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| align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1837 1838 1839 - 1840 - 1841 1842 1843
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| align="center" colspan=2 | 1820s 1830s - 1840s ''' - 1850s 1860s 1870s
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| align="center" | - 19th Century ''' - 20th Century
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1840 is a Leap Year Starting On Wednesday (link will take you to calendar).
Events
- January 3 - One of the predecessor papers to the '' Herald Sun '' of Melbourne, Australia , ''The Port Phillip Herald'', is founded by George Cavanaugh .
- January 10 - Uniform penny postage introduced in the UK.
- January 13 - The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
- January 19 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica , claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States .
- January 20 - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land , Antarctica .
- January 22 - British colonists reach New Zealand . Official founding date of Wellington .
- 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 .
- March 1 - William Hobson , first Governor of New Zealand , suffers a stroke.
- March 1 - Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France .
- May 1 - 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.
- during the early afternoon hours. Before it was over, 317 people had lost their lives and 209 were injured. It is the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
- July 4 - The Cunard Line 's 700- Ton wooden paddlewheel steamer RMS ''Britannia'' departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic passenger cruise.
- July 15 – Austria , Britain , Prussia , and Russia sign a London Treaty with the Sublime Porte , ruler of the Ottoman Empire .
- August 10 - Fortsas Hoax - number of book Collector s gather to Binche , Belgium to attend a non-existent book auction of the late "Count of Fortsas"
- September 10 - Ottoman and British troops bombard Beirut and land troops on the coast to pressure Egypt ian Muhammad Ali to retreat from the country.
- October 7 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands .
- October 14 – Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta .
- November - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren in the U.S. Presidential Election .
Births
- January 3 - Father Damien , Belgian missionary priest (d. 1888 )
- January 23 - Ernst Abbe , German physicist (d. 1905 )
- February 4 - Hiram Stevens Maxim , American firearms inventor (d. 1916 )
- February 5 - John Boyd Dunlop , Scottish inventor (d. 1921 )
- February 21 - Murad V , Ottoman Sultan (d. 1904 )
- February 22 - August Bebel , German politician (d. 1913 )
- February 23 - Carl Menger , Austrian economist (d. 1921 )
- February 29 - John Philip Holland , Irish inventor (d. 1914 )
- March 28 - Emin Pasha , German doctor and African administrator (d. 1892 )
- April 2 - Emile Zola , French writer (d. 1902 )
- April 22 - Odilon Redon , French painter (d. 1916 )
- April 27 - Edward Whymper , English mountaineer (d. 1911 )
- May 7 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , Russian composer (d. 1893 )
- May 13 - Alphonse Daudet , French writer (d. 1897 )
- June 2 - Thomas Hardy , English writer (d. 1928 )
- August 4 - Richard Von Krafft-Ebing , German sexologist (d. 1902 )
- October 9 - Simeon Solomon , British artist (d. 1905 )
- October 16 - Kuroda Kiyotaka , Prime Minister Of Japan (d. 1900 )
- November 12 - Auguste Rodin , French sculptor (d. 1917 )
- November 14 - Claude Monet , French painter (d. 1926 )
- November 21 - Victoria, Princess Royal Of The United Kingdom And Empress Of Germany (d. 1901 )
- November 29 - Rhoda Broughton , Welsh writer (d. 1920 )
Deaths
- January 6 - Fanny Burney , English novelist (b. 1752 )
- January 22 - Johann Friedrich Blumenbach , German anthropologist (b. 1752 )
- February 13 - Nicolas Joseph Maison , French marshal and Minister of War (b. 1770 )
- April 25 - Siméon-Denis Poisson , French mathematician, geometer, and physicist (b. 1781 )
- May 7 - Caspar David Friedrich , German artist (b. 1774 )
- May 26 - Sidney Smith , British admiral (b. 1764 )
- May 27 - Nicolo Paganini , Italian violinist and composer (b. 1782 )
- June 7 - King Frederick William III Of Prussia (b. 1770 )
- September 7 - Étienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald , French marshal (b. 1765 )
- December 11 - Emperor Kokaku Of Japan (b. 1771 )
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