1840 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

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

Naval Officer and Explorer Charles Wilkes — 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
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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 12 Housatonic Railroad opens
Feb 16 American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Mar 1 Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France.
Mar 14 Jose Zorilla's "El Zapatero y el Rey" premieres in Madrid
Mar 23 Draper takes 1st successful photo of the Moon (daguerreotype)
Apr 27 Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry

Penny Black

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

Historic Invention

Jun 20 Samuel Morse patents his telegraph

Inventor Samuel Morse — Inventor
Samuel Morse

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 1 Labourer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated.
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 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

Election of Interest

Dec 2 William Henry Harrison elected the 9th President of the United States of America

9th US President William Henry Harrison — 9th US President
William Henry Harrison

Event of Interest

Dec 15 Napoleon Bonaparte receives a French state funeral in Paris 19 years after his death

French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte — French Emperor
Napoléon Bonaparte

Birthdays in History

Jan 3 Father Joseph Damien de Veuster, Belgian helped lepers in Hawaii
Jan 5 John Doby Kennedy, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1896)
Jan 10 Louis Nazaire Bégin, French Canadian archbishop and cardinal (d. 1925)
Jan 18 Austin Dobson, England, poet/critic/biographer
Jan 21 Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake, Hastings, English Physician and feminist who was one of the first female medical students at a British university
Jan 22 Ernest Roland Wilberforce, English bishop (d. 1907)
Jan 23 Ernst Abbe, German physicist (Carl Zeiss Optics Company)
Feb 5 Hiram Stevens Maxim, inventor (automatic single-barrel rifle)
Feb 5 John Boyd Dunlop, Scotland, developer (pneumatic rubber tire)
Feb 11 Sanuel Dana Greene, Lt Cmdr (Union Navy), (d. 1884)
Feb 22 F August Bebel, German social-democrat
Feb 23 Carl Menger, Austrian economist
Feb 25 Otto Liebmann, German philosopher (Climax of Theories)
Feb 28 Henri Duveyrier, French explorer (d. 1892)

John Philip Holland

Feb 29 John Philip Holland, Irish engineer and father of the modern submarine, born in Liscannor, Ireland (d. 1914)

Feb 29 William Harvey Carney, American Civil War soldier (first African-American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor), born in Norfolk, Virginia (d. 1908)
Mar 5 Constance Fenimore Woolson, NH, writer (Jupiter Lights)
Mar 11 Edmund Kirby Jr, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Brownville, New York(d. 1863)
Mar 16 Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (d. 1931)
Mar 18 William Cosmo Monkhouse, English poet and critic (d. 1901)
Mar 20 Illarion Pryanishnikov, Russian painter (d. 1894)
Mar 25 Myles Keogh, U.S. Soldier in U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment & Irish Soldier of Fortune (d. 1876)
Mar 26 George Smith, English archaeologist and assyriologist (cuneiform script), born in London (d. 1876)
Mar 28 Emin Pasha, German explorer and governor (Equatoria), born in Oppeln, Silesia (d. 1892)
Mar 31 John Herbert Kelly, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1864)
Mar 31 Benjamin Baker, English civil engineer who designed the bridge over the Firth of Forth, Scotland and the London underground, born in Frome, England (d. 1907)
Apr 2 Émile Zola, French novelist and critic (J'accuse), born in Paris, France (d. 1902)
Apr 19 Andrea Bezzola, writer
Apr 20 Odilon Redon [Bertrand-Jean Redon], French symbolist painter, born in Bordeaux (d. 1916)
Apr 25 James Dearing, U.S. Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Campbell County, Virginia (d. 1865)
Apr 27 Edward Whymper, English mountaineer, 1st to climb Matterhorn (1865), born in London (d. 1911)
May 10 Hadzhi Dimitar, Bulgarian revolutionist (d. 1868)
May 13 Alphonse Daudet, French writer (Tartarin of Tarascon), born in Nîmes, France (d. 1897)
May 24 Frederick Walker, British social realist painter, born in London (d. 1875)
May 29 Hans Makart, Austrian painter (Plague in Florenz)
Jun 2 Thomas Hardy, poet and novelist (Far from the Madding Crowd), born in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset (d. 1928)
Jun 3 Eugeen van Oye, Flemish writer/poet (Morning Twilight)
Jun 6 William Francis Bartlett, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Haverhill, Massachusetts (d. 1876)
Jun 7 Carlota of Mexico, princess of Belgium and empress consort of Mexico (1864-67), born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1927)
Jun 10 Thomas Fentress Toon, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1902)
Jun 10 Theodor Philipsen Danish painter (d. 1920)
Jun 11 Henri Braekeleer, Flemish painter, born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1888)
Jun 16 Ernst Otto Schlick, German engineer (d. 1913)
Jun 22 Ernest Debes, German cartographer (Baedeker)
Jul 1 Robert S Ball, Irish mathematician/astronomer
Jul 12 Abraham Goldfaden, Russian-born Jewish poet and playwright (Shulamis), born in Starokostiantyniv, Russian Empire (d. 1908)
Jul 25 Flora Adams Darling, American writer and historian, founded Daughters of American Revolution, born in Lancaster, New Hampshire (d. 1910)
Jul 27 Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Westchester County, New York (d. 1889)
Aug 14 Baron Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, psychiatrist
Aug 17 Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, England, writer (Irish Land League)
Aug 28 Alexander Cameron Sim, Scottish merchant, born in Aberlour, Scotland (d. 1900)
Sep 2 Giovanni Verga, Italian writer (Eros)
Sep 21 Murad V, sultan of Turkey (1876)
Sep 26 Louis-Olivier Taillon, French Canadian politician (d. 1923)
Sep 27 Alfred Thayer Mahan, American naval officer (Influence of Sea Power)

Thomas Nast

Sep 27 Thomas Nast, German political cartoonist of late 1800s America, born in Landau, Germany (d. 1902)

Sep 28 Alexander Swift "Sandie" Pendleton, Lt-Col (Confederate Army)
Sep 28 Rudolf Baumbach, Thuringia [Germany], writer of student drinking songs
Oct 5 John Addington Symonds, British historian and writer (Probs in Greek Ethics)
Oct 9 Simeon Solomon, English Pre-Raphaelite painter, born in London (d. 1905)
Oct 15 Honoré Mercier, politician and premier of Quebec (d. 1894)
Oct 16 Kuroda Kiyotaka, 2nd Prime Minister of Japan (1894-1899), born in Kagoshima, Satsuma Domain (d. 1900)
Oct 30 William G Sumner, US sociologist, political analyst, born in Paterson, New Jersey (d. 1910)
Oct 31 Franz Müller, German tailor and first train murderer (killing Thomas Briggs) (d. 1864)
Nov 9 Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, French-Canadian lawyer and politician, born in Sainte-Thérèse, Canada (d. 1898)

Auguste Rodin

Nov 12 Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (Kiss, Thinker), born in Paris, France (d. 1917)

Claude Monet

Nov 14 Claude Monet [Oscar-Claude], French impressionist (Water Lilies, Haystacks, Poplars), born in Paris, France (d. 1926)

Nov 15 Aleksei N Apuchtin, Russian poet/friend of Tsjaikovski [NS=11/27]
Nov 19 Aleksandr Kovalevsky, Shustyanka near Dvinsk, Russian Biologist who founded comparative embryology and experimental histology and who identified a common pattern of embryological development in all multi-cellular animals
Nov 21 Victoria, Empress of Germany/Queen of Prussia
Nov 25 Hugo Verriest, Flemish author/poet (Flemish Movement)
Nov 27 Aleksei N Apuchtin, Russian poet/friend of Tsjaikovski [OS=11/15]
Nov 30 Henry Birks, Canadian businessman (d. 1928)

Crazy Horse

Dec 4 Crazy Horse [Tashunka Witko], Oglala Sioux chief (Battle of the Little Bighorn), born in Fort Robinson, Nebraska (d. 1877)

Dec 11 Kemal Bey, Turkey, poet/author (Fatherland-1872)
Dec 21 Mehmed N Kemal, Turkish journalist (Vatan)

Weddings in History

Wedding of Interest

Feb 10 British Queen Victoria (20) marries her cousin Albert (20) of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, later the Prince Consort at St James' Palace

Queen of the United Kingdom Victoria — Queen of the United Kingdom
Victoria

Wedding of Interest

May 1 Women's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton (24) weds fellow abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton (34)

Wedding of Interest

Sep 6 Publisher James Gordon Bennett (45) weds Henrietta Agnes Crean in NYC, New York

Founder of the New York Herald James Gordon Bennett — Founder of the New York Herald
James Gordon Bennett

Deaths in History

Jan 6 Fanny Burney, English novelist (Camille, Evalina), dies at 87
Jan 22 Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (b. 1752)
Mar 2 Heinrich Olbers, German astronomer (comets & asteroids), dies at 81
Mar 2 Wilhelm Olbers, German astronomer and physician, discovered asteroids (Pallas & Vesta), dies at 81
Mar 22 Étienne Bobillier, French mathematician, dies at 41
Mar 23 William Maclure, Scottish-American Geologist (first geological map), dies at 76
Mar 28 Simon-Antoine-Jean Lhuillier, Swiss mathematician, dies at 89
Mar 30 George (Beau) Brummell, Dandy, dies
Apr 19 Jean-Jacques Lartigue, Roman catholic bishop of Montreal (b. 1777)
Apr 25 Siméon-Denis Poisson, French mathematician (Poisson distribution) and physicist, dies at 58
May 6 Francisco de Paula Santander, Colombian president and independence leader (b. 1792)
May 7 Caspar David Friedrich, German painter (b. 1774)
May 26 Sidney Smith, British admiral, dies at 75
May 30 Dominique J de Eerens, gov-gen of Dutch-Indies, dies at 59
Jun 6 Marcellin Champagnat, French priest (b. 1789)
Jun 7 Frederik Willem III, King of Prussia (1797-1840), dies at 69
Jun 19 John Cockerill, English/Belgian industrial/orangist, dies at 50
Jun 25 Leopold count of Limburg Stirum, Dutch general and politician, dies at 82
Jun 29 Lucien Bonaparte, prince of Canino/Musignano, dies at 65

Karl Ferdinand von Graefe

Jul 4 Karl Ferdinand von Graefe, German surgeon who helped create modern plastic surgery dies at 53

Aug 18 Antony CW Staring, Dutch patriot/poet (Jaromir), dies at 73
Aug 25 Karl Leberecht Immermann, German writer, dies at 44
Aug 27 William Kneass, 3rd US chief engraver (1824-40), dies in office
Sep 8 John H van de Palm, theologist/literature/speaker, dies at 77
Sep 22 Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom, dies at 71
Sep 25 Jacques-Etienne-Joseph-Alexandre Macdonald, Duc de Tarente, soldier
Nov 24 Cornelis RT Krayenhoff, fortress architect/cartographer, dies at 82
Dec 11 Emperor Kokaku of Japan (b. 1771)

1839
On This Day in History
1841