1822 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1822 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

15 January - HM Treasury directs that the Preventive Water Guard, Revenue cruisers and Riding officers should all be placed under the authority of the Board of Customs as HM Coast Guard.^[1]
23 May - HMS Comet launched at Deptford Dockyard, the first steamboat commissioned by the Royal Navy.
3 July - Charles Babbage publishes a proposal for a "difference engine", a forerunner of the modern computer for calculating logarithms and trigonometric functions. Construction of an operational version will proceed under Government sponsorship 1823–32 but it will never be completed.^[2]
8 July - The Chippewa turn over a huge tract of land in Ontario to the British.^[3]
22 July - An Act to Prevent the Cruel and Improper Treatment of Cattle ("Martin's Act"), one of the first pieces of animal rights legislation,^[4] is passed to regulate treatment of cows, horses and sheep.
31 July - Last public whipping in Edinburgh.
12 August - St David's College (now the University of Wales, Lampeter) founded by Bishop Thomas Burgess.
15–29 August - Visit of King George IV to Scotland.^[5]
22 August - The English ship Orion lands at Yerba Buena, now named San Francisco, under the command of William A. Richardson
16 September - George Canning appointed British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
20 October - The New Observer newspaper becomes The Sunday Times.^[6]
27 November - Outside Newgate Prison in London, William Reading becomes the last person to be hanged for shoplifting.^[7]

Hieroglyphs deciphered by Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion using the Rosetta Stone.
The Royal Academy of Music is established in London.
King George III's personal library of 65,000 volumes, 19,000 pamphlets, maps, charts and topographical drawings is donated to The British Museum.
First fossil to be recognised as that of a dinosaur, an Iguanodon tooth, is discovered by Gideon Mantell and his wife Mary in West Sussex.
Construction of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton is completed.

January - John Julius Angerstein, merchant and insurer (born 1735)
15 January - John Aikin, physician and writer (born 1747)
24 February - Thomas Coutts, banker (born 1735)
8 July - Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet (born 1792)
12 August - Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Foreign Secretary (suicide) (born 1769)
25 August - William Herschel, German-born British astronomer (born 1738, Hanover)

^ Lewis, Michael (1965). The Navy in Transition, 1814-1864: a social history. London: Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 89–90.
^ Hyman, Anthony (1982). Charles Babbage: pioneer of the computer. Oxford University Press. p. 51ff. ISBN 0-19-858170-X.
^ "Treaty Timeline". http://www.manitobachiefs.com/treaty/timeline.html#sectindividual.
^ Blackstone, William; Stewart, James (1839). The Rights of Persons, according to the text of Blackstone: incorporating the alterations down to the present time. p. 79.
^ Prebble, John (1988). The King's Jaunt: George IV in Scotland, August 1822 'One and Twenty Daft Days'. London: Collins. ISBN 0-00-215404-8.
^ "Concise History of the British Newspaper in the Nineteenth Century". Archived from the original on 2008-02-24. http://web.archive.org/web/20080224071628/http://www.bl.uk/collections/brit19th.html. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
^ "Timeline of capital punishment in Britain". http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/timeline.html. Retrieved 2011-02-02.

Years in the United Kingdom

Years in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926

Years in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012