Events in the year 1868 in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Incumbents

Monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

: Leopold II :

Head of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a gro ...

Charles Rogier Charles Latour Rogier (; 17 August 1800 – 27 May 1885) was a Belgian liberal statesman and a leader in the Belgian Revolution of 1830. He served as the prime minister of Belgium on two occasions: from 1847 to 1852, and again from 1857 to 1 ...

(to 3 January);

Walthère Frère-Orban Hubert Joseph Walthère Frère-Orban (24 April 1812 – 2 January 1896) was a Belgian liberal statesman. Early life He was born at Liège, received his education at home and in Paris, and began the practice of law in his native town. He identif ...

(from 3 January)

Events

;January * 3 January –

replaces

as Prime Minister * 28 January –

Victor-Auguste-Isidor Deschamps Victor Augustin Isidore Dechamps (6 December 1810, in Melle – 29 September 1883, in Mechelen) was a Belgian Archbishop of Mechelen, Cardinal and Primate of Belgium. Biography He and his brothers made rapid progress in science under th ...

enthroned as Archbishop of Mechelen. ;March * 1 March –

Société Libre des Beaux-Arts The Société Libre des Beaux-Arts ("Free Society of Fine Arts") was an organization formed in 1868 by Belgian artists to react against academicism and to advance Realist painting and artistic freedom. Based in Brussels, the society was active un ...

founded.Alain de Gueldre et al., ''Kroniek van België'' (Antwerp and Zaventem, 1987). * 24 March – 20 killed when soldiers shoot on striking miners from the Epine mine in

Dampremy Dampremy ( wa, Dårmè) is a town of Wallonia and district of the municipality of Charleroi, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It was a municipality of its own before the fusion of the Belgian municipalities The fusion of the Belg ...

. ;May * 25 May – Provincial elections ;June * 9 June – Partial legislative elections of 1868 ;August * 6 August – 47 miners killed by a

fire damp Firedamp is any flammable gas found in coal mining, coal mines, typically coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is Bituminous coal, bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata and when t ...

explosion in the Sainte Henriette mine near

Jemappes Jemappes (; in older texts also: ''Jemmapes''; wa, Djumape) is a town of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Mons, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It was a municipality until the fusion of the Belgian municipalities in 1 ...

Joseph Irving Joseph Irving (1830–1891) was a Scottish journalist, historian and annalist. Life Born at Dumfries on 2 May 1830, he was son of Andrew Irving, a joiner. After being educated at the parish school of Troqueer, over the River Nith from Dumfries, ...

, ''The Annals of Our Time'' (London and New York, 1871). ;September * 7 September – Third international workers congress opens in Brussels. ;October * 23 October –

Frederick Doulton Frederick Doulton (1824–1872) was a British Liberal Party politician. He was Member of Parliament for Lambeth from 5 May 1862 until 1868. Biography Frederick was the third of eight children of John Doulton (1793–1873), the founder of R ...

, MP, brought to trial in Brussels on charges of fraud in public works, but acquitted of having broken any law.

Publications

;Periodicals *''Almanach royal officiel'' (Brussels, E. Guyot) * ''Collection de précis historiques'', vol. 17, edited by

Edouard Terwecoren Edouard Terwecoren (1815–1872) was a Belgian Jesuit author. Life Terwecoren was born in Vilvoorde on 17 June 1815. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Nivelles in 1836. He taught at the Jesuit college in Namur and St Joseph College, Aalst, befor ...

S.J. * Socialist daily newspaper ''De Werker'' launched in Antwerp (October). ;Series * '' Biographie Nationale de Belgique'', vol. 2 ;History * Charles Niellon, ''Histoire des événements militaires et des conspirations orangistes de la révolution en Belgique de 1830 à 1833'' (Brussels, M.J. Poot)On Google Books
/ref> ;Literature *

Maria Doolaeghe Maria Doolaeghe (25 October 1803 – 7 April 1884) was a Flemish writer. Bibliography * ''Nederduitsche letteroefeningen'' (1834) * ''Madelieven'' (1840) * ''De avondlamp'' (1850) * ''Sinte Godelieve, Vlaemsche legende uit de XIde eeuw'' (1862) ...

, ''Winterbloemen''

Art and architecture

Inauguration de la statue de Charlemagne à Liège

founded ;Paintings * Charles-Philogène Tschaggeny, ''The Covered Wagon'' ;Sculptures *

Louis Jehotte Louis Jehotte (7 November 1803 or 1804 – 3 February 1884) was a prominent Belgian sculptor working in a realist tradition that was inflected, who was responsible for the bronze equestrian monument to Charlemagne erected on the in Liège, Bel ...

's equestrian statue of Charlemagne inaugurated in Liège

Births

* 11 January –

François Ruhlmann François Ruhlmann (11 January 1868 – 8 June 1948) was a Belgian conductor. Life and career Born in Brussels, Ruhlmann was a pupil of Joseph Dupont in his native city. As a child he sang in the chorus at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, a ...

, conductor (died 1948) * 5 February –

Lodewijk Mortelmans Lodewijk Mortelmans (5 February 1868, Antwerp – 24 June 1952, Antwerp) was a Belgian composer and conductor of Flemish ancestry. Sometimes called ''de Vlaamse Brahms'' ("the Flemish Brahms"), Mortelmans composed in a number of forms, including ...

, composer (died 1952) * 23 February –

Paul Bergmans Paul Jean Etienne Charles Marie Bergmans (1868–1935) was a librarian in chief of the University of Ghent, and musical historian. Life Bergmans was born in Ghent on 23 February 1868. He began work at Ghent University Library on a voluntary basis, ...

, librarian (died 1935) * 5 March – Prosper Poullet, politician (died 1937) * 27 April –

Herman Vander Linden Herman Vander Linden (1868–1956) was a Belgian historian who was a professor at the University of Liège. Life Vander Linden was born in Leuven on 27 April 1868 and was educated in the state secondary school there. He graduated doctor of philos ...

, politician (died 1956) * 18 June – Anna Kernkamp, artist (died 1947) * 23 August –

Paul Otlet Paul Marie Ghislain Otlet (; ; 23 August 1868 – 10 December 1944) was a Belgian author, entrepreneur, lawyer and peace activist; predicting the arrival of the internet before World War II, he is among those considered to be the father of infor ...

, bibliographer (died 1944) * 15 November – Marguerite Putsage, painter (died 1946) * 28 November – Louis Franck, politician (died 1937)

Deaths

* 13 February –

Dieudonné Stas Dieudonné François Marie Stas (1791–1868) was a Belgian newspaper proprietor. Life Stas was born in Liège on 20 August 1791. In 1820 he founded the ''Courrier de la Meuse'', with Pierre Kersten as editor in chief.Paul Bergmans, "Stas (Dieud ...

(born 1791), newspaperman * 17 April – Guillaume-Hippolyte van Volxem (born 1791), politician * 30 April – Charles Le Hon (born 1792), politician * 9 July –

Toussaint-Henry-Joseph Fafchamps Toussaint-Henry-Joseph Fafchamps (1783-1868), sometimes spelled Fafschamps, was a Belgian Army captain. In 1851, with the Belgian gunsmith Joseph Montigny and the Fusnot company, he developed what is sometimes considered the first machine gun in ...

(born 1783), military inventor * 21 July –

Édouard Ducpétiaux Antoine Édouard Ducpétiaux (29 June 1804, Brussels – 21 July 1868, Brussels) was a Belgian journalist and social reformer. In 1827 he obtained his doctorate from the University of Ghent, being admitted to the bar in Brussels during the follow ...

(born 1804), prison reformer

References

{{Year in Europe, 1868

Years of the 19th century in Belgium 1860s in Belgium