January – the War Department begins establishment of
Aldershot Garrison as its first permanent centralised large-scale army training camp.[1]
21 January – the iron
clipperRMS Tayleur runs aground on
Lambay Island (off the east coast of Ireland) on her maiden voyage out of
Liverpool with the loss of at least 300 of around 650 on board.
21 June – Crimean War: In the First
Battle of Bomarsund in
Åland, Royal Navy mate
Charles Davis Lucas throws a live Russian artillery shell overboard before it explodes, for which incident he will be the first to be retroactively awarded the
Victoria Cross in 1857.[6][8]
12 August – prorogation of Parliament, the last time this is carried out by the monarch in person, and the last time
royal assent to its Acts is given in person.[9]
16 August – Crimean War: second
Battle of Bomarsund – after a three-day bombardment, Russian troops on the island of Bomarsund in Åland surrender to combined
French and British forces.
31 August – 8 September – an epidemic of
cholera in London kills 10,000. Dr
John Snow traces the source of one outbreak (that killed 500) to a single
water pump, validating his theory that
cholera is water-borne, and forming the starting point for
epidemiology.[11]
21 October –
Florence Nightingale leaves England with 38 other trained volunteer nurses for
Selimiye Barracks at
Scutari in the
Ottoman Empire, where they arrive the following month to care for British Army troops invalided from the Crimean War.
14 November –
Great Storm of 1854 in the
Black Sea: 19 British transport and other ships supporting the Crimean War are wrecked with the loss of at least 287 men.
30 November –
SS Nile is wrecked on The Stones reef off
Godrevy Head on the north
Cornwall coast, with the loss of all on board[13] – at least 40.
20 December – in the case of Talbot v Laroche, pioneer of photography
William Fox Talbot fails in asserting that the
collodion process infringes his
calotypepatent. The case allows more freedom for other early photographers to experiment and accelerates the development of photography.[14]
^"Inauguration of St. George's Hall, Liverpool". The Liverpool Standard, and General Commercial Advertiser. 19 September 1854. p. 5.
^Larn, Richard; Larn, Bridget (1995). Shipwreck Index of the British Isles. Vol. 1: Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Section 4.
ISBN0-900528-88-5.
^Haines, Catharine M. C. (2001). International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 12.
ISBN978-1-57607-090-1.
January – the War Department begins establishment of
Aldershot Garrison as its first permanent centralised large-scale army training camp.[1]
21 January – the iron
clipperRMS Tayleur runs aground on
Lambay Island (off the east coast of Ireland) on her maiden voyage out of
Liverpool with the loss of at least 300 of around 650 on board.
21 June – Crimean War: In the First
Battle of Bomarsund in
Åland, Royal Navy mate
Charles Davis Lucas throws a live Russian artillery shell overboard before it explodes, for which incident he will be the first to be retroactively awarded the
Victoria Cross in 1857.[6][8]
12 August – prorogation of Parliament, the last time this is carried out by the monarch in person, and the last time
royal assent to its Acts is given in person.[9]
16 August – Crimean War: second
Battle of Bomarsund – after a three-day bombardment, Russian troops on the island of Bomarsund in Åland surrender to combined
French and British forces.
31 August – 8 September – an epidemic of
cholera in London kills 10,000. Dr
John Snow traces the source of one outbreak (that killed 500) to a single
water pump, validating his theory that
cholera is water-borne, and forming the starting point for
epidemiology.[11]
21 October –
Florence Nightingale leaves England with 38 other trained volunteer nurses for
Selimiye Barracks at
Scutari in the
Ottoman Empire, where they arrive the following month to care for British Army troops invalided from the Crimean War.
14 November –
Great Storm of 1854 in the
Black Sea: 19 British transport and other ships supporting the Crimean War are wrecked with the loss of at least 287 men.
30 November –
SS Nile is wrecked on The Stones reef off
Godrevy Head on the north
Cornwall coast, with the loss of all on board[13] – at least 40.
20 December – in the case of Talbot v Laroche, pioneer of photography
William Fox Talbot fails in asserting that the
collodion process infringes his
calotypepatent. The case allows more freedom for other early photographers to experiment and accelerates the development of photography.[14]
^"Inauguration of St. George's Hall, Liverpool". The Liverpool Standard, and General Commercial Advertiser. 19 September 1854. p. 5.
^Larn, Richard; Larn, Bridget (1995). Shipwreck Index of the British Isles. Vol. 1: Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Section 4.
ISBN0-900528-88-5.
^Haines, Catharine M. C. (2001). International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 12.
ISBN978-1-57607-090-1.