Events
- 1 January - Sierra Leone becomes a British Crown Colony.
- 18 February - First recorded rescue using the Manby Mortar when the crew of the Plymouth brig Elizabeth stranded off Great Yarmouth are hauled safely to shore under the direction of Captain Manby.
- 2 May - End of Anglo-Spanish War and beginning of Peninsular War as Spain allies with the United Kingdom and Portugal against France.
- 20 July - Henry Crabb Robinson makes the first despatch from a specialist war reporter, to The Times newspaper.
- 1 August - Peninsular War: British expeditionary force lands near Oporto.
- 21 August - Peninsular War: British-Portuguese victory over the French at the Battle of Vimeiro.
- 21 October - Nelson's Pillar in Dublin is completed.
- 20 December - The original Covent Garden Theatre in London is destroyed by a fire along with most of the scenery, costumes and scripts.
Read more about this topic: 1808 In The United Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“By many a legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as by events which have passed before their eyes, these people have been taught to look upon white men with abhorrence.... I can sympathize with the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the beach, with his back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the intruding European.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“There are no little events in life, those we think of no consequence may be full of fate, and it is at our own risk if we neglect the acquaintances and opportunities that seem to be casually offered, and of small importance.”
—Amelia E. Barr (1831–1919)