1910 in The United Kingdom - Events

Events

• 15 January - A general election held in response to the House of Lords' rejection of the 1909 budget results in a reduced Liberal Party majority (Liberals, 275 seats; Labour, 40; Irish Nationalists, 82; Unionists (the title then preferred by the Conservative Party), 273).
• 31 January - Dr. Crippen poisons his wife and buries her body in the cellar.
• 1 February - First labour exchanges open in the UK.
• 15 February - The Royal Aero Club is granted its "Royal" prefix.
• 19 February - Old Trafford, the largest football stadium in England with an 80,000 capacity, is opened. Manchester United's first game there is a 4-3 home defeat to Liverpool in the Football League First Division.
• March - King Edward VII falls very ill with bronchitis in Paris, France, returning to London a few weeks later.
• April - It is reported that King Edward VII's health has deteriorated further and he is likely to die soon.
• 4 April - A Bill to abolish the legislative veto of the House of Lords is introduced in the Commons, starting a prolonged clash between the two Houses of Parliament.
• 27 April - The House of Commons passes David Lloyd George's (1909) 'People's Budget' for the second time; it is passed by House of Lords on 28 April.
• 6 May - George V succeeds to the British throne as King on the death of his father, Edward VII.
• 11 May - A firedamp explosion at Wellington Colliery, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, kills 136.
• 20 May - Funeral of Edward VII held, one of the largest and last gatherings of European royalty to take place, following the first public lying in state in Westminster Hall.
• June - Edinburgh Missionary Conference is held in Scotland, presided over by Nobel Peace Prize recipient John R. Mott, launching the modern ecumenical movement and the modern missions movement.
• 2 June - Charles Rolls becomes the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane, including the first eastbound flight. He is also the first British resident to make the crossing in a British-built plane.
• 15 June - Terra Nova Expedition: Robert Falcon Scott's ship Terra Nova sets sail from Cardiff on an expedition with the purpose of undertaking scientific research and exploration along the coast and interior of Antarctica.
• 28 June - Consecration of the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral in London.
• 9–10 July - 'Fowler's match': the Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lord's, known after the captain of Eton College, Robert St Leger Fowler, and described as "what might just be the greatest cricket match of all time".
• 29 July - In a legal cause célèbre, the Crown drops its charge against naval cadet George Archer-Shee for stealing a postal order.
• 31 July - Dr. Crippen arrested on board the SS Montrose after a telegraph is sent to the ship's Captain.

• September - Vaughan Williams' string orchestral work Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is performed for the first time under the composer's baton at Gloucester Cathedral for the Three Choirs Festival.
• 1 September - Ninian Park football stadium is opened in Cardiff, to serve Cardiff City F.C., who are members of the English Football League despite being based in Wales.
• 11 September - English-born actor-aviator Robert Loraine makes an aeroplane flight from Wales across the Irish Sea, landing some 200 feet (60 metres) short of the Irish coast in Dublin Bay.
• 5 October - Portugal becomes a republic; King Manuel II flees to England.
• 18 October
  • Dr. Crippen put on trial for murder at the Old Bailey.
  • First B-type double-decker bus, built and operated by the London General Omnibus Company, enters service. Designed by Frank Searle and considered the first mass-produced bus, around 2,800 are built up to 1919, displacing LGOC’s last horse buses by the end of 1911 and with examples in regular use up to 1926, about 900 seeing service on the Western Front (World War I).

• 20 October - RMS Olympic is launched at the Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast.
• 22 October
  • Dr. Crippen found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
  • Women chainmakers of Cradley Heath in the Black Country, led by Mary Macarthur, win a minimum wage following a ten-week strike; this effectively doubles their pay.
• 1 November - Coal miners are balloted for strike action by the South Wales Miners' Federation following a lock-out, resulting in 12,000 men working for the Cambrian Combine beginning a 10-month strike.
• 7–8 November - Conflict between striking miners and police forces in the Rhondda, South Wales, leads to the Tonypandy Riots.
• 18 November - Black Friday: 300 suffragettes clash with police outside Parliament over the failure of the Conciliation Bill.
• 23 November - Dr. Crippen hanged.
• 3–19 December - The second general election of 1910 is held for the electorate to resolve the battle of wills between the Houses of Commons and Lords. The results are: Liberals, 272; Labour, 42; Irish Nationalists, 84; Unionists, 272 — making a majority of 126 for restriction of the powers of the Lords and for Irish Home Rule. This will be the last British election on which regular voting extends over several days and the last in which woman cannot vote.
• 16 December - In Houndsditch, London, four (Latvian) anarchists shoot three policemen in botched raid on a jewellers — three are arrested, other members of the gang escape but are later (January 1911) cornered in the 'siege of Sidney Street'.
• 21 December - The Pretoria Pit Disaster: a massive underground explosion in Westhoughton, Lancashire, kills 344, with just one survivor, the worst single mining accident in England and the third worst in Britain.
• 26 December - London Palladium music hall opens.