page_title: 1840 in the United Kingdom
section_title: Events
hierarchical_section_title: 1840 in the United Kingdom / Events
caption_attribution_description: First world postal stamp ever issued&#160;: the Penny Black, Great Britain, 1840.
context_page_description: Events from the year 1840 in the United Kingdom.
context_section_description: 1 January – trial of Welsh Chartists John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones for their part in the Newport Rising of 1839 opens at Monmouth before Chief Justice Tindal. This is the first trial where proceedings are recorded in shorthand.
  10 January – Uniform Penny Post introduced, replacing the Uniform Fourpenny Post of 1839.
  12 January – Chartist rising in Sheffield aborted.
  14 January – Chartist rising in the East End of London largely suppressed by police.
  16 January – Frost, Williams and Jones are all found guilty of high treason for their part in the Chartist riots, and are sentenced to death; the last time the sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering is passed in the U.K., although following a nationwide petitioning campaign and, extraordinarily, direct lobbying of the Home Secretary by the Lord Chief Justice, it is commuted to transportation for life (and Frost is much later pardoned).
  22 January – British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding date of Wellington.
  26 January – Chartist rising in Bradford fails to spread.
  6 February – Treaty of Waitangi, a document granting British sovereignty in New Zealand, is signed.
  10 February – Queen Victoria marries her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the Royal Chapel at St James's Palace.
  15 April – King's College Hospital opens in Portugal Street, London.
  27 April – the foundation stone of the new Palace of Westminster is laid as its reconstruction following the Burning of Parliament in 1834 begins (completed in 1860).
  1 May – issue of the Penny Black, the world's first postage stamp, together with Mulready stationery. The stamp becomes valid for prepayment of postage from 6 May.
  5 May - Thomas Carlyle gives the first lecture in the series On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History
  11 May – Chartist leader Feargus O'Connor is sentenced to imprisonment in York Castle for seditious libel over speeches published in The Northern Star.
  20 May – York Minster's nave roof is destroyed in an accidental fire.
  6 June – the first group of British emigrants from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints set sail from Liverpool bound for Nauvoo, Illinois.
  10 June – Edward Oxford fires a pistol at Queen Victoria in Hyde Park, London.
  12–23 June – the World Anti-Slavery Convention is organised by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society at Exeter Hall in London.
  July
  Fresh water is piped to Buxton Market Place by the 6th Duke of Devonshire, beginning the Buxton well dressing festival.
  Last known great auk in the British Isles caught and later killed on the islet of Stac an Armin, St Kilda, Scotland.
  4 July – the Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the first steam transatlantic passenger mail service.
  15 July – Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia sign the London Treaty with the Sublime Porte, ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
  23 July – the Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union.
  7 August – Chimney Sweepers and Chimneys Regulation Act 1840 prohibits the employment of children under the age of 21 as chimney sweeps.
  10 September – Ottoman and British troops bombard Beirut and land troops on the coast to pressure Egyptian Muhammad Ali to retreat from the country.
  16 September – Joseph Strutt hands over the deeds and papers concerning the Derby Arboretum, which is to become England's first public park.
  30 September – foundation of Nelson's Column laid in London, Trafalgar Square being laid out (as a hectare) and paved during the year.
  11 October – Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the Ottomans (in alliance with the British) and on 14 October goes into exile, initially in Malta.
  10 November – the boiler of an experimental steam locomotive named Surprise explodes near Bromsgrove station in Worcestershire, killing the driver, Thomas Scaife, and fireman, Joseph Rutherford.
  8 December – David Livingstone leaves for Africa.
  21 December – Stockport Viaduct is completed. It is one of the largest brick structures in Europe.
caption: Penny Black
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