passes and British North America becomes Dominion of Canada. 1870-1899 A series of educational reforms leads to the introduction of compulsory education for 5- to 12-year-olds (13-year-olds in Scotland) and universal access to free state primary education in Great Britain. 1875 Britain purchased Egypt's shares in the Suez Canal as the African nation was forced to raise money to pay off its debts. 1876 Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone. 1878 Treaty of Berlin. Cyprus becomes a Crown colony. 1879 The British suffer a humiliating defeat at Isandlwana at the hands of the Zulu natives in the first encounter during the Zulu War. 1881 The British suffer defeat at the Battle of Majuba Hill, leading to the signing of a peace treaty and later the Pretoria Convention, between the British and the reinstated South African Republic, ending the First Boer War. Sometimes claimed to mark the beginning of the decline of the British Empire. 1882 British troops begin the occupation of Egypt by taking the Suez Canal, to secure the vital trade route and passage to India, and the country becomes a protectorate. 1884 The Fabian Society is founded in London by a group of middle-class intellectuals, including Quaker Edward R. Pease, Havelock Ellis and E. Nesbit, to promote socialism. Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany dies. 1885 Blackpool Electric Tramway Company starts the first electric tram service in the United Kingdom. 1886 Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone and the Liberal Party tries passing the First Irish Home Rule Bill, but the House of Commons rejects it. 1888 The serial killer known as Jack the Ripper murders and mutilates five (and possibly more) women on the streets of London. 1889 Emily Williamson founds the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 1889-1890 Russian flu Pandemic. 1898 British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeat the Mahdist forces at the battle of Omdurman, thus establishing British dominance in the Sudan. Winston Churchill takes part in the British cavalry charge at Omdurman. 1899 The Second Boer War is fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics. The Boers finally surrendered and the British annexed the Boer republics. 1901 The death of Victoria sees the end of this era. The ascension of her eldest son, Edward, begins the Edwardian era. See also Citations Further reading General Adams, James Eli, ed. Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era (4 Vol. 2004),