 1839 in the United Kingdom: |
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Events from the year 1839 in the United Kingdom.
Contents |
Incumbents
- Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom
- Prime Minister - William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Whig
Events
- 19 January - British East India Company captures Aden.
- February - Report on the Affairs of British North America published.
- 26 February - First Grand National run, at Aintree.[1]
- 9 March - Anti-Corn Law League is organised.[2]
- 26 March - The first Henley Royal Regatta is held.[3]
- 9 April - The world's first commercial electric telegraph line comes into operation alongside the Great Western Railway line from Paddington station to West Drayton.
- 19 April - The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.
- 7 May to 11 May - Bedchamber Crisis: Robert Peel asks that Queen Victoria dismiss her Ladies of the Bedchamber as a condition for forming a government. Victoria refuses to accept the condition, and Peel resigns.[2]
- 13 May - First Rebecca Riots against Welsh turnpikes, at Efailwen in Carmarthenshire.[2]
- 4 July - Chartists riot in Birmingham.[2]
- 23 July - British forces under Sir John Keane capture the fortress city of Ghazni, Afghanistan in the Battle of Ghazni during the First Anglo-Afghan War.[4]
- 23 August - British forces seized Hong Kong as a base, as it prepared to wage war against Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict would become known as the First Opium War.[3]
- 30 August - the Eglinton Tournament (See also the Eglinton Tournament of 1839), a recreation of a medieval tourney takes place in Eglinton Castle, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
- 4 November - Newport Rising: several thousand coal miners march on Newport to liberate Chartist prisoners; 24 killed.[5]
- 24 December - an enormous landslide occurs in Axmouth, Devon. A report by geologists William Daniel Conybeare and William Buckland is one of the earliest scientific descriptions of a landslide.[6]
Undated
- Michael Faraday publishes "Experimental Researches in Electricity"[7] clarifying the true nature of electricity.
- The first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri is published by Thomas Henderson.
- James Clark Ross sets out on the Antarctic expedition of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror which charted much of the coastline of the continent.
- Eyre's 1839 expeditions to the interior of South Australia.
Publications
- George Bradshaw's first national railway timetable, Bradshaw's Railway Companion.
Births
- 7 January - Ouida, novelist (died 1908)
- 16 March - John Butler Yeats, artist (died 1922)
- 17 June - Arthur Tooth, Anglican clergyman prosecuted for Ritualist practices in the 1870s (died 1931)
- 19 September - George Cadbury, businessman (died 1922)
Deaths
- 16 January - Edmund Lodge, writer (born 1756)
- 28 January - William Beechey, portrait-painter (born 1753)
- 11 April - John Galt, novelist (born 1779)
- 17 May - Archibald Alison, author (born 1757)
- 24 December - James Smith, author (born 1775)
References
- ^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
- ^ a b c d Palmer, Alan & Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 263-264. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ a b "Icons, a portrait of England 1820-1840". http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1820-1840. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- ^ "National Army Museum : Exhibitions : Afghanistan". http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/exhibitions/afghanistan/page2.shtml. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- ^ "John Lovell and the People's Charter, National Archives". http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/lovell.htm. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- ^ "Axmouth to Lyme Regis: The Undercliff, The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site". http://www.jurassiccoast.com/277/the-coast-uncovered-30/explore-the-coast:-a-walk-through-time-141/axmouth-to-lyme-regis:-the-undercliff-357.html. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- ^ ""Experimental Researches in Electricity"". http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14986. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
See also
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