1840 in the United Kingdom

1840 in the United Kingdom:
Other years
1838 \| 1839 \| 1840 \| 1841 \| 1842
Sport
1840 English cricket season

Events from the year 1840 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Monarch — Victoria
Prime Minister — Viscount Melbourne (Whig)

Events

Penny Black

1 January — Trial of Welsh Chartists John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones for their part in the Newport Rising of 1839 opens at Monmouth before Chief Justice Tindal. This is the first trial where proceedings are recorded in shorthand.
10 January — Uniform Penny Post introduced, replacing the Uniform Fourpenny Post of 1839.
16 January — Frost, Williams and Jones are all found guilty of high treason for their part in the Chartist riots, and are sentenced to death - the last time the sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering is passed in the U.K., although it is commuted to transportation.
22 January — British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding date of Wellington.
6 February — Treaty of Waitangi, a document granting British sovereignty in New Zealand, is signed.^[1]
10 February — Queen Victoria marries her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha^[1] in the Royal Chapel at St James's Palace.^[2]
15 April — King's College Hospital opens in Portugal Street, London.
27 April — The foundation stone of the new Palace of Westminster is laid as its reconstruction following the Burning of Parliament in 1834 begins (completed in 1860).^[3]^[4]
1 May — Issue of the Penny Black, the world's first postage stamp,^[3] together with Mulready stationery. The stamp becomes valid for prepayment of postage from 6 May.^[5]
11 May — Chartist leader Feargus O'Connor is sentenced to imprisonment in York Castle for seditious libel over speeches published in The Northern Star.
20 May — York Minster's nave roof is destroyed in an accidental fire.
6 June — The first group of British emigrants from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints set sail from Liverpool bound for Nauvoo, Illinois.^[6]
10 June — Edward Oxford attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria.^[7]
12–23 June — The World Anti-Slavery Convention is organised by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society at Exeter Hall in London.
July
- Fresh water is piped to Buxton Market Place by the 6th Duke of Devonshire, beginning the Buxton well dressing festival.
- Last known great auk in the British Isles caught and later killed on the islet of Stac an Armin, St Kilda, Scotland.^[8]^[9]^[10]
4 July — The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the first steam transatlantic passenger mail service.^[7]
15 July — Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia sign the London Treaty with the Sublime Porte, ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
23 July — The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union.
7 August — Chimney Sweepers and Chimneys Regulation Act 1840 prohibits the employment of children under the age of 21 as chimney sweeps.^[1]
10 September — Ottoman and British troops bombard Beirut and land troops on the coast to pressure Egyptian Muhammad Ali to retreat from the country.
16 September — Joseph Strutt hands over the deeds and papers concerning the Derby Arboretum, which is to become England's first public park.
30 September — Foundation of Nelson's Column laid in London,^[1] Trafalgar Square being laid out and paved during the year.^[7]
14 October — Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta.
10 November — The boiler of an experimental steam locomotive named Surprise explodes near Bromsgrove station in Worcestershire, killing the driver, Thomas Scaife, and fireman, Joseph Rutherford.^[11]
8 December — David Livingstone leaves for Africa.^[12]
21 December — Stockport Viaduct is completed.^[13] It is one of the largest brick structures in Europe.

Undated

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals gains its Royal status.^[3]

Ongoing events

First Opium War (1839–1842)
First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842)

Publications

W. Harrison Ainsworth's novels Guy Fawkes and The Tower of London (both serialised).
Charles Dickens' novel The Old Curiosity Shop (serialised).
"Thomas Ingoldsby"'s The Ingoldsby Legends (first collected in book form).
Agnes Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England begins publication.
William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Catherine.
William Whewell's book The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, founded upon their history, in which he introduces the words "Physicist" and (for the second time) "Scientist".^[14]^[15]^[16]

Births

1 January — Dugald Drummond, railway engineer (died 1912)
18 January — Henry Austin Dobson, poet and essayist (died 1921)
26 January — John Clayton Adams, landscape painter (died 1906)
5 February — John Boyd Dunlop, inventor (died 1921)
29 February — John Philip Holland, inventor (died 1914)
31 March — Benjamin Baker, civil engineer (died 1907)
27 April — Edward Whymper, mountaineer (died 1911)
2 June — Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet (died 1928)
20 June — George Selwyn Marryat, fly fisherman (died 1896)
21 June — Edward Stanley Gibbons, philatelic stamp dealer (died 1913)
9 October — Simeon Solomon, painter (died 1905)
21 November — Victoria, Princess Royal (died 1901)
29 November — Rhoda Broughton, writer (died 1920)

Deaths

6 January — Fanny Burney, novelist (born 1752)
18 February — Jeffry Wyattville, architect and garden designer (born 1766)
30 March — Beau Brummell, arbiter of fashion (born 1778)
1 May — Joseph Williamson, philanthropist and builder of Williamson's tunnels (born 1769)
26 May — Sidney Smith, admiral (born 1764)
22 September — Anne Lister, landowner, diarist, mountaineer and traveller, "the first modern lesbian" (born 1791)

References

1 2 3 4 Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
↑ "The wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1840". The British Monarchy. The Royal Household. Retrieved 2012-12-01.
1 2 3 "Icons, a portrait of England 1840–1860". Archived from the original on 17 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
↑ Riding, Christine (7 February 2005). "Westminster: A New Palace for a New Age". BBC. Retrieved 2010-11-15.
↑ Blake, Richard. The Book of Postal Dates, 1635–1985. Caterham: Marden. p. 10.
↑ "History of the Church in the British Isles". The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 2013. Retrieved 2014-06-10.
1 2 3 Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 263–264. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
↑ Rackwitz, Martin (2007). Travels to Terra Incognita: the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides in Early Modern Travellers' Accounts c. 1600 to 1800. Waxmann Verlag. p. 347. ISBN 978-3-8309-1699-4.
↑ Gaskell, Jeremy (2000). Who Killed the Great Auk?. Oxford University Press. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-19-856478-2. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
↑ Fuller, Errol (2003). The Great Auk: The Extinction of the Original Penguin. Bunker Hill Publishing. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-59373-003-1. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
↑ Rolt, L.T.C. Red For Danger (1966 ed.). Pan Books. p. 69. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
↑ Roberts, A. D. (2004). "Livingstone, David (1813–1873)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16803. Retrieved 2013-02-27. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
↑ Holt, Geoffrey O. (1978). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Vol. 10: The North West. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. p. 117. ISBN 0-7153-7521-0.
↑ Whewell, William (1840). "Introduction". The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, founded upon their history. 1. London: J. W. Parker. pp. 71, 113.
↑ "physicist, n.". Oxford English Dictionary online version. Oxford University Press. September 2011. Retrieved 2011-12-02. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
↑ "scientist, n.". Oxford English Dictionary online version. Oxford University Press. September 2011. Retrieved 2011-12-02.

Years in the United Kingdom

Years in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926

Years in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

1840 in Europe

Sovereign states	Andorra Austria Baden Belgium Denmark France Germany Greece Hungary Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Ottoman Empire Papal States Portugal Prussia Russia San Marino Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom

Dependencies, colonies and other territories	Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Malta

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