What Happened in January 1841

Historical Events

  • Jan 5 James Clark Ross (UK) is 1st to enter pack ice near Ross Ice Shelf
  • Jan 20 China cedes Hong Kong to the British during the 1st Opium War
  • Jan 26 Hong Kong proclaimed a sovereign territory of Britain
  • Jan 30 A fire destroys two-thirds of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

Famous Birthdays

  • Jan 10 George Melville, polar explorer and naval engineer, born in NYC, New York (d. 1912)
  • Jan 14 Berthe M P Morisot, French painter/aquarellist
  • Jan 15 Lord Frederick Stanley, presenter of hockey's Stanley Cup
  • Jan 18 Alexis Emmanuel Chabrier, French composer (España, Joyeuse marche, Le Roi Malgré Lui), born in Ambert, Puy-de-Dôme (d. 1894)
  • Jan 25 John Arbuthnot Fisher, Ceylon, 1st Baron Fisher/admiral of the fleet
  • Jan 27 Arkhip Kuindzhi, Russian painter (d. 1910)

Person of interestHenry Morton Stanley

Jan 28 Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh journalist and African explorer (found Livingstone in Africa), born in Denbigh, Wales (d. 1904)

Journalist and Explorer Henry Morton Stanley
Journalist and Explorer
Henry Morton Stanley
  • Jan 28 Viktor Ernst Nessler, composer
  • Jan 30 Alfred Townsend George, American Civil War journalist, born in Georgetown, Delaware (d. 1914)
  • Jan 30 Félix Faure, 6th President of the French Third Republic (1895-99), born in Paris (d. 1899)

Famous Deaths

  • Jan 3 Wilhelmus Kist, writer/director of Dutch (Official) Gazette, dies at 82