1812 in the United Kingdom

• George III
• George, Prince Regent
• Prime Minister – Spencer Perceval (Tory) (until 11 May); Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (Tory) (starting 8 June)
• Foreign Secretary – Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley (until 4 March) Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (starting 4 March)
• Home Secretary – Richard Ryder (until 8 June) Lord Sidmouth (from 11 June)

Events

• 1 January – The Bishop of Durham, Shute Barrington, orders troops from Durham Castle to break up a miners' strike in Chester-le-Street, Co. Durham
• 27 February – Poet
  industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire
  .
• 15 March – Luddites attack the wool processing factory of Frank Vickerman in West Yorkshire.
• 16 March–6 April – Siege of Badajoz (Peninsular War): The Anglo-Portuguese Army, under the Earl of Wellington, besieges Badajoz in Spain and forces surrender of the French garrison.
• 20 March – Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812 ("Frame-breaking Act") makes Luddite machine-breakers subject to capital punishment.^[1]
• 4 April –
  embargo
  on trade with the United Kingdom.
• 24 April – Luddites attack the Westhoughton Mill of Thomas Rowe in Lancashire.
• 11 May – Bankrupt banker John Bellingham assassinates Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the House of Commons.
• 18 May – John Bellingham is hanged at Newgate Prison.
• 25 May –
  colliery near Jarrow
  — 96 dead.
• 8 June – Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (Tory) becomes Prime Minister. Aged 42 at accession, he will hold the office for almost fifteen years, the second longest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after Pitt the Younger, who was in office for nearly 20 years across his two premierships.
• 18 June – The War of 1812 begins between the United States and the United Kingdom.
• 18 July – The
  Anglo-Swedish War
  .
• 22 July – Peninsular War: at the Battle of Salamanca, British forces led by Lord Wellington defeat French troops near Salamanca in Spain.^[2]
• August – Henry Bell's PS Comet begins a passenger service on the River Clyde between Glasgow and Greenock, the first commercially successful steamboat service in Europe.^[3]
• 12 August
  • Peninsular War: Wellington enters Madrid following the Battle of Salamanca.
  • The Middleton Railway, serving coal pits at Leeds, becomes the first to use steam locomotives successfully in regular service.^[4]
• 16 August – War of 1812: American
  General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army
  .
• 19 August – War of 1812:
  Guerrière off the coast of Nova Scotia
  .
• 5 October–10 November – A general election sees victory for the Tory Party under Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.
• 9 October – War of 1812: in a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces capture two British ships, HMS Detroit and HMS Caledonia.
• 13 October – War of 1812:
  General Stephen Van Rensselaer IV are repulsed from invading Canada by British and native troops led by Sir Isaac Brock
  (although he dies during the battle).
• 7 November – HMS Victory is retired from front-line service.^[5]

Undated

• Alton Barnes White Horse cut in Wiltshire.

Ongoing

• Napoleonic Wars, 1803–1815
• Peninsular War, 1808–1814

Publications

• First two cantos of
  Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.^[1] This sells out in five days after publication on 20 March, giving rise to Byron's comment "I awoke one morning and found myself famous".^[6]
• Sir
  Richard Colt Hoare's study The Ancient History of South Wiltshire, one of the earliest works to use evidence from archaeology
  .
• Rejected Addresses
  .

• 7 February – Charles Dickens, novelist (died 1870)
• 1 March – Augustus Pugin, architect (died 1852)
• 12 March – Joseph Prestwich, geologist (died 1896)
• 7 May – Robert Browning, poet (died 1889)
• 12 May – Edward Lear, nonsense poet, illustrator and painter (died 1888)
• 8 July – Louisa Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, aristocrat (died 1905)^[7]
• 24 September – Mary Ann Browne, poet and writer of musical scores (died 1845)^[8]
• 25 November – Henry Mayhew, writer (died 1887)
• 14 December – Charles Canning, 1st Viceroy of India (died 1862)^[9]
• 23 December – Samuel Smiles, author and reformer (died 1904)

Deaths

• 23 January – Robert Craufurd, general (mortally wounded in battle) (born 1764)
• 11 March – Philip James de Loutherbourg, painter (born 1740 in Alsace)^[10]
• 18 March – John Horne Tooke, politician and philologist (born 1736)^[11]
• 7 April – Robert Willan, dermatologist (born 1757)^[12]
• 25 April – Edmond Malone, Shakespearian scholar (born 1741 in Ireland)^[13]
• 11 May – Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister (assassinated) (born 1762)
• 18 May – John Bellingham, Perceval's killer (executed) (born c. 1769)
• 12 August – William Booth, forger (executed) (baptised 1776)^[14]
• 13 October – Isaac Brock, British general (killed in battle) (born 1769)
• 28 October – Susanna Duncombe, poet and painter (born 1725)^[15]
• 16 November – John Walter, newspaper proprietor (born c. 1738)^[16]

References