1850 in the United Kingdom
Events from the year 1850 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch – Victoria
- Prime Minister – Lord John Russell
- Parliament – 15th
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 31 March – the paddle steamer, bound from Cork to London, sinks off Margate with the loss of all 250 on board.
- 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.
- 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.
- 29 June – Don Pacifico affair: Palmerston defends his action robustly in Parliament.
- 3 July – the Koh-i-Noor diamond is presented to Queen Victoria.
- 5 August – colonies of New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria granted representative government.
- 14 August
- * Liberties Act provides a mechanism to enable the various liberties or independent jurisdictions in England and Wales to be merged into the geographical counties in which they lie.
- * Irish Franchise Act increases the rural electorate in Ireland.
- 27 August – a telegraph cable is laid beneath the English Channel running from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in France.
- 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.
- 22–3 October – first Wenlock Olympian Class Games held at Much Wenlock, Shropshire.
- 17 October – James Young patents a method of distilling paraffin from coal, laying the foundations for the Scottish paraffin industry.
- November
- * Undergraduates at Exeter College, Oxford arrange a "foot grind", the first organised university athletic event in Britain.
- * Salford Museum and Art Gallery first opens as "The Royal Museum & Public Library", the first unconditionally free public library in England, established under the Museums Act 1845.
- 19 November – Alfred Tennyson appointed as Poet Laureate.
- 25 November – gale in the English Channel.
- 17 December – the Inman Line begins operation when new iron paddle steamer puts out from Liverpool bound for Philadelphia.
Undated
- Public Libraries Act, Interpretation Act, Police of Scotland Act and Factory Act passed by parliament.
- Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum for Ireland opened in Dundrum, Dublin, the first secure hospital in Europe.
- The University of Oxford establishes an Honour School in Natural Science.
- Bingley Hall, the world's first purpose-built permanent exhibition hall, opens in Birmingham.
- London butchers C Lidgate opens for the first time.
- The 1846–1860 cholera pandemic claims 52,000 lives in England and Wales between 1848 and 1850.
Publications
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning's collection Sonnets from the Portuguese containing the well-known poem which begins "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."
- Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield complete in book form.
- Alfred Tennyson's poem In Memoriam A.H.H.
- William Wordsworth's poem The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet's Mind.
- The Germ, periodical of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood edited by William Michael Rossetti.
Births
- 4 January – Frederick York Powell, historian and scholar
- 15 January – Leonard Darwin, son of the naturalist Charles Darwin
- 19 January – Augustine Birrell, author and politician
- 27 January – John Collier, writer and painter
- 27 January – Edward Smith, Captain of the Titanic
- 29 January – Ebenezer Howard, urban planner
- 18 February – George Henschel, musician
- 9 March – Hamo Thornycroft, sculptor
- 9 April – Julius Wernher, German-born British businessman and art collector
- 13 April – Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, astronomer
- 16 April – Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, inventor
- 26 April – Harry Bates, sculptor
- 1 May – Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, member of the Royal Family
- 10 May – Thomas Lipton, merchant and yachtsman
- 12 May – Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, Liberal politician and jurist
- 18 May – Oliver Heaviside, engineer
- 26 May – James Kenyon, pioneer of cinematography
- 28 May – Frederic William Maitland, jurist and historian
- 2 June – Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent, businessman
- 24 June – Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, field marshal and statesman
- 13 August – Philip Bourke Marston, poet
- 14 August – W. W. Rouse Ball, mathematician
- 9 September – Jane Ellen Harrison, classical scholar and feminist
- 17 September – Cuthbert A. Brereton, civil engineer
- 18 October – Basil Hall Chamberlain, Japanologist
- 24 October – Mary Paley Marshall, economist
- 13 November – Robert Louis Stevenson, writer
- 13 November – Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet, politician
- 11 December – Mary Victoria Hamilton, Scottish-German-French great-grandmother of Prince Rainier III of Monaco
- 24 December – Brandon Thomas, actor and playwright
Deaths
- 26 January – Francis Jeffrey, judge and literary critic
- 13 March – Owen Stanley, naval officer and explorer of New Guinea
- 7 April – William Lisle Bowles, poet and critic
- 9 April – William Prout, chemist and physician
- 23 April – William Wordsworth, poet
- 24 May – Jane Porter, novelist
- 9 June – John Green Crosse, surgeon
- 2 July – Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 4 July – William Kirby, entomologist
- 7 July – Timothy Hackworth, steam locomotive engineer
- 8 July – Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, member of the Royal Family
- 12 July – Robert Stevenson, Scottish lighthouse engineer
- 26 August – Louis Philippe I, exiled King of the French
- 27 August – Thomas Kidd, classical scholar and schoolmaster
- 2 September – Charles Williams-Wynn, Tory politician
- 2 October – Sarah Biffen, armless painter
- 4 December
- * Robert Gilfillan, poet
- * William Sturgeon, physicist and inventor
- Date unknown – Mary Anne Whitby, scientist