1816 in the United Kingdom
 1816 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1816 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch – George III
- Regent – George, Prince Regent
- Prime Minister – Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (Tory)
- Parliament – 5th
Events
- 9 January – Sir Humphry Davy's Davy lamp is first tested underground as a coal mining safety lamp at Hebburn Colliery in the Durham Coalfield.[1]
- 30 January – wrecking of the Sea Horse, Boadicea and Lord Melville (military transport ships) off the coast of Ireland in a gale with the loss of around 570.
- 20 February – Preston becomes the first English town outside London with gas lighting publicly available, promoted by the Jesuit priest Joseph Dunn.[2]
- 18 March – income tax abolished.[3]
- 24 April – Lord Byron flees Britain to escape a growing scandal, his failed marriage and his growing debts.
- 2 May – Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (later King of the Belgians) marries Princess Charlotte Augusta, daughter of the Prince Regent, but she dies the following year.
- 16 May – Beau Brummell flees England by way of the port of Dover, sailing to France in order to escape his gambling debts.
- 22 May – Littleport and Ely riots break out as a result of economic distress in East Anglia.[4]
- 14 June – Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace established in London.
- 26 June – first prisoners admitted to the National Penitentiary, Millbank Prison, in London.
- 28 June – Luddites destroy the bobbinet lace machines in John Heathcoat's Loughborough factory.
- 13 August – an earthquake in Aberdeen is the strongest ever in Scotland.[5]
- 27 August – Britain and the Netherlands bombard Algiers in an attempt to suppress slavery by the North African Barbary states.
- 23–27 October – completion of the Leeds to Liverpool canal.[6]
- 2 December – Spa Fields riots: a mass meeting of conspirators dispersed by the police.[7]
Unknown dates
- The Coinage Act and Great Recoinage attempt to stabilise the currency by reintroduction of a silver coinage (for transactions under forty shillings) and changing the gold coinage from the guinea valued at 21 shillings to the slightly lighter sovereign worth 20 shillings and defining the value of the pound sterling relative to gold.[8]
- By the Pillory Abolition Act, use of the pillory is limited to punishment for perjury.
- The British found Banjul, The Gambia.
- A British expedition explores up from the mouth of the Congo River.
- The Elgin Marbles are purchased by the nation from Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, for the British Museum.
- The Nelson Monument, Edinburgh, on Calton Hill, is completed.
- Year Without a Summer.
Publications
- The Prisoner of Chillon, and other poems, by Lord Byron.
- Kubla Khan, poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.[7]
- "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer", sonnet by John Keats.[7]
- Glenarvon, novel by Lady Caroline Lamb.
- The Antiquary, The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality, novels by Walter Scott.
Births
- 21 April – Charlotte Brontë, English novelist (died 1855)[9]
- 30 June – Richard Lindon, inventor (died 1887)
- 16 August – Charles John Vaughan, dean of Llandaff and co-founder of University of Wales, Cardiff (died 1897)
Deaths
- 27 January – Viscount Hood, admiral (born 1724)
- 22 February – Adam Ferguson, philosopher and historian (born 1723)
- 5 July – Dorothy Jordan, Irish actress, mistress of King William IV of the United Kingdom (born 1761)
- 7 July – Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish playwright (born 1751)
- 15 December – Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope, statesman and scientist (born 1753)
See also
References
- ^ Thompson, Roy (2004). Thunder Underground: Northumberland mining disasters, 1815–1865. Ashbourne: Landmark. p. 121. ISBN 9781843061694.
- ^ Whittle, Peter (1821). A topographical, statistical and historical account of the borough of Preston. Vol. I. p. 100.
- ^ "A tax to beat Napoleon". HM Revenue & Customs. Archived from the original on 24 July 2010. Retrieved 17 July 2010.
- ^ Johnson, C. (1893). An account of the Ely and Littleport Riots in 1816. Littleport: Harris.
- ^ The Guinness Book of Answers (3rd ed.). Enfield: Guinness Superlatives. 1980. p. 56. ISBN 0-85112-202-7.
- ^ Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. p. 248. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ a b c Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 365–366. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ^ The British Almanac. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 1856.
- ^ "Charlotte Brontë | British author". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 April 2019.