The National Rifle Association of Great Britain was founded at a meeting in the Thatched House Tavern on St. James' in London with Lord Herbert, the Liberal Secretary of War, as its first president.  Initially influenced by the volunteer movement which sprang up in 1859 after tension arose with France, it held its first competitive shooting meeting on Wimbledon Common on July 2, 1860.  Queen Victoria fired the first shot.  (By John Osborne)  

Lord William Godolphin Osborne, twenty-five year old son of the Duke of Leeds, was sentenced to six months in prison at the Cambridge Insolvency Court after defaulting on more than £1000 in debts.   He owed his tailor, tobacconist, livery stable keeper, and his college tutor.  He testified his father provided him with only £100 a year and had refused to increase his allowance after he married the previous year.  (By John Osborne)

Following earlier tensions with France, a Volunteer Militia movement had sprung up in Britain.  Largely middle class in nature and funded from both state and private means, it had developed into a respectable addition to the nation's home defense and would remain so until the First World War.  Queen Victoria and Prince Albert reviewed 21,000 of these men in the afternoon of a gathering of Volunteers, mostly from London, in Hyde Park.  (By John Osborne)

After the widespread massacre of Christians in the region, a conference of powers including Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, and Turkey met in Beirut.  It forced the Turkish Government, accused of colluding in the recent killings of perhaps 11,000, to repartition and reorganize its Syrian and Lebanese provinces so as to protect Christians.  Lebanon was placed under a Christian, non-Lebanese governor.  (By John Osborne)

Immediately after the widespread massacre of Christians in Syria and Lebanon by Druze factions, a conference of the six great powers of Europe met in Paris to draft measures towards an intervention.  Despite Turkish claims that it could protect Christians and punish the perpetrators, a French Army division under General Beaufort d'Hautpol landed at Beirut within two weeks and took up positions around the city.  (By John Osborne)

Conflict between Druse and Christians had flared for weeks and Christians had been massacred all over Lebanon and Syria.  With the suspected collusion of Turkish authorities, violence against Christians spread to Damascus where thousands of men, women, and children, including Europeans, were killed.  This slaughter brought threatened French and British intervention and the Turkish Government then quickly restored order.  (By John Osborne)