1855 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1855 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch â Victoria
- Prime Minister â George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (Coalition) (until 30 January); Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Whig) (starting 6 February)
Events
- 9 January â The Earl of Aberdeen loses a vote of no confidence against his government over the management of the Crimean War.
- 22 January â French political exile Emmanuel Barthélemy is hanged after being convicted of murdering a London man. Barthélemy had previously killed a fellow Frenchman in the last fatal duel in England, but had only been convicted of manslaughter on that occasion.
- 29 January â Aberdeen resigns as Prime Minister.
- 5 February â Viscount Palmerston becomes Prime Minister.
- 8 February â The Devil's Footprints, a series of mysteriously hoof-like marks, appear in the snow in Devon and continue throughout the countryside for over 100 miles (160 km).
- 19 February â Bread riots in Liverpool break out.[1]
- 28 February â Society of the Holy Cross (SSC) established as an association of Anglo-Catholic priests with a mission to the urban poor under the mastership of Charles Lowder.
- 11 April â The first pillar boxes in London are installed, at the suggestion of Rowland Hill.[2]
- 16 April â Emperor of the French Napoleon III, with Empress Eugénie, begins a 6-day state visit to Britain, staying at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.[3]
- 18 April â The Bowring Treaty is signed between the UK and the kingdom of Siam, allowing foreigners to trade freely in Bangkok.[4]
- 15 May â Great Gold Robbery from a train between London Bridge and Folkestone.[5]
- 15 June â Stamp duty is removed from newspapers creating mass market media in the UK.[6]
- 29 June â The Daily Telegraph newspaper begins publication in London.[2]
- 4 July â Thomas Cook escorts his first party of excursionists to tour the European continent, travelling via Belgium and enabling the tourists to visit the Exposition Universelle in Paris.[7]
- 16 July â Australian colonies granted self-governing status.[6]
- 31 July â Limited Liability Act protects investors in the event of corporate collapse.[6]
- 18 August â Queen Victoria, with Prince Albert, begins a 10-day state visit to Paris,[8] the first visit of a reigning British monarch to France since 1413. While there, she visits the Exposition Universelle.[7]
- 3 September â The last Bartholomew Fair takes place in London.[9]
- 9 September â Siege of Sevastopol (1854â55) (Crimean War): Sevastopol falls to the British and their allies.
- 17 October â Henry Bessemer files his patent for the Bessemer process for the production of steel.[10]
- 17 November â Explorer David Livingstone discovers Victoria Falls in Africa.[2]
- 22 December â Metropolitan Board of Works established in London.
Undated
- James Clerk Maxwell unifies electricity and magnetism into a single theory, classical electromagnetism, thereby showing that light is an electromagnetic wave.
- The London School of Jewish Studies opens as the Jews' College, a rabbinical seminary, in London.
- Last minting of the fourpence coin (groat) for use in the U.K.
- The island of Samson, in the Isles of Scilly, is depopulated.[11]
Publications
- Samuel Orchart Beeton's weekly The Boys' Own Magazine (begins publication January).
- Mrs Archer Clive's novel Paul Ferroll.[12]
- Serialisation of Charles Dickens' novel Little Dorrit.
- Mrs Gaskell's novel North and South.
- Charles Kingsley's novel Westward Ho![6]
- William Makepeace Thackeray's novel The Newcomes.
- Anthony Trollope's novel The Warden.[6]
- The Ancient Music of Ireland, including the first published version of the Londonderry Air.
Births
- 16 January â Eleanor Marx, socialist activisst and translator (suicide 1898)
- 21 January â Henry B. Jackson, admiral (died 1929).
- 1 May â Marie Corelli, novelist (died 1924).
- 23 May â Isabella Ford, socialist, feminist, trade unionist and writer (died 1924).
- 2 June â Archibald Berkeley Milne, admiral (died 1938).
- 28 August â Alexander Bethell, admiral (died 1932).
- 17 December â Frank Hedges Butler, wine merchant and founding member of the Aero Club of Great Britain (died 1928).
Deaths
- 3 January â Julius Hare, theological writer (born 1795).
- 10 January â Mary Russell Mitford, novelist and dramatist (born 1787).
- 25 January â Dorothy Wordsworth, poet and diarist (born 1771).
- 20 February â Joseph Hume, doctor and politician (born 1777).
- 27 February â Bryan Donkin, engineer and inventor (born 1768).
- 3 March â Copley Fielding, watercolour landscape painter (born 1787).[13]
- 31 March â Charlotte Brontë, author (born 1816).[14]
- 13 April â Sir Henry De la Beche, geologist (born 1796).
- 15 April â William John Bankes, MP, explorer and Egyptologist (born 1786; died in Venice).
- 5 May â Sir Robert Inglis, 2nd Baronet, politician (born 1786).
- 23 May â Charles Robert Malden, explorer (born 1797).
- 28 June â Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan, commander of British forces in the Crimean War (born 1788).
- 6 July â Andrew Crosse, 'gentleman scientist', pioneer experimenter in electricity and poet (born 1784).[15]
- 8 July â Sir Edward Parry, Arctic explorer (born 1790).
- 30 August â Feargus O'Connor, political radical and Chartist leader (born 1794 in Ireland).
- 4 September â Emma Tatham, poet (born 1829).
- 18 September â James Finlay Weir Johnston, chemist (born 1796).
- 27 September â John Adamson, antiquary and expert on Portuguese (born 1787)
- 3 December â Robert Montgomery, poet (born 1807).
- 18 December â Samuel Rogers, poet (born 1763).
- 20 December â Thomas Cubitt, master builder (born 1785).