1826 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1826 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Events
- 30 January â The Menai Suspension Bridge, built by engineer Thomas Telford, is opened between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales.[1]
- 11 February â University College London is founded, under the name University of London.
- 15 February â Longstone Lighthouse first illuminated as Outer Farne Lighthouse (Joseph Nelson, engineer).[2]
- 24 February â Treaty of Yandabo cedes Arakan peninsula to Britain, ending the First Anglo-Burmese War.[3]
- 1 March â Male Indian elephant Chunee, which was brought to London in 1811, is killed at a menagerie on The Strand after running amok the week before, killing one of his keepers. After arsenic and shooting fail, the animal is stabbed to death.[4]
- April â A number of leading scientists form the Zoological Society of London.
- 24â26 April â Power-loom riots in the Lancashire textile districts: hand-loom weavers protest at the introduction of the power loom in Accrington, Blackburn and finally, Chatterton, where troops fire on the mob, causing the deaths of at least six.[5][6]
- 5 May â The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, designed by George Stephenson and Joseph Locke, which in 1830 is to become the world's first purpose-built passenger railway operated by steam locomotives to be opened, is authorised by Parliament.[7]
- 26 May â Country Bankers Act 1826 permits joint-stock banks outside the London area, which may issue banknotes.
- 1 Juneâ31 August â A three-month heat wave and drought grips the country. With a mean temperature of 17.60 °C (63.68 °F), it is the hottest summer on CET records since 1659, until 1976 and 2025, meaning that it is the third hottest summer in the CET records.[8]
- 19 June â Tories under Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool win a substantial increased majority over the Whigs in the general election.
- 20 June â Burney Treaty increases British control over south-east Asia.[3]
- 1 July â The Conway Suspension Bridge, built by engineer Thomas Telford, is opened in North Wales, completing his improvements to the Holyhead road.[1]
- 10 August â The first Cowes Regatta is held on the Isle of Wight.[9]
- 18 August â Scottish explorer Alexander Gordon Laing becomes the first European to reach Timbuktu,[10] but is murdered there on 26 September.
- 1 October â The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway opens in Scotland.[11]
- 18 October â The last English state lottery is drawn in a series run since 1769,[12] the next National Lottery will be in 1994.
Ongoing
- Anglo-Ashanti war (1823â1831)
Undated
- Straits Settlements established as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company.
- Construction of the National Monument, Edinburgh on Calton Hill (to the dead of the Napoleonic Wars) is commenced; it will never be completed.
Publications
- Benjamin Disraeli's (anonymous) first novel Vivian Grey.
- Walter Scott's (anonymous) historical novel Woodstock.
- Felicia Dorothea Hemans' poem "Casabianca", in The New Monthly Magazine (August).
- Christian Isobel Johnstone (as Margaret Dods)'s The Cook and Housewife's Manual.
- John C. Loudon's periodical The Gardener's Magazine first issued.
Births
- 24 January â Gifford Palgrave, priest, traveller and Arabist (died 1888)
- 3 February â Walter Bagehot, economist and journalist (died 1877)
- 15 February â George Johnstone Stoney, Irish-born physicist (died 1911)
- 20 April â Dinah Craik, née Mulock, novelist and poet (died 1887)
- 15 or 25 May â Tom Sayers, bare-knuckle boxer (died 1865)
- 26 May â Richard Carrington, astronomer (died 1875)
- 18 June â William Maclagan, Archbishop of York (died 1910)
- 24 June â George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (died 1898)
- 7 July â John Fowler, agricultural engineer (died 1864)
- 20 July â Laura Keene, actress (died 1873)
- 25 August â William Synge, diplomat and author (died 1891)
- 5 September â John Wisden, cricketer, creator of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (died 1884)
- 8 September â Sir James Corry, 1st Baronet, politician (died 1891)
- 24 September â George Price Boyce, Pre-Raphaelite watercolour landscape painter (died 1897)
- 23 December â William Blanchard Jerrold, journalist and biographer (died 1884)
Deaths
- 6 January â John Farey Sr., polymath (born 1766)
- 17 February â John Manners-Sutton, politician (born 1752)
- 7 March â Ann Freeman, Bible preacher (born 1797)
- 10 March â John Pinkerton, antiquarian (born 1758)
- 3 April â Reginald Heber, bishop, poet and travel writer (born 1783)
- 19 April â John Milner, Roman Catholic bishop and religious controversialist (born 1752)
- 23 June â John Taylor, Unitarian hymn writer (born 1750)
- 5 July â Sir Stamford Raffles, colonial governor, founder of Singapore (born 1781)
- 2 August â George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, cricketer (born 1752)
- 26 August â Lady Sarah Lennox, courtier (born 1745)
- 4 September â Robert Gifford, 1st Baron Gifford, lawyer, judge and politician (born 1779)
- 26 September â Alexander Gordon Laing, Scottish explorer (born 1794)
- 26 November â John Nichols, printer and author (born 1745)
- 7 December â John Flaxman, sculptor (born 1755)
- 31 December â William Gifford, satirist (born 1756)