1840 in the United Kingdom explained
Events from the year 1840 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Events
- 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 UK, 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]
- 1 May – issue of the Penny Black, the world's first postage stamp,[5] 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
- 4 July – the Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddle steamer 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
- 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
Ongoing events
Publications
Births
- 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
Notes and References
- Book: Chase, Malcolm. Chartism: A New History. Manchester University Press. 2007.
- Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
- Web site: The wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1840. The British Monarchy. The Royal Household. 2012-12-01.
- Web site: Westminster: A New Palace for a New Age. Riding. Christine. 7 February 2005. BBC. 2010-11-15.
- Web site: Icons, a portrait of England 1840–1860. 2007-09-13. https://web.archive.org/web/20070817165102/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1840-1860. 17 August 2007. dead.
- Book: Blake, Richard. The Book of Postal Dates, 1635–1985. Caterham. Marden. 10.
- Web site: History of the Church in the British Isles. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 2013. 2014-06-10.
- Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer . Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 263–264. 0-7126-5616-2.
- Book: Rackwitz, Martin. Travels to Terra Incognita: the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides in Early Modern Travellers' Accounts c. 1600 to 1800. Waxmann Verlag. 2007. 347. 978-3-8309-1699-4.
- Book: Gaskell, Jeremy. Who Killed the Great Auk?. Oxford University Press. 2000. 142. 978-0-19-856478-2.
- Book: Fuller, Errol. The Great Auk: The Extinction of the Original Penguin. Bunker Hill Publishing. 2003. 34. 978-1-59373-003-1.
- Book: Farah. Caesar E.. Centre for Lebanese Studies (Great Britain). Politics of Interventionism in Ottoman Lebanon, 1830-1861. 2000. I. B. Tauris. 9781860640568. 43.
- Book: Rolt, L. T. C.. L. T. C. Rolt. Red For Danger. 1966. 69. Pan Books.
- A. D.. Roberts. Livingstone, David (1813–1873). 2004. 10.1093/ref:odnb/16803.
- Book: Holt, Geoffrey O.. A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Vol. 10: The North West. Newton Abbot. David & Charles. 1978. 0-7153-7521-0. 117.
- Book: Creighton, Charles. Charles Creighton (physician)
. Charles Creighton (physician). A History of Epidemics in Britain. 1894. Cambridge University Press. II.
- Book: Whewell, William. Introduction. The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, founded upon their history. London. J. W. Parker. 1840. 1. 71, 113.
- Web site: physicist, n.. Oxford English Dictionary online version. Oxford University Press . 2011-12-02 . September 2011.
- Web site: scientist, n.. Oxford English Dictionary online version. Oxford University Press . 2011-12-02 . September 2011.