1842 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1842 in the United Kingdom.

[edit] Incumbents

6 January–13 January: First Anglo-Afghan War
- Massacre of Elphinstone's army by Afghan forces.
- Battle of Gandamak ends in victory for the Afghans.
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.
11 May - Income Tax Act 1842 establishes the first peacetime income tax in Britain; 7 pence on the pound, for incomes over 150 pounds.^[1]
4 June - In South Africa, hunter Dick King rides into British military base in Grahamstown to warn that Boers have besieged Durban. He had left 11 days earlier. British army dispatches a relief force.
19 June - Army suppresses Rebecca Rioters in Carmathen, protesting against turnpike tolls.^[1]
August-October - First Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at the Battle of Kabul.
August - Mines Act 1842 prohibits women and children under ten from working in mines.^[1]
7 August to 27 August - Riots in and around Lancashire, protesting against Corn Laws, and in favour of Chartists.^[1]
9 August - The United Kingdom and United States sign the Webster-Ashburton Treaty agreeing the border between the United States and Canada.^[2]
29 August - Britain and China sign the Treaty of Nanking ending the First Opium War.^[3] Hong Kong is ceded to Britain.

Massacre of Elphinstone's British army on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, by Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammed Khan
Pentonville Prison built.
Edwin Chadwick produces a report exposing the low living standards of the urban poor.^[3]
Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross charts the eastern side of James Ross Island.

13 May - Arthur Sullivan, composer (died 1900)
23 August - Osborne Reynolds, engineer and physicist (died 1912)
20 September - James Dewar, chemist and physicist (died 1923)
12 November - John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1919)
2 December - C. W. Alcock, footballer and football official (died 1907)

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Palmer, Alan & Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd, 264-266. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
^ (2006) Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
^ ^a ^b Icons, a portrait of England 1840-1860. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.