1843 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1843 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Events
- January â Quaker magazine The Friend begins publication.[citation needed]
- 6 January â Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross discovers Snow Hill Island.[citation needed]
- 20 January â Daniel M'Naghten shoots and kills the Prime Minister's private secretary, Edward Drummond, in Whitehall.[1]
- 4 March â 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 â Battle of Hyderabad: The Bombay Army led by Major General Sir Charles Napier defeats the Talpur Mirs, securing Sindh province for the British Raj.[citation needed]
- 25 March â Marc Isambard Brunel's Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel under the River Thames, is opened to pedestrians.[2]
- 27 March â A 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 â William Wordsworth accepts the office of Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom following the death of Robert Southey on 21 March.[4]
- April â Protestant Martyrs' Memorial erected in Oxford.[5]
- 4 May â Natal proclaimed British colony.[6]
- 18 May â The Disruption of the Church of Scotland takes place in Edinburgh.
- ? May â Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight opens as an amusement park.
- 19 July â Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain is launched from Bristol.[7]
- 5 August â Sarah Dazley, the last woman to be executed in public in England, is hanged for mariticide outside Bedford Prison.
- 22 August â Theatres Act ends the virtual monopoly on theatrical performances held by the patent theatres, encouraging the development of popular entertainment.[6]
- September â 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.[8]
- 2 September â The Economist newspaper first published (preliminary issue dated August).
- 1 October â News of the World newspaper first published.[2] It will run until 2011.
- 3â4 November â The statue of Nelson is placed atop Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London.[2]
- 13 December â Basutoland becomes a British protectorate.[6]
- 17 December â Publication of Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol by Chapman & Hall in London at his expense. It introduces the character Ebenezer Scrooge. Released on 19 December, the first printing sells out by Christmas Eve[9] and inspires charitable giving.[10]
- December â The world's first Christmas cards, commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London from the artist John Callcott Horsley, are sent.[11]
- Undated
- The Albert helmet, devised in 1842 by the Prince Consort, is adopted by the Household Cavalry.[12]
- 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.[13]
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 â Princess Alice, member of the royal family (died 1878)
- 30 June â Ernest Mason Satow, diplomat and scholar (died 1929)
- 5 July â Mandell Creighton, historian and Bishop of London (died 1901)
- 4 September â Jabez Balfour, businessman, politician and fraudster (died 1916)
Deaths
- 9 January â William Hedley, inventor and locomotive engineer (born 1779)
- 20 February â Mary Hays, writer and feminist (born 1759)
- 21 March â Robert Southey, poet (born 1774)
- 25 March â Robert Murray M'Cheyne, clergyman (born 1813)
- 21 April â Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (born 1773)
- 1 June â William Abbot, actor (born 1798)
- 25 July â Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist (born 1766)[14]
- 16 August â Henry Acton, Unitarian minister (born 1797)
- 18 December â Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, Governor-General of India (born 1748)