- 1839 in the United Kingdom
Events from the year
1839 in theUnited Kingdom .Incumbents
*Monarch -
Victoria of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister -William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne , WhigEvents
*
19 January -British East India Company capturesAden .
* February - "Report on the Affairs of British North America" published.
*26 February - FirstGrand National run, at Aintree.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
*9 March -Anti-Corn Law League is organised.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 263-264|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
*26 March - The firstHenley Royal Regatta is held.cite web|url=http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1820-1840|title=Icons, a portrait of England 1820-1840|accessdate=2007-09-12]
*9 April - The world's first commercial electric telegraph line comes into operation alongside theGreat Western Railway line fromPaddington station toWest Drayton .
*19 April - The Treaty of London establishesBelgium as a kingdom.
*7 May to11 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.
*13 May - FirstRebecca Riots against Welshturnpike s, atEfailwen inCarmarthenshire .
*4 July - Chartists riot in Birmingham.
*23 July - British forces under Sir John Keane capture the fortress city ofGhazni ,Afghanistan in theBattle of Ghazni during theFirst Anglo-Afghan War . [cite web|url=http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/exhibitions/afghanistan/page2.shtml|title=National Army Museum : Exhibitions : Afghanistan|accessdate=2007-09-12]
*23 August - British forces seizedHong Kong as a base, as it prepared to wage war against Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict would become known as theFirst Opium War .
*30 August - theEglinton Tournament (See also theEglinton Tournament of 1839 ), a recreation of a medievaltourney takes place inEglinton Castle ,North Ayrshire ,Scotland .
*4 November -Newport Rising : several thousand coal miners march onNewport to liberateChartist prisoners; 24 killed. [cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/lovell.htm|title=John Lovell and the People's Charter, National Archives|accessdate=2007-09-12]
*24 December - an enormouslandslide occurs inAxmouth ,Devon . A report by geologistsWilliam Daniel Conybeare andWilliam Buckland is one of the earliest scientific descriptions of a landslide. [cite web|url=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 |title=Axmouth to Lyme Regis: The Undercliff, The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site|accessdate=2007-09-12]Undated
*
Michael Faraday publishes "Experimental Researches in Electricity" [cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14986 |title="Experimental Researches in Electricity"|accessdate=2007-09-12] clarifying the true nature ofelectricity .
* The firstparallax measurement of the distance toAlpha Centauri is published by Thomas Henderson.
*James Clark Ross sets out on theAntarctic expedition of the HMS "Erebus" and HMS "Terror" which charted much of the coastline of the continent.
*Eyre's 1839 expeditions to the interior ofSouth 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 the1870s (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
ee also
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.