20 February – Preston becomes the first English town outside London with gas lighting publicly available, promoted by the Jesuit priest Joseph Dunn.[2]
24 April – Lord Byron flees Britain to escape a growing scandal, his failed marriage and his growing debts.
2 May – Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (later King of the Belgians) marries Princess Charlotte Augusta, daughter of the Prince Regent, but she dies the following year.
16 May – Beau Brummell flees England by way of the port of Dover, sailing to France in order to escape his gambling debts.
18 June – A riot breaks out on Wimbledon Common after inaccurate newspaper reports that a military review will commemorate the first anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. After a drunken crowd sets fire to the heath, cavalry are called in to disperse them.[5]
26 June – First prisoners admitted to the National Penitentiary, Millbank Prison, in London.
10 November – Troop transport Harpooner, returning from Quebec to Britain, is wrecked at Cape Pine on Newfoundland (island) with the loss of 208 of the 385 people on board.[8]
2 December – Spa Fields riots: a mass meeting of conspirators dispersed by the police.[9]
Unknown dates
The Coinage Act and Great Recoinage attempt to stabilise the currency by reintroduction of a silver coinage (for transactions under forty shillings) and changing the gold coinage from the guinea valued at 21 shillings to the slightly lighter sovereign worth 20 shillings and defining the value of the pound sterling relative to gold.[10]
By the Pillory Abolition Act, use of the pillory is limited to punishment for perjury.
