1880

Good condition set of four. Events 1880 January?March ? Great fog continues to engulf London. 21 January ? An underground firedamp explosion at Fair Lady Pit, Leycett, in the North Staffordshire Coalfield, kills 62 coal miners. 2 February ? The first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia arrives in London aboard the SS Strathleven. 8 March ? The Conservative Party lose the general election to the Liberal Party. 3 April ? Gilbert and Sullivan?s opera The Pirates of Penzance opens in London, at the Opera Comique on the Strand. 18 April ? William Ewart Gladstone succeeds Benjamin Disraeli as Prime Minister. This is Gladstone?s second term as Prime Minister. 19 April ? Second Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at the Battle of Ahmed Khel. 20 May ? Foundation stone laid for Truro Cathedral in Cornwall, the first to be built on a new site since the 13th century. 15 July ? An underground firedamp explosion at Risca Colliery in the Crosskeys district of Monmouthshire kills 120 coal miners and 69 horses. 27 July ? Second Anglo-Afghan War: Afghan victory at the Battle of Maiwand. 2 August ? Time in the United Kingdom: Greenwich Mean Time adopted as the legal standard throughout Great Britain by the Statutes (Definition of Time) Act. 1 September ? Second Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at the Battle of Kandahar. 6?8 September ? First cricket Test match held in Britain. 8 September ? An underground explosion at Seaham Colliery, County Durham, kills 164 coal miners. October ? Irish tenants ostracise landholder?s agent Charles Boycott. 29 October ? Wells lifeboat disaster: RNLI life-boat Eliza Adams of Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, capsizes on service; 11 of 13 crew lost. 17 November ? The University of London awards the first degrees to women. 10 December ? An underground firedamp explosion at Naval Steam Colliery, Penygraig, in the Rhondda, kills 101 coal miners. 15 December ? First performance of a play by Henrik Ibsen in English, The Pillars of Society (under the title Quicksands) at the Gaiety Theatre, London. 16 December - High Court of Justice reorganised into the Chancery, Queen?s Bench and the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Divisions, with abolition of the Common Pleas and Exchequer Divisions. 16 December - The Boers declare independence in Transvaal triggering the First Boer War. 20 December ? First Boer War: British forces defeated in the Action at Bronkhorstspruit. 24 December ? First Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols devised by Edward White Benson, at this time Bishop of Truro.…