Events from the year 1898 in the United Kingdom. Incumbents Monarch – Victoria Prime Minister – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Coalition) Parliament – 26th Events 12 February – the car belonging to Henry Lindfield of Brighton runs away on a hill in Purley, Surrey and hits a tree; thus he becomes the world's first fatality from an automobile accident on the public highway. 15 February – the World Figure Skating Championships are held in London. 5 April – Portsmouth F.C. founded at 12 High Street, Old Portsmouth. 8 April – Mahdist War: British and Egyptian victory at the Battle of Atbara. 30 May – William Ramsay and Morris Travers make the first of their discovery of noble gases, krypton, followed on 7 June by neon and on 12 July by xenon at University College London. 9 June – signature of the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory with Qing Dynasty China leasing Hong Kong for 99 years. 14 June – treaty with France establishes borders between French colonies and Nigeria and the Gold Coast. 16 June – Folk-Song Society founded. 23 June – Royal Army Medical Corps formed within the British Army. 6 July – Guglielmo Marconi conducts a test radio telegraph transmission for Lloyd's between Ballycastle, County Antrim, and Rathlin Island, Ireland. 19 July – French novelist Émile Zola arrives in London to escape imprisonment for criminal libel over his open letter J'Accuse…! on the Dreyfus affair. 12 August The Criminal Evidence Act permits defendants in English law to give sworn evidence and removes spousal privilege in many instances. Elected county and district councils established in Ireland. 23 August – the Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, sets sail from London. 2 September – Mahdist War: at the Battle of Omdurman, British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeat Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, thus establishing British dominance in the Sudan. During the battle, the 21st Lancers make what will be the last British cavalry charge and win three VCs. There are 47 deaths among the British and their allies (28 British) and at least 9,700 amongst their opponents. 3 September – Southampton F.C. move into their new stadium, The Dell and Nottingham Forest F.C. move into their new City Ground. 10 September – Sunderland A.F.C. move into their new stadium at Roker Park.