December 28 in Victorian History
What the Victorians were up to on this date, year by remarkable year.
1879
The Tay Bridge disaster
In a howling gale, the Tay Bridge at Dundee collapses as a train crosses -- all 75 aboard are killed. The elegant two-mile bridge, barely eighteen months old, had been built too cheaply. The disaster leads to new standards of bridge engineering.
1895
Cinema is born in Paris
In the basement of the Grand Cafe in Paris, the Lumiere brothers hold the first public screening of projected films -- workers leaving a factory, a train arriving at La Ciotat. Thirty-three paying customers attend. The movies begin.