1826 in the United Kingdom explained
Events from the year 1826 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Events
- 30 January – the Menai Suspension Bridge, built by engineer Thomas Telford, is opened between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales.[1]
- 11 February – University College London is founded, under the name University of London.
- 15 February – Longstone Lighthouse first illuminated as Outer Farne Lighthouse (Joseph Nelson, engineer).[2]
- 24 February – Treaty of Yandabo cedes Arakan peninsula to Britain, ending the First Anglo-Burmese War.[3]
- 1 March – 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]
- 24–26 April – 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, killing at least four.[5]
- April – a number of leading scientists form the Zoological Society of London.
- 5 May – the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, designed by George Stephenson and Joseph Locke, and 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.[6]
- 26 May – Country Bankers Act 1826 permits joint-stock banks outside the London area, which may issue banknotes.
- 1 June–31 August – a three-month heat wave and drought grips the country. With a mean temperature of 17.6C this is the hottest summer on the CET records, since 1659, until 1976, after which it is the second hottest.[7]
- 19 June – Tories under Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool win a substantial increased majority over the Whigs in the general election.
- 20 June – Burney Treaty increases British control over south-east Asia.[3]
- 1 July – the Conway Suspension Bridge, built by engineer Thomas Telford, is opened in North Wales, completing his improvements to the Holyhead road.
- 10 August – the first Cowes Regatta is held on the Isle of Wight.[8]
- 18 August – Scottish explorer Alexander Gordon Laing becomes the first European to reach Timbuktu,[9] but is murdered there on 26 September.
- 1 October – the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway opens in Scotland.[10]
- 18 October – last English state lottery is drawn in a series run since 1769;[11] the next National Lottery will be in 1994.
Ongoing events
- Anglo-Ashanti war (1823–1831)
Undated
Publications
Births
- 24 January – Gifford Palgrave, priest, traveller and Arabist (died 1888)
- 3 February – Walter Bagehot, economist and journalist (died 1877)
- 15 February – George Johnstone Stoney, Irish-born physicist (died 1911)
- 20 April – Dinah Craik, née Mulock, novelist and poet (died 1887)
- 15 or 25 May – Tom Sayers, bare-knuckle boxer (died 1865)
- 26 May – Richard Carrington, astronomer (died 1875)
- 18 June – William Maclagan, Archbishop of York (died 1910)
- 24 June – George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (died 1898)
- 7 July – John Fowler, agricultural engineer (died 1864)
- 20 July – Laura Keene, actress (died 1873)
- 25 August – William Synge, diplomat and author (died 1891)
- 5 September – John Wisden, cricketer, creator of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (died 1884)
- 8 September – Sir James Corry, 1st Baronet, politician (died 1891)
- 24 September – George Price Boyce, Pre-Raphaelite watercolour landscape painter (died 1897)
- 23 December – William Blanchard Jerrold, journalist and biographer (died 1884)
Deaths
- 6 January – John Farey Sr., polymath (born 1766)
- 17 February – John Manners-Sutton, politician (born 1752)
- 7 March – Ann Freeman, Bible preacher (born 1797)
- 10 March – John Pinkerton, antiquarian (born 1758)
- 3 April – Reginald Heber, bishop, poet and travel writer (born 1783)
- 19 April – John Milner, Roman Catholic bishop and religious controversialist (born 1752)
- 23 June – John Taylor, Unitarian hymn writer (born 1750)
- 5 July – Sir Stamford Raffles, colonial governor, founder of Singapore (born 1781)
- 2 August – George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, cricketer (born 1752)
- 26 August – Lady Sarah Lennox, courtier (born 1745)
- 4 September – Robert Gifford, 1st Baron Gifford, lawyer, judge and politician (born 1779)
- 26 September – Alexander Gordon Laing, Scottish explorer (born 1794)
- 26 November – John Nichols, printer and author (born 1745)
- 7 December – John Flaxman, sculptor (born 1755)
- 31 December – William Gifford, satirist (born 1756)
Notes and References
- Book: Rolt, L. T. C.. L. T. C. Rolt. Thomas Telford. registration. London. Longmans, Green. 1958.
- https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/18217/page/244 London Gazette issue 18217, 4 February 1826 p.244.
- Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer . Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 254–255. 0-7126-5616-2.
- Book: Grigson, Caroline. Menagerie: The History of Exotic Animals in England. Oxford University Press. 2016.
- Book: Aspin, Chris. The First industrial Society: Lancashire 1750–1850. 1995. Carnegie Publishing. Preston. 9781859360163. 63-70.
- Book: Carlson, Robert E.. The Liverpool & Manchester Railway Project 1821–1831. David & Charles. Newton Abbot. 1969. 0-7153-4646-6.
- Web site: metoffice.com . 10 June 2020 . 6 April 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110406073649/http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/ssn_HadCET_mean_sort.txt . dead .
- Web site: Icons, a portrait of England 1820–1840 . 2007-09-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070922055840/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1820-1840 . 22 September 2007 . dead. dmy-all.
- Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
- Book: Awdry, Christopher. 1990. Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. Patrick Stephens Ltd. Wellingborough. 1-85260-049-7.
- Web site: Lottery Office records. The National Archives. 2023-10-18.
