Events
- 5 January - The Treaty of the Dardanelles between the United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire is concluded.
- 16 January - Peninsular War: Battle of Corunna in Galicia (Spain): The British (under General Sir John Moore, who is killed) resist an attempt by the French (under Marshal Soult) to prevent them embarking.
- 1 March - The literary and political periodical The Quarterly Review is first published by John Murray.
- 18 April - First running of the 2,000 Guineas Stakes horse race at Newmarket, won by Wizard.
- 22 April - General Sir Arthur Wellesley arrives at Lisbon onboard HMS Surveillante to take command of the British troops in Portugal.
- 10–11 May - Peninsular War: Battle of Grijó: the Anglo-Portuguese Army commanded by Sir Arthur Wellesley defeats the French army commanded by Marshal Soult in Portugal.
- 12 May - Peninsular War: Second Battle of Porto: the Anglo-Portuguese Army commanded by Wellesley crosses the Douro, drives the French army commanded by Marshal Soult out of Porto and forces them to retreat into Spain.
- 24 May - Dartmoor Prison opens, to house French prisoners of war.
- 19 June - Law passed to prevent blatant sale of seats in the House of Commons to supporters.
- 7 June - Shoja Shah of Afghanistan signs a treaty with the British. Only weeks later, he is succeeded by Mahmud Shah.
- 27–28 July - Wellesley's British, Portuguese, and Spanish army defeats a much larger French force at the Battle of Talavera in Spain.
- 30 July - British invasion army lands in Walcheren.
- 4 September - Wellesley is appointed Baron Douro and Viscount Wellington in the peerage of the United Kingdom.
- 18 September - A new theatre to hold the Royal Opera House opens in London to replace the first burnt down in a fire in 1808 (pictured). The price increases lead to the Old Price Riots which last for 64 days.
- 4 October - Portland resigns due to ill health; Spencer Perceval takes over as Prime Minister.
- 25 October - Statue of Horatio Nelson by Richard Westmacott, erected by public subscription, is unveiled in Birmingham, the first statue of Admiral Lord Nelson in the country.
- 10 November - The Berners Street Hoax: Theodore Hook manages to attract dozens of people to 54 Berners Street in London.
- 25 November - Benjamin Bathurst, a British diplomat, mysteriously disappears (having possibly been murdered) in Perleberg, west of Berlin.
- 26 December - British invasion force leaves Vlissingen.
Read more about this topic: 1809 In The United Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“The geometry of landscape and situation seems to create its own systems of time, the sense of a dynamic element which is cinematising the events of the canvas, translating a posture or ceremony into dynamic terms. The greatest movie of the 20th century is the Mona Lisa, just as the greatest novel is Gray’s Anatomy.”
—J.G. (James Graham)
“On the most profitable lie, the course of events presently lays a destructive tax; whilst frankness invites frankness, puts the parties on a convenient footing, and makes their business a friendship.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)