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Events from the year 1855 in the United Kingdom.

[edit] Incumbents

Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom
Prime Minister - George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Peelite (until 30 January), Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Liberal

29 January - George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen resigns as Prime Minister over the management of the Crimean War.
5 February - Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, becomes Prime Minister.
8 February - The Devil's Footprints, a series of mysteriously hoof-like marks, appear in the snow in Devon and continue throughout the countryside for over 100 miles (160 km).
11 April - the first pillar boxes installed in London.^[1]
15 May - The Great Gold Robbery of 1855 in London.
15 June - Stamp duty was removed from newspapers creating mass market media in the UK.^[2]
29 June - The Daily Telegraph begins publication.^[1]
16 July - Australian colonies granted self-governing status.^[2]
31 July - Limited Liability Act 1855 protects investors in the event of corporate collapse.^[2]
3 September - Last Bartholomew Fair in London.
11 September - Sevastapol falls to the British troops.
17 November - Explorer David Livingstone discovers Victoria Falls.^[1]
22 December - Metropolitan Board of Works established.

Henry Bessemer patents the Bessemer process for the production of steel.
James Clerk Maxwell unifies electricity and magnetism into a single theory, classical electromagnetism, thereby showing that light is an electromagnetic wave.

3 January - Julius Charles Hare, theological writer (born 1795)
10 January - Mary Russell Mitford, novelist and dramartist (born 1787)
25 January - Dorothy Wordsworth, poet and diarist (born 1771)
20 February - Joseph Hume, doctor and politician (born 1777)
31 March - Charlotte Brontë, author (born 1816)
5 May - Robert Inglis, politician (born 1786)
23 May - Charles Robert Malden explorer (born 1797)
28 June - Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan, commander of British forces in the Crimean War (born 1788)
8 or 9 July - William Edward Parry Arctic explorer (born 1790)

^ ^a ^b ^c Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Palmer, Alan & Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 274–276. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.