1856 in the United Kingdom
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 1856 in the United Kingdom: |
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| 1854 | 1855 | 1856 | 1857 | 1858 |
| Sport |
| 1856 English cricket season |
Events from the year 1856 in the United Kingdom.
Contents |
[edit] Incumbents
- Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom
- Prime Minister - Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Liberal
[edit] Events
- January - The Welsh national anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, is composed by James James with lyrics by his father Evan James.
- 29 January - Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.
- 5 March - Fire destroys Covent Garden Theatre in London.[1]
- 31 March - The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.
- 9 July - Natal becomes a Crown Colony.[2]
- 3 September - the Royal British Bank collapses with debts in excess of £500,000.[1]
- 8 October - The Second Opium War between several western powers, including the United Kingdom, and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
- 1 November - Anglo-Persian War: War is declared between Britain and Persia.
- 9 December - Bushehr surrenders to the British.
- National Portrait Gallery in London opened.
[edit] Births
- 4 March - Alfred William Rich, watercolour painter and author (died 1921)
- 8 March - Bramwell Booth, Salvation Army General (died 1929)
- 12 April - William Martin Conway, art critic and mountaineer (died 1937)
- 22 June - Henry Rider Haggard, writer (died 1925)
- 26 July - George Bernard Shaw, playwright (died 1950)
- 10 August - William Willett, inventor of daylight saving time (died 1915)
- 18 December - J.J. Thomson, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1940)
- 25 December - Samuel William Knaggs, civil servant in the West Indies (died 1924)
[edit] Deaths
- 29 August - Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, Christian writer (born 1778)
- 30 August
- Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, writer (born 1811)
- John Ross, Arctic explorer (born 1777)
[edit] References
- ^ a b (2006) Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
- ^ Palmer, Alan & Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd, 276-277. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
