Events from the year 1909 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Monarch – Edward VII
Prime Minister – H. H. Asquith (Liberal) Parliament – 28th
Events
1 January – national old age pension scheme comes into force. 9 January – Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole forced to turn back 112 miles from the pole. 23 January – the Tottenham Outrage, an armed robbery and the murder of a ten-year-old boy and a police constable in Tottenham, North London, carried out by two Latvian anarchists. 16 February – West Stanley Pit Disaster, a coal mining disaster in Stanley, County Durham, in which more than 160 miners are killed in an explosion. 22 February – Thomas Beecham conducts the first concert with his newly established Beecham Symphony Orchestra. 26 February – first film shown in colour using Kinemacolor at the Palace Theatre, London. March – construction of the Rosyth Dockyard for the Royal Navy on the east coast of Scotland begins. 6 March – Birkenhead dock disaster: a temporary cofferdam collapses during construction of Vittoria Dock, killing 14 navvies. 10 March – Anglo-Siamese Treaty signed in Bangkok. 15 March – Selfridges department store opens in London. 16 March – Port of London Authority established. 11 April – coming into effect of Children Act 1908, establishing separate juvenile courts for ten–sixteen-year-olds; abolishing the use of custody for under-fourteens and hanging for under-sixteens; introducing the registration of foster parents; and restricting access for under-16s to cigarettes and alcohol. 24 April – the FA Cup final is won by Manchester United for the first time, as they beat Bristol City 1–0 at Crystal Palace. 29 April – People's Budget introduced in the British Parliament by David Lloyd George. 2 May – John Moore-Brabazon becomes the first resident British citizen to make a recognised powered heavier-than-air flight in the UK, flying from The Aero Club's ground at Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in his Voisin biplane Bird of Passage. 13 May – Lonmin is incorporated in the UK as the London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Company Limited. 26 May – the King's horse, Minoru, wins the Epsom Derby. 15 June – representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's and form the Imperial Cricket Conference. 25 June – Herbert Samuel, is appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, making him the first practising Jew to serve as a member of the Cabinet. 26 June Edward VII and Queen Alexandra open the Victoria and Albert Museum, designed by Aston Webb. The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity. 27 June – Eric Gordon England flies a Weiss glider at Amberley, West Sussex, in the first recorded soaring flight, origin of sport gliding. July – Ivy Evelyn Woodward is admitted as the first woman Member of the Royal College of Physicians. 1 July – The British Indian army officer and politician Curzon Wyllie is shot dead at the Imperial Institute in South Kensington, London, and a bystander fatally wounded; the assassin, Madan Lal Dhingra, an Indian nationalist student, is subsequently sentenced to death and hanged at Pentonville Prison on 17 August. 25 July – Louis Blériot flies a Blériot XI monoplane across the English Channel from Calais to Dover, winning a prize of £ from the Daily Mail. 23 August – the Secret Service Bureau counter-espionage unit (later known as MI5) is secretly established. 3 September – the first Boy Scout rally held at The Crystal Palace in London. 17 September – militant suffragette Mabel Capper is among the first to suffer force-feeding while on hunger strike, at Winson Green Prison in Birmingham. 20 September – Labour Exchanges Act leads to setting up of labour exchanges as a source of information on employment. 2 October – the first match is played at the Rugby Football Union's Twickenham Stadium in Middlesex, Harlequins v. Richmond. 15–23 October – "Aviation week" of demonstration flying held at Doncaster; this is followed by a similar event at Blackpool. 20 October – the Trade Boards Act, a form of minimum wage legislation, is passed. 5 November – the first Woolworth's branch in the UK opens in Liverpool. 8 November – first contest for a Lonsdale Belt in boxing, won by Welsh lightweight Freddie Welsh in London. 30 November – the House of Lords rejects the People's Budget proposed by David Lloyd George, forcing a general election. 3 December – the SS Ellan Vannin sinks in Liverpool Bay resulting in the loss of all 15 passengers and 21 crew. 4 December – the University of Bristol is founded and receives its Royal Charter. 7 December – South Africa granted dominion status.