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