1842 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1842 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - Robert Peel, Conservative

Events

* 6 January–13 January: First Anglo-Afghan War
** Massacre of Elphinstone's army by Afghan forces.
** Battle of Gandamak ends in victory for the Afghans.
* 31 March - Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway line opened up to Werneth.
* 13 April - First Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at the Battle of Jellalabad.
* 11 May - Income Tax Act 1842 establishes the first peacetime income tax in Britain; 7 pence on the pound, for incomes over 150 pounds.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 264-266|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
* 4 June - In South Africa, hunter Dick King rides into British military base in Grahamstown to warn that Boers have besieged Durban. He had left 11 days earlier. British army dispatches a relief force.
* 19 June - Army suppresses Rebecca Rioters in Carmathen, protesting against turnpike tolls.
* August-October - First Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at the Battle of Kabul.
* August - Mines Act 1842 prohibits women and children under ten from working in mines.
* 7 August to 27 August - Riots in and around Lancashire, protesting against Corn Laws, and in favour of Chartists.
* 9 August - The United Kingdom and United States sign the Webster-Ashburton Treaty agreeing the border between the United States and Canada.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 29 August - Britain and China sign the Treaty of Nanking ending the First Opium War.cite web|url=http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1840-1860|title=Icons, a portrait of England 1840-1860|accessdate=2007-09-13] Hong Kong is ceded to Britain.

Undated

* Massacre of Elphinstone's British army on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, by Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammed Khan
* Pentonville Prison built.
* Edwin Chadwick produces a report exposing the low living standards of the urban poor.
* Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross charts the eastern side of James Ross Island.

Births

* 13 May - Arthur Sullivan, composer (died 1900)
* 23 August - Osborne Reynolds, engineer and physicist (died 1912)
* 20 September - James Dewar, chemist and physicist (died 1923)
* 12 November - John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1919)
* 2 December - C. W. Alcock, footballer and football official (died 1907)

Deaths

* 13 March - Henry Shrapnel, soldier and inventor (born 1761)
* 5 June - Thomas Henry Lister, novelist (born 1800)
* 12 June - Thomas Arnold, historian and schoolmaster (born 1795)

References

ee also