1796 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1796 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

1 February - Protests over the price of bread culminate in Queen Charlotte being hit by a stone as she and King George return from a trip to the theatre.^[1]
16 February - Britain takes control of Ceylon from the Dutch.^[2]
14 May - Edward Jenner successfully administers the smallpox vaccine to James Phipps.^[3]
21 June - Explorer Mungo Park becomes the first European to reach the Niger River.^[2]
9 August - Opening to traffic of Wearmouth Bridge, designed by Thomas Paine in cast iron. Its span of 237 feet (72 m) makes it the world's longest single-span vehicular bridge extant at this date.^[4]^[5]
19 August - By the Second Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain and France form an alliance against Great Britain.
5 October - Anglo-Spanish War: Spain declares war on Britain.^[1]
Summer - Ribchester Hoard and helmet found in Lancashire.
undated - Last resident family leaves St Ninian's Isle.

Fanny Burney's novel Camilla: or, A Picture of Youth.
Mary Hays' epistolatory novel Memoirs of Emma Courtney.
Samuel Ireland publishes a collection of Shakespearean forgeries in his Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments Under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare (dated this year but actually produced on 24 December 1795). Edmond Malone exposes them in his An Inquiry into the Authenticity of Certain Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments on 31 March, and the forged Shakespearean play, Vortigern and Rowena, is able to sustain just a single performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, on 2 April. Ireland's son, William Henry, confesses to the fraud in An Authentic Account of the Shakespearean Manuscripts.

25 January - William MacGillivray, naturalist and ornithologist (died 1852)
17 February - Frederick William Beechey, explorer (died 1856)
28 February - Pablo Fanque, black circus owner, popularized by The Beatles in song (died 1871)
27 June - George Vincent, painter (died 1831)
13 September - James Finlay Weir Johnston, chemist (died 1855)
14 September - Woodbine Parish, diplomat (died 1882)
22 August - Baden Powell, mathematician (died 1860)
17 October - James Matheson, Member of Parliament (died 1878)

^ ^a ^b Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 235. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
^ ^a ^b Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 346. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^ Troyano, Leonardo Fernández (2003). Bridge Engineering: a Global Perspective. London: Thomas Telford Publishing. p. 49. ISBN 0-7277-3215-3.
^ "Sunderland Wearmouth Bridge". Wearside Online. http://www.wearsideonline.com/Sunderland_Wearmouth_Bridge.html. Retrieved 2011-08-16.