1859 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1859 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, Conservative (until 12 June), Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Liberal

Events

* 15 January - National Portrait Gallery opens.
* 30 April - Charles Dickens publishes the first issue of his new magazine "All the Year Round"
* 4 May - Cornwall Railway opened across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall.
* 31 May - Whigs under Palmerston win the general election.
* 6 June - The British Crown colony of Queensland in Australia is created by devolving part of the territory of New South Wales.
* 10 June - Derby resigns as Prime Minister after a defeat in the House of Commons; replaced by Palmerston.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 279-280|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
* 1 September - Astronomer Richard Christopher Carrington makes the first observation of a solar flare.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 7 September - The clock of the Clock Tower, Palace of Westminster becomes operational. The bell acquires the nickname "Big Ben" by association with Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover.
* 26 October - The steamship "Royal Charter" is wrecked by a storm on the coast of Anglesey with 454 dead.
* 24 November - naturalist Charles Darwin publishes "The Origin of Species", a book which argues that species gradually evolve through natural selection. (It immediately sold out its initial print run.)

Undated

* The formation of the Liberal Party out of the Whig Party, Peelites and Radicals.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]
* Trinity College in Cambridge bans "The Origin of Species".
* Solar flares first observed on the Sun by astronomer Richard Carrington.

Publications

* Charles Darwin's book "The Origin of Species".
* Charles Dickens's novel "A Tale of Two Cities".
* George Eliot's novel "Adam Bede".
* Alfred Tennyson's poetry cycle "Idylls of the King".

Births

* 11 January - George Nathaniel Curzon, statesman and Viceroy of India (died 1925)
* 14 February - Henry Valentine Knaggs, physician and author (died 1954)
* 16 February - T. E. Ellis, politician (died 1899)
* 8 March - Kenneth Grahame, author (died 1932)
* 26 March - Alfred Edward Housman, poet (died 1936)
* 18 April - Sir Evan Davies Jones, 1st Baronet, civil engineer (died 1949)
* 2 May - Jerome K. Jerome, author (died 1927)
* 22 May - Arthur Conan Doyle, writer (died 1930)
* May - Sir Samuel Thomas Evans, politician and judge (died 1918)
* 17 July - Ernest Rhys, writer (died 1946)

Deaths

* 21 January - Henry Hallam, historian (born 1777)
* 28 January - Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, Prime Minister (born 1782)
* 13 February - Eliza Acton, cookery writer (born 1799)
* 1 May - John Walker, inventor (born 1781)
* 15 September - Isambard Kingdom Brunel, engineer (born 1806)
* 12 October - Robert Stephenson, engineer (born 1803)
* 22 November - George Wilson, chemist (born 1818)
* 8 December - Thomas de Quincey, writer (born 1785)
* 28 December - Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, poet, historian and politician (born 1800)

References

ee also