1909 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1909 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

* Monarch – Edward VII
* Prime Minister – H. H. Asquith (Liberal)
* Parliament – 28th

Events

* 1 January – national old age pension scheme comes into force.
* 9 January – Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole forced to turn back 112 miles from the pole.
* 23 January – the Tottenham Outrage, an armed robbery and the murder of a ten-year-old boy and a police constable in Tottenham, North London, carried out by two Latvian anarchists.
* 16 February – West Stanley Pit Disaster, a coal mining disaster in Stanley, County Durham, in which more than 160 miners are killed in an explosion.
* 22 February – Thomas Beecham conducts the first concert with his newly established Beecham Symphony Orchestra.
* 26 February – first film shown in colour using ''Kinemacolor'' at the Palace Theatre, London.
* March – construction of the Rosyth Dockyard for the Royal Navy on the east coast of Scotland begins.
* 6 March – Birkenhead dock disaster: a temporary cofferdam collapses during construction of Vittoria Dock, killing 14 navvies.
* 10 March – Anglo-Siamese Treaty signed in Bangkok.
* 15 March – Selfridges department store opens in London.
* 16 March – Port of London Authority established.
* 11 April – coming into effect of Children Act 1908, establishing separate juvenile courts for ten–sixteen-year-olds; abolishing the use of custody for under-fourteens and hanging for under-sixteens; introducing the registration of foster parents; and restricting access for under-16s to cigarettes and alcohol.
* 24 April – the FA Cup final is won by Manchester United for the first time, as they beat Bristol City 1–0 at Crystal Palace.
* 29 April – People's Budget introduced in the British Parliament by David Lloyd George.
* 2 May – John Moore-Brabazon becomes the first resident British citizen to make a recognised powered heavier-than-air flight in the UK, flying from The Aero Club's ground at Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in his Voisin biplane ''Bird of Passage''.
* 13 May – Lonmin is incorporated in the UK as the London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Company Limited.
* 26 May – the King's horse, Minoru, wins the Epsom Derby.
* 15 June – representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.
* 25 June – Herbert Samuel, is appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, making him the first practising Jew to serve as a member of the Cabinet.
* 26 June
** Edward VII and Queen Alexandra open the Victoria and Albert Museum, designed by Aston Webb.
** The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity.
* 27 June – Eric Gordon England flies a Weiss glider at Amberley, West Sussex, in the first recorded soaring flight, origin of sport gliding.
* July – Ivy Evelyn Woodward is admitted as the first woman Member of the Royal College of Physicians.
* 1 July – The British Indian army officer and politician Curzon Wyllie is shot dead at the Imperial Institute in South Kensington, London; his assassin, Madan Lal Dhingra, an Indian nationalist, is subsequently sentenced to death and hanged at Pentonville Prison on 17 August.
* 25 July – Louis Blériot flies a Blériot XI monoplane across the English Channel from Calais to Dover, winning a prize of £ from the ''Daily Mail''.
* 23 August – the Secret Service Bureau counter-espionage unit (later known as MI5) is secretly established.
* 3 September – the first Boy Scout rally held at The Crystal Palace in London.
* 17 September – militant suffragette Mabel Capper is among the first to suffer force-feeding while on hunger strike, at Winson Green Prison in Birmingham.
* 20 September – Labour Exchanges Act leads to setting up of labour exchanges as a source of information on employment.
* 2 October – the first match is played at the Rugby Football Union's Twickenham Stadium in Middlesex, Harlequins v. Richmond.
* 15–23 October – "Aviation week" of demonstration flying held at Doncaster; this is followed by a similar event at Blackpool.
* 20 October – the Trade Boards Act, a form of minimum wage legislation, is passed.
* 5 November – the first Woolworth's branch in the UK opens in Liverpool.
* 8 November – first contest for a Lonsdale Belt in boxing, won by Welsh lightweight Freddie Welsh in London.
* 30 November – the House of Lords rejects the People's Budget proposed by David Lloyd George, forcing a general election.
* 3 December – the SS ''Ellan Vannin'' sinks in Liverpool Bay resulting in the loss of all 15 passengers and 21 crew.
* 4 December – the University of Bristol is founded and receives its Royal Charter.
* 7 December – South Africa granted dominion status.

Undated

* First British bird ringing programme initiated by Arthur Landsborough Thomson at Aberdeen.

Publications

* Florence Barclay's novel '' The Rosary''.
* Angela Brazil's schoolgirl story ''The Nicest Girl in the School''.
* Daniel Jones' introductory ''The Pronunciation of English''.
* H. G. Wells

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