1854 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1854 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Peelite

Events

* 21 January - Loss of the "RMS Tayleur" - 380 drowned, later dubbed "the first Titanic".
* 17 February - The British recognise the independence of the Orange Free State.
* 27 February - Britain sends Russia an ultimatum to withdraw from two Ottoman provinces it had conquered, Moldavia and Wallachia.
* 11 March - Royal Navy fleet sails from Britain under Vice Admiral Sir Charles Napier.
* 28 March - United Kingdom declares war on Russia thus joining the Crimean War.cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8]
* April to May - An epidemic of cholera in London kills 10,000. Dr John Snow traces the source of one outbreak (that killed 500) to a single water pump, validating his theory that cholera is water-borne, and forming the starting point for epidemiology.
* 1 April - "Hard Times" begins serialisation in Charles Dickens's magazine, "Household Words".
* 26 April - 'National Day of Fast and Humiliation' held, in support of the Crimean War.
* 10 June - The Crystal Palace reopens in Sydenham, South London.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 21 June - Crimean War: In the battle at Bomarsund in Åland, Royal Navy mate Charles Davis Lucas throws a live Russian artillery shell overboard by hand before it explodes — the incident is the first that will be retroactively awarded the Victoria Cross in 1857.
* 22 July - Discovery of the asteroid 30 Urania by John Russell Hind.
* 16 August - Crimean War: Russian troops in the island of Bomarsund in Åland surrender to French-British troops.
* 20 September - Crimean War: At the Alma, the French-British alliance wins the first battle of the war.
* 6 October - The great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead is ignited by a spectacular explosion.
* 17 October - Crimean War: Siege of Sevastopol begins.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 274|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
* 21 October - Florence Nightingale leaves for Crimea with 38 other nurses.
* 25 October - Crimean War: The Battle of Balaclava occurs, overall a victory for the allies, but it included the disastrous cavalry Charge of the Light Brigade.
* 5 November - Crimean War: Russians defeated at the Battle of Inkerman.
* 20 December - In the case of "Talbot v. Laroche", pioneer of photography William Fox Talbot failed in asserting that the collodion process infringed his calotype patent. The case allowed more freedom for other early photographers to experiment and accelerated the development of photography. [ cite book | title=The Calotype Patent Lawsuit of Talbot v. Laroche 1854 | author=Wood, R. D. | publisher=privately published | location=Bromley, Kent | year=1975 | url=http://www.midleykent.fsnet.co.uk/laroche/TalbotvLaroche.htm | id=ISBN 0-9504377-0-0 ]

Unknown dates

* George Airy calculates the mean density of the Earth by measuring the gravity in a coal mine in South Shields.

Publications

* George Boole's influential work on logic, "The Laws of Thought".
* Alfred Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade".
* Charles Dickens' novel "Hard Times".
* William Makepeace Thackeray's novel "The Rose and the Ring".

Births

* 4 March - Napier Shaw, meteorologist (died 1945)
* 9 June - Weedon Grossmith, writer (died 1919)
* 13 June - Charles Algernon Parsons, inventor (died 1931)
* 16 October - Oscar Wilde, writer (died 1900)
* 24 December - Thomas Stevens, cyclist (died 1935)

Deaths

* 8 January - William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, general and politician (born 1768)
* 17 February - John Martin, painter (born 1789)
* 6 March - Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, soldier, politician and nobleman (born 1778)
* 13 March - Thomas Noon Talfourd, jurist (born 1795)
* 3 April - John Wilson, writer (born 1785)
* 15 April - Arthur Aikin, chemist and mineralogist (born 1773)
* 29 April - Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, general (born 1768)
* 12 November - Charles Kemble, actor (born 1775)
* 18 November - Edward Forbes, naturalist (born 1815)
* 25 November - John Gibson Lockhart, writer and editor (born 1794)

References

ee also