1842 in the United Kingdom explained
Events from the year 1842 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Events
- 6–13 January – First Anglo-Afghan War – Massacre of Elphinstone's army (Battle of Gandamak) by Afghan forces on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, under Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammed Khan.
- February – J. H. Newman, the controversial Anglican cleric, withdraws to Littlemore, outside Oxford, and establishes a semi-monastic community, "the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Littlemore".
- 31 March – Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway line opened up to Werneth.
- 13 April – first Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at the Battle of Jellalabad.
- April–September – General Strike ("Plug Plot Riots").
- 25 April – Black Country Nailers' Riots.[1]
- 11 May – Income Tax Act 1842 establishes the first peacetime income tax in Britain; 7 pence on the pound, for incomes over 150 pounds.[2]
- 4 June – in South Africa, hunter Dick King rides into the British military base in Grahamstown to warn that Boers have besieged Durban. He had set out eleven days earlier. The British Army dispatches a relief force.
- 13 June
- 19 June – army suppresses Rebecca Rioters in Carmarthen protesting against turnpike tolls.[2]
- 16 July – Treason Act 1842 amends procedures and penalties against those threatening the monarch's life.[4]
- 1 August – Mines and Collieries Act 1842 makes it illegal for women and girls of any age, and boys under ten years, to work underground, following the 1838 Huskar Pit disaster which resulted in the deaths by drowning of 26 children aged 7 to 17.
- August–October – first Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at the Battle of Kabul.
- 7–27 August – riots in and around Lancashire (spreading to Yorkshire by around 12 August), protesting against the Corn Laws and in favour of Chartists.[2]
- 9 August – the United Kingdom and United States sign the Webster-Ashburton Treaty agreeing the border between the United States and Canada.[5]
- 29 August – Britain and Qing dynasty China sign the Treaty of Nanking, an unequal treaty ending the First Opium War.[6] Hong Kong is ceded to Britain.
- 10 & 19 November – London debtor's prisons the Fleet Prison and Marshalsea are closed and inmates transferred to Queen's Bench Prison.[7] Pentonville Prison for criminals is completed in north London this year.
Undated
Publications
Births
Deaths
Notes and References
- Book: Willetts, Arthur. The Blackcountry Nailer's Riots of 1842. Dudley Libraries. 1995. 0-900911-36-0.
- Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer . Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 264–266. 0-7126-5616-2.
- Book: Body, Geoffrey. Western Handbook – a digest of GWR and WR data. 1985. British Rail (Western). Weston-super-Mare. 0-905466-70-5.
- http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1842/pdf/ukpga_18420051_en.pdf Text of statute as originally enacted.
- Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
- Web site: Icons, a portrait of England 1840–1860. 2007-09-13. https://web.archive.org/web/20070817165102/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1840-1860. 2007-08-17. dead.
- Book: Roth, Mitchel P.. Prisons and Prison Systems: A Global Encyclopedia. 2006. Greenwood Publishing Group. 978-0-313-32856-5.
- 'Best for Me, Best For You' — a History of Beecham's Pills 1842–1998. The Pharmaceutical Journal. 269. 921–924.