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- January 3, British invades the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
- August 29 - Child labor: Factory Act makes illegal to employ children less than 9 years old in factories and limits the child workers 9 to 13 years of age to maximum of 9 hours a day
- December 24 - Ten Hours Bill: Michael Sadler’s Select Committee found evidence that long working hours caused deformities, accidents and ill health. Petitions were sent to parliament in favour of this bill but the movement collapsed when Sadler lost his parliamentary seat in December 1832. Lord Shaftsbury took over the leadership and introduced a Ten Hours Bill. This led Lord Grey, from the Whig Government, to propose a Royal Commission. The Short-Time Committees refused to co-operate as they thought this Commission would prevent reform. Edwin Chadwick, who influenced the advance of the Royal Commission, believed that bad working conditions led to both a waste of human resources and administrative inefficiency. He encouraged the improvement of sanitary conditions. In spite of this, the influence of Chadwick and the Ten Hours movement was short-lived. The commissioners refused to interfere with freedom of contract held between employer and employee.
- Charles Babbage described his analytical engine. (see also history of computing hardware)
- The British Parliament passes the Slavery Abolition Act giving all slaves in the British Empire their freedom.