1804 in the United Kingdom
 1804 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1804 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch – George III
- Prime Minister – Henry Addington (Tory) (until 10 May), William Pitt the Younger (Tory) (starting 10 May)
- Parliament – 2nd
Events
- 3 January – Hammersmith Ghost murder case.
- 21 February – the Cornishman Richard Trevithick's newly built "Penydarren" steam locomotive operates on the Merthyr Tramroad between Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon in South Wales, following several trials since 13 February, the world's first locomotive to work on rails.[1]
- 7 March
- John Wedgwood founds the Royal Horticultural Society[2] as the Horticultural Society of London. Another founding member, William Forsyth, dies on 25 July.
- Thomas Charles is instrumental in founding the Bible Society.[3]
- 2 April – forty merchant vessels are wrecked when a convoy led by HMS Apollo runs aground off Portugal.
- 5 April – High Possil meteorite, the first recorded meteorite to fall in Scotland in modern times, falls at Possil.
- 26 April – Henry Addington resigns as Prime Minister.
- 10 May – William Pitt the Younger begins his second premiership as Prime Minister.
- 12 December – Spain declares war on Britain.
- 21 December – Rochdale Canal opens, the first to cross the Pennines.[4]
Ongoing
- Anglo-Spanish War, 1796–1808
- Napoleonic Wars, 1803–1815
Undated
- Marlborough White Horse cut in Wiltshire.
- William Blake writes Milton: a Poem including the poem And did those feet in ancient time.[5]
- William Wordsworth writes I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.[5]
Births
- Early February – James Bronterre O'Brien, Irish-born Chartist leader, reformer and journalist (died 1864)
- 4 April – Andrew Nicholl, Irish-born painter (died 1886)
- 20 July – James Kay-Shuttleworth, educationist (died 1877)
- 6 November – Benjamin Hall Kennedy, Latin scholar and promoter of women's higher education (died 1889)
- 21 December – Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister (died 1881)
Deaths
- 4 January – Charlotte Lennox, author and poet (born 1727)
- 15 January – Dru Drury, entomologist (born 1725)
- 6 February – Joseph Priestley, chemist (born 1733)
- 4 August – Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, Scottish-born admiral (born 1731)
- 29 October – Sarah Crosby, Methodist preacher (born 1729)
- 23 November – Richard Graves, writer (born 1715)
See also
References
- ^ Rattenbury, Gordon; Lewis, M. J. T. (2004). Merthyr Tydfil Tramroads and their Locomotives. Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 0-901461-52-0.
- ^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ^ "Our timeline". Bible Society. Archived from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
- ^ Hadfield, Charles; Biddle, Gordon (1970). The Canals of North West England, vol. II. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 274. ISBN 0-7153-4992-9.
- ^ a b "Icons, a portrait of England 1800-1820". Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2007.