1897 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1895 | 1896 | 1897 | 1898 | 1899

Sport

1897 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

Events from the year 1897 in the United Kingdom.

[edit] Incumbents

• Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom
• Prime Minister - Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Conservative

[edit] Events

• 29 March - Church of England encyclical replies to the recent Papal Apostolicae Curiae (v. 1896), defending the validity of Anglican orders.^[1]
• 19 May - The Anglo-Irish writer Oscar Wilde was released from prison.
• 22 May - The Blackwall Tunnel, at the time the longest underwater tunnel in the world, opened by the Prince of Wales.^[2]
• 22 June - Queen Victoria celebrates her accession to the throne in 1897 with her Diamond Jubilee celebrations, centred around London.
• 21 July - The Tate Gallery opens.^[1]
• 26 July–2 August - Siege of Malakand: British troops besieged by Pashtun tribesmen in Malakand.
• 10 August - The Automobile Club of Great Britain (now known as the Royal Automobile Club) founded in London.^[2]
• 19 August - first electric, horseless taxis begin operating in London.^[2]
• 20 August - Physician Ronald Ross discovers malarial parasites.^[2]
• 10 September - First conviction for drink-driving given to London taxi driver George Smith.^[2]

[edit] Undated

• Discovery of the electron by J. J. Thomson.
• A British military force was ambushed by Chief Ologbosers, son-in-law of the Oba of Benin. In retaliation, Benin City was torched to the ground by British forces in the Punitive Expedition.

[edit] Publications

• Joseph Conrad's novella The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'.
• Henry James' novels The Spoils of Poynton and What Maisie Knew.
• Rudyard Kipling's novel Captains Courageous and his poem Recessional.
• W. Somerset Maugham's novel Liza of Lambeth.
• Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.
• H. G. Wells' novel The Invisible Man, and short story The Crystal Egg.

[edit] Births

• 25 March — John Laurie, actor (died 1980)
• 26 March — David McCallum, Sr., violinist (died 1972)
• 27 May - John Cockcroft, physicist (died 1967)
• 12 June — Anthony Eden, Prime Minister (died 1977)
• 15 July - R. J. Yeatman, humorist (died 1968)
• 29 July — Neil Ritchie, general (died 1983)
• 11 August - Enid Blyton, children's writer (died 1968)
• 1 September — Andy Kennedy, footballer (died 1963)
• 9 November — Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1978)
• 15 November — Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th Baronet, writer (died 1988)

[edit] Deaths

• 12 January - Isaac Pitman, inventor of Pitman Shorthand (born 1813
• 19 June - Charles Boycott, land agent, origin of the word "boycott" (born 1832)
• 15 October - Charles John Vaughan, scholar and churchman (born 1816)
• George Palmer biscuit manufacturer (born 1818)

[edit] References

[edit] See also