1859 in the United Kingdom United Kingdom-related events during the year of 1859
Events from the year 1859 in the United Kingdom
Incumbents
Events
1 January – Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to have her name entered on the General Medical Council 's Medical Register , under a clause in the Medical Act 1858 that recognizes doctors with foreign degrees.[ 1]
15 January – National Portrait Gallery opens in London .[ 2]
March – General Post Office begins erection of First National Standard pillar box design.[ 3]
25 March – Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859 abolishes observance by the established church of the anniversary of the execution of Charles I, Oak Apple Day and certain other 17th-century political events.
28 April–18 May – 1859 United Kingdom general election : Palmerston (Liberal ) defeats Derby (Conservative ) following a defeat for the latter in the House of Commons .
30 April – Charles Dickens publishes the first issue of his new magazine, All the Year Round A Tale of Two Cities Wilkie Collins 's sensation novel The Woman in White
1 May – West Riding of Yorkshire Penny Savings Bank, predecessor of the Yorkshire Bank , begins operation in Leeds .[ 4]
4 May – the Cornwall Railway is opened across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall . The bridge's designer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel , terminally ill, is wheeled across it later this month.
22 May – The Needles lighthouse on the Isle of Wight is first illuminated.[ 5]
6 June – the British Crown colony of Queensland in Australia is created by devolving part of the territory of New South Wales .
9 June – the House of Lords makes a final decision in the case of Thellusson v Woodford Peter Thellusson , who died in 1797.
12 June – Palmerston takes office as Prime Minister following resignation of Derby .[ 2] Liberal Party administration, arising from merger of the Whig Party , Peelites and Radicals .[ 6]
28–29 June – first conformation show for dogs in Britain held at Newcastle upon Tyne .[ 7]
1 September – astronomer Richard Carrington makes the first observation of a solar flare .[ 8]
7 September – the clock and chimes of the Clock Tower, Palace of Westminster become operational. The great bell acquires the nickname "Big Ben" by association with Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover .
16 September – Charles Vaughan announces his resignation as headmaster of Harrow School , apparently under threat of exposure for an affair with a pupil.[ 9]
1 October – the Odontological Society of London's Dental Hospital of London opens the first dental school in Britain, the London School of Dental Surgery.[ 10]
14 October – Glasgow Town Council 's Loch Katrine public water supply scheme is officially opened.[ 11]
25–26 October – Royal Charter Stormstorm to hit the British Isles this century. 133 ships are sunk and another ninety badly damaged, with a death toll estimated as up to 800 (including some killed on land); most notably from the steam clipper Royal Charter Anglesey on 26 October with around 459 dead and just 39 men surviving.[ 12]
12 November – HMS Victoria , the Royal Navy 's last and largest wooden first-rate three-decker ship of the line to see sea service, is launched at Portsmouth .
24 November – naturalist Charles Darwin 's The Origin of Species species gradually evolve through natural selection , is published[ 8] John Murray in London, immediately selling out its initial print run. Darwin's former mentor William Whewell refuses to allow a copy in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge .[ 13]
Undated
Publications
Births
11 January – George Nathaniel Curzon , statesman and Viceroy of India (died 1925)
5 February – Ernest Terah Hooley , financial fraudster (died 1947)
14 February – Henry Valentine Knaggs , physician and author (died 1954)
16 February – T. E. Ellis , politician (died 1899)
22 February – George Lansbury , Scottish-born politician and social reformer; leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935 (died 1940)
8 March – Kenneth Grahame , author (died 1932)
25 March – John Bruce Glasier , Scottish-born socialist politician (died 1920)
26 March – A. E. Housman , poet (died 1936)
1 April – Mansfield Smith-Cumming , naval officer and first director of the Secret Intelligence Service (died 1923)[ 15]
18 April – Evan Davies Jones , civil engineer (died 1949)
2 May – Jerome K. Jerome , author (died 1927)
13 May – Kate Marsden , medical missionary (died 1931)
22 May – Arthur Conan Doyle , Scottish-born fiction writer (died 1930)
May – Samuel Thomas Evans , politician and judge (died 1918)
9 June – Doveton Sturdee , admiral (died 1925)
6 July – Alexander Hamilton-Gordon , general (died 1939)
8 July – Annie S. Swan , writer (died 1943)
13 July – Sidney Webb , economist and social reformer (died 1947)
17 July – Ernest Rhys , writer (died 1946)
8 August – Arthur Lowes Dickinson , accountant (died 1935)
7 September – Margaret Crosfield , palaeontologist and geologist (died 1952)
22 November – Cecil Sharp , folk-song collector (died 1924)
5 December – John Jellicoe , admiral (died 1935)
27 December – William Henry Hadow , educationalist (died 1937)
Margaret Manton Merrill , journalist (died 1893 in the United States)
Deaths
21 January – Henry Hallam , historian (born 1777)
28 January – F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich , Prime Minister (born 1782)
13 February – Eliza Acton , cookery writer (born 1799)
8 April – Sir Joseph Thackwell , general (born 1781)
1 May – John Walker , inventor (born 1781)
7 June – David Cox , landscape painter (born 1783)
16 July – Charles Cathcart, 2nd Earl Cathcart , general and colonial administrator (born 1783)
28 August – Leigh Hunt , critic and essayist (born 1784)
15 September – Isambard Kingdom Brunel , civil engineer (born 1806)
12 October – Robert Stephenson , railway engineer (born 1803)
28 October – Thomas Manders , actor-manager and low comedian (born 1797)[ 16]
4 November – Joseph Rowntree , educationist (born 1801)
22 November – George Wilson , chemist (born 1818)
8 December – Thomas De Quincey , essayist (born 1785)
28 December – Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay , poet, historian and politician (born 1800)
References
^ Elston, M. A. (2004). "Blackwell, Elizabeth (1821–1910)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography doi :10.1093/ref:odnb/31912 . Retrieved 29 December 2008 . (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) ^ a b c d e f g Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 279– 280. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2 ^ Farrugia, Jean Young (1969). The Letter Box: a history of Post Office pillar and wall boxes . Fontwell: Centaur Press. ISBN 0-900000-14-7 ^ Baren, Maurice (1996). How It All Began Up the High Street . London: Michael O'Mara Books. pp. 141– 4. ISBN 1-85479-667-4 ^ "Needles" . Lighthouses of England . Pharology. Retrieved 10 July 2019 .^ "Icons, a portrait of England 1840–1860" . Archived from the original on 17 August 2007. Retrieved 13 September 2007 .^ Pemberton, Neil; Worboys, Michael (June 2009). "The surprising history of Victorian dog shows" . History Extra . Retrieved 25 March 2016 . ^ a b Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0 ^ Park, Trevor (2014). Nolo Episcopari: A Life of C. J. Vaughan . ISBN 978-0-9508325-4-8 ^ "Royal Dental Hospital And School" . British Medical Journal 1 (5083): 1351. 7 June 1958. JSTOR 25380850 . Retrieved 28 July 2021 .^ "The Queen at Loch Katrine". The Times ^ Holden, Chris; Lesley (2009). Life and Death on the Royal Charter . Chester: Calgo Publications. ISBN 978-0-9545066-2-9 ^ Browne, Janet (2002). Charles Darwin . Vol. 2. London: Cape. p. 107. ISBN 9780224042123 ^ "Concise History of the British Newspaper in the Nineteenth Century" . British Library . Retrieved 18 January 2011 .^ Judd, Alan (1999). The quest for C : Sir Mansfield Cumming and the founding of the British Secret Service ISBN 0-00-255901-3 OCLC 42215120 . ^ Manders, Thomas
