1840 (original) (raw)
Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century
Decades: 1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s - 1840s - 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s
Years: 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 - 1840 - 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845
Events
- January 3 - One of the Herald-Sun of Melbourne, Australia's predecessor papers The Port Phillip Herald is founded by George Cavanaugh.
- January 10 - Uniforn penny postage introduced in the UK.
- January 19 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
- January 20 - Dumont D'Urville discovers Ad�lie Land, Antarctica.
- January 22 - British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding date of Wellington, New Zealand.
- 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.
- May 1 - Great 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.
- October 7 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
- November - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren in the U.S. presidential election.
- Mount Allison University is founded in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.
Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy
- 1840 in literature:
- Two Years Before the Mast - Richard Henry Dana, Jr
- 1840 in music
- 1840 in science
Births
- February 5 - John Boyd Dunlop, inventor (+ 1921)
- February 11 - Samuel Dana Greene, Lieutenant Commander (Union Navy)
- February 21 - Murat V, future Ottoman sultan
- February 22 - August Bebel, politician (+ 1913)
- February 23 - Carl Menger, economist
- February 29 - John Philip Holland, developer of the first submarine
- March 28 - Emin Pasha, German doctor, naturalist to Africa (+ 1892)
- April 2 - Emile Zola, writer (+ 1902)
- April 22 - Odilon Redon, painter
- April 27 - Edward Whymper, explorer - first ascent of the Matterhorn (1865)
- May 7 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer (+ 1893)
- June 2 - Thomas Hardy, novelist (+ 1928)
- August 4 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, sexologist
- November 12 - Auguste Rodin, sculptor
- November 14 - Claude Monet, painter
- November 21 - Victoria, Princess Royal, "Vicky," eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
- November 29 - Rhoda Broughton (+ 1920)
Deaths
- January 6 - Fanny Burney, novelist
- January 10 - Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, Dowager Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg, aunt of Queen Victoria
- January 22 - Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist
- May 27 - Niccolo Paganini, violinist and composer
- June 7 - King Frederick William III of Prussia
- Emperor Kokaku of Japan
Heads of states
- Prussia
- Frederick William III King of Prussia (1797-1840)
- Frederick William IV King of Prussia (1840-1861)\n