Events from the year 1894 in the United Kingdom. Incumbents Monarch – Victoria Prime Minister – William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal) (until 2 March); Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (Liberal) (starting 5 March) Parliament – 25th Events 15 February – 04:51 GMT, French anarchist Martial Bourdin attempts to destroy the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London with a bomb but succeeds only in killing himself through its accidental explosion. 1 March – Local Government Act (coming into effect December 1894–January 1895) creates a system of urban and rural districts with elected councils, with elected parish councils in rural areas, reforms the boards of guardians of poor law unions, and gives women, irrespective of marital status, the right to vote and stand in local (but not national) elections. 3 March – William Ewart Gladstone (at the age of 84) resigns as Prime Minister over high Navy estimates. 5 March – Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery becomes Prime Minister and forms a minority Liberal Party government. 11 April – Britain establishes a Protectorate over Uganda. 12 April – the annual Budget establishes death duties. 16 April – Ardwick Association Football Club changes its name to Manchester City F.C.. 21 April – debut of the George Bernard Shaw play Arms and the Man in London. 23 April (St. George's Day) – Howard Ruff founds the Royal Society of St George, to foster the love of England and to strengthen England and the Empire by spreading the knowledge of English history, traditions and ideals. 14 May – Blackpool Tower opened in Blackpool, Lancashire, as a visitor attraction. 21 May – the Manchester Ship Canal is officially opened, linking the previously landlocked city of Manchester to the Irish Sea. 23 June – a firedamp explosion at Albion Colliery, Cilfynydd, Glamorgan, kills 290 coal miners and 123 horses underground. 30 June – Tower Bridge in London opened for traffic. 2 August – death duties introduced. September – British Association for the Advancement of Science inaugurates an Ethnographic Survey of the United Kingdom. 28 September – Michael Marks forms the partnership of Marks & Spencer with Thomas Spencer, opening its first store in Manchester. 13 October – Everton and Liverpool Football Clubs meet in the first Merseyside derby. 17–18 October – First Kinetoscope parlour in the UK opens in London. December – Frederick Bremer, a plumber and gasfitter from Walthamstow, runs the first British four-wheeled petrol-engined motor