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Date |
Event(s) |
1 | 1798 | - 1798: First planned human experiment with vaccination, to test theories of Edward Jenner
- Feb 1798: The Irish Rebellion; 100,000 peasants revolt; approximately 25,000 die – Irish
Parliament abolished (Feb-Oct)
- 1 Aug 1798: Battle of the Nile (won by Nelson)
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2 | 1799 | - 1799: Foundation of Royal Military College Sandhurst by the Duke of York
- 1799: Foundation of the Royal Institution of Great Britain
- 9 Jan 1799: Pitt brings in 10% income tax, as a wartime financial measure
- 12 Jul 1799: 'Combination Laws' in Britain against political associations and combinations
- 15 Jul 1799: "Rosetta Stone" discovered in Egypt, made possible the deciphering (in 1822) of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics
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3 | 1800 | - 1800: Electric light first produced by Sir Humphrey Davy
- 1800: Use of high pressure steam pioneered by Richard Trevithick (1771-1833)
- 1800: Royal College of Surgeons founded
- 1800: Herschel discovers infra-red light
- 1800: Volta makes first electrical battery
- 2 Jul 1800: Parliamentary union of Great Britain and Ireland
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4 | 1801 | - 1801: Grand Union Canal opens in England
- 1801: Elgin Marbles brought from Athens to London
- 1 Jan 1801: Union Jack becomes the official British flag
- 10 Mar 1801: First census puts the population of England and Wales at 9,168,000. Population of Britain nearly 11 million (75% rural)
- 24 Dec 1801: Richard Trevithick built the first self-propelled passenger carrying road loco
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5 | 1802 | - 25 Mar 1802: Treaty of Amiens signed by Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands – the "Peace of Amiens," as it was known, brought a temporary peace of 14 months during the Napoleonic Wars – one of its most important cultural effects was that travel and correspondence across the English Channel
became possible again
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6 | 1803 | - 1803: Poaching made a Capital offence in England if capture resisted
- 1803: Richard Trevithick built another steam carriage and ran it in London as the first
self-propelled vehicle in the capital and the first London bus
- 1803: Semaphore signalling perfected by Admiral Popham
- 30 Apr 1803: Louisiana Purchase: Napoleon sells French possessions in America to United States
- 12 May 1803: Peace of Amiens ends – resumption of war with France – The Napoleonic Wars (1803-18l5)
- 23 Jul 1803: First public railway opens (Surrey Iron Railway, 9 miles from Wandsworth to
Croydon, horse-drawn)
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7 | 1804 | - 1804: Matthew Flinders recommends that the newly discovered country, New Holland, be renamed "Australia"
- 21 Feb 1804: Richard Trevithick runs his railway engine on the Penydarren Railway (9.5 miles
from Pen-y-Darren to Abercynon in South Wales) – this hauled a train with 10 tons of
iron and 70 passengers. It was commemorated by the Royal Mint in 2004 in the form of
a £2.00 coin.
- 3 Mar 1804: John Wedgwood (eldest son of the potter Josiah Wedgwood) founds The Royal
Horticultural Society
- 2 Dec 1804: Napoleon declares himself Emperor of the French
- 12 Dec 1804: Spain declares war on Britain
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8 | 1805 | - 1805: London docks opened
- 21 Oct 1805: Admiral Nelson's victory at Trafalgar
- 2 Dec 1805: Battle of Austerlitz; Napoleon defeats Austrians and Russians
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9 | 1806 | - 1806: Dartmoor Prison opened (built by French prisoners)
- 9 Jan 1806: Nelson buried in St Paul's cathedral, London
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10 | 1807 | - 25 Mar 1807: Parliament passes Act prohibiting slavery and the importation of slaves from 1808 – but does not prohibit colonial slavery
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11 | 1808 | - 1808: Gas lighting in London streets
- 13 Jul 1808: 'Hot Wednesday' – temperature of 101°F in the shade recorded in London
- 20 Dec 1808: Beethoven premieres his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy together in Vienna
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12 | 1809 | - 12 Feb 1809: Birth of Charles Darwin
- 18 Sep 1809: Royal Opera House opens in London
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13 | 1810 | - 1810: John McAdam begins road construction in England, giving his name to the process of
road metalling
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14 | 1811 | - 5 Feb 1811: Prince of Wales (future George IV) made Regent after George III deemed insane
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15 | 1812 | - 11 May 1812: Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, assassinated – shot as he entered the House of Commons by a bankrupt Liverpool broker, John Bellingham, who was subsequently hanged
- 18 Jun 1812: Start of American "War of 1812" (to 1814) against England and Canada
- Oct 1812: Napoleon retreats from Moscow with catastrophic losses
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16 | 1813 | - 1813: Ireland: First recorded "12th of July" sectarian riots in Belfast
- 1813: Jane Austen wrote "Pride and Prejudice"
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17 | 1814 | - 1 Jan 1814: Invasion of France by Allies
- 6 Apr 1814: Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba
- 13 Aug 1814: Convention of London signed, a treaty between the UK and the Dutch
- 24 Aug 1814: The British burn the White House
- 29 Nov 1814: "The Times" first printed by a 'mechanical apparatus' (at 1,100 sheets per hour)
- 24 Dec 1814: Treaty of Ghent signed ending the 1812 war between Britain and the US
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18 | 1815 | - 1815: Trial by Jury established in Scotland
- 1815: Davy develops the safety lamp for miners
- 18 Jun 1815: The Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon defeated and exiled to St. Helena
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19 | 1816 | - 1816: Income tax abolished
- 1816: For the first time British silver coins were produced with an intrinsic value substantially
below their face value – the first official 'token' coinage
- 1816: Climate: the 'year without a summer' – followed a volcanic explosion of the mountain "Tambora" in Indonesia the previous year, the biggest volcanic explosion in 10,000 years
- 1816: Large scale emigration to North America
- 1816: Trans-Atlantic packet service begins
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20 | 1817 | - 1817: March of the Manchester Blanketeers; Habeas Corpus suspended
- 1817: Constable painted "Flatford Mill"
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21 | 1818 | - 1818: Manchester cotton spinners' strike
- 20 Oct 1818: 'Convention of 1818' signed between the United States and the United Kingdom
which, among other things, settled the US-Canada border on the 49th parallel for most of its
length
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22 | 1819 | - 1819: Primitive bicycle, the Dandy Horse, becomes popular
- 1819: Britain returns to gold standard
- 1819: Singapore founded by Sir Stamford Raffles
- May 1819: SS "Savannah" first steamship to cross Atlantic, reaching Liverpool 20 June 1819 (26
days, mostly under sail)
- 16 Aug 1819: Peterloo Massacre at Manchester – a large, orderly group of 60,000 meets at St.
Peter's Fields, Manchester – demand Parliamentary Reform – mounted troops charge on the
meeting, killing 11 people and and maiming many others
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23 | 1820 | - 1820: Cato Street Conspiracy – plot to assissinate British cabinet
- 1820: Abolition of the Spanish Inquisition
- 29 Jan 1820: Accession of George IV, previously Prince Regent
- 1 Aug 1820: Regent's Canal in London opens
- 17 Aug 1820: Trial of Queen Caroline to prove her infidelities so George IV can divorce her –
George tries to secure a Bill of Pains and Penalties against her – Caroline is virtually acquitted
because bill passed by such a small majority of Lords
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24 | 1821 | - 1821: Faraday publishes "Principles of electro-magnetic rotation"
- 1821: Constable paints "The Hay Wain"
- 5 May 1821: Napoleon Bonaparte dies on St Helena
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25 | 1822 | - 14 Jun 1822: Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society
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26 | 1823 | - 1823: New laws concerning marriage by licence – 'very troublesome' according to some: "the
Act was repealed, all in a hurry, at the beginning of the next session"
- 1823: Peel begins penal reforms – death penalty abolished for over 100 crimes
- 1823: Rugby Football 'invented' at Rugby School
- 1823: Rubberised waterproof material produced by MacIntosh
- 2 Dec 1823: US President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in
future European conflicts (the 'Monroe Doctrine')
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27 | 1824 | - 1824: RSPCA established
- 1824: Portland cement patented
- 4 Mar 1824: Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) founded (called the "National
Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck" until 1854)
- 10 May 1824: National Gallery in London opens to the public
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28 | 1825 | - 27 Sep 1825: Stockton to Darlington Railway opens – world's first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains
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29 | 1827 | - 1827: Ohm's Law published
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