1840

Years: 1837 1838 1839 - 1840 - 1841 1842 1843
Decades: 1810s 1820s 1830s - 1840s - 1850s 1860s 1870s
Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century 1840 in art 1840 in literature 1840 in science 1840 in music 1840 in sports List of state leaders in 1840 List of religious leaders in 1840

1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar).

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths

Events

January 3 - One of the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia's predecessor papers The Port Phillip Herald is founded by George Cavanaugh.
January 10 - Uniform penny postage introduced in the UK.
January 19 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
January 20 - Dumont D'Urville discovers AdÃÂ©lie Land, Antarctica.
January 22 - British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding date of Wellington, New Zealand.
February 6 - Treaty of Waitangi, document granting British sovereignty in New Zealand, is signed.
February 10 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha.
February 11 - Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Regiment premieres in Paris.
May 1 - Great Britain issues the Penny Black, world's first postage stamp.
May 6 - The Penny Black, world's first postage stamp becomes valid for the pre-payment of postage.
July 4 - The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddlewheel steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic passenger cruise.
July 15 ÃÂ Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia sign a London Treaty with the Sublime Porte, ruler of the Ottoman Empire
September 10 - Ottoman and British troops bombard Beirut and land troops on the coast to pressure Egyptian Muhammad Ali to retreat from the country
October 7 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
October 14 ÃÂ Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta
November - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren in the U.S. presidential election.
David Livingstone leaves for Africa
Maori are forced to surrender their lands to British sovereignty in the Waiangi Treaty
Punch caricature magazine begins publication
Pedro II is declared of age prematurely and begins to reassert central control in Brazil
Mount Allison University is founded in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.

Births

January 3 - Father Damien, missionary priest in Hawai'i (d. 1888)
February 5 - John Boyd Dunlop, inventor (d. 1921)
February 11 - Samuel Dana Greene, Lieutenant Commander (Union Navy)
February 21 - Murat V, future Ottoman sultan
February 22 - August Bebel, politician (d. 1913)
February 23 - Carl Menger, economist
February 29 - John Philip Holland, developer of the first submarine
March 28 - Emin Pasha, German doctor, naturalist to Africa (d. 1892)
April 2 - Emile Zola, writer (d. 1902)
April 22 - Odilon Redon, painter
April 27 - Edward Whymper, explorer - first ascent of the Matterhorn (1865)
May 7 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer (d. 1893)
June 2 - Thomas Hardy, novelist (d. 1928)
August 4 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, sexologist
November 12 - Auguste Rodin, sculptor
November 14 - Claude Monet, painter
November 21 - Victoria, Princess Royal, "Vicky," eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
November 29 - Rhoda Broughton (d. 1920)

Deaths

January 6 - Fanny Burney, novelist
January 10 - Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, Dowager Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg, aunt of Queen Victoria
January 22 - Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist
May 27 - Niccolo Paganini, violinist and composer
June 7 - King Frederick William III of Prussia
Emperor Kokaku of Japan