Events in the year 1868 in Belgium.
Incumbents Monarch: Leopold II Head of government: Charles Rogier (to 3 January); Walthère Frère-Orban (from 3 January)
Events January 3 January – Walthère Frère-Orban replaces Charles Rogier as Prime Minister 28 January – Victor-Auguste-Isidor Deschamps enthroned as Archbishop of Mechelen.
March 1 March – Société Libre des Beaux-Arts 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.
May 25 May – Provincial elections
June 9 June – Partial legislative elections of 1868
August 6 August – 47 miners killed by a fire damp explosion in the Sainte Henriette mine near Jemappes.Joseph Irving, 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, 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 S.J.On Google Books 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
Literature Maria Doolaeghe, Winterbloemen
Art and architecture
Société Libre des Beaux-Arts founded
Paintings Auguste Chauvin, Portrait of Coraline Charles-Philogène Tschaggeny, The Covered Wagon
Sculptures Louis Jehotte's equestrian statue of Charlemagne inaugurated in Liège
Births 11 January – François Ruhlmann, conductor (died 1948) 5 February – Lodewijk Mortelmans, composer (died 1952) 23 February – Paul Bergmans, librarian (died 1935) 5 March – Prosper Poullet, politician (died 1937) 27 April – Herman Vander Linden, politician (died 1956) 18 June – Anna Kernkamp, artist (died 1947) 23 August – Paul Otlet, bibliographer (died 1944) 15 November – Marguerite Putsage, painter (died 1946) 28 November – Louis Franck, politician (died 1937)
Deaths 13 February – Dieudonné Stas (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 (born 1783), military inventor 21 July – Édouard Ducpétiaux (born 1804), prison reformer
References