1829 in the United Kingdom
Events from the year 1829 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Events
- 8 January - Hanging of body-selling murderer William Burke in Edinburgh. His associate William Hare, who testified against him, is released.
- 26 January - First performance of Douglas Jerrold's comic nautical melodrama Black-Eyed Susan; or, All in the Downs at the Surrey Theatre in Lambeth; it will run for a new record of well over 150 performances.[1]
- 1–2 February - York Minster is extensively damaged in a fire started by Jonathan Martin (who is subsequently acquitted of arson on the grounds of insanity).[2]
- 21 March - A duel is fought between the Prime Minister (the Duke of Wellington) and George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea, in Battersea Fields, provoked by the Duke's support for Catholic Emancipation and foundation of the secular King's College London. Deliberately off-target shots are fired by both and honour is satisfied without injury.
- 27 March - Zoological Society of London receives its Royal charter.
- April–September - The composer Felix Mendelssohn pays his first visit to Britain. This includes the first London performance of his concert overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream and his trip to Fingal's Cave.[3]
- 13 April - Passage of the Catholic Relief Act by Parliament of the United Kingdom granting Catholic Emancipation.[4]
- 5 June - Slave trade: HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.
- 10 June - University of Oxford win the first Boat Race.[4]
- 19 June - Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act establishes the Metropolitan Police Service.[4]
- 30 June - Henry Robinson Palmer files a patent application for corrugated iron for use in buildings.[5]
- 4 July - George Shillibeer begins operating the first bus service in London.[6]
- 2–3 August - The "Muckle Spate", a great flood of the River Findhorn which devastates much of Strathspey, Scotland, washing away many bridges.[7]
- 29 September - The first police officers of the Metropolitan Police Service, known by the nicknames "bobbies" or "peelers", go on patrol in London.[4]
- 8 October - George Stephenson's steam locomotive, The Rocket, defeats John Ericsson's Novelty and thus wins The Rainhill Trials held near Liverpool.[6]
- 4 December - In the face of fierce opposition, British Lord William Bentinck carries a regulation declaring that all who abet suttee in India are guilty of culpable homicide.
- 13 December - Last British hanging for forgery – Thomas Maynard.
Ongoing events
Undated
Publications
Births
Deaths
- 25 January - William Shield, composer, violinist and violist (born 1748)
- 28 January - William Burke, murderer and grave robber, executed (born 1792, Ireland)
- 8 May - Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester, barrister, statesman, Speaker of the House of Commons (born 1759)
- 10 May - Thomas Young, physician and linguist (born 1773)
- 29 May - Sir Humphry Davy, chemist (born 1778)
- 27 June - James Smithson, mineralogist, chemist and sponsor of the Smithsonian Institution (born 1765)
References