1839 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1839 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Whig

Events

* 19 January - British East India Company captures Aden.
* February - "Report on the Affairs of British North America" published.
* 26 February - First Grand 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 first Henley 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 the Great Western Railway line from Paddington station to West Drayton.
* 19 April - The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.
* 7 May to 11 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 - First Rebecca Riots against Welsh turnpikes, at Efailwen in Carmarthenshire.
* 4 July - Chartists riot in Birmingham.
* 23 July - British forces under Sir John Keane capture the fortress city of Ghazni, Afghanistan in the Battle of Ghazni during the First 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 seized Hong Kong as a base, as it prepared to wage war against Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict would become known as the First Opium War.
* 30 August - the Eglinton Tournament (See also the Eglinton Tournament of 1839), a recreation of a medieval tourney takes place in Eglinton Castle, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
* 4 November - Newport Rising: several thousand coal miners march on Newport to liberate Chartist 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 enormous landslide occurs in Axmouth, Devon. A report by geologists William Daniel Conybeare and William 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 of electricity.
* The first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri is published by Thomas Henderson.
* James Clark Ross sets out on the Antarctic expedition of the HMS "Erebus" and HMS "Terror" which charted much of the coastline of the continent.
* Eyre's 1839 expeditions to the interior of South 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 the 1870s (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