1868 in Belgium

← 1867 1866 1865 1868 in Belgium → 1869 1870 1871
Decades:	1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s
See also:	Other events of 1868 List of years in Belgium

Events in the year 1868 in Belgium.

Monarch: Leopold II

Head of government: Charles Rogier (to 3 January); Walthère Frère-Orban (from 3 January)

January

• 3 January – Walthère Frère-Orban replaces Charles Rogier as Prime Minister
• 28 January – Victor-Auguste-Isidor Deschamps enthroned as Archbishop of Mechelen.^[1]

March

• 1 March – Société Libre des Beaux-Arts founded.^[2]: 686
• 24 March – 20 killed when soldiers shoot on striking miners from the Epine mine in Dampremy.^[2]: 686

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.^[3]: 836

September

• 7 September – Third international workers congress opens in Brussels.^[2]: 687

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.^[3]: 843

Periodicals

• Almanach royal officiel (Brussels, E. Guyot)^[4]
• Collection de précis historiques, vol. 17, edited by Edouard Terwecoren S.J.^[5]
• Socialist daily newspaper De Werker launched in Antwerp (October).^[2]: 686

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)^[6]

Literature

• Maria Doolaeghe, Winterbloemen

• Société Libre des Beaux-Arts founded

Paintings

• Charles-Philogène Tschaggeny, The Covered Wagon

Sculptures

• Louis Jehotte's equestrian statue of Charlemagne inaugurated in Liège

• 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)

• 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