1843 in the United Kingdom

	1843 in the United Kingdom
	Other years
	1841 \| 1842 \| 1843 \| 1844 \| 1845
	Constituent countries of the United Kingdom
	England \| Ireland \| Scotland \| Wales
	Sport
	1843 English cricket season

Events from the year 1843 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Monarch – Victoria
Prime Minister – Robert Peel (Conservative)
Foreign Secretary – George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen

Events

January – Quaker magazine The Friend begins publication.
6 January – Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross discovers Snow Hill Island.
20 January – Daniel M'Naghten shoots and kills the Prime Minister's private secretary, Edward Drummond, in Whitehall.^[1]
4 March – M'Naghten is found not guilty of murder "by reason of insanity", giving rise to the M'Naghten Rules on criminal responsibility, and subsequently committed to Bethlem Hospital.^[1]
24 March – Battle of Hyderabad: The Bombay Army led by Major General Sir Charles Napier defeats the Talpur Mirs, securing Sindh province for the British Raj.
25 March – Marc Isambard Brunel's Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel under the River Thames, is opened to pedestrians.^[2]
27 March – decision in Foss v Harbottle, a leading precedent in English corporate law, declares that in any action in which a wrong is alleged to have been done to a company, the proper claimant is the company itself and not individual shareholders.^[3]
4 April – William Wordsworth accepts the office of Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom following the death of Robert Southey on 21 March.^[4]
April – Protestant Martyrs' Memorial erected in Oxford.^[5]^[6]
4 May – Natal proclaimed British colony.^[7]
18 May – the Disruption of the Church of Scotland takes place in Edinburgh.
? May – Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight opens as an amusement park.
19 July – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain is launched from Bristol.^[8]
5 August – Sarah Dazley, the last woman to be executed in public in England, is hanged for mariticide outside Bedford Prison.
22 August – Theatres Act ends the virtual monopoly on theatrical performances held by the patent theatres, encouraging the development of popular entertainment.^[7]
September – Ada Lovelace translates and expands Menabrea's notes on Charles Babbage's analytical engine, including an algorithm for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers, regarded as the world's first computer program.^[9]^[10]^[11]
2 September – The Economist newspaper first published (preliminary issue dated August).
1 October – News of the World newspaper first published.^[2] It will survive until 2011.
3–4 November – the statue of Nelson is placed atop Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London.^[2]
13 December – Basutoland becomes a British protectorate.^[7]
17 December – publication of Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol by Chapman & Hall in London at his expense. It introduces the character Ebenezer Scrooge. Released on December 19, the first printing sells out by Christmas Eve^[12] and inspires charitable giving.^[13]
December – the world's first Christmas cards, commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London from the artist John Callcott Horsley, are sent.^[14]
Undated
- The Albert helmet, devised in 1842 by the Prince Consort, is adopted by the Household Cavalry.^[15]^[16]^[17]
- Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society founded as a burial society.
- Marlborough College founded in Wiltshire for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy.
- Alfred Bird produces baking powder for the first time, in Birmingham.^[18]

Publications

Charles Dickens's novel Martin Chuzzlewit (begins serialisation January) and novella A Christmas Carol.
John Stuart Mill's book A System of Logic.
John Ruskin's book Modern Painters, vol. 1.
Robert Smith Surtees' comic novel Handley Cross.

Births

25 April – Princess Alice, member of the royal family (died 1878)
30 June – Ernest Satow, diplomat and scholar (died 1929)
5 July – Mandell Creighton, historian and Bishop of London (died 1901)
4 September – Jabez Balfour, businessman, politician and fraudster (died 1916)

Deaths

9 January – William Hedley, inventor and locomotive engineer (born 1779)
20 February – Mary Hays, writer and feminist (born 1759)
21 March – Robert Southey, poet (born 1774)
25 March – Robert Murray M'Cheyne, clergyman (born 1813)
21 April – Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (born 1773)
1 June – William Abbot, actor (born 1798)
25 July – Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist (born 1766)^[19]
16 August – Henry Acton, Unitarian minister (born 1797)
18 December – Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, Governor-General of India (born 1748)

References

^ ^a ^b Moran, Richard (2004). "McNaughtan, Daniel (1802/3–1865)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39433. Retrieved 2 February 2011. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ ^a ^b ^c Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^ Slapper, Gary (19 June 2008). "The cases that changed Britain: 1785-1869". The Times. Retrieved 16 June 2011.^{[dead link]}
^ Pinion, F. B. (1988). A Wordsworth Chronology. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press. p. 201. ISBN 0-333-38860-7.
^ Lewis, Darcy (2006). "Timeline: Oxford". TimeTravel-Britain.com. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
^ "The Martyr's Memorial". Jackson's Oxford Journal. No. 4694. 15 April 1843. p. 3.
^ ^a ^b ^c Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 266–267. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
^ "Royal Visit". The Bristol Mirror. 20 July 1843. pp. 1–2.
^ Fuegi, John; Francis, Jo (October–December 2003). "Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843 'notes'". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 25 (4): 16–26. doi:10.1109/MAHC.2003.1253887.
^ "Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace". Archived from the original on 21 July 2010. Retrieved 11 July 2010.
^ Menabrea, L. F. (1843). "Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage". Scientific Memoirs. 3. Archived from the original on 13 September 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
^ Dickens, Charles (2006). Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert (ed.). A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Books. Oxford world's classics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280694-9.
^ The Man Who Invented Christmas (Film). 2017.
^ Buday, György (1992). "The history of the Christmas card". Omnigraphics: 8.
^ Hoare, Nell; et al. (1990). Exploring Museums: The Home Counties. H.M.S.O. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-11-290471-7.
^ Carman, W. Y. (1968). British Military Uniforms from Contemporary Pictures: Henry VII to the Present Day. Arco. p. 132.
^ Rankin, Robert H. (1976). Military Headdress: A Pictorial History of Military Headgear from 1660 to 1914. Arms & Armour Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-85368-310-0.
^ Cannon, Matthew (3 November 2014). "Alfred Bird: Egg-free custard inventor and chemist". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
^ Day, Lance; McNeil, Ian (11 September 2002). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. Routledge. p. 786. ISBN 978-1-134-65019-4.

[ODNB-1] Moran, Richard (2004). "McNaughtan, Daniel (1802/3–1865)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39433. Retrieved 2 February 2011. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[Pocket_On_This_Day-2] Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.

[3] Slapper, Gary (19 June 2008). "The cases that changed Britain: 1785-1869". The Times. Retrieved 16 June 2011.^{[dead link]}

[4] Pinion, F. B. (1988). A Wordsworth Chronology. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press. p. 201. ISBN 0-333-38860-7.

[5] Lewis, Darcy (2006). "Timeline: Oxford". TimeTravel-Britain.com. Retrieved 18 October 2010.

[6] "The Martyr's Memorial". Jackson's Oxford Journal. No. 4694. 15 April 1843. p. 3.

[CBH-7] Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 266–267. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.

[8] "Royal Visit". The Bristol Mirror. 20 July 1843. pp. 1–2.

[9] Fuegi, John; Francis, Jo (October–December 2003). "Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843 'notes'". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 25 (4): 16–26. doi:10.1109/MAHC.2003.1253887.

[10] "Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace". Archived from the original on 21 July 2010. Retrieved 11 July 2010.

[11] Menabrea, L. F. (1843). "Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage". Scientific Memoirs. 3. Archived from the original on 13 September 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.

[12] Dickens, Charles (2006). Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert (ed.). A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Books. Oxford world's classics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280694-9.

[13] The Man Who Invented Christmas (Film). 2017.

[14] Buday, György (1992). "The history of the Christmas card". Omnigraphics: 8.

[15] Hoare, Nell; et al. (1990). Exploring Museums: The Home Counties. H.M.S.O. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-11-290471-7.

[16] Carman, W. Y. (1968). British Military Uniforms from Contemporary Pictures: Henry VII to the Present Day. Arco. p. 132.

[17] Rankin, Robert H. (1976). Military Headdress: A Pictorial History of Military Headgear from 1660 to 1914. Arms & Armour Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-85368-310-0.

[18] Cannon, Matthew (3 November 2014). "Alfred Bird: Egg-free custard inventor and chemist". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 25 February 2018.

[19] Day, Lance; McNeil, Ian (11 September 2002). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. Routledge. p. 786. ISBN 978-1-134-65019-4.

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