Events from the year 1845 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Monarch – Victoria
Prime Minister – Robert Peel (Conservative) Foreign Secretary – George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen Parliament – 14th
Events
3 January – first known arrest of a fugitive achieved through use of the new electric telegraph when murderer John Tawell is arrested after being followed by a detective alerted prior to Tawell's arrival at London Paddington station. February – Andover workhouse scandal begins. 7 February – in the British Museum, a drunken visitor smashes the Portland Vase which takes months to repair. 11 March – Flagstaff War: Chiefs Kawiti and Hone Heke lead 700 Māori people in the burning of the British colonial settlement of Kororāreka, later known as Russell, New Zealand. 15 March – first University Boat Race to use the present Putney to Mortlake course (albeit in the reverse direction to that used today). 17 March – Stephen Perry patents the rubber band. 26 March – Sisterhood of the Holy Cross ('Park Village Community') established as the first Anglican sisterhood, to minister to the poor of St Pancras, London. 1 May – first cricket match to be played at the Kennington Oval. 2 May – the Yarmouth suspension bridge at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, collapses: 79 killed. 19 May – HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men, comprising Sir John Franklin's expedition to find the Northwest Passage, sail from Greenhithe on the Thames. They will last be seen in the summer entering Baffin Bay. 20 May – the last fatal duel between Englishmen on English soil takes place near Gosport. James Alexander Seton is shot and dies twelve days later from his wound. His opponent, Royal Marine Lieutenant Charles Lawes Pym, is tried for murder a year later, but acquitted. 31 May – launch of the first English lake steamer Lady of the Lake for Windermere. 21 July – an unprecedented number of railway acts receive Royal Assent from Queen Victoria as the railway mania approaches its peak, Parliament having sanctioned of new construction. 26 July–10 August – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iron steamship makes the Transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to New York, the first screw propelled vessel to make the passage. 31 July – Jews are permitted to hold certain municipal offices. 9 August – Aberdeen Act instructing the Royal Navy to counter the Brazilian slave trade, signed. 9 September – potato blight breaks out in Ireland: beginning of the Great Famine. 18 September – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata formally declared. September – first students admitted to the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, the first agricultural college in the English-speaking world. 9 October – the eminent and controversial Anglican, John Henry Newman, is received into the Roman Catholic Church. 16 October – Bank of England raises the bank rate to 3%. 31 October–1 November – an emergency meeting of the Cabinet (summoned on 15 October by Sir Robert Peel, the Prime Minister) votes against Peel on the distribution of famine relief in Ireland, considering it would call the Corn Laws into question. 9–10 November – Peel orders the secret purchase of £100,000 worth of maize and meal from the United States for distribution in Ireland. 20 November – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: Battle of Vuelta de Obligado: the Anglo-French fleet narrowly defeats the Argentine Confederation on the waters of the Paraná River but the victors suffer serious damage to their ships and Argentina attracts political support in South America. 5 December – unable to persuade his Cabinet to repeal the Corn Laws in the face of the Great Famine in Ireland, Peel tenders his resignation as Prime Minister to the Queen but is reinstated days later when Lord John Russell is unable to form a government. 22–23 December – First Anglo-Sikh War: British forces defeat Sikhs at Battle of Ferozeshah in Punjab. 30 December – Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Cork and Galway are incorporated in Ireland.
Undated
Glass tax abolished. First national general domestic poultry show in the U.K. held at London Zoo. Clarendon slab-serif typeface created by Robert Besley for the Fann Street Foundry.