– the London Conference of 1866 opens to finalise agreements for Canadian Confederation in 1867. 12 December – the Oaks explosion in the Barnsley seam in Yorkshire kills 361 coal miners; a subsidiary explosion the following day kills 27 rescuers. This is the all-time worst colliery or mining disaster in England, and the worst mining accident in the U.K. until 1913. Undated The last cholera epidemic in London causes over 5,000 deaths. Invention of the clinical thermometer by Thomas Clifford Allbutt. John Langdon Down describes Down syndrome. Worcester College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen opens as a boarding establishment in Worcester. Morris Chair introduced by William Morris. Cadbury's first sell cocoa for drinking. Colman's mustard receives a Royal Warrant. General Post Office writes to all urban householders without a front door letter box urging them to provide one. The Society of St. John the Evangelist ("Cowley Fathers") is founded by Richard Meux Benson at Cowley, Oxford, the first stable Anglican religious order for men since the Reformation. John Graham Chambers founds the Amateur Athletic Club, drawing up rules for athletic competition. Publications George Eliot's novel Felix Holt, the Radical. Mrs Oliphant's novel Miss Marjoribanks. John Robert Seeley's controversial and anonymous work Ecce Homo: A Survey in the Life and Work of Jesus Christ. Hesba Stretton's children's story Jessica's First Prayer serialised in Sunday at Home; as a book, it sells one and half million copies. A. C. Swinburne's Poems and Ballads. Births 16 January – Percy Pilcher, inventor and pioneer aviator (died 1899) 10 March – Amanda Aldridge, opera singer, teacher and composer (died 1956) 17 April – Ernest Starling, physiologist (died 1927) 24 February – Arthur Pearson, newspaper publisher (died 1921) 16 March – E. K. Chambers, literary scholar (died 1954) 26 March – Fred Karno, born Frederick Westcott, music hall impresario (died 1941) 7 June – Ernest William Hornung, author (died 1921) 26 June – George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, financier of Egyptian excavations (died 1923) 28 July – Beatrix Potter, children's author and illustrator (died 1943) 21 September – H. G. Wells, writer (died 1946) 2 October – Charles Ricketts, designer (died 1931) 12 October – Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister (died 1937) 8 November – Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin, car designer (died 1941) 11 November – Martha Annie Whiteley, chemist and mathematician (died 1956) 30 November – Robert Broom, paleontologist (died 1951) 3 December