1840

1840 (MDCCCXL) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar, the 1840th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 840th year of the 2nd millennium, the 40th year of the 19th century, and the 1st year of the 1840s decade. As of the start of 1840, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Events

July–September

• July 4 – The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the first steam transatlantic passenger mail service.
• July 15 – The Austrian Empire, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire sign the Convention of London with the Sublime Porte, ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
• July 21 – August Borsig's steam locomotive, the first built in Germany, competes against a Stephenson-built locomotive on the Berlin–Jüterbog railroad; the Borsig locomotive wins by 10 minutes.
• July 23
  • Pedro II is declared "of age" prematurely, and begins to reassert central control in Brazil.
  • The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union, but not proclaimed until 10 February 1841.
• August 1 – Remaining former slaves in the British Empire are released from apprenticeships under terms of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
• August 10 – Fortsas hoax: A number of book collectors gather in Binche, Belgium, to attend a non-existent book auction of the late "Count of Fortsas".
• August 19 – The Battle of the Barrier.
• September 10 – Ottoman and British troops bombard Beirut, and land troops on the coast, to pressure Egyptian Muhammad Ali to retreat from the country.
• September 16 – Joseph Strutt hands over the deeds and papers concerning the Derby Arboretum, which is to become England's first public park.
• September 30 – The French frigate Belle Poule arrives in Cherbourg, bringing back the remains of Napoleon from Saint Helena to France.

October–December

• October 7 – William II becomes King of the Netherlands.
• October 8 – A firman (imperial decree) of Sultan Abdulmejid I replaces Bashir Shihab II as Emir of Mount Lebanon with Prince Bashir Chehab III (Bashir Qasim al-Chehab).
• October 11 – Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the Ottomans, and on October 14 goes into exile, initially in Malta.
• November 4 – 1840 United States presidential election: William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren in a landslide.
• December 7 – David Livingstone leaves Britain for Africa.
• December 15 – The body of Napoleon is laid to rest in Les Invalides in Paris.
• December 21 – Stockport Viaduct is completed in North West England. It is one of the largest brick structures in Europe.

Births

January–March

• January 1 – Dugald Drummond, Scottish-born railway locomotive designer (d. 1912)
• January 3 – Father Damien, Belgian missionary priest (d. 1889)
• January 9 – Samuel Baldwin Marks Young, American general, first Chief of Staff of the United States Army (d. 1924)
• January 18 – Alfred Percy Sinnett, English writer and theosophist (d. 1921)
• January 19 – Dethloff Willrodt, American Civil War veteran and politician (d. 1932)
• January 21 – Sophia Jex-Blake, English physician (d. 1912)
• January 22 – Ernest Wilberforce, English bishop (d. 1907)
• January 23 – Ernst Abbe, German physicist (d. 1905)
• February 5
  • John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish-born inventor (d. 1921)
  • Hiram Maxim, American-born British firearms inventor (d. 1916)
• February 9 – William T. Sampson, American admiral (d. 1902)
• February 15 – Titu Maiorescu, 23rd Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1917)
• February 21 – Murad V, 33rd 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 of the submarine (d. 1914)
• March 8 – Eduard von Knorr, German admiral (d. 1920)
• March 28 – Emin Pasha, German doctor, African administrator (d. 1892)
• March 31 – Sir Benjamin Baker, English civil engineer (d. 1907)

July–September

• July 1 – Edward Clodd, English banker, writer and anthropologist (d. 1930)
• July 6 – Peter Conover Hains, major general in the United States Army and veteran of three wars (d. 1921)
• August 1 – Franz Simandl, Double bassist and pedagogue (d. 1912)
• August 4 – Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German sexologist (d. 1902)
• September 12 – Mary Jane Patterson, the first African-American woman to receive a B.A. degree in 1862. (d. 1894)
• September 22 – D. M. Canright, American Seventh-day Adventist minister and author, later one of the church's severest critics (d. 1919)
• September 25 – William N. Roach, American politician and member of the United States Senate from 1893 to 1899 (d. 1902)
• September 27
  • Alfred Thayer Mahan, United States Navy admiral, American geostrategist and historian (d. 1914)
  • Thomas Nast, American caricaturist, cartoonist (d. 1902)

Deaths

January–June

• January 6 – Fanny Burney, English novelist (b. 1752)
• January 22 – Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (b. 1752)
• February 1 – Saint Barbara Choe Yong-i, Korean Roman Catholic martyr (b. 1819)
• February 13 – Nicolas Joseph Maison, French marshal, Minister of War (b. 1770)
• March 11 – George Wolf, American politician (b. 1777)
• March 17 – Lady Lucy Whitmore, English noblewoman and hymnwriter (b. 1792)
• April 12 – Franz Anton von Gerstner, Austrian railway engineer (b. 1796)
• April 25 – Siméon Denis Poisson, French mathematician, geometer, and physicist (b. 1781)
• May 1 – Joseph Williamson, builder of the Williamson Tunnels (b. 1769)
• May 6
  • Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, Russian aristocrat, priest (b. 1770)
  • Francisco de Paula Santander, President of Colombia (b. 1792)
• May 7 – Caspar David Friedrich, German artist (b. 1774)
• May 13 – Leonard Gyllenhaal, Swedish military officer, entomologist (b. 1752)
• May 14 – Carl Ludvig Engel, German-Finnish architect (b. 1778)
• May 26 – Sidney Smith, British admiral (b. 1764)
• May 25 – Louisa Capper, English writer, philosopher and poet (b. 1776)
• May 27 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist, composer (b. 1782)
• May 30 – Dominique Jacques de Eerens, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1781)
• June 7 – King Frederick William III of Prussia (b. 1770)

References

External links

• Media related to 1840 at Wikimedia Commons