Monarch – Victoria Prime Minister – Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Liberal) Events London Bridge on the Night of the Marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales by William Holman Hunt. 8 January – Yorkshire County Cricket Club is founded at the Adelphi Hotel in Sheffield. 10 January – the first section of the London Underground Railway opens to the public (Paddington to Farringdon Street).[1] 7 February – HMS Orpheus sinks attempting to enter Manukau Harbour in New Zealand with the loss of 189 lives. 25 February – William Thomson enthroned as Archbishop of York.[2] 2 March – Clapham Junction railway station opens in London. 10 March – marriage of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) to Princess Alexandra of Denmark (later Queen Alexandra) at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.[3] 27 May – Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum at Crowthorne receives its first patients. 4 June – the Eton Boating Song is first performed. 15–17 August – Bombardment of Kagoshima: Royal Navy bombards the town of Kagoshima in Japan in retribution after the Namamugi Incident of 1862. 20 August – Ladies' London Emancipation Society established as an abolitionist group in support of the Union (American Civil War) by Clementia Taylor at Aubrey House. 23 October – Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales introduces steam locomotives into general service, the first time this has been done anywhere in the world on a public railway of such a narrow gauge (2 feet (61 cm)).[4] 26 October – the Football Association is founded at the Freemasons' Tavern in Long Acre, London.[1] 8 December – the Football Association laws are agreed.[5] 10 December – Tom King, Heavyweight Champion of England, wins the last major bare-knuckle boxing match in England, against the American John C. Heenan at Wadhurst, East Sussex.[6] 19 December linoleum patented.[1] the first game is played under the new Football Association rules at Mortlake between Ebenezer Morley's Barnes Club and Richmond F.C., ending in a goalless draw.[5] Undated Before 30 March – the government rejects the Greek Assembly's choice of The Prince Alfred as the successor to the deposed Otto of Greece.[1] The case of Byrne v Boadle introduces the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur into English tort law.[7] Richard Owen publishes the first description of a fossilised bird, Archaeopteryx.[1] A scarlet fever epidemic causes over 30,000 deaths.[1] The Chōshū Five leave Japan secretly to study at University College London, part of the ending of sakoku. Beginning of Second Anglo-Ashanti war. Stoke City F.C. formed. Publications Henry Walter Bates's work The Naturalist on the River Amazons.[1] Charles Kingsley's children's novel The Water Babies (complete in book form).[8] Charles Lyell's work Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man, endorsing the views of Charles Darwin.[1] Mrs Oliphant's novel Salem Chapel, first of The Chronicles of Carlingford (in book form). Ouida's novel Held in Bondage.[9] Births 17 January – David Lloyd George, Prime Minister (died 1945) 11 March – Andrew Stoddart, sportsman (died 1915) 17 March - Olivia Shakespear, novelist, playwright and patron of the arts (died 1938) 27 March – Henry Royce, automobile pioneer (died 1933) 5 April – Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, member of the Royal Family (died 1950) 18 April – Linton Hope, Olympic yachtsman and yacht and aircraft designer (died 1920) 15 May – Frank Hornby, inventor, businessman and politician (died 1936) 17 May – Charles Robert Ashbee, designer (died 1942) 27 May – Arthur Mold, cricketer (died 1921) 13 June – Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, fashion designer (died 1942) 19 June – John Goodall, footballer (died 1942) 6 July – Reginald McKenna, Chancellor of the Exchequer 1915–1916 (died 1943) 21 July – C. Aubrey Smith, actor and cricketer (died 1948 in Beverly Hills) 13 September – Arthur Henderson, politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1935) 16 October – Austen Chamberlain, statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1937) 17 December – Violet Bland, suffragette (died 1940) 20 December – Margaret Greville, née Anderson, society hostess and philanthropist (died 1942) Deaths 6 January – Harriet Gouldsmith, landscape painter and etcher (born 1787) 9 March – John Gully, sportsman and politician (born 1783) 13 April – Sir George Cornewall Lewis, statesman (born 1806) 14 August – Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde, soldier (born 1792) 24 June – Sir George Elliot, admiral (born 1784) 17 September – Charles Robert Cockerell, architect, archaeologist and writer (born 1788) 26 September – Frederick William Faber, poet, hymnodist, theologian and Catholic convert (born 1814) 6 October – Frances Milton Trollope, novelist and writer (born 1779) 8 October – Richard Whately, theologian and archbishop (born 1787) 28 October – William Cubitt, building and civil engineering contractor and politician (born 1791) 24 December – William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist (born 1811) 29 December – Joseph John Scoles, Catholic architect (born 1798) References [1]Everett, Jason M., ed. (2006). "1863". The People's Chronology. Thomson Gale. [2]Carlyle, E. I. (2004). "Thomson, William (1819–1890)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 19 November 2010. [3]Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0. [4]Ransom, P. J. G. (1996). Narrow Gauge Steam: its origins and world-wide development. Sparkford: Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 0-86093-533-7. [5]Bragg, Melvyn (2006). 12 books that changed the world. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-83980-5. [6]"The Great Fight, This Day". The Standard. London. 10 December 1863. p. 5. [7]2 Hurl. & Colt. 722, 159 Eng. Rep. 299, 1863. [8]Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 283–284. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2. [9]Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (2nd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus. Wikiwand - on Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.