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xxiv Timeline of Historical Events 1872 Secret ballot is introduced 1874–1880 Disraeli’s second government 1875 Disraeli buys majority stock in Suez Canal 1876 Victoria becomes empress of India 1878–1880 Second Anglo-Afghan War 1878 Lady Margaret Hall established as first women’s college at Oxford 1879 Anglo-Zulu War 1879 Tay Bridge Disaster, Dundee train collapses crossing bridge, all aboard die 1879 Launch of world’s first transatlantic steamer from Glasgow to South America 1880–1881 First Anglo-Boer War 1880–1885 Gladstone’s second government 1880 Greenwich Mean Time is adopted 1881 Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act: establishes low-cost loans for Irish tenant farmers to purchase their land 1881 Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1882 Britain occupies Egypt 1882 Failed attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria 1882 Phoenix Park murders by Irish radicals 1883 Trial of Lunatics Act permits “criminal but insane” verdict 1884 Third Reform Act extends franchise to 60 percent of adult men 1886 Gladstone’s third government first Irish Home Rule Bill (fails) 1887 British East Africa Company chartered after the 1885 Con- gress of Berlin initiates the “scramble for Africa” 1888 Founding of Scottish Labour Party 1888 Whitechapel murders by Jack the Ripper 1888 London matchgirls strike and unionize 1890–1891 Parnell scandal splits Irish National Party 1890 Barings Bank crisis sets off financial panic 1891 Opening of London–Paris telephone system