1858 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1858 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Liberal (until 19 February), Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, Conservative

Events

* 25 January - The "Wedding March" by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter Victoria, "Vicky," the Princess Royal to Prince Friedrich of Prussia in St. James's Palace, London.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 30 January - Hallé Orchestra founded by Charles Hallé in Manchester.
* 13 February - Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke become the first Europeans to discover Lake Tanganyika.
* 21 February - Palmerston resigns as Prime Minister, following the rejection of an anti-terrorism bill; replaced by Earl of Derby, forming a new Conservative government.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 278-279|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
* 15 May - New Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, opens.
* 1 July - Papers by Darwin and Wallace announcing a theory of Evolution by natural selection read at London's Linnaean Society.
* 2 July - The Great Stink; stench of sewage from the River Thames affects work in the House of Commons.
* 17 July - Salvage of the Lutine bell, which is subsequently hung in Lloyd's of London.
* 28 July - In Bengal/India, British officer William James Herschel used hand impression of Rajyadhar Konai as a contract fingerprint signature.
* 2 August - British Empire takes over powers and properties of the British East India Company.
* 3 August - Explorer John Hanning Speke discovers Lake Victoria, source of the River Nile.
* 16 August - US President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria. However, a weak signal will force a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
* 26 August - The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce signed.

Undated

* British stop using prison hulks.
* Mirror galvanometer invented by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin.
* The Miners Association established in Cornwall.
* Lionel de Rothschild becomes the first Jewish Member of Parliament.cite web|url=http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1840-1860|title=Icons, a portrait of England 1840-1860|accessdate=2007-09-13]

Publications

* Anthony Trollope's novel "Doctor Thorne".

Births

* 22 January - Beatrice Webb, socialist, economist and reformer (died 1943)
* 10 March - Henry Watson Fowler, lexicographer (died 1933)
* 23 April - Ethel Smyth, composer and a leader of the women's suffrage movement (died 1944)
* 14 July - Emmeline Pankhurst, suffragette (died 1928)
* 15 August - E. Nesbit, author (died 1924)
* 16 September - Andrew Bonar Law, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1923)

Deaths

* 10 June - Robert Brown, botanist (born 1773)
* 3 November - Harriet Taylor Mill, philosopher and women's rights advocate (born 1807)
* 17 November - Robert Owen, founder of the Co-operative Society (born 1771)
* 20 November - Sir Joseph Bailey, 1st Baronet, ironmaster (born 1783)
* 23 November - Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons, admiral (born 1790)

References

ee also