1843 in The United Kingdom - Events

Events

• 6 January — Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross discovers Snow Hill Island.
• 20 January — Daniel M'Naghten shoots and kills the Prime Minister's private secretary, Edward Drummond, in Whitehall.
• 4 March — M'Naghten is found not guilty of murder "by reason of insanity", giving rise to the M'Naghten Rules on criminal responsibility, and subsequently committed to Bethlem Hospital.
• 24 March — Battle of Hyderabad: The Bombay Army led by Major General Sir Charles Napier defeats the Talpur Emirs, securing Sindh province for the British Raj.
• 25 March — Marc Isambard Brunel's Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel under the River Thames, is opened.
• 27 March — Decision in Foss v Harbottle, a leading precedent in English corporate law, declares that in any action in which a wrong is alleged to have been done to a company, the proper claimant is the company itself and not individual shareholders.
• 4 May — Gambia and Natal proclaimed British colonies.
• 18 May — The Disruption of the Church of Scotland takes place in Edinburgh.
• 19 July — Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain is launched from Bristol.
• September — The Economist newspaper first published.
• 1 October — News of the World newspaper first published. It will survive until 2011.
• 3 November–4 November — The statue of Nelson placed atop Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London.
• 13 December — Basutoland becomes a British protectorate.
• December — The world's first Christmas cards, commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London from the artist John Callcott Horsley, are sent.