1859 in the United Kingdom

none June 2020 February 2021 1859 Constituent countries of the United Kingdom England Ireland Scotland Wales Sport 1859 English cricket season Events from the year 1859 in the United Kingdom. Incumbents Monarch – Victoria Prime Minister – Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (Conservative) (until 11 June); Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Liberal) (starting 12 June) Events 1 January – Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to have her name entered on the General Medical Council's Medical Register, under a clause in the Medical Act 1858 that recognizes doctors with foreign degrees.M. A. Elston Blackwell, Elizabeth (1821–1910) 2004 10.1093/ref:odnb/31912 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31912 2008-12-29 15 January – The National Portrait Gallery opens in London. March – General Post Office begins erections of the First National Standard pillar box design.Jean Young Farrugia The Letter Box: a history of Post Office pillar and wall boxes Fontwell Centaur Press 1969 0-900000-14-7 25 March – Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859 abolishes observance by the established church of the anniversary of the execution ("martyrdom") of Charles I, Oak Apple Day and certain other 17th-century political events. 28 April–18 May – 1859 United Kingdom general election: Palmerston (Liberal) defeats Derby (Conservative) following a defeat for the latter in the House of Commons. 30 April – Charles Dickens publishes the first issue of his new magazine, All the Year Round, beginning serialisation of A Tale of Two Cities. At the end of the year, it begins serialisation of Wilkie Collins's sensation novel The Woman in White. 1 May – West Riding of Yorkshire Penny Savings Bank, predecessor of the Yorkshire Bank, begins operations in Leeds.Maurice Baren How It All Began Up the High Street London Michael O'Mara Books 1996 1-85479-667-4 141–4 4 May – The Cornwall Railway is opened across the Royal Albert Bridge, linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall. The bridge's designer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who is terminally ill, is wheeled across it later in the month. 22 May – The Needles lighthouse on the Isle of Wight is first illuminated.http://www.england.pharology.eu/Needles.html Needles Lighthouses of England Pharology 2019-07-10 31 May – Big Ben's clock begins working.https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/big-ben/building-clock-tower/key-dates-/ A brief history of Big Ben and Elizabeth Tower en UK Parliament 31 May 2026 6 June – The British Crown colony of Queensland in Australia is created by devolving part of the territory of New South Wales. 9 June – The House of Lords makes a final decision in the case of Thellusson v Woodford determining the distribution of property left under the will of Peter Thellusson, who died in 1797. 12 June – Palmerston takes office as Prime Minister following the resignation of Derby.Palmer Alan Palmer Veronica 1992 The Chronology of British History Century Ltd London 279–280 0-7126-5616-2 Palmerston's is considered the first Liberal Party administration, arising from merger of the Whig Party, Peelites and Radicals.http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1840-1860 Icons, a portrait of England 1840–1860 2007-09-13 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20070817165102/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1840-1860 2007-08-17 28–29 June – The first conformation show for dogs in Britain held at Newcastle upon Tyne.The surprising history of Victorian dog shows Neil Pemberton Michael Worboys http://www.historyextra.com/article/animals/surprising-history-victorian-dog-shows History Extra June 2009 2016-03-25 1 September – Astronomer Richard Carrington makes the first observation of a solar flare.Penguin Pocket On This Day Penguin Reference Library 0-14-102715-0 2006 7 September – The clock and chimes of the Clock Tower, Palace of Westminster become operational. The great bell acquires the nickname "Big Ben" by association with Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover. 16 September – Charles Vaughan announces his resignation as headmaster of Harrow School, apparently under threat of exposure for an affair with a pupil.Park Trevor 2014 Nolo Episcopari: A Life of C. J. Vaughan St Bega Publications 978-0-9508325-4-8 1 October – The Odontological Society of London's Dental Hospital of London opens the first dental school in Britain, the London School of Dental Surgery.Royal Dental Hospital And School British Medical Journal 1958-06-07 1 5083 1351 25380850 https://www.jstor.org/stable/25380850 2021-07-28 14 October – Glasgow Town Council's Loch Katrine public water supply scheme is officially opened.The Queen at Loch Katrine The Times London 1859-10-15 9 23438 25–26 October – Royal Charter Storm, the most severe storm to hit the British Isles this century. 133 ships are sunk and another ninety badly damaged, with a death toll estimated as up to 800 (including some killed on land); most notably from the steam clipper Royal Charter, driven ashore on the north-east coast of Anglesey on 26 October with around 459 dead and just 39 men surviving.Chris Lesley Holden Life and Death on the Royal Charter Chester Calgo Publications 978-0-9545066-2-9 2009 12 November – HMS Victoria, the Royal Navy's last and largest wooden first-rate three-decker ship of the line to see sea service, is launched at Portsmouth. 24 November – Naturalist Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, a book which argues that species gradually evolve through natural selection, is published by John Murray in London, immediately selling out its initial print run. Darwin's former mentor William Whewell refuses to allow a copy in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge.Janet Browne Janet Browne Charles Darwin 2 London Cape 2002 9780224042123 107 Undated District nursing begins in Liverpool when philanthropist William Rathbone employs Mary Robinson to nurse the sick poor in their own homes. Muirkirk becomes the first town in Britain to have gas lighting. Welsh religious revival led by Humphrey Jones and large Ulster Christian revival. Red House in Bexleyheath, a key building in the Arts and Crafts Movement, is designed by its owner, William Morris, and the architect Philip Webb. Publications Isabella Beeton's compilation Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management begins publication as a partwork supplement to The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine (published by her husband Samuel Orchart Beeton) in September. Charles Darwin's book The Origin of Species. Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities. George Eliot's novel Adam Bede. Edward FitzGerald's poetic translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. John Stuart Mill's book On Liberty. Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market". Samuel Smiles' book Self-Help. Alfred Tennyson's poetry cycle Idylls of the King. The racing newspaper The Sporting Life is first published (From its launch on 24 March to 30 April it is called Penny Bell's Life & Sporting News).Concise History of the British Newspaper in the Nineteenth Century http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/news/concisehistbritnews/britnews19th/index.html British Library 2011-01-18 14 January 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150114222103/http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/news/concisehistbritnews/britnews19th/index.html dead Births 11 January – George Nathaniel Curzon, statesman and Viceroy of India (died 1925) 5 February – Ernest Terah Hooley, financial fraudster (died 1947) 14 February – Henry Valentine Knaggs, physician and author (died 1954) 16 February – T. E. Ellis, politician (died 1899) 22 February – George Lansbury, Scottish-born politician and social reformer; leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935 (died 1940) 8 March – Kenneth Grahame, author (died 1932) 25 March – John Bruce Glasier, Scottish-born socialist politician (died 1920) 26 March – A. E. Housman, poet (died 1936) 1 April – Mansfield Smith-Cumming, naval officer and first director of the Secret Intelligence Service (died 1923)Judd Alan The quest for C : Sir Mansfield Cumming and the founding of the British Secret Service 1999 HarperCollins 0-00-255901-3 London 3 42215120 18 April – Evan Davies Jones, civil engineer (died 1949) 2 May – Jerome K. Jerome, author (died 1927) 13 May – Kate Marsden, medical missionary (died 1931) 22 May – Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish-born fiction writer (died 1930) May – Samuel Thomas Evans, politician and judge (died 1918) 9 June – Doveton Sturdee, admiral (died 1925) 6 July – Alexander Hamilton-Gordon, general (died 1939) 8 July – Annie S. Swan, writer (died 1943) 13 July – Sidney Webb, economist and social reformer (died 1947) 17 July – Ernest Rhys, writer (died 1946) 8 August – Arthur Lowes Dickinson, accountant (died 1935) 7 September – Margaret Crosfield, palaeontologist and geologist (died 1952) 22 November – Cecil Sharp, folk-song collector (died 1924) 5 December – John Jellicoe, admiral (died 1935) 27 December – William Henry Hadow, educationalist (died 1937) Margaret Manton Merrill, journalist (died 1893 in the United States) Deaths 21 January – Henry Hallam, historian (born 1777) 28 January – F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, Prime Minister (born 1782) 13 February – Eliza Acton, cookery writer (born 1799) 8 April – Sir Joseph Thackwell, general (born 1781) 19 April – Christopher Bethell, Bishop of Bangor (born 1773)Joseph Haydn Haydn's Dictionary of Dates Relating to All Ages and Nations: For Universal Reference https://archive.org/details/haydnsdictionary10hayd 1866 E. Moxon and Company 76 1 May – John Walker, inventor (born 1781) 7 June – David Cox, landscape painter (born 1783) 16 July – Charles Cathcart, 2nd Earl Cathcart, general and colonial administrator (born 1783) 28 August – Leigh Hunt, critic and essayist (born 1784) 15 September – Isambard Kingdom Brunel, civil engineer (born 1806) 12 October – Robert Stephenson, railway engineer (born 1803) 28 October – Thomas Manders, actor-manager and low comedian (born 1797)Manders, Thomas 4 November – Joseph Rowntree, educationist (born 1801) 22 November – George Wilson, chemist (born 1818) 8 December – Thomas De Quincey, essayist (born 1785) 28 December – Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, poet, historian and politician (born 1800) References 1859 Category:Years of the 19th century in the United Kingdom Category:1859 by country Category:1850s in the United Kingdom Category:1859 in Europe