Events
- February – Robert Owen organises the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union. [1]
- March – William Whewell (anonymously) first publishes the term scientist in the Quarterly Review (but notes it as "not generally palatable"). [2]
- 18 March – The Tolpuddle Martyrs, six Dorset farm labourers, are sentenced to be transported to a penal colony for forming a trade union. [3]
- 23 May – The Exchequer is abolished as a revenue collecting department of the British government by the Office of Receipt of Exchequer Act.
- 23 June – HMS Tartarus is launched at Pembroke Dock. It is the Royal Navy's first steam-powered man-of-war (a paddle gunvessel). [4]
- 16 July – Lord Melbourne succeeds Earl Grey as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- 25 July – Hanging in chains upon a gibbet after execution is abolished in England by the Hanging-in-Chains Abolition Act.
- August – Foresters Friendly Society formed as the Ancient Order of Foresters in Rochdale.
- 1 August – Slavery abolished in most of the British Empire by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. [3]
- 14 August – Poor Law Amendment Act states the able-bodied cannot receive assistance unless they enter a workhouse; poor-law authorities should no longer attempt to identify the fathers of illegitimate children to recover support from them.
- 15 August – Parliament approves the creation of the colony of South Australia. [5]
- 22 September – The Leeds and Selby Railway in Yorkshire is officially opened. At 700 yards (640 m) long, its Marsh Lane tunnel through Richmond Hill, Leeds, is the world's longest railway tunnel at this date and the first through which passengers are hauled by steam locomotives. [6]
- 7 October – Birmingham Town Hall, designed by Joseph Hansom and Edward Welch, is opened for the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival.
- 16 October – Burning of Parliament: Much of the Palace of Westminster is destroyed by fire.
- 14 November – William IV dismisses the government of Melbourne, after proposals for Church reform are made. The Duke of Wellington forms a caretaker government. This will be the last time a British sovereign chooses a Prime Minister contrary to the will of Parliament.
- 24 November – Opening of the first purpose-built Temperance Hall in Britain, at Garstang in Lancashire. [7]
- 10 December – Sir Robert Peel forms his first government.
- 17 December – The Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first public railway in Ireland, opens between Dublin and Kingstown.
- 18 December
- Tamworth Manifesto published: Peel outlines his guiding principles of government, regarded as the basis of the modern Conservative Party. [8]
- Tithe War in Ireland: "Rathcormac massacre": At Gortroe, near Rathcormac, County Cork, armed Constabulary reinforced by the regular British Army kill at least nine and wound thirty protesters against tithes. [9] [10]
- 23 December – Architect and inventor Joseph Hansom patents the Hansom cab. [3] [5]
- 26 December – Ursulines of Jesus take up residence at St Margaret's Convent in the Whitehouse in Edinburgh, the first Roman Catholic convent established in Scotland since the Reformation; [11] it will be another 5 years before the first such modern establishment in England.
Undated
- British East India Company monopoly on China trade ended.
- The Institute of British Architects in London, predecessor of the Royal Institute of British Architects, is formed.
- Harrods founded as a wholesale tea dealer in Stepney in the East End of London. [12]
- Augustus Smith acquires the lease on the Isles of Scilly from the Duchy of Cornwall.
- History of computing hardware: Charles Babbage begins the conceptual design of an "analytical engine", a mechanical forerunner of the modern computer. It will not be built in his lifetime. [5] [13] [14]
- A "Fancy Toy Dog Show" is held at Elephant and Castle in London. [15]
- With an average Central England temperature of 10.51 °C or 50.92 °F, this narrowly overtakes 1733 as the hottest calendar year in the CET record until equalled in 1921 and beaten in 1949. [16]