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Events from the year1859 in theUnited Kingdom.

• Monarch –Victoria
• Prime Minister –Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (Conservative) (until 11 June);Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Liberal) (starting 12 June)

• 1 January –Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to have her name entered on theGeneral Medical Council'sMedical Register, under a clause in theMedical Act 1858 that recognizes doctors with foreign degrees.^[1]
• 15 January –National Portrait Gallery opens inLondon.^[2]
• March –General Post Office begins erection ofFirst National Standard pillar box design.^[3]
• 25 March –Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859 abolishes observance by the established church of the anniversary of the execution of Charles I,Oak Apple Day and certain other 17th-century political events.
• 28 April–18 May –1859 United Kingdom general election:Palmerston (Liberal) defeatsDerby (Conservative) following a defeat for the latter in theHouse of Commons.
• 30 April –Charles Dickens publishes the first issue of his new magazine,All the Year Round, beginning serialisation ofA Tale of Two Cities. At the end of the year it begins serialisation ofWilkie Collins'ssensation novelThe Woman in White.
• 1 May – West Riding of Yorkshire Penny Savings Bank, predecessor of theYorkshire Bank, begins operation inLeeds.^[4]
• 4 May – theCornwall Railway is opened across theRoyal Albert Bridge linking the counties ofDevon andCornwall. The bridge's designer,Isambard Kingdom Brunel, terminally ill, is wheeled across it later this month.
• 22 May –The Needleslighthouse on theIsle of Wight is first illuminated.^[5]
• 6 June – the BritishCrown colony ofQueensland in Australia is created by devolving part of the territory ofNew South Wales.
• 9 June – theHouse of Lords makes a final decision in the case ofThellusson v Woodford determining the distribution of property left under the will ofPeter Thellusson, who died in 1797.
• 12 June –Palmerston takes office as Prime Minister following resignation ofDerby.^[2] Palmerston's is considered the firstLiberal Party administration, arising from merger of theWhig Party,Peelites andRadicals.^[6]
• 28–29 June – firstconformation show for dogs in Britain held atNewcastle upon Tyne.^[7]
• 1 September – astronomerRichard Carrington makes the first observation of asolar flare.^[8]
• 7 September – the clock and chimes of theClock Tower, Palace of Westminster become operational. The great bell acquires the nickname "Big Ben" by association withBenjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover.
• 16 September –Charles Vaughan announces his resignation as headmaster ofHarrow School, apparently under threat of exposure for an affair with a pupil.^[9]
• 1 October – the Odontological Society of London'sDental Hospital of London opens the first dental school in Britain, the London School of Dental Surgery.^[10]
• 14 October –Glasgow Town Council'sLoch Katrine public water supply scheme is officially opened.^[11]
• 25–26 October –Royal Charter Storm, the most severestorm to hit theBritish Isles this century. 133 ships are sunk and another ninety badly damaged, with a death toll estimated as up to 800 (including some killed on land); most notably from the steamclipperRoyal Charter, driven ashore on the north-east coast ofAnglesey on 26 October with around 459 dead and just 39 men surviving.^[12]
• 12 November –HMSVictoria, theRoyal Navy's last and largest woodenfirst-rate three-deckership of the line to see sea service, is launched atPortsmouth.
• 24 November – naturalistCharles Darwin'sThe Origin of Species, a book which argues thatspecies graduallyevolve throughnatural selection, is published^[8] byJohn Murray in London, immediately selling out its initial print run. Darwin's former mentorWilliam Whewell refuses to allow a copy in the library ofTrinity College, Cambridge.^[13]

• District nursing begins inLiverpool when philanthropistWilliam Rathbone employs Mary Robinson to nurse the sick poor in their own homes.
• Muirkirk becomes the first town in Britain to havegas lighting.
• Welsh religious revival led by Humphrey Jones.
• LargeUlster Christian revival.
• Red House inBexleyheath, a key building in theArts and Crafts Movement, is designed by its owner,William Morris, and the architectPhilip Webb.

• Isabella Beeton's compilationMrs Beeton's Book of Household Management begins publication as apartwork supplement toThe Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine (published by her husbandSamuel Orchart Beeton) in September.
• Charles Darwin's bookThe Origin of Species.^[2]
• Charles Dickens' novelA Tale of Two Cities.^[2]
• George Eliot's novelAdam Bede.^[2]
• Edward FitzGerald's poetic translation of theRubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
• John Stuart Mill's bookOn Liberty.
• Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market".^[2]
• Samuel Smiles' bookSelf-Help.
• Alfred Tennyson's poetry cycleIdylls of the King.^[2]
• Theracing newspaperThe Sporting Life is first published (From its launch on 24 March to 30 April it is calledPenny Bell's Life & Sporting News).^[14]

• 11 January –George Nathaniel Curzon, statesman andViceroy of India (died 1925)
• 5 February –Ernest Terah Hooley, financial fraudster (died 1947)
• 14 February –Henry Valentine Knaggs, physician and author (died 1954)
• 16 February –T. E. Ellis, politician (died 1899)
• 22 February –George Lansbury, Scottish-born politician and social reformer; leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935 (died 1940)
• 8 March –Kenneth Grahame, author (died 1932)
• 25 March –John Bruce Glasier, Scottish-born socialist politician (died 1920)
• 26 March –A. E. Housman, poet (died 1936)
• 1 April –Mansfield Smith-Cumming, naval officer and first director of the Secret Intelligence Service (died 1923)^[15]
• 18 April –Evan Davies Jones, civil engineer (died 1949)
• 2 May –Jerome K. Jerome, author (died 1927)
• 13 May –Kate Marsden, medical missionary (died 1931)
• 22 May –Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish-born fiction writer (died 1930)
• May –Samuel Thomas Evans, politician and judge (died 1918)
• 9 June –Doveton Sturdee, admiral (died 1925)
• 6 July –Alexander Hamilton-Gordon, general (died 1939)
• 8 July –Annie S. Swan, writer (died 1943)
• 13 July –Sidney Webb, economist and social reformer (died 1947)
• 17 July –Ernest Rhys, writer (died 1946)
• 8 August –Arthur Lowes Dickinson, accountant (died 1935)
• 7 September –Margaret Crosfield, palaeontologist and geologist (died 1952)
• 22 November –Cecil Sharp, folk-song collector (died 1924)
• 5 December –John Jellicoe, admiral (died 1935)
• 27 December –William Henry Hadow, educationalist (died 1937)
• Margaret Manton Merrill, journalist (died 1893 in the United States)

• 21 January –Henry Hallam, historian (born 1777)
• 28 January –F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich,Prime Minister (born 1782)
• 13 February –Eliza Acton, cookery writer (born 1799)
• 8 April – SirJoseph Thackwell, general (born 1781)
• 1 May –John Walker, inventor (born 1781)
• 7 June –David Cox, landscape painter (born 1783)
• 16 July –Charles Cathcart, 2nd Earl Cathcart, general and colonial administrator (born 1783)
• 28 August –Leigh Hunt, critic and essayist (born 1784)
• 15 September –Isambard Kingdom Brunel, civil engineer (born 1806)
• 12 October –Robert Stephenson, railway engineer (born 1803)
• 28 October –Thomas Manders, actor-manager andlow comedian (born 1797)^[16]
• 4 November –Joseph Rowntree, educationist (born 1801)
• 22 November –George Wilson, chemist (born 1818)
• 8 December –Thomas De Quincey, essayist (born 1785)
• 28 December –Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, poet, historian and politician (born 1800)

• 1859 in the United Kingdom
• Years of the 19th century in the United Kingdom
• 1859 by country
• 1850s in the United Kingdom
• 1859 in Europe

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