The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum.

The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677. It is also the world's second university museum, after the establishment of the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1661 by the University of Basel.

Oxford is a cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.