The victor in the first great transAtlantic yacht race, the 203-ton Henrietta, with her owner New York newspaper heir James Gordon Bennett, Jr. aboard, together later with her two competitor vessels, Fleetwing, and Vesta, docked at the Royal Yacht Club's moorings.  They were feted and offered the full facilities of the club and ate Christmas dinner there.  Later, captains and Bennett were invited to visit Queen Victoria at the nearby Osborne House, and attended a Royal Yacht Club banquet in their honor on New Year's Eve. (By John Osborne)

The new London underground line run by the Metropolitan Railway since 1863, the first in the world, suffered from a fatal accident near the Aldersgate Station when girders from an overhead construction site fell and hit a four-carriage train during the noon hour.  All the cars were heavily damaged but the last was completely destroyed and the three passengers there, two men and a woman, were killed instantly or died later than day. The guard in the carriage survived with severe injuries.  (By John Osborne)

The day after the worst ever mining disaster in English history at Oaks Colliery in Yorkshire killed hundreds, another explosion in a coal mine, this time in the North Staffordshire coal district further south, killed close to a hundred more.  An explosion and fire ripped through the Talk-o-the Hill Colliery where around two hundred men were working around noon. Rescuer brought up dozens of injured survivors, and eighty-five dead bodies.  (By John Osborne)

At the Oaks Colliery near Barnsley in Yorkshire, the day before, a massive explosion and ignition of flammable gas raced through the underground galleries , killing hundreds of miners. This following morning, dozens of volunteers descended to search for survivors but they themselves were caught in a second huge explosion that killed 37 more miners.  The total death toll over the two days came to at least 367 men and boys, and the Oaks Disaster remains to this day the deadliest recorded English mining disaster.  (By John Osborne) 

At the Oaks Colliery near Barnsley in Yorkshire, a massive explosion and ignition of flammable gas raced through the underground galleries at around one o'clock in the afternoon.  Hundreds of men were killed almost immediately and only six badly burned survivors made it to the surface. The following morning, dozens of volunteers descended to search for survivors but they themselves were decimated in a second huge explosion that killed 37 more miners.  The total death toll over the two days came to at least 367 men and boys, and the Oaks Disaster remains to this day the deadliest recorded English mining disaster.  (By John Osborne) 

As predicted, the Leonid Meteor Shower provided much of Europe with a remarkable display of "shooting stars." British observers reportedly counted between two and five thousand falls per hour beginning just before midnight and peaking just after one in the morning and continuing for several more hours. Some individual meteor trains lasted sixty seconds or longer in a remarkable display. One London watcher reported 200 meteors in the two minutes between 12: 57 and 12: 57 a.m. A return of the Leonids the following year was lighter but more visible in North America.  (By John Osborne)

The British general purpose steamer Ceres had a regular run between Dublin and London along the coasts of the British Isles. Heading towards Dublin with cargo and forty-two passengers, the Ceres struck rocks at seven in the evening during a storm off the Irish coast south of Wexford. Close to land, attempts were made to rope to shore and some passengers and crew were successful as the Ceres broke into three parts but twenty-nine passengers and nine crewmen drowned and were washed up onto the beach the next day.  (By John Osborne)

At the Pelton Fell Colliery near Newcastle in north-east England an early morning explosion more than five hundred feet underground trapped and killed twenty-four miners.  An inquest later found that the mine was adequately ventilated and that the cause of the blast of leaking gas was probably due to the foremen and men in the pit not following proper fire-proof protocols. (By John Osborne) 

A massive peaceful demonstration of working men and their families from across the woolen manufacturing districts took place in northern England on a moor outside Leeds in Yorkshire. In support of the Manhood Suffrage Association and the franchise reform now being considered in the Parliament, around 70,000 men marched to the site with their banners. The weather cooperated and the reported total crowd of 200,000 listened to speeches and passed a series of resolutions. The organization was efficient and the day passed with incident.  (By John Osborne)

The South-Eastern Railway Company opened its new City of London station at Cannon Street.  Five sets of rails crossed the Thames over the new Cannon Street Railway Bridge directly into the five platform station covered with a 700 foot long iron train shed. Originally planned for twenty million users a year and in 2015, with twentieth century remodeling, still serves more than twenty-two million annually. (By John Osborne)