1839 in the United Kingdom
 1839 in the United Kingdom:
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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.[1]
- 26 March - The first Henley Royal Regatta is held.[2]
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.[3]
- 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.[2]
- 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.[4]
- December - John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones are transported to Australia for their part in the Newport Rising.
- 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.[5]
Undated
- Michael Faraday publishes "Experimental Researches in Electricity"[6] 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.
Births
- 7 January - Ouida, novelist (d. 1908)
- 16 March - John Butler Yeats, artist (d. 1922)
- 17 June - Arthur Tooth, Anglican clergyman prosecuted for Ritualist practices in the 1870s (d. 1931)
Deaths
References
- ^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
- ^ a b "Icons, a portrait of England 1820-1840". Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ "National Army Museum : Exhibitions : Afghanistan". Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ "John Lovell and the People's Charter, National Archives". Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ "Axmouth to Lyme Regis: The Undercliff, The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site". Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ ""Experimental Researches in Electricity"". Retrieved 2007-09-12.