1849 in the United Kingdom
| 1849 in the United Kingdom |
| Other years |
| 1847 | 1848 | 1849 | 1850 | 1851 |
| Constituent countries of the United Kingdom |
| England | Ireland | Scotland | Wales |
| Sport |
| 1849 English cricket season |
Events from the year 1849 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents[edit]
- Monarch – Victoria
- Prime Minister – Lord John Russell (Whig)
- Foreign Secretary – Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
Events[edit]
- 13 January – Second Anglo-Sikh War: British forces retreat from the Battle of Chillianwala.
- 22 January – Second Anglo-Sikh War: The city of Multan falls to the British East India Company following the Siege of Multan.
- February–May – shareholder enquiries into the conduct of railway financier George Hudson begin his downfall
- 1 February – abolition of the Corn Laws by the Importation Act 1846 comes fully into effect.
- 17 February – 65 people, almost all under the age of 20, are crushed to death in a panic caused by a small fire in the Theatre Royal, Glasgow.[1]
- 21 February – Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Gujrat – British East India Company forces defeat those of the Sikh Empire in Punjab.
- 1 March – Nathaniel Cooke registers the design of the Staunton chess set, which is first marketed in September by Jaques of London with an endorsement by Howard Staunton.
- 3 March – the Arana-Southern Treaty with the Argentine Confederation ends British involvement in the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata.
- 30 March – the Second Anglo-Sikh War ends with the U.K. annexing the Punjab.
- 21 April – Great Famine (Ireland): 96 inmates of the overcrowded Ballinrobe Union Workhouse die over the course of the preceding week from illness and other famine-related conditions, a record high. This year's potato crop again fails and there are renewed outbreaks of cholera.[2]
- May – first exhibition of paintings by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in London: John Everett Millais' Isabella and Holman Hunt's Rienzi at the Royal Academy summer exhibition, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Girlhood of Mary Virgin at the Free Exhibition on Hyde Park Corner.
- 19 May – Irishman William Hamilton arrested after shooting blank shots at Queen Victoria on Constitution Hill, London.[3]
- Summer – Karl Marx moves from Paris to London, where he will spend the remainder of his life.
- 2–12 August – Visit of Queen Victoria to Cork, Dublin and Belfast.[4]
- 9 August – "The Bermondsey Horror": Marie Manning and her husband, Frederick, murder her lover Patrick O'Connor in London. On 13 November they are hanged together publicly before a large crowd by William Calcraft outside Horsemonger Lane Gaol for the crime.[5]
- 13 December – foundation stone of Llandovery College is laid.
- 17 December – a customer, probably Edward Coke, collects the first bowler hat (devised by London hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler) from hatters Lock & Co. of St James's.[6]
Undated[edit]
- Navigation Acts repealed.[7]
- Two shilling coin (florin), depicting the Queen crowned, introduced, partly to test public opinion on possible decimalization of the currency.[8]
- Bedford College (London) founded by Elizabeth Jesser Reid as the Ladies College in Bedford Square, a non-sectarian higher education institution to provide a liberal female education.
- The drapers' store of Arthur & Fraser, predecessor of the House of Fraser, is established in Glasgow by Hugh Fraser and James Arthur.[9]
Ongoing[edit]
- The 1846–1860 cholera pandemic claims 52,000 lives in England and Wales between 1848 and 1850.
Publications[edit]
- Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley (published as by Currer Bell).
- Thomas De Quincey's essay The English Mail-Coach (in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, October–December).
- Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield begins serialisation (May).
- J. A. Froude's controversial novel of religious doubt The Nemesis of Faith.[10][11][12]
- John Ruskin's essay The Seven Lamps of Architecture (May).
- Notes and Queries first published (November).
- Who's Who first published.
Births[edit]
- 13 February – Lord Randolph Churchill, statesman (died 1895)
- 22 May – Aston Webb, architect (died 1930)
- 11 July
- N. E. Brown, English plant taxonomist (died 1934)
- Rollo Russell, son to the serving Prime Minister (died 1914)
- 24 November – Frances Hodgson Burnett, author (died 1924)
- 29 November – John Ambrose Fleming, electrical engineer and inventor (died 1945)
Deaths[edit]
- 9 January – William Siborne, Army officer and military historian (born 1797)
- 19 February – Bernard Barton, poet (born 1784)
- 20 March – James Justinian Morier, diplomat and novelist (born 1780)
- 22 May – Maria Edgeworth, novelist (born 1767)
- 25 May – Sir Benjamin D'Urban, general and colonial administrator (born 1777)
- 28 May – Anne Brontë, author (born 1820)[13]
- 30 June – William Ward, cricketer (born 1787)
- 12 July – Horace Smith, poet (born 1779)
- 31 August – Peter Allan of Marsden, eccentric (born 1799)
- 6 September – Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich (born 1779)
- 16 September – Thomas Jones, missionary (born 1810)
- 20 October – Richard Ryan, biographer (born 1797)
- 13 November – William Etty, painter (born 1787)
- 27 November – Henry Seymour (Knoyle), politician (born 1776)
- 2 December – Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen dowager of William IV (born 1792)
- 12 December – Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, engineer (born 1769 in France)
References[edit]
- ^ "The Theatre Royal, Dunlop Street, Glasgow". Arthur Lloyd.co.uk: The Music Hall and Theatre History Site. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
- ^ Ross, David (2002). Ireland: History of a Nation (New ed.). New Lanark: Geddes & Grosset. p. 313. ISBN 1842051644.
- ^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ^ Connolly, Sean (2008). "Queen Victoria in Ireland, August 1849". Irish History Live. Queen's University Belfast. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
- ^ Borowitz, Albert (1981). The Woman Who Murdered Black Satin: The Bermondsey Horror. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. ISBN 0-8142-0320-5.
- ^ Bloxham, Andy (5 October 2010). "Bowler hat makes a comeback". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
- ^ Cates, William L. R. (1863). The Pocket Date Book. Chapman and Hall.
- ^ "The Story of the Florin or Two Shilling Piece". Blackpool: Chard. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
- ^ "House of Fraser archive project" (PDF).
- ^ Paul, Herbert (1906). The Life of Froude. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 47–48.
- ^ Willey, Basil (1956). "J. A. Froude". More Nineteenth Century Studies: a Group of Honest Doubters. London: Chatto & Windus. p. 131.
- ^ Ashton, Rosemary (1989). "Doubting Clerics: From James Anthony Froude to Robert Elsmere via George Eliot". In Jasper & Wright (ed.). The Critical Spirit and the Will to Believe. New York: St. Martins. p. 76.
- ^ "Anne Brontë | British author". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 17 April 2019.