1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar).
Events
- January 3 - One of the predecessor papers to the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia, 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 Adélie Land, Antarctica.
- January 22 - British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding date of Wellington.
- 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.
- March 1 - William Hobson, first Governor of New Zealand, suffers a stroke.
- March 1 - Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France.
- May 1 - 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.
- May 7 - The Great Natchez Tornado: A massive tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi during the early afternoon hours. Before it was over, 317 people had lost their lives and 209 were injured. It is the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
- 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 – 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 – 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.
Births
- January 3 - Father Damien, missionary priest in Hawai'i (d. 1888)
- February 4 - Hiram Stevens Maxim, inventor of Maxim Gun (d. 1916)
- February 5 - John Boyd Dunlop, inventor (d. 1921)
- February 11 - Samuel Dana Greene, Lieutenant Commander (Union Navy)
- February 21 - Murad V, future Ottoman sultan (d. 1904)
- February 22 - August Bebel, politician (d. 1913)
- February 23 - Carl Menger, economist (d. 1921)
- February 29 - John Philip Holland, developer of the first submarine (d. 1914)
- March 28 - Emin Pasha, German doctor, naturalist to Africa (d. 1892)
- April 2 - Emile Zola, writer (d. 1902)
- April 22 - Odilon Redon, painter (d. 1916)
- April 27 - Edward Whymper, explorer - first ascent of the Matterhorn (1865) (d. 1911)
- May 7 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer (d. 1893)
- June 2 - Thomas Hardy, novelist (d. 1928)
- August 4 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, sexologist
- October 16 - Kuroda Kiyotaka, Japanese politician and prime minister (d. 1900)
- 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)
- Ernst Abbe, German physicist.
Deaths
af:1840
ast:1840
bg:1840
be:1840
ca:1840
cs:1840
cy:1840
da:1840
de:1840
et:1840
el:1840
es:1840
eo:1840
eu:1840
fr:1840
fy:1840
hr:1840
is:1840
it:1840
he:1840
la:1840
hu:1840
mi:1840
nl:1840
no:1840
pl:1840
pt:1840
ro:1840
ru:1840
sl:1840
sr:1840
fi:1840
sv:1840
tr:1840
uk:1840
wa:1840
zh:1840年
|
