Events from the year 1819 in the United Kingdom. Incumbents Monarch – George III Regent – George, Prince Regent Prime Minister – Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (Tory) Foreign Secretary – Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh Parliament – 6th Events 6 February – formal treaty between Sultan Hussein of Johor and the British Sir Stamford Raffles establishes a trading settlement in Singapore. 19 February – William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands in the Antarctic. 20 March – Burlington Arcade opens in London. 13 April – the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway, a wagonway, opens for coal traffic. 14 April – the streets of Birmingham are lit by gas for the first time by the Birmingham Gas Light and Coke Company. 21 April–end May – John Keats writes "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and most of his major odes. 20 June – the , the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, arrives at Liverpool from Savannah, Georgia, United States, although only a fraction of the trip is made under steam. June – Act of Parliament to abolish private appeals following acquittals in criminal cases and to abolish trial by combat, in the aftermath of Ashford v Thornton (1818). 24 July – a cabinet meeting convened by Prime Minister Lord Liverpool discusses an investigative report of an adulterous affair involving Caroline of Brunswick (wife of the regent George, Prince of Wales) and her servant Bartolomeo Pergami; the cabinet concludes that the trial of Caroline for adultery would be an embarrassment to the nation. 16 August – Peterloo Massacre in St. Peter's Field, Manchester: a cavalry charge into a crowd of radical protesters results in eleven deaths and over 400 injuries. 19 September – Keats writes his ode "To Autumn" at Winchester. 23 November–30 December – Six Acts passed by Parliament to suppress assemblies promoting radical reform. Undated Britannia Monument to Admiral Lord Nelson at Great Yarmouth (the "Norfolk Pillar") is completed. The Travellers Club is established in London. Publications John William Polidori's short story The Vampyre. Walter Scott's historical Waverley Novels Ivanhoe (December, dated 1820), The Bride of Lammermoor and A Legend of Montrose. Births 1 January – Arthur Hugh Clough, poet (died 1861 in Italy) 9 January – William Powell Frith, genre painter (died 1909) 8 February – John Ruskin, writer, artist and social critic (died 1900) 11 March – Sir Henry Tate, 1st Baronet, sugar merchant and philanthropist (died