1803 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1803 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Incumbents

*Monarch - George III of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - Henry Addington, Tory

Events

* 4 January - William Symington demonstrates his "Charlotte Dundas", the "first practical steamboat".
* 21 February - Edward Despard and six others are hanged, drawn and quartered for plotting to assassinate king George III and to destroy the Bank of England.
* 16 May - The United Kingdom redeclares war on France after France refused to withdraw from Dutch territory.cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8]
* 25 May - Speaker of the British House of Commons Charles Abbot allows journalists to report the proceedings of the House of Commons. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/3050347.stm|title="200 years of hacks in the House", BBC News|accessdate=2008-03-27]
* June - Britain captures Tobago and Saint Lucia from France.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 239-240|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
* 9 June - Matthew Flinders completes the first known circumnavigation of Australia. [cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/empireseapower_timeline_noflash.shtml|title=British History Timeline, BBC History|accessdate=2008-02-17]
* 24 June - Abortion is made a crime by Lord Ellenborough's Act. [cite web|url=http://members.aol.com/abtrbng/lea.htm|title=Lord Ellenborough's Act|accessdate=2008-02-17]
* 23 July - Robert Emmet's uprising in Ireland begins.
* 26 July - The wagonway between Wandsworth and Croydon is opened, being the first public railway line of the world.
* 3 August - British begin Second Anglo-Maratha War against Sindhia of Gwalior
* 20 September - Irish rebel Robert Emmet is executed.
* 23 September - The Battle of Assaye in India – British-lead troops defeat Maratha forces.

Undated

* William Hyde Wollaston discovers the chemical element rhodium.
* Smithson Tennant discovers the chemical elements iridium and osmium.
* John Dalton presents a paper to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society containing the first table of atomic weights. [cite web|url=http://www.rsc.org/delivery/_ArticleLinking/DisplayArticleForFree.cfm?doi=b307622a&JournalCode=DT|title=John Dalton, the man and his legacy: the bicentenary of his Atomic Theory, PDF|accessdate=2008-02-17]
* Construction of Caledonian Canal begins.
* The British Army adopts the anti-personnel shell invented by Henry Shrapnel.
* Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin begins the removal the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens to protect them from destruction during the Ottoman occupation of Greece.
* Martello Towers built to protect against the threat of French invasion.
* Thomas Telford begins work on improving roads in Scotland.

Births

* 25 May - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, novelist and playwright (died 1873)
* 24 June - George James Webb, English-born composer (died 1887)
* 3 August - Joseph Paxton, gardiner and architect (died 1865)
* 16 October - Robert Stephenson, engineer (died 1859)
* 6 December - Susanna Moodie, writer (died 1885)
* 21 December - Joseph Whitworth, engineer and entrepreneur (died 1887)

Deaths

* 23 January - Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (born 1725)
* 2 April - Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet, politician and judge (born 1721)
* 6 April - William Hamilton, diplomat (born 1730)
* 19 April - Thomas Jones, landscape painter (born 1742)
* 3 June - Lord George Murray, Bishop of St David's and developer of the UK's first optical telegraph (born 1761))
* 26 October - Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, politician (born 1721)

References

ee also