On a wave of jingoism Benjamin Disraeli sends six British ironclads, in support of Turkey, to confront the Russians near Istanbul

William Crookes develops a special tube, now known as the Crookes tube, for the study of cathode rays

English-born US photographer Eadweard Muybridge publishes closely linked photographs revealing how a horse goes through its paces

Stanley agrees to work for Leopold II in opening up the Congo river to commerce

English physicist Joseph Swan demonstrates a practical electric light bulb, using an incandescent carbon filament in a vacuum

21-year-old Joseph Conrad, a Polish subject, goes to sea with the British merchant navy

The future Cassel Hospital buildings are occupied by West Heath School for young ladies – some of its classes being attended by Princess May (the future Queen Mary), while living at White Lodge, Richmond Park

The ancient Irish game of hurling is formalized by the newly founded Irish Hurling Union

English physicist Joseph Swan receives a patent for bromide paper, which becomes the standard material for printing photographs

Marianne North commissions her friend James Fergusson to design a gallery to be built in Kew Gardens for the pictures of flowers and plants that she has painted on extensive travels around the world.

An entire train, full of passengers, falls into the river Tay in Scotland when a bridge collapses in a winter gale

Henry James's story Daisy Miller, about an American girl abroad, brings him a new readership

George Eliot and her new husband move into a splendid new house in Cheyne Walk, beside the Thames in London

For the second time Gladstone replaces Disraeli as Britain's prime minister, following a Liberal election victory over the Conservatives

The Tynwald in the Isle of Man becomes the first parliament to give women the vote

London's new Savoy Theatre is the first public building in the world to be lit throughout by electricity

The Aesthetic Movement and 'art for art's sake', attitudes personified above all by Whistler and Wilde, are widely mocked and satirized in Britain

Eadweard Muybridge projects slow-motion images of a trotting horse as a demonstration at London's Royal Institution

Irish chief secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and a colleague are assassinated in Phoenix Park in Dublin

When Australia win the second Test match, in London, the Sporting Times declares that they will take home with them 'the ashes of English cricket'

Orleans House is bought by the Cunard family who are the last private owners.

Following Lady Waldegrave's death in 1879, the Strawberry Hill estate is sold first to an American hotel company and then on, in 1883 to Baron de Stern.

English polymath Francis Galton publishes Inquiries in Human Faculty, developing the theme of eugenics and coining the term

Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure story, Treasure Island, features Long John Silver and Ben Gunn

After the gallery is built in Kew Gardens at her expense, Marianne North continues to travel and paint, eventually filling it with 832 pictures. She dies in 1890.