Destination 1890 Trivia Quiz

Richard Trevithick's "Pen-y-Darren" locomotive made its first run in 1804. It hauled tin from Cornish mines. It would be another 21 years before the first passenger carrying train service operated.

It was in 1805 that forces led by Nelson won this naval battle against the French. Nelson lost his life in the process. He is commemorated in the form of Nelson's Column at the centre of Trafalgar Square, itself pretty much at the geographical centre of London. His native county of Norfolk continues to style itself as "Nelson's county".

Soldiers attacked protesters at St Peter's Field near Manchester. The protest was calling for greater democracy. Between the Napoleonic Wars, which had only ended four years previously, and the year without a summer in 1816, due to a volcanic eruption that caused global cooling, people had been having a very tough time. Also, not only was voting restricted to a small percentage of the population, the unrepresentative nature of the parliamentary constituencies (Cornwall with its royal connections had 44 MPs in total, while Manchester, by then a major industrial centre, had none) exacerbated this problem.

The vicious response to what was a peaceful protest left 18 dead and hundreds injured.

With the Liverpool and Manchester Railway nearing completion the Rainhill Trials were held to determine which of various locomotives was the most suitable model for the new railway. Stephenson's "Rocket" won very comfortably.

Heathfield Harman Stephenson, captain of the All England XI, dismissed three of his opponents with successive deliveries in a match at Hyde Park, Sheffield in 1850. Spectators, impressed by this display of skill, passed a hat round to collect money for Mr Stephenson, who was presented with both hat and money.

It was from this action of the spectators that the phrase hat trick came into being. It succeeded so well that some other sports have purloined the term, often noting only its reference to the number three and not the fact that it was being a sequence of three in a row that made it notable.

The new railway, the brainchild of city solicitor Charles Pearson, ran its first services between Paddington and Farringdon on January 10, 1863. This small seven stop line was the origin of today's London Underground, which now has almost 300 stations, and is actually 55% above ground.

The 1880 Australians initially received a very cold welcome in England because of an incident that had happened the last time an English side had visited Australia, and it took a fair bit of persuasion from WG Grace, the dominant player of that era of cricket - that they deserved a test match. That is one reason why the event did not happen until September.

The Oval was the venue rather than Lord's because a key supporter of the idea was Charles Alcock, simultaneously secretary of the Football Association and of Surrey County Cricket Club, whose home ground is The Oval.

In 1837 William IV died, and the closest available heir, his niece Alexandrina ascended the throne, taking the regnal name Victoria. She was only 18 when she became queen, so the length of her reign is not all that surprising. The Golden Jubilee was a celebration of her (then) 50 years on the throne, and it meant that the public got to see a lot more of their Queen than they had for some time, since her widowhood some years previously had caused her to virtually withdraw from public life in her grief.

Five gruesome murders perpetrated in the east end of London and shocked the public in 1888. The perpetrator of these crimes was never conclusively identified, though various people over the years have claimed to have been the notorious killer.

In 1890 the City & South London Railway, running from Stockwell to King William Street, opened for business. Apart from King William Street, abandoned in 1900, it is now part of the Northern line. Deep level tube tunneling, a practice that made use of London's blue clay base to lessen the disruption caused by tunnel building (single shafts rather than giant trenches being the only visible signs of construction at surface level) had been possible for some time, but it needed a power source other than steam to be practicable, and the answer was electricity.