Historical Events in 1840

A Day's Pay – The Cost of Sending a Letter

Jan 10 Uniform Penny Post mail system starts throughout the United Kingdom an idea championed by Rowland Hill to increase the volume of mail and its availability to poorer classes

Perforation by machine didn’t exist until 1854 so strips of stamps, like these, had to be separated by postal employees, using scissors

Jan 13 The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives
Jan 18 The Electro-Magnet, and Mechanics Intelligencer, 1st US electrical journal, appears
Jan 20 Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica
Jan 20 Dutch King Willem II crowned
Jan 22 New Zealand Company settlers arrive aboard the Aurora at Te Whanganui a Tara, which becomes Port Nicholson, Wellington

Historic Expedition

Jan 25 American naval expedition under Charles Wilkes is first to identify Antarctica as a new continent

Naval Officer and Explorer Charles Wilkes

Treaty of Waitangi

Jan 29 First Governor of New Zealand and co-author of the Treaty of Waitangi Captain William Hobson arrives in the Bay of Islands, NZ

Feb 1 Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, 1st in US, incorporated
Feb 6 The Treaty of Waitangi is signed between 40 Māori Chiefs (later signed by 500) and representatives of the British crown in Waitangi, New Zealand. The treaty was designed to share sovereignty between the two groups.
Feb 11 Gaetano Donizetti's opéra comique "La Fille du Regiment" (The Daughter of the Regiment) premieres at the Salle de la Bourse in Paris, France
Feb 12 Housatonic Railroad opens, running from Bridgeport, Connecticut, north to the Massachusetts state line
Feb 16 American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Mar 1 Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France
Mar 5 2nd Grand National: Bartholomew Bretherton wins aboard 16/1 Jerry; a then smallest field of 13
Mar 14 Jose Zorilla's romantic drama "El Zapatero y el Rey" premieres in Madrid
Mar 23 John William Draper takes 1st successful photo in US of the Moon (daguerreotype), in New York City
Apr 13 William Henry Lane ("Juda") perfects tap dance

Palace of Westminster

Apr 27 Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by Sarah Barry wife of its architect Charles Barry

Penny Black

May 1 "Penny Black", the world's first adhesive postage stamp issued by Great Britain

The Hero as Divinity

May 5 Thomas Carlyle begins his famous lecture series "The Hero as Divinity", later collected in his book "On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History"

May 6 World's first adhesive postage stamp, the "Penny Black", is first used in Great Britain
May 7 Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi, kills 317
May 8 Alexander Wolcott patents Photographic Process
May 20 York Minster badly damaged by fire
May 21 Captain William Hobson proclaims British sovereignty over New Zealand; the North Island by treaty and the South Island by 'discovery'
May 22 The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished
Jun 12 Meteorite hits Uden, Netherlands

Morse Telegraph

Jun 20 American inventor Samuel Morse patents his telegraph

Jul 4 The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end
Jul 6 Christian Hebbel's "Judith" premieres in Berlin
Jul 15 Great Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia sign Quadruple Alliance
Jul 23 Union Act passed by British Parliament, uniting Upper & Lower Canada
Aug 18 American Society of Dental Surgeons founded (NY)
Aug 18 French colony established in Akaroa, South Island of New Zealand
Aug 28 Nine Jewish prisoners are released from Damascus jails
Oct 7 Willem I resigns as king of Netherlands
Oct 8 "Ke Kumukānāwai a me nā Kānāwai o ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina, Honolulu, 1840", the 1st written Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom enacted by King Kamehameha III and Kuhina Nui (Prime Minister) Kekāuluohi
Oct 8 First Hawaiian constitution proclaimed
Oct 14 Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta.
Nov 16 New Zealand officially becomes a British colony
Dec 2 Gaetano Donizetti's opera "La Favorita" premieres in Paris