1910 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

Monarch - Edward VII (until 6 May), George V

Prime Minister - H. H. Asquith (Liberal)

Events

15 January - A general election held in response to the House of Lords' rejection of the 1909 budget results in a reduced Liberal Party majority (Liberals, 275 seats; Labour, 40; Irish Nationalists, 82; Unionists (the title preferred at this time by the Conservative Party), 273).

31 January - Dr. Crippen poisons his wife and buries her body in the cellar.

1 February - First labour exchanges open in the UK.

7 February - Dreadnought hoax: Horace de Vere Cole and members of the Bloomsbury Group make an "official visit" to the battleship HMS Dreadnought at Portland Harbour in disguise as a royal delegation from Abyssinia.

15 February - The Royal Aero Club is granted its "Royal" prefix.

19 February - Old Trafford, the largest football stadium in England with an 80,000 capacity, is opened. Manchester United's first game there is a 4-3 home defeat to Liverpool in the Football League First Division.

March - King Edward VII falls very ill with bronchitis in Paris, France, returning to London a few weeks later.

31 March - Federation of Stoke-on-Trent: Administrative amalgamation of the six towns of The Potteries in north Staffordshire (Stoke-upon-Trent, Burslem, Tunstall, Hanley, Fenton and Longton) into the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent, the first such merger in the history of local government in England.

April - It is reported that King Edward VII's health has deteriorated further and he is likely to die soon.

4 April - A Bill to abolish the legislative veto of the House of Lords is introduced in the Commons, starting a prolonged clash between the two Houses of Parliament.

27 April - The House of Commons passes David Lloyd George's (1909) 'People's Budget' for the second time; it is passed by House of Lords on 29 April.

28 April - Frenchman Louis Paulhan completes the Daily Mail's 1910 London to Manchester air race in under 24 hours; the other competitor, Claude Grahame-White, is forced to retire.

6 May - George V succeeds to the British throne as King on the death of his father, Edward VII.

11 May - A firedamp explosion at Wellington Colliery, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, kills 136.

20 May - Funeral of Edward VII held, one of the largest and last gatherings of European royalty to take place, following the first public lying in state in Westminster Hall.

2 June - Charles Rolls becomes the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane, including the first eastbound flight. He is also the first British resident to make the crossing in a British-built plane.

15 June - Terra Nova Expedition: Robert Falcon Scott's ship Terra Nova sets sail from Cardiff on an expedition with the purpose of undertaking scientific research and exploration along the coast and interior of Antarctica.

14–23 June - Edinburgh Missionary Conference is held in Scotland, presided over by Nobel Peace Prize recipient John R. Mott, launching the modern ecumenical movement and the modern missions movement.

21 June - Truro Cathedral, Cornwall, completed.

28 June - Consecration of the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral in London.

9–10 July - 'Fowler's match': the Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lord's, known after the captain of Eton College, Robert St Leger Fowler, and described as "what might just be the greatest cricket match of all time".

12 July - Charles Rolls becomes the first British aviation fatality when his French-built Wright aeroplane suffers a broken rudder at an altitude of 80 feet (24 meters) and crashes during a contest at Bournemouth.

29 July - In a legal cause célèbre, the Crown drops its charge against naval cadet George Archer-Shee for stealing a postal order.

31 July - Dr. Crippen arrested on board the SS Montrose after a telegraph is sent to the ship's Captain.

September - Vaughan Williams' string orchestral work Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is performed for the first time under the composer's baton at Gloucester Cathedral for the Three Choirs Festival.

1 September - Ninian Park football stadium is opened in Cardiff, to serve Cardiff City F.C., who are members of the English Football League despite being based in Wales.

11 September - English-born actor-aviator Robert Loraine makes an aeroplane flight from Wales across the Irish Sea, landing some 200 feet (60 metres) short of the Irish coast in Dublin Bay.

5 October - Portugal becomes a republic; King Manuel II flees to England.

18 October

Dr. Crippen put on trial for murder at the Old Bailey.

First B-type double-decker bus, built and operated by the London General Omnibus Company, enters service. Designed by Frank Searle and considered the first mass-produced bus, around 2,800 are built up to 1919, displacing LGOC’s last horse buses by the end of 1911 and with examples in regular use up to 1926, about 900 seeing service on the Western Front (World War I).

20 October - RMS Olympic is launched at the Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast.

22 October

Dr. Crippen found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.

Women chainmakers of Cradley Heath in the Black Country, led by Mary Macarthur, win a minimum wage following a ten-week strike; this effectively doubles their pay.

1 November - Coal miners are balloted for strike action by the South Wales Miners' Federation following a lock-out, resulting in 12,000 men working for the Cambrian Combine beginning a 10-month strike.

7–8 November - Conflict between striking miners and police forces in the Rhondda, South Wales, leads to the Tonypandy Riots.

18 November - Black Friday: 300 suffragettes clash with police outside Parliament over the failure of the Conciliation Bill.

23 November - Dr. Crippen hanged.

26 November - Suffragist Hugh Franklin attempts to whip Winston Churchill, the Home Secretary, on a train over the police treatment of suffragettes.

3–19 December - The second general election of 1910 is held for the electorate to resolve the battle of wills between the Houses of Commons and Lords. The results are: Liberals, 272; Labour, 42; Irish Nationalists, 84; Unionists, 272 — making a majority of 126 for restriction of the powers of the Lords and for Irish Home Rule. This will be the last British election on which regular voting extends over several days and the last in which woman cannot vote.

16 December - In Houndsditch, London, four (Latvian) anarchists shoot three policemen in botched raid on a jewellers — three are arrested, other members of the gang escape but are later (January 1911) cornered in the 'siege of Sidney Street'.

21 December - The Pretoria Pit disaster: a massive underground explosion in a colliery belonging to the Hulton Colliery Company at Westhoughton in Lancashire, kills 344, with just one survivor, the second worst mining accident in England and the third worst in Britain.

26 December - London Palladium music hall opens.

Undated

Bamforths of Holmfirth begin publishing 'saucy' seaside postcards.

Cinematograph Act 1909 comes into effect providing for licensing of cinemas by local authorities.

Girl Guides' Association founded.

Birmingham Oratory completed.

Admiralty Arch in London completed.

Publications

Arnold Bennett's novel Clayhanger, first in The Clayhanger Family series of novels.

John Buchan's novel Prester John.

Gilbert Cannan's novel Devious Ways.

Jeffery Farnol's novel The Broad Highway.

E. M. Forster's novel Howards End.

Rudyard Kipling's collection Rewards and Fairies containing the first publication of the poem If—.

H. G. Wells' novel The History of Mr Polly.

Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell's book Principia Mathematica vol. 1, one of the most important and seminal works in mathematical logic and philosophy.

Births

11 January - Maurice Buckmaster, head of Special Operations Executive (died 1992)

29 January - Colin Middleton, artist (died 1983)

10 February - Joyce Grenfell, actress, comedian and singer-songwriter (died 1979)

13 February - William Shockley, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989)

21 February - Douglas Bader, World War II fighter pilot (died 1982)

1 March - Archer Martin, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2002)

1 March - David Niven, actor (died 1983)

22 March - Nicholas Monsarrat, novelist (died 1979)

3 May – Bernard Orchard, biblical scholar (died 2006)

12 May - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994)

30 May – Harry Bernstein, author (died 2011)

4 June - Christopher Cockerell, inventor (died 1999)

12 June - Bill Naughton, playwright (died 1992)

13 June - Mary Whitehouse, 'Clean-Up TV' and Christian morality campaigner (died 2001)

22 June - Peter Pears, tenor (died 1986)

14 July - Vincent Brome, biographer and novelist (died 2004)

5 September – Leila Mackinlay, romance writer (died 1996)

10 September

Betty Neels, novelist (died 2001)

Eric de Maré, architectural photographer (died 2002)

8 November - Denis Mahon, art historian and collector (died 2011)

14 November - Eric Malpass, novelist (died 1996)

19 November - Griffith Jones, actor (died 2007)

1 December - Alicia Markova, ballerina (died 2004)

4 December - Harry Wingfield, illustrator (died 2002)

29 December - Ronald Coase, economist Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013)

Deaths

27 January - Thomas Crapper, inventor (born 1836)

3 May – Lottie Collins, singer and dancer (born 1865)

6 May - Edward VII (born 1841)

31 May – Elizabeth Blackwell, American-domiciled abolitionist and women's rights activist (born 1821)

12 July - Charles Stewart Rolls, aviator and automobile manufacturer (born 1877)

13 August - Florence Nightingale, nurse (born 1820)

7 September - William Holman Hunt, painter (born 1827)

12 September - Cuthbert A. Brereton, civil engineer (born 1850)

29 December – Reggie Doherty, tennis player (born 1872)