Historical Events in January 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