1846 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1844 | 1845 | 1846 | 1847 | 1848

Sport

1846 English cricket season

Events from the year 1846 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch Queen Victoria
• Prime Minister Robert Peel (Conservative; until 29 June), Lord John Russell (Liberal)

Events

• 5 January The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
• 10 February First Anglo-Sikh War: British victory at the Battle of Sobraon.^[1]
• 9 March The conclusion of the First Anglo-Sikh War with the signing of the Treaty of Lahore.^[2] Kashmir is ceded to the British East India Company and the Koh-i-Noor diamond is surrendered to Queen Victoria.
• 13 March Ballinglass Incident: eviction of 300 tenants at the village of Ballinglass in Ireland during the Irish Potato famine.
• 3 April Last London-based mail coach runs, to Norwich.^[3]
• 16 May Under the leadership of Prime Minister Robert Peel, Parliament repeals the Corn Laws, replacing the old Colonial mercantile trade system with Free Trade.^[4]
• 15 June Treaty of Washington establishes the 49th Parallel as the border between Oregon and British Canada.^[1]
• 29 June Peel resigns, and is succeeded by John Russell, 1st Earl Russell.
• 9 July A flood at East Wheal Rose lead mine in Cornwall kills 39.^[5]
• 30 July Opening of Albert Dock, Liverpool.^[6]
• 15 August Inauguration of Scott Monument in Edinburgh.^[7]
• 18 August Religious Opinions Relief Act removes most remaining disabilities affecting the ability of Jews, Dissenters and Roman Catholics to participate in public life.
• 26 August Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah first performed at the Birmingham Festival.^[2]
• 1 September Deodand abolished in England and Wales by the Deodands Act.
• 10 October William Lassell discovers Triton, one of the moons of Neptune.
• 21 December Surgeon Robert Liston carries out the first operation under anaesthesia in Britain.^[2]

Undated

• Electric Telegraph Company founded.
• Railway Mania reaches its zenith, with 272 railway construction bills being passed in this year.^[1]
• The discovery of Neptune is disputed between the British astronomer John Couch Adams and the French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier.
• Agapemone, a Christian sect and community, is founded by Rev. Henry Prince at Spaxton, Somerset.^[8]

Ongoing events

• Irish Potato Famine (1845 1849)

Publications

• Charles Dickens' novel The Battle of Life and the serialisation of Dombey and Son.
• Edward Lear's A Book of Nonsense.^[1]
• The String of Pearls: a Romance, probably written by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest, begins serialisation, the first literary appearance of Sweeney Todd.

Births

• 18 February Wilson Barrett, actor (died 1904)
• 17 March Kate Greenaway, children's book illustrator and writer (died 1901)
• 25 May Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (died 1923)
• 27 June Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish political leader (died 1891)
• 16 September Anna Kingsford, physician, advocate of women's rights, anti-vivisection and vegetarianism (died 1888)

Deaths

• 22 June Benjamin Haydon, painter and writer (born 1786)
• 5 September Charles Metcalfe, 1st Baron Metcalfe, colonial administrator (born 1785)
• 23 September John Ainsworth Horrocks, English-born explorer of South Australia (born 1818)

References

See also