Birth of a University: An intellectual snapshot of one year (1883-1884)
1883
Cardiff/Wales
Events
Original University staff
October 1883, foundation of the 'University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire' in Cardiff
Richard Lewis consecrated as Bishop of Llandaf
5 miners die - Lewis Merthyr colliery
6 miners die - New Dyffryn colliery, Rhymney
5 miners die - Gelli colliery, Ystrad
Cardiff population in 1881 was 82,761
In Wales the Treorchy men's Choir was established in the Rhondda Valley
National Eisteddfod visits Cardiff
Cardiff's Angel Hotel, Park Hotel, Cardiff Royal Infirmary, and Coal Exchange all initiated.
Cardiff Royal Infirmary
Births
Welsh architect of 'Portmeirion', Clough Williams Ellis
Welsh architect Percy Edward Thomas, (president of RIBA)
Margaret Haig Thomas, Viscountess of Rhondda
Patrons of the Arts, the Davies sisters, Gwendoline 1882, Margaret 1884.
Sir J. F. Rees, later Principal of the University College, Cardiff.
Noah Abbott, miners' leader, born at Porth (died 1969)
Deaths
John Batchelor, Cardiff's 'Friend of Freedom'
Morgan Williams, Chartist leader, dies in Merthyr
William Rees (Hiraethog), editor of 'Yr Amserau'
Britain/Europe
Events
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1883
Orient Express made its first run linking Istanbul to Paris by rail
Benz founds motor car company, Germany
European cholera outbreak, 1883-7
French begin colonization of Madagascar
Britain replaces French rule in Egypt, Evelyn Baring (Lord Cromer) as Consul General
Germany colonizes part of Namibia
First 'Social Security' health system, Germany, under Bismarck
Antonio Gaudi begins work on the Sagradia Familia in Barcelona
World exhibition in Amsterdam attracts one million people
Leo Delibes opera 'Lakme' premiered in Paris
Renoir paints 'Dance in the Town'
Cezanne paints 'Rocky Landscape'
Mackmurdo paints 'Wrens City Churches'
R.L. Stevenson writes 'Treasure Island'
Anthony Trollope publishes 'An Autobiography'
Nietzsche writes 'Thus Spake Zarathustra'
Francis Galton (eugenics theorist) writes 'Inquiries into Human Faculty'
J.G. Fichte, Pedagogische Schriften, 1883
Births
Benito Mussolini, dictator of Fascist Italy
Clement Attlee, later Britain’s Prime Minister
John Maynard Keynes, economist
Karl Jaspers, philosopher
Franz Kafka, writer
Jose Ortega y Gasset, philosopher
Walter Gropious, architect and founder of the Bauhaus school of design
Deaths
Les Contes Drolatiques (ill. G. Dore)
Karl Marx, London
Richard Wagner, Germany
Edouard Manet, artist
C. W. Siemens, inventor of regenerative furnace
Gustav Dore, French artistic engraver
International
Events
Krakatoa volcano
Krakatoa volcano erupts, over 30,000 die
Russian ‘Social Democratic Party’ founded by Georgy Plekhanov (a later leader of Lenin)
Stanleyville (later Kisangani), Congo, was founded by Sir Henry Morton Stanley
Treaty of Ancon ends war between Chile, Peru and Bolivia
Brooklyn Bridge, New York opened
Brooklyn Bridge
Births
Faisal I, ibn Al Hussein ibn Ali El Hasemi 1st King of Iraq-Syria
Joseph Alois Schumpeter, USA economist
William Carlos Williams poet, winner of Pulitzer prize
Khalil Gibran, Lebanese-American poet
Deaths
Ivan Turgenev, Russian writer
1884
Cardiff/Wales
'The Scottish Highlands: Highland Clans and Highland Regiments'
Events
University College of North Wales, Bangor, opens
15 miners die - Pochin Colliery, Tredegar,
14 miners die - Naval Steam Colliery, Pengraig
Cardiff coal exports reach 9 million tonnes (c. 40% of UK total)
South Wales Echo, Cardiff’s evening newspaper, established.
First home rugby international at Cardiff Arms Park against Ireland (Wales beat Ireland)
Dr. William Price wins court case to make cremation legal
Births
Jack Jones, Welsh author
R. Williams Parry, major poet
A. J. Cook born, miners’ leader
J. R. D. Jones born, founder of the South African Institute of Race Relations
Britain/Europe
Events
'Hanes Bywyd a Theithiau Dr Livingstone'
AIEE, later, Institute for Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) founded
The London prison for debtors closed
Pathogen identified for cholera, by Robert Koch (Germany) 1883/4,
Pathogen identified for tetanus, by Nicholaier (Germany)
Full voting rights for men in Britain (women get the vote in 1928)
Maxim invents machine gun
German-Russian alliance treaties 1884-87
Engels writes ‘Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State’
Fabian Society founded.
The Statue of Liberty was presented to the United States in ceremonies at Paris, then New York
Palais de Justice, Brussels completed, 1883/4
Prague starts to build a National Museum
Greenwich was established as universal time meridian of longitude
Trysorfa y Plant: Yr Ymenydd
Seurat painted ‘Una Baignade, Asnieres’
Claude Monet painted ‘Bordighera’
Huysmans wrote the novel ‘A Rebours’
Joseph Peladin wrote ‘Le Vie Supreme’ (Rosicrucian Society – magic/occult)
In England part 1 of the Oxford English Dictionary, by James Murray, was published
The Gaelic Athletic Association was founded in Ireland
Births
Sir Hugh Walpole, English novelist
Max Beckman, German painter
Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist
Wilhelm Backhaus, German pianist
Deaths
Gregor Mendel, Czech geneticist
Isaac Todhunter, English mathematician
Hans Rott, Austrian composer
Bedrich Smetana, Czech composer
International
'Nights with Uncle Remus'
Events
Czar Nicholas II succeeds his father, Alexander III
General Charles Gordon departed London for Khartoum, later defeated by Mahdi’s troops
George Eastman patents paper roll film photographic strip, for Kodak box camera
H.M. Stanley establishes 40 Congo trading ports for King Leopold, Belgium
Mark Twain wrote the classic ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’
'Buddhism in China'
Births
Damon Runyon journalist and writer
Harry S. Truman, later USA president
Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist
Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States
Deaths
John Williams Jones, editor of USA ‘Y Drych’ newspaper, dies in Utica
Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian artist
Cyrus McCormick, American inventor