So here we go, here from Wiki are the complete notable events in the UK in 1879.....
6 June – William Denny and Brothers launch the world's first ocean-going ship to be built of mild steel, the SS Rotomahana, at Dumbarton.
14 June – Sidney Faithorn Green, an Anglican priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices.
4 July – the Anglo-Zulu War effectively ends with British victory at the Battle of Ulundi.
16 August – Fulham F.C. founded in London as the Fulham St Andrew's Church Sunday School football club.
19 August – the foundation stone of the fourth Eddystone Lighthouse is laid by The Prince of Wales and The Duke of Edinburgh.
September Doncaster Rovers F.C. formed by railway fitter Albert Jenkins.
18 September – Blackpool Illuminations lit for the first time.
2 October – William Denny and Brothers launch the world's first transatlantic steamer to be built of mild steel, the SS Buenos Ayrean, at Dumbarton for Liverpool owners. On 1 December she makes her maiden voyage out of Glasgow for South America.
13 October – first female students admitted to study for degrees of Oxford University, at the new Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville Hall and with the Society of Oxford Home-Students.
17 October – Sunderland A.F.C. is formed as 'Sunderland and District Teachers A.F.C.' in the North East.
27 October – Liverpool Echo newspaper first published.
November–March 1880 – probably the longest ever fog in the city's history engulfs London.
15–23 December – Second Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at the Siege of the Sherpur Cantonment.
28 December – the Tay Bridge Disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses in a storm as a train passes over it, killing 78.
30 December – the comic opera The Pirates of Penzance is first presented in Paignton, Devon in a token performance for U.K. copyright reasons; the world première is given the following day in New York City, the only Gilbert and Sullivan work to have its official debut outside England.
1 January to 31 December – the combination of the severest winter since 1814, a late spring, an exceptionally cool summer and a cold dry autumn produces the third-coldest year in the CET series and the coldest since 1740, with an annual mean of 7.44 °C or 45.39 °F
