1902 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1902 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - Edward VII of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Conservative (until 11 July), Arthur Balfour, Conservative

Events

* 5 January - first performance of George Bernard Shaw's 1893 play "Mrs. Warren's Profession" in London.cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|pages=460–461]
* 17 January - "The Times Literary Supplement" first published.
* 30 January - The Anglo-Japanese Alliance is signed in London ending the policy of "splendid isolation".
* 13 February - The 1902 World Figure Skating Championships held in London.
* 7 March - Second Boer War: South African Boers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
* 2 April - first performance of William Butler Yeats's play "Cathleen Ní Houlihan" in Dublin.
* 5 April - the first Ibrox disaster: a stand at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow collapses during an England versus Scotland football match.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006] 25 people die and 517 are injured.
* 31 May - Treaty of Vereeniging signed by the United Kingdom, the South African Republic and the Republic of the Orange Free State bringing the Second Boer War to an end.
* 23 June - Edward VII institutes The Order of Merit.
* 30 June–11 August - a conference held in London supports the principle of Imperial Preference, a system of reciprocally-levelled tariffs or Free trade agreements between different Dominions and colonies within the British Empire.
* 11 July - Retirement of Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister. He is succeeded by his nephew Arthur Balfour.
* 9 August - Edward VII is crowned King.
* 13 September - Harry Jackson becomes the first British person to be convicted on the basis of fingerprint evidence.
* 1 October - Launch of the Royal Navy's first submarine, the "Holland 1".
* 16 October - the first Borstal, a type of youth detention centre, opened in Borstal, Kent.
* 31 December - Scott, Shackleton and Wilson reach the furthest southern point reached thus far by man at 82°17'S.
* 9 December - British and German forces seize the navy of Venezuela in a dispute over compensation claims.
* 10 December - Ronald Ross wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for successful research on this disease and methods of combating it". [cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1902/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1902|accessdate=2007-10-27]
* December - The Balfour Education Act establishes the system of Local Education Authorities in England and Wales.

Undated

* Oliver Heaviside proposes the Kennelly-Heaviside layer.
* William Bayliss and Ernest Starling discover the first hormone, secretin.

Publications

* J. M. Barrie's play "The Admirable Crichton".
* Arnold Bennett's novel "Anna of the Five Towns".
* Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles".
* Joseph Conrad's novella "Heart of Darkness".
* John A. Hobson's "Imperialism".
* Henry James's novel "The Wings of the Dove".
* Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories".
* Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit".
* "The Times Literary Supplement".

Births

* 5 January - Stella Gibbons, novelist, journalist, poet and short-story writer (died 1989)
* 16 January - Eric Liddell, runner (died 1945)
* 4 February - Hartley Shawcross, prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials (died 2003)
* 28 March - Dame Flora Robson, English actress (died 1984)
* 29 March - William Walton, English composer (died 1983)
* 30 March - Ted Heath, bandleader (died 1969)
* 8 April - Andrew Irvine, mountaineer, disappeared on Mount Everest (died 1924)
* 20 April - Donald Wolfit, actor-manager (died 1968)
* 8 August - Paul Dirac, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1984)
* 16 August - Georgette Heyer, writer (died 1974)
* 20 September - Stevie Smith, poet and novelist (died 1971)
* 21 September - Allen Lane, publisher (died 1970)
* 9 November - Anthony Asquith, film director (died 1968)
* 19 December - Ralph Richardson, actor (died 1983)
* 20 December - Prince George, Duke of Kent (died 1942)

Deaths

* 11 January - Johnny Briggs,cricketer (born 1862)
* 17 November - Hugh Price Hughes, social reformer (born 1847)
* 26 March - Cecil Rhodes, imperialist (born 1853)
* 18 June - Samuel Butler, author (born 1835)
* 6 September - Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, chemist (born 1827)
* 23 December - Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (born 1821)

References

ee also