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UK-related events during the year of 1850
Events from the year 1850 in the United Kingdom .
Incumbents
Events
18 January –
Don Pacifico affair :
Lord Palmerston , the
Foreign Secretary , sends a
Royal Navy squadron to blockade the port of
Piraeus in the
Aegean Sea in defence of the interests of a
British citizen , causing a diplomatic incident with Russia and France.
[1]
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.
[2]
9 March – the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council delivers judgement in a case brought on appeal by Rev.
George Cornelius Gorham which effectively gives the civil courts power to determine the doctrine of the
Church of England .
30 March – the
paddle steamer
RMS Royal Adelaide (1838) , bound from
Cork to London, sinks off
Margate with the loss of all 250 on board.
[3]
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.
[4]
25 May – the
hippopotamus
Obaysch arrives at
London Zoo from
Egypt , the first to live in the British Isles since prehistoric times.
27 June – eccentric
Robert Pate physically assaults
Queen Victoria with his cane in
Piccadilly (London).
29 June –
Don Pacifico affair :
Palmerston defends his action robustly in
Parliament .
3 July – the
Koh-i-Noor diamond is presented to Queen Victoria.
July–August – '
Great Stink ': Hot weather exacerbates the effects of untreated sewage discharged into the River Thames in London.
[5]
5 August – colonies of
New South Wales ,
South Australia ,
Tasmania , and
Victoria granted representative government.
[6]
14 August
27 August – a
telegraph cable is laid beneath the
English Channel from
Dover to
Cap Gris Nez in France
[2] but does not function.
29 September – by the
Bull
Universalis Ecclesiae ,
Pope Pius IX recreates the
Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales, which had become extinct with the death of the last
Marian bishop in the reign of
Elizabeth I , a move held by many Protestants to constitute "papal aggression".
Nicholas Wiseman is appointed first
Archbishop of Westminster and elevated to
Cardinal . He issues a pastoral letter, From Without the Flaminian Gate , and on 21 November is enthroned in
St George's Cathedral, Southwark .
October –
Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum for Ireland opened in
Dundrum, Dublin , the first secure hospital in Europe.
[7]
17 October –
James Young patents a method of distilling
paraffin from coal, laying the foundations for the Scottish paraffin industry.
22–3 October – first
Wenlock Olympian Class Games held at
Much Wenlock ,
Shropshire .
November
19 November –
Alfred Tennyson appointed as
Poet Laureate .
[2]
25 November – gale in the
English Channel .
10 December –
Bingley Hall , the world's first purpose-built permanent exhibition hall, opens in
Birmingham .
17 December – the
Inman Line (Liverpool and Philadelphia Steamship Company) begins operation when new iron paddle steamer
SS City of Glasgow puts out from
Liverpool bound for
Philadelphia .
Undated
Publications
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)
24 October –
Mary Paley Marshall , economist (died 1944)
13 November
11 December –
Lady 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, Lord Jeffrey , judge and literary critic (born 1773)
14 February –
Sir Gordon Bremer , naval officer (born 1786)
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 –
Sir 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 , Scottish lighthouse engineer (born 1772)
5 August –
Mary Anne Whitby , scientist (born 1783)
26 August –
Louis Philippe I , exiled King of the French (born 1773 in France)
27 August –
Thomas Kidd , classical scholar and schoolmaster (born 1770)
2 September –
Charles Williams-Wynn , Tory politician (born 1775)
2 October –
Sarah Biffen , armless painter (born 1784)
1 December –
Aaron Manby , ironmaster and civil engineer (born 1776)
3 December –
John Gibb , Scottish civil engineering contractor (born 1776)
4 December
References