1840
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| Years: 1837 1838 1839 - 1840 - 1841 1842 1843 | |
| Decades: 1810s 1820s 1830s - 1840s - 1850s 1860s 1870s | |
| Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century | |
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 13 - The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
- 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.
- David Livingstone leaves for Africa.
- 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, Belgian missionary priest (d. 1888)
- January 23 - Ernst Abbe, German physicist (d. 1905)
- February 4 - Hiram Stevens Maxim, American firearms inventor (d. 1916)
- February 5 - John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish inventor (d. 1921)
- February 11 - Samuel Dana Greene, American Civil War officer
- February 21 - Murad V, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1904)
- February 22 - August Bebel, German politician (d. 1913)
- February 23 - Carl Menger, Austrian economist (d. 1921)
- February 29 - John Philip Holland, Irish inventor (d. 1914)
- March 28 - Emin Pasha, German doctor and African administrator (d. 1892)
- April 2 - Emile Zola, French writer (d. 1902)
- April 22 - Odilon Redon, French painter (d. 1916)
- April 27 - Edward Whymper, English mountaineer (d. 1911)
- May 7 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (d. 1893)
- May 13 - Alphonse Daudet, French writer (d. 1897)
- June 2 - Thomas Hardy, English writer (d. 1928)
- August 4 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German sexologist (d. 1902)
- October 16 - Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1900)
- November 12 - Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (d. 1917)
- November 14 - Claude Monet, French painter (d. 1926)
- November 21 - Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom and Empress of Germany (d. 1901)
- November 29 - Rhoda Broughton, Welsh writer (d. 1920)
Deaths
- January 6 - Fanny Burney, English novelist (b. 1752)
- January 22 - Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (b. 1752)
- April 25 - Siméon-Denis Poisson, French mathematician, geometer, and physicist (b. 1781)
- May 7 - Caspar David Friedrich, German artist (b. 1774)
- May 27 - Nicolo Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1782)
- June 7 - King Frederick William III of Prussia (b. 1770)
- December 11 - Emperor Kokaku of Japan (d. 1771)af:1840
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