June 10 in Victorian History
What the Victorians were up to on this date, year by remarkable year.
1840
First attempt on Victoria's life
As the young queen drives up Constitution Hill with Prince Albert, 18-year-old Edward Oxford fires two pistols at her carriage. Both shots miss. Oxford is found insane, and Victoria -- pregnant with her first child -- insists on driving out again the next day to show she is unafraid. It is the first of eight attempts on her life.
1854
The Crystal Palace reopens at Sydenham
The great glass house of the Great Exhibition, dismantled from Hyde Park, reopens on Sydenham Hill in splendour. Dinosaurs stalk its parkland, fountains dance, and two million visitors a year wander its courts of art and industry. It will stand for another eighty years.