1823 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1823 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - George IV of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, Tory

Events

* 20 February - Explorer James Weddell's expedition to Antarctica reaches latitude 74°15' S and longitude 34°16'45" W: the southernmost position any ship had ever reached before, a record that would hold for more than 80 years.
* March - Royal Academy of Music opens.
* 17 June - Charles Macintosh patents the waterproof material later used to make Mackintosh coats.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* July - Robert Peel ensures the passage of five Acts of Parliament, abolishing the death penalty for over one hundred offences.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 252-253|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
* 4 July - Transportation Act 1823 allows convicts transported to the colonies to be employed on public works.
* 10 July - Gaols Act 1823 passed by Parliament, based on the prison reform campaign of Elizabeth Fry.
* 23 September First Burmese War: Burmese attack the British on Shapura, an island close to Chittagong.
* November - According to tradition, William Webb Ellis invents rugby.

Undated

* The King's Library presented to the British Museum.

Publications

* Walter Scott's novel "Quentin Durward".

Births

*8 January - Alfred Russel Wallace, naturalist and biologist (died 1913)
*13 August - Goldwin Smith, historian (died 1910)

Deaths

* 26 January - Edward Jenner, physician and medical researcher (born 1749)
* 27 January - Charles Hutton, mathematician (born 1737)
* 7 February - Ann Radcliffe, writer (born 1764)
* 26 February - John Philip Kemble, actor (born 1757)
* 14 March - John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, Royal Navy admiral (born 1735)
* 23 April - Joseph Nollekens, sculptor (born 1737)
* 11 September - David Ricardo, economist (born 1772)
* 23 September - Matthew Baillie, physician and pathologist (born 1761)
* 30 October - Edmund Cartwright, clergyman and inventor of the power loom (born 1743)

References

ee also