weeks later he confirms this. 6 August – the Polytechnic Institution, Britain's first polytechnic, opens in Regent Street, London. 16 August – the Tin Duties Act ends taxation of the mines of Devon and Cornwall. September – the Tolpuddle Martyrs return to England. 7 September – Grace Darling rescues nine survivors from the wreck of the paddle steamer SS Forfarshire (1834) off the Farne Islands. 17 September – opening of the London and Birmingham Railway throughout, the first trunk line in England. 18 September – Anti-Corn Law League founded by Richard Cobden and John Bright in Manchester. 24 September – "Monster meeting" on Kersal Moor, Salford, in support of Chartism. 1 October – First Anglo-Afghan War begins when Lord Auckland, Governor-General of India, issues a manifesto from Simla giving Britain's reasons for intervening in Afghanistan. Undated The Peculiar People, a nonconformist Christian movement, is established in Rochford, Essex, by preacher James Banyard. Jenners department store established in Princes Street, Edinburgh. Probable date – Hackpen White Horse cut in Wiltshire. Ongoing Smallpox epidemic of 1837–40. Publications Charles Dickens' novels Oliver Twist (in book form) and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (serialisation begins). Lady Charlotte Guest begins publication of her translation into English of the Welsh traditional tales known as the Mabinogion. Robert Smith Surtees' collected sporting stories Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities. Births 6 February – Henry Irving, actor (died 1905) 9 February – Evelyn Wood, field marshal, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1919) 12 March – William Henry Perkin, chemist (died 1907) 13 April – J. D. Sedding, ecclesiastical architect (died 1891) 14 April – John Thomas, Welsh photographer (died 1905) 20 July – Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, statesman and historian (died 1928) 30 September – Emily Soldene, comic opera singer-manager and gossip columnist (died 1912) 25 October – Annie Hall Cudlip, novelist, journalist and editor (died 1918) 3 December – Octavia Hill, social reformer (died 1912) 20 December – Edwin Abbott Abbott, theologian and author (died 1926) Deaths 13 January – John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1751) 5 February – Thomas Creevey, politician (born 1768) 17 February – John Bonham-Carter, politician and barrister (born 1788) 4 March William Fennex, cricketer (born 1763) Sir James Carmichael Smyth, colonial administrator (born 1779) 19 March – Sir Edward Barnes, British Army officer and governor of Ceylon (born 1776) 21 March – George Ramsay,