1783 – Jul: Climate: hottest month on record until 1983; Gilbert White in his ‘Natural History of Selborne’ says: “The summer of 1783 was an amazing and portenteous one, and full of horrible phenomena; for, besides the alarming meteors and tremendous thunder storms that affrighted and distressed the different counties of this kingdom, the peculiar haze or smoky fog that prevailed for many weeks in this island and in every part of Europe, and even beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary appearance unlike anything known within the memory of man”—he put it down to volcanic activity. Apparently it was caused by the eruption of Laki in Iceland which continued from 8th Jun 1783 to 7th February 1784. In June of 1783, the fog was so thick that the boats stayed in port, unable to navigate and the sun was described as “blood coloured”.
1784 – Invention of the threshing machine
1786 – first potato arrived in England – Sir Thomas Harriot
1787 – first convicts sent to Austrailia
1789 – the French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille
1789 – George Washington 1st president
1789 – Mutiny on the Bounty 28/4 – Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew ends up on Pitcairn Island
1790 – shoelace invented
1790 – Stockton earthquake 9 dec 1790
1791 – Wolfgang Amadius Mozart died 5/12
1794 – Abolition of the Parish Register duties
1795 – Speenhamland Act proclaims that the Parish is responsible for bringing up the labourer’s wage to subsistence level – towards the end of the eighteenth century, the number of poor and unemployed increased dramatically – price increases during the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) far outstripped wage rises – many small farmers were bankrupted by the move towards enclosures and became landless labourers – their wages were often pitifully low
1796 – Small pox vaccine first given in England by Dr Edward Jenner
1797 – one pound note issued 26/2
1798 – Irish Rebellion Feb to Oct – 100,000 peasants revolt; approximately 25,000 die – Irish parliment abolished
1799 – Pitt brings in 10% income tax as a wartime financial measure
1800 – Malta became a British Dominion
1801 – March 10 first census puts the population of England and Wales at 9,168,000
1803 – Britain declares war on France
1803 – Poaching made a Capital offence in England if capture resisted
1804 – Spain declares war on Britain (Dec 12)
1804 – Napoleon declares himself Emperor of the French (Dec 2)
1806 – Britain declares war on Prussia
1807 – Slaver trade abolished by Parliment
1807 – July 13th – hot Wednesday – temperature of 101F in the shade recorded in London
1808 – US prohibits import of slaves from Africa
1811 – George III incapacitated by insanity – Prince of Wales became Prince Regent
1812 – US declares war on Britain 18/6 starting the war of 1812 – lasted until 1814
1812 – Rose’s act established a printed format for the baptism & burial registers
1814 – Apr 6 – Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba
1814 – December 24 – Treaty of Ghent signed ending the 1812 war
1814 – Sugar prices reach record heights
1815 – Napoeon escapes Elba and arrives in France Mar 1
1815 – Jun 18 The battle of Waterloo: Napoleon defeated and exiled to St Helena
1815 – Corn law passed with enormous benefit to landlords
1815 – Telegraphic link between London and Paris 13/11
1815 – John Macadam’s road construction method adopted
1816 – Economic depression – rise in wheat prices
1816 – income tax abolished
1816 – Corn riots at Sunderland (18-oct)
1819 – Aug 16: Peterloo Massacre at Manchester – a large, orderly group of 60,000 meets at St. Peter’s Fields, Manchester – demand Parliamentary Reform – mounted troops charge on the meeting, killing 11 people and and maiming many others
1820 – King George IV (George III died 29/1)
1820 – trial of Queen Caroline to prove her infidelities so George IV can divorce her
1821 – Napoleon Bonaparte dies on St Helena
1821 – George IV coronation 19/7
1825 – Financial Crisis
1825 – Railway Stockton to Darlington
1829 – Lucifer matches first manufactured. Matches were the significant invention of the nineteenth century. in 1825 john walker, a 44 -year-old chemist from the English town of stockton-on-tees, was busy making a “lighting mixture” of antimony sulphide and potassium chlorate for use with a flint and steel. When he accidentally rubbed some of the mixture against his hearthstone, he discovered that it lit spontaneously. He could light the friction matches he developed from this discovery by drawing them through a piece of folded sand paper. Walker’s invention, sold only locally, was never patented. it was Samuel Jones who copied and patented the matches in 1828 under the trade name Lucifer. The invention of the modern friction match is attributed to sir issac Holden of keighley, yorkshire;in 1829 he produced a match of phosphorous and sulphur that, being more efficient than walkers superseded it by 1833.
1830 – George IV dies and his brother William IV accedes to the throne
1830 – Swing Riots – threshing machine destroyed on 28 Aug 1830 in Kent
1831 – Truck act – prohibiting payment in kind
1832 – Cholera epidemic
1833 – Factory act – minimum age for working 10
1835 – Christmas becomes a national holiday
1837 – William IV died Jun 20, Queen Victoria accession
1837 – Registration of Births Marriages and Deaths
1837 – First Great Yorkshire Show was born in October 1837 when a group of leading agriculturalists, led by the third Earl Spencer, met at the Black Swan Hotel in Coney Street, York to discuss the future of the farming industry*. The result was the decision to form an organisation – the Yorkshire Agricultural Society – whose aims were to improve and develop agriculture and hold an annual show of excellence. Thus the wheels were set in motion and the first Yorkshire Show was held in Fulford, York, in 1838.
1838 – Jun 28 Corontation of Queen Victoria at Westminster Abbey
1838 – City centre of Bradford flooded 23/2
1839 – Indian tea arrives in Britain
1839 – First Opium War between Britain and China (to 1842) Britain captures Hong Kong
1840 – Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert Feb 10
1842 – Coal mines Act (children working in mines)
1842 – Queen Victoria made first train journey
1842 – income tax reintroduced in Britain
1842 – end of first Opium war – Britain gains Hong Kong
1843 – Christmas cards produced commercially
1844 – Factory Act – working day for children reduced
1844 – Outdoor Relieft Prohibition Order – parish relief received only in a workhouse
1844 – Imperial standards – pound and yard
1845 – Irish potato crop failed resulting in famine
1845 – Temporary repeal of Corn Laws
1848 – Public Health Act
1848 – Bloomers – Amelia Bloomer 19/7
1849 – Cockfighting made illegal
1849 – Florin introduced (two shillings)
1851 – Great Exhibition Hyde Park London Crystal Palace
1851 – Telegraph cable laid across the English Channel
1851 – Sewing machine by Isaac Singer
1853 – Compulsory Vaccination Act (smallpox)
1853 – Aspirin (CF Gerhardt)
1854 – October 6 – The great fire of Tyneside
At 1am a fire at a Gateshead worsted factory spread to an adjoining warehouse containing a lethal range of chemicals and 3,000 tons of brimstone. Crowds gathered along the Tyne and at 3.15am the building exploded, sending out “debris like flying fish”. The explosion was heard as far away as Berwick and is said to have damaged houses in Shields. Miners at Sunderland came to the surface in alarm and the glow from the fire could be seen at Smeaton near Northallerton. Flying debris set alight ships and caused a second fire on the Newcastle side of the river which destroyed the medieval quayside buildings. Hundreds were made homeless and at least 50 died. Most bodies were incinerated and unidentifiable.
1856 – Crimean War ended 30/3
1857 – Prince Albert became Prince Consort
1857 – Transatlantic Telegraph Cable
1858 – Legally proved wills start to be entered into an index
1859 – Big Ben comes into service
1861 – Post Office Savings Bank
1861 – Prince Albert died 14/12
1861 – Paper duties repealed
1862 – cotton Famine in Lancashire
1863 – London Underground
1864 – March 11, the Great Sheffield Flood – over 250 died when a new dam broke while it was being filled for the first time
1866 – Flood 16/11
