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1840 in the United Kingdom 
Summary
Events from the year 1840 in the United Kingdom.
| 1840 in the United Kingdom |
| Other years |
| 1838 | 1839 | 1840 | 1841 | 1842 |
| Constituent countries of the United Kingdom |
| England | Ireland | Scotland | Wales |
| Sport |
| 1840 English cricket season |
Incumbents edit
Events edit
- 1 January – trial of Welsh Chartists John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones for their part in the Newport Rising of 1839 opens at Monmouth before Chief Justice Tindal; this is the first trial where proceedings are recorded in shorthand.
- 10 January – Uniform Penny Post introduced, replacing the Uniform Fourpenny Post of 1839.
- 12 January – Chartist rising in Sheffield aborted.
- 14 January – Chartist rising in the East End of London largely suppressed by police.[1]
- 16 January – Frost, Williams and Jones are all found guilty of high treason for their part in the Chartist riots, and are sentenced to death; the last time the sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering is passed in the U.K., although following a nationwide petitioning campaign and direct lobbying of the Home Secretary by the Lord Chief Justice, it is commuted to transportation for life (Frost is eventually pardoned).
- 22 January – British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding date of Wellington.
- 26 January – Chartist rising in Bradford fails to spread.[1]
- 6 February – Treaty of Waitangi, a document granting British sovereignty in New Zealand, is signed.[2]
- 10 February – Queen Victoria marries her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha[2] in the Royal Chapel at St James's Palace.[3]
- 15 April – King's College Hospital opens in Portugal Street, London.
- 27 April – the foundation stone of the new Palace of Westminster is laid as its reconstruction following the Burning of Parliament in 1834 begins (completed in 1860).[4][5]
- 1 May – issue of the Penny Black, the world's first postage stamp,[4] together with Mulready stationery. The stamp becomes valid for prepayment of postage from 6 May.[6]
- 5 May - Thomas Carlyle gives the first lecture in the series On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History
- 11 May – Chartist leader Feargus O'Connor is sentenced to imprisonment in York Castle for seditious libel over speeches published in The Northern Star.
- 20 May – York Minster's nave roof is destroyed in an accidental fire.
- 6 June – the first group of British emigrants from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints set sail from Liverpool bound for Nauvoo, Illinois.[7]
- 10 June – Edward Oxford fires a pistol at Queen Victoria[8] in Hyde Park, London.
- 12–23 June – the World Anti-Slavery Convention is organised by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society at Exeter Hall in London.
- July
- Fresh water is piped to Buxton Market Place by the 6th Duke of Devonshire, beginning the Buxton well dressing festival.
- Last known great auk in the British Isles caught and later killed on the islet of Stac an Armin, St Kilda, Scotland.[9][10][11]
- 4 July – the Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the first steam transatlantic passenger mail service.[8]
- 15 July – Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia sign the London Treaty with the Sublime Porte, ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
- 23 July
- The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union.
- Vaccination Act provides for free vaccination for the poor and prohibits variolation.
- 7 August – Chimney Sweepers and Chimneys Regulation Act 1840 prohibits the employment of children under the age of 21 as chimney sweeps.[2]
- 10 September – Ottoman and British troops bombard Beirut and land troops on the coast to pressure Egyptian Muhammad Ali to retreat from the country.
- 16 September – Joseph Strutt hands over the deeds and papers concerning the Derby Arboretum, which is to become England's first public park.
- 30 September – foundation of Nelson's Column laid in London,[2] Trafalgar Square being laid out (as a hectare) and paved during the year.[8]
- 11 October – Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the Ottomans (in alliance with the British) and on 14 October goes into exile, initially in Malta.[12]
- 10 November – the boiler of an experimental steam locomotive named Surprise explodes near Bromsgrove station in Worcestershire, killing the driver, Thomas Scaife, and fireman, Joseph Rutherford.[13]
- 8 December – David Livingstone leaves for Africa.[14]
- 21 December – Stockport Viaduct is completed.[15] It is one of the largest brick structures in Europe.
Undated edit
- The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals gains its Royal status.[4]
- Smallpox epidemic of 1837–40 ends, leaving more than 41,600 dead.[16]
Ongoing events edit
- First Opium War (1839–1842)
- First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842)
Publications edit
- W. Harrison Ainsworth's historical novels Guy Fawkes and The Tower of London (both serialised).
- Charles Dickens' novel The Old Curiosity Shop (serialised).
- "Thomas Ingoldsby"'s The Ingoldsby Legends (first collected in book form).
- Agnes Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England begins publication.
- William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Catherine.
- William Whewell's book The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, founded upon their history, in which he introduces the words "Physicist" and (for the second time) "Scientist".[17][18][19]
Births edit
- 1 January – Dugald Drummond, Scottish-born railway locomotive engineer (died 1912)
- 18 January – Henry Austin Dobson, poet and essayist (died 1921)
- 26 January – John Clayton Adams, landscape painter (died 1906)
- 5 February – John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish-born inventor (died 1921)
- 29 February – John Philip Holland, Irish-born submarine designer (died 1914)
- 30 March – Charles Booth, shipowner and social reformer (died 1916)
- 31 March – Benjamin Baker, civil engineer (died 1907)
- 27 April – Edward Whymper, mountaineer (died 1911)
- 2 June – Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet (died 1928)
- 20 June – George Selwyn Marryat, fly fisherman (died 1896)
- 21 June – Edward Stanley Gibbons, philatelic stamp dealer (died 1913)
- 9 October – Simeon Solomon, painter (died 1905)
- 21 November – Victoria, Princess Royal (died 1901)
- 29 November – Rhoda Broughton, fiction writer (died 1920)
Deaths edit
- 6 January – Frances Burney, novelist (born 1752)
- 18 February – Sir Jeffry Wyattville, architect and garden designer (born 1766)
- 30 March – Beau Brummell, arbiter of fashion (born 1778)
- 7 April – William Heath, caricaturist (born 1794)
- 15 April – Thomas Drummond, army officer, civil engineer and public official (born 1797)
- 1 May – Joseph Williamson, philanthropist and builder of Williamson's tunnels (born 1769)
- 26 May – Sidney Smith, admiral (born 1764)
- 28 July – John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham (born 1792)
- 22 September
- Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom (born 1768)
- Anne Lister, landowner, diarist, mountaineer and traveller, "the first modern lesbian" (born 1791)
References edit
- ^ a b Chase, Malcolm (2007). Chartism: A New History. Manchester University Press.
- ^ a b c d Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ^ "The wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1840". The British Monarchy. The Royal Household. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
- ^ a b c "Icons, a portrait of England 1840–1860". Archived from the original on 17 August 2007. Retrieved 13 September 2007.
- ^ Riding, Christine (7 February 2005). "Westminster: A New Palace for a New Age". BBC. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
- ^ Blake, Richard. The Book of Postal Dates, 1635–1985. Caterham: Marden. p. 10.
- ^ "History of the Church in the British Isles". The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- ^ a b c Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 263–264. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ Rackwitz, Martin (2007). Travels to Terra Incognita: the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides in Early Modern Travellers' Accounts c. 1600 to 1800. Waxmann Verlag. p. 347. ISBN 978-3-8309-1699-4.
- ^ Gaskell, Jeremy (2000). Who Killed the Great Auk?. Oxford University Press. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-19-856478-2.
- ^ Fuller, Errol (2003). The Great Auk: The Extinction of the Original Penguin. Bunker Hill Publishing. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-59373-003-1.
- ^ Farah, Caesar E.; Centre for Lebanese Studies (Great Britain) (2000). Politics of Interventionism in Ottoman Lebanon, 1830-1861. I. B. Tauris. p. 43. ISBN 9781860640568.
- ^ Rolt, L. T. C. Red For Danger (1966 ed.). Pan Books. p. 69.
- ^ Roberts, A. D. (2004). "Livingstone, David (1813–1873)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16803. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Holt, Geoffrey O. (1978). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Vol. 10: The North West. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 117. ISBN 0-7153-7521-0.
- ^ Creighton, Charles (1894). A History of Epidemics in Britain. Vol. II. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Whewell, William (1840). "Introduction". The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, founded upon their history. Vol. 1. London: J. W. Parker. pp. 71, 113.
- ^ "physicist, n". Oxford English Dictionary online version. Oxford University Press. September 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2011. (subscription or participating institution membership required)
- ^ "scientist, n". Oxford English Dictionary online version. Oxford University Press. September 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2011.[dead link]