Year (''' MDCCCXL ''') was a Leap Year Starting On Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Year Starting On Monday of the 12-day slower Julian Calendar ).
: Steamship ''Lexington'' sinks.]]
- January 3 - One of the predecessor papers of 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 in icy waters, four miles off the coast of Long Island : 139 died, only 4 survived.
- 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 . The first public school is established in Rockingham County
- January 22 - British colonists reach New Zealand . Official founding date of Wellington .
- February 5 - The Damascus Affair begins with the disappearance of a friar and his servant, which by the next day had been blamed on local Jews.
- 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.
- --- Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France .
: RMS ''Britannia'' .]]
- January 3 - Father Damien , Belgian missionary priest (d. 1888 )
- January 23 - Ernst Abbe , German physicist (d. 1905 )
- January 26 - John Clayton Adams , British landscape artist (d. 1906 )
- 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 )
: ''See also .''
- 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 1 - Joseph Williamson, philanthropist and builder of Williamson's Tunnels (b. 1769 )
- May 7 - Caspar David Friedrich , German artist (b. 1774 )
- May 26 - Sidney Smith , British admiral (b. 1764 )
- May 27 - Nicolò Paganini , Italian violinist and composer (b. 1782 )
- June 7 - King Frederick William III Of Prussia (b. 1770 )
: ''See also .''
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