1804 in the United Kingdom

1804 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland:

Other years

1802 | 1803 | 1804 | 1805 | 1806

Events from the year 1804 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Incumbents

• Monarch - King George III
• Prime Minister - Henry Addington, Tory (until 10 May), William Pitt the Younger, Tory

Events

• February 21 - The Cornishman Richard Trevithick's newly-built "Penydarren" steam locomotive operates on the Merthyr Tramroad between Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon in South Wales, following several trials since February 13, the world's first locomotive to work on rails.^[1]
• March 7
  • John Wedgwood founds the Royal Horticultural Society.^[2]
  • Thomas Charles is instrumental in founding the British and Foreign Bible Society.^[3]
• April 2 - Forty merchant vessels are wrecked when a convoy led by HMS Apollo runs aground off Portugal.
• April 5 - High Possil meteorite, the first recorded meteorite to fall in Scotland, at Possil.
• April 26 - Henry Addington resigns as Prime Minister.
• May 10 - William Pitt the younger begins his second term as Prime Minister.
• December 12 - Spain declares war on Britain.
• December 21 - Rochdale Canal opens, the first to cross the Pennines.^[4]

Ongoing

• Anglo-Spanish War, 1796–1808
• Napoleonic Wars, 1803–1815

Undated

• William Blake writes Milton: a Poem including the poem And did those feet in ancient time.^[5]
• William Wordsworth writes I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.^[5]

Births

• December 21 - Benjamin Disraeli, future Prime Minister (died 1881)
• Unknown date - Andrew Nicholl, painter (died 1886)

Deaths

• January 4 - Charlotte Ramsey Lennox, author and poet (born 1727)
• January 15 - Dru Drury, entomologist (born 1725)
• February 6 - Joseph Priestley, chemist (born 1733)
• November 23 - Richard Graves, writer (born 1715)

References