Major events in British History (1909)?

Question

What major events in British history happened in 1909? Particularly to do with African colonies and naval battles, etc. but anything is helpful.

Answer 1

http://www.answers.com/topic/1909

Answer 2

9 January - Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole forced to turn back eleven miles from the pole. [1]
10 March - Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 signed in Bangkok.
15 June - Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.
July 25 - Louis Bleriot is the first man to fly across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft.

2 October - The first rugby football match played in
Twickenham.

*Britain introduces Minimum Wage Laws.
* Old age pensions in Britain
South Africa becomes the first non-european country to join FIFA

4 December - The University of Bristol was founded and received its Royal Charter.

South Africa Act (1909), act that unified the British colonies of Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange River and thereby established the nation of South Africa. It was the work of white delegates to a national convention at Durban, Natal, in 1908, who represented white electorates, less than one-fifth of the population of South Africa.

The National Convention of 1909 forged peace between the British and the Boers, known as Afrikaners. It established the boundaries of the modern unified South Africa. Cape Town was to be the legislative capital, but the Executive would be based in Pretoria. The agreement promised self-government within the British Empire.
In 1909 the South African Labour Party was formed to represent the aspirations of white labour.

1909, Britain funded the construction of an Airship for naval duties . That same year, in 1909 the first successful heavier-than-air flights by a British subject anywhere in the British Empire was in Canada by J.A.D. McCurdy. He flew his "Silver Dart," at Baddeck, Nova.Scotia, Canada on 23 February, 1909 for half a mile over the ice-covered surface of Baddeck Bay. The next day McCurdy flew four miles in a complete circle returning to his starting point. These flights were recognized by the Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom as the British Empire's first Flight.

On 9 Jul 1909 six European railway workers are killed by Riffi tribesmen. And as a result the Melillan garrison is increased from 5,000 men to 22,000 in preparation for an offensive. The Spanish army are untrained, ill-equipped, and devoid of basic maps, however, by Jan 1910 the Spanish have subdued some of the more easterly tribes, and pushed out their Melilla enclave to encompass the area from Cape Tres Forcas to the southern inlets of Mar Chica. However, this was achieved at the cost of 2,517 casualties. All the Spanish forces involved were Spanish conscripts; at this stage Spain had neither professional troops, nor indigenous troops under arms.

<<<<<<<<< 1909 >

Nicaraguan Civil War 1909-11 Wadai War 1909-1911

Answer 3

As always, good old Wiki has a load of stuff on 1909. It seesm to have been quite a 'quiet' year in trms of European and US history.
It was a big year for exploration - Shakleton finding the magnetic South Pole, and Peary was arriving at the North Pole. It was a Halley's Comet year, and the US navy first set up at Pearl Harbour.

Answer 4

Following on from the previous person's points, the naval race for Dreadnoughts began in 1899 with Salisbury as foreign secretary after the disastrous Boer War. It ended in 1912, after which Anglo-german relations improved until August 1914.

Answer 5

Parnell, Gladstone and the battle for Home Rule

BBC news online article covering the battle for Home Rule from 1850-1909. Good summary.

Prelude to the Uprising.

Detailed and text-heavy article charting Irish demands for Home Rule from 1800s to the 1916 uprising.

1916 Easter Uprising

The 1916 Easter Rising and the War of Independence that followed in 1919-21 from BBC History.
John H Morrow, The Great War in the Air: Military Aviation from 1909 to 1921

British Trials, 1660-1900: This is a microfiche collection of thousands of detailed, non-official accounts of criminal and civil trials spanning three centuries, published by Chadwyck-Healey Ltd. These first-hand accounts have been brought together from the holdings of several major libraries into a cohesive collection in this microfiche set. The accounts were originally published as pamphlets or books, which were sold to the interested public. They offered readers more information than the formal written records of trials - which usually provided little more than an outline of the events in court - and frequently contain verbatim accounts of the court proceedings making them excellent sources for historical study. Many of the trials covered were about serious criminal offences, such as murder and cruelty, but political and civil trials are also included. This collection provides coverage from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, and contains over 2,400 entries, making it an immensely valuable source for those researching social, economic and legal history during these periods. Almost 100 of these trial accounts have been exclusively digitised for History Study Centre, with the inclusion of defendants as diverse as a Georgian highwayman and Queen Caroline of Brunswick.

Answer 6

1909 saw the advancements of the Liberal reforms by Gladstone and Churchill etc..., which many argue was the precursor to the Welfare state.

I know you have been quite specific, but the race for the Dreadnoughts was around this time (although I think it began in 1905, you'd have to check), which began a tussle that would eventually lead to WWI.

Answer 7

Chancellor 0f the Exchequer LLoyd George introduced the Peoples Budget, increasing taxes on the rich to pay for social reforms; a major constitutional crisis breaks out.

Answer 8

south Africa act of 1909,unified the British colonies to establish the nation of south Africa.

Answer 9

What Happened In 1909