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Events from the year 1850 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents Events - 18 January Don Pacifico affair: Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary, sends a Royal Navy squadron to blockade the port of Piraeus in the Aegean Sea in defence of the interests of a British citizen, causing a diplomatic incident with Russia and France.[1]
- 5 March Opening of Robert Stephenson's Britannia Bridge carrying the Chester and Holyhead Railway across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales.[2]
- 31 March The paddle steamer , bound from Cork to London, sinks off Margate with the loss of all 250 on board.[3]
- 4 April North London Collegiate School for girls established in new premises with Frances Buss as Principal.
- 19 April Clayton-Bulwer Treaty signed between the United Kingdom and the United States agreeing that neither nation is to colonize or control any Central American republic. The purpose is to prevent one country from building a canal across the isthmus that the other would not be able to use.[4]
- 29 June Don Pacifico affair: Palmerston defends his action robustly in Parliament.
- 3 July The Koh-i-Noor diamond is presented to Queen Victoria.
- 5 August Colonies of New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria granted representative government.[5]
- 14 August Irish Franchise Act increases the rural electorate in Ireland.[5]
- 27 August A telegraph cable is laid beneath the English Channel running from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in France.[2]
- 29 September By the Bull Universalis Ecclesiae, Pope Pius IX recreates the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England, which had become extinct with the death of the last Marian bishop in the reign of Elizabeth I.
- 22 3 October First Wenlock Olympian Class Games held at Much Wenlock, Shropshire.
- 17 October James Young patents a method of distilling paraffin from coal, laying the foundations for the Scottish paraffin industry.
- November Salford Museum and Art Gallery first opens as "The Royal Museum & Public Library", the first unconditionally free public library in England, established under the Museums Act 1845.[6]
- 19 November Alfred Tennyson appointed as Poet Laureate.[2]
Undated Publications Births - 4 January Frederick York Powell, historian and scholar (died 1904)
- 15 January Leonard Darwin, son of the naturalist Charles Darwin (died 1943)
- 19 January Augustine Birrell, author and politician (died 1933)
- 27 January John Collier, writer and painter (died 1934)
- 27 January Edward Smith, Captain of the Titanic (died 1912)
- 29 January Ebenezer Howard, urban planner (died 1928)
- 18 February George Henschel, musician (died 1934)
- 9 March Hamo Thornycroft, sculptor (died 1925)
- 9 April Julius Wernher, German-born British businessman and art collector (died 1912)
- 13 April Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, astronomer (died 1917)
- 16 April Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, inventor (died 1885)
- 26 April Harry Bates, sculptor (died 1899)
- 1 May Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, member of the Royal Family (died 1942)
- 10 May Thomas Lipton, merchant and yachtsman (died 1931)
- 12 May Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, Liberal politician and jurist (died 1934)
- 18 May Oliver Heaviside, engineer (died 1925)
- 26 May James Kenyon, pioneer of cinematography (died 1925)
- 28 May Frederic William Maitland, jurist and historian (died 1906)
- 2 June Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent, businessman (died 1931)
- 24 June Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, field marshal and statesman (died 1916)
- 13 August Philip Bourke Marston, poet (died 1887)
- 14 August W. W. Rouse Ball, mathematician (died 1925)
- 9 September Jane Ellen Harrison, classical scholar and feminist (died 1928)
- 17 September Cuthbert A. Brereton, civil engineer (died 1910)
- 18 October Basil Hall Chamberlain, Japanologist (died 1935)
- 13 November Robert Louis Stevenson, writer (died 1894)
- 13 November Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet, politician (died 1922)
- 11 December Mary Victoria Hamilton, Scottish-German-French great-grandmother of Prince Rainier III of Monaco (died 1922)
- 24 December Brandon Thomas, actor and playwright (died 1914)
Deaths - 26 January Francis Jeffrey, judge and literary critic (born 1773)
- 13 March Owen Stanley, naval officer and explorer of New Guinea (born 1811)
- 7 April William Lisle Bowles, poet and critic (born 1762)
- 9 April William Prout, chemist and physician (born 1785)
- 23 April William Wordsworth, poet (born 1770)
- 24 May Jane Porter, novelist (born 1776)
- 9 June John Green Crosse, surgeon (born 1790)
- 2 July Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1788)
- 4 July William Kirby, entomologist (born 1759)
- 7 July Timothy Hackworth, steam locomotive engineer (born 1786)
- 8 July Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, member of the Royal Family (born 1774)
- 12 July Robert Stevenson, lighthouse engineer (born 1772)
- 27 August Thomas Kidd, classical scholar and schoolmaster (born 1770)
- 2 September Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn, Tory politician (born 1775)
- 2 October Sarah Biffen, painter (born 1784)
- 4 December
References See also
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