1850 in the United Kingdom

1850 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1848 | 1849 | 1850 | 1851 | 1852

Sport

1850 English cricket season

Events from the year 1850 in the United Kingdom.

Contents 1 Incumbents 2 Events 2.1 Undated 3 Publications 4 Births 5 Deaths 6 References 7 See also

Incumbents

• Monarch — Queen Victoria
• Prime Minister — Lord John Russell, Liberal

Events

• 5 March — Opening of Robert Stephenson's Britannia Bridge carrying the Chester and Holyhead Railway across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales.^[1]
• 31 March — The paddle steamer RMS Royal Adelaide (1838), bound from Cork to London, sinks off Margate with the loss of all 250 on board.^[2]
• 4 April — North London Collegiate School for girls established in new premises with Frances Buss as Principal.
• 19 April — Clayton-Bulwer Treaty signed between the United Kingdom and the United States agreeing that neither nation is to colonize or control any Central American republic. The purpose is to prevent one country from building a canal across the isthmus that the other would not be able to use.^[3]
• 3 July — The Koh-i-Noor diamond is presented to Queen Victoria.
• 5 August — Colonies of New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria granted representative government.^[4]
• 14 August — Irish Franchise Act increases the rural electorate in Ireland.^[4]
• 27 August — A telegraph cable is laid beneath the English Channel running from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in France.^[1]
• 29 September — By the Bull Universalis Ecclesiae, Pope Pius IX recreates the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England, which had become extinct with the death of the last Marian bishop in the reign of Elizabeth I.
• 22–3 October — First Wenlock Olympian Class Games held at Much Wenlock, Shropshire.
• 17 October — James Young patents a method of distilling paraffin from coal, laying the foundations for the Scottish paraffin industry.
• November — Salford Museum and Art Gallery first opens as "The Royal Museum & Public Library", the first unconditionally free public library in England, established under the Museums Act 1845.^[5]
• 19 November — Alfred Tennyson appointed as Poet Laureate.^[1]

Undated

• Don Pacifico incident: Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary, sends a Royal Navy squadron to the Aegean Sea in defence of the interests of a British citizen, causing a diplomatic incident with Russia and France.^[6] He defends his action robustly in Parliament on 29 June.
• Public Libraries Act, Interpretation Act, Police of Scotland Act and Factory Act passed by parliament.
• Bingley Hall, the world's first purpose-built permanent exhibition hall, opens in Birmingham.
• The bowler hat is created for Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester.^[7]

Publications

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning's collection Sonnets from the Portuguese containing the well-known poem which begins "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."^[7]
• Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield complete in book form.
• Alfred Tennyson's poem In Memoriam A.H.H..^[7]
• The Germ, periodical of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood edited by William Michael Rossetti (four issues, January–April, the last two retitled Art and Poetry).

Births

• 4 January — Frederick York Powell, historian and scholar (died 1904)
• 15 January — Leonard Darwin, son of the naturalist Charles Darwin (died 1943)
• 19 January — Augustine Birrell, author and politician (died 1933)
• 27 January — John Collier, writer and painter (died 1934)
• 27 January — Edward Smith, Captain of the Titanic (died 1912)
• 29 January — Ebenezer Howard, urban planner (died 1928)
• 18 February — George Henschel, musician (died 1934)
• 9 March — Hamo Thornycroft, sculptor (died 1925)
• 9 April — Julius Wernher, German-born British businessman and art collector (died 1912)
• 13 April — Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, astronomer (died 1917)
• 16 April — Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, inventor (died 1885)
• 26 April — Harry Bates, sculptor (died 1899)
• 1 May — Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, member of the Royal Family (died 1942)
• 10 May — Thomas Lipton, merchant and yachtsman (died 1931)
• 12 May — Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, Liberal politician and jurist (died 1934)
• 18 May — Oliver Heaviside, engineer (died 1925)
• 26 May — James Kenyon, pioneer of cinematography (died 1925)
• 28 May — Frederic William Maitland, jurist and historian (died 1906)
• 2 June — Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent, businessman (died 1931)
• 24 June — Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, field marshal and statesman (died 1916)
• 13 August — Philip Bourke Marston, poet (died 1887)
• 14 August — W. W. Rouse Ball, mathematician (died 1925)
• 9 September — Jane Ellen Harrison, classical scholar and feminist (died 1928)
• 17 September — Cuthbert A. Brereton, civil engineer (died 1910)
• 18 October — Basil Hall Chamberlain, Japanologist (died 1935)
• 13 November — Robert Louis Stevenson, writer (died 1894)
• 13 November — Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet, politician (died 1922)
• 11 December — Mary Victoria Hamilton, Scottish-German-French great-grandmother of Prince Rainier III of Monaco (died 1922)
• 24 December — Brandon Thomas, actor and playwright (died 1914)

Deaths

• 26 January — Francis Jeffrey, judge and literary critic (born 1773)
• 13 March — Owen Stanley, naval officer and explorer of New Guinea (born 1811)
• 7 April — William Lisle Bowles, poet and critic (born 1762)
• 9 April — William Prout, chemist and physician (born 1785)
• 23 April — William Wordsworth, poet (born 1770)
• 24 May — Jane Porter, novelist (born 1776)
• 9 June — John Green Crosse, surgeon (born 1790)
• 2 July — Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1788)
• 4 July — William Kirby, entomologist (born 1759)
• 7 July — Timothy Hackworth, steam locomotive engineer (born 1786)
• 8 July — Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, member of the Royal Family (born 1774)
• 12 July — Robert Stevenson, lighthouse engineer (born 1772)
• 27 August — Thomas Kidd, classical scholar and schoolmaster (born 1770)
• 2 September — Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn, Tory politician (born 1775)
• 2 October — Sarah Biffen, painter (born 1784)
• 4 December
  • Robert Gilfillan, poet (born 1798)
  • William Sturgeon, physicist and inventor (born 1783)

References

See also

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