Timeline August 1842

Events in August 1842 4

• 1842 Plug Plot Riots A wave of strikes sweeps industrial Britain Workers in the mills and mines of Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Midlands and Scotland went on strike against wage cuts. Strikers pulled the plugs from factory boilers to stop production. It is often described as the first general strike, and it was suppressed with troops and mass arrests.
• 1842 Webster–Ashburton Treaty United States and Britain settle the Maine–New Brunswick border US Secretary of State Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton signed a treaty settling the disputed boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, along with other sections of the US–Canadian border. It also provided for cooperation against the Atlantic slave trade and for the extradition of criminals.
• 1842 Mines and Collieries Act Britain bans women and young children from underground work Parliament passed the Mines and Collieries Act after a royal commission report shocked the public with accounts of child labour in mines. The Act banned all women and girls, and boys under ten, from working underground. It also introduced inspectors of mines.
• 1842 Treaty of Nanking China cedes Hong Kong to Britain The Qing dynasty and Britain signed the treaty aboard HMS Cornwallis at Nanjing, ending the First Opium War. China ceded Hong Kong Island, opened five treaty ports to British trade and agreed to pay a large indemnity. It was the first of the treaties later called the unequal treaties.