1850

Good condition set of three. Events 1850 18 January ? Don Pacifico affair: Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary, sends a Royal Navy squadron to blockade the port of Piraeus in the Aegean Sea in defence of the interests of a British citizen, causing a diplomatic incident with Russia and France. 5 March ? Opening of Robert Stephenson?s Britannia Bridge carrying the Chester and Holyhead Railway across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. 31 March ? The paddle steamer RMS Royal Adelaide (1838), bound from Cork to London, sinks off Margate with the loss of all 250 on board. 4 April ? North London Collegiate School for girls established in new premises with Frances Buss as Principal. 19 April ? Clayton?Bulwer Treaty signed between the United Kingdom and the United States agreeing that neither nation is to colonize or control any Central American republic. The purpose is to prevent one country from building a canal across the isthmus that the other would not be able to use. 25 May ? The hippopotamus Obaysch arrives at London Zoo from Egypt, the first to live in the British Isles since prehistoric times. 29 June ? Don Pacifico affair: Palmerston defends his action robustly in Parliament. 3 July ? The Koh-i-Noor diamond is presented to Queen Victoria. 5 August ? Colonies of New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria granted representative government. 14 August ? Irish Franchise Act increases the rural electorate in Ireland. 27 August ? A telegraph cable is laid beneath the English Channel running from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in France. 29 September ? By the Bull Universalis Ecclesiae, Pope Pius IX recreates the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales, which had become extinct with the death of the last Marian bishop in the reign of Elizabeth I. 22?3 October ? First Wenlock Olympian Class Games held at Much Wenlock, Shropshire. 17 October ? James Young patents a method of distilling paraffin from coal, laying the foundations for the Scottish paraffin industry. November ? Salford Museum and Art Gallery first opens as "The Royal Museum & Public Library", the first unconditionally free public library in England, established under the Museums Act 1845. 19 November ? Alfred Tennyson appointed as Poet Laureate.…