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Months in Year 1840: January February March April May June July August September October November December

Historical Events

Results 1 - 44 of 44

Jan 1st - 1st recorded bowling match in US, Knickerbocker Alleys, NYC
Jan 3rd - 1st deep sea sounding
Jan 5th - Records show 95,820 licensed public houses in England on this date
Jan 10th - Penny Post mail system is starts
Jan 13th - The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
Jan 18th - Electro-Magnetic Intelligencer, 1st US electrical journal, appears
Jan 19th - Antarctica discovered, Charles Wilkes expedition (US claim)
Jan 20th - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica
Jan 20th - Dutch King Willem II crowned
Jan 22nd - British colonists reach New Zealand.
Feb 1st - Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, 1st in US, incorporated
Feb 6th - Waitangi Day; treaty signed between Britain & Maoris of NZ
Feb 10th - British queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert von Saksen-Coburg
Feb 11th - Gaetano Donizetti's Opera "La Fille du Regiment," premieres in Paris
Feb 12th - Housatonic Railroad opens
Feb 16th - American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Mar 1st - Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France.
Mar 14th - Jose Zorilla's "El Zapatero y el Rey," premieres in Madrid
Mar 23rd - Draper takes 1st successful photo of the Moon (daguerrotype)
Apr 27th - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
May 1st - 1st adhesive postage stamps ("Penny Blacks" from England) issued
May 6th - 1st postage stamps (Penny Black) issued (Great Britain)
May 7th - Tornado strikes Natchez Miss, kills 317
May 8th - Alexander Wolcott patents Photographic Process
May 20th - York Minster was badly damaged by fire
May 21st - NZ became a British colony
May 22nd - The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
Jun 12th - Meteorite hits Uden, Netherlands
Jun 20th - Samuel Morse patents his telegraph
Jul 4th - 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 6th - Christian Hebbel's "Judith," premieres in Berlin
Jul 15th - England, Russia, Austria & Prussia signs Quadruple Alliance
Jul 23rd - Union Act passed by British Parliament, uniting Upper & Lower Canada
Jul 23rd - The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union.
Aug 1st - Labourer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated.
Aug 18th - Organization of American Society of Dental Surgeons founded (NY)
Aug 28th - 9 Jewish prisoners are released from Damascus jails
Sep 12th - Composer Robert Schumann marries Clara Wieck
Oct 7th - Willem I resigns as king of Netherlands
Oct 8th - 1st Hawaiian constitution proclaimed
Oct 14th - Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta.
Dec 2nd - Gaetano Donizetti's opera "La Favorita," premieres in Paris
Dec 2nd - Opera "Die Favoritin" is produced (Paris)
Dec 2nd - William H Harrison elected president of US

Famous Birthdays

Results 1 - 100 of 102

Jan 3rd - Father Joseph Damien de Veuster, Belgium, helped lepers in Hawaii
Jan 5th - John Doby Kennedy, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1896
Jan 10th - Louis Nazaire Bégin, French Canadian archbishop and cardinal (d. 1925)
Jan 18th - Austin Dobson, England, poet/critic/biographer
Jan 18th - Ernst Rudorff, composer
Jan 21st - Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake, pioneer English woman physician
Jan 22nd - Ernest Roland Wilberforce, English bishop (d. 1907)
Jan 23rd - Ernst Abbe, Germany, physicist (Carl Zeiss Optics Company)
Feb 2nd - Louis Bourgault-Ducoudray, composer
Feb 5th - Hiram Stevens Maxim, inventor (automatic single-barrel rifle)
Feb 5th - John Boyd Dunlop, Scotland, developer (pneumatic rubber tire)
Feb 11th - Sanuel Dana Greene, Lt Cmdr (Union Navy), died in 1884
Feb 13th - Georg Jacobi, composer
Feb 22nd - F August Bebel, German social-democrat
Feb 23rd - Carl Menger, Austrian economist
Feb 25th - Alexis Hollander, composer
Feb 25th - Otto Liebmann, German philosopher (Climax of Theories)
Feb 28th - Henri Duveyrier, French explorer (d. 1892)
Feb 29th - John Philip Holland, Liscannor Ireland, pioneer in submarine building
Feb 29th - John Philip Holland, father of modern submarine
Mar 5th - Constance Fenimore Woolson, NH, writer (Jupiter Lights)
Mar 8th - Franco Faccio, Italian composer/conductor
Mar 11th - Edmund Kirby Jr, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1863
Mar 16th - Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (d. 1931)
Mar 18th - William Cosmo Monkhouse, English poet and critic (d. 1901)
Mar 20th - Illarion Pryanishnikov, Russian painter (d. 1894)
Mar 25th - Myles Keogh, U.S. Soldier in U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment & Irish Soldier of Fortune (d. 1876)
Mar 26th - Carli Zoeller, composer
Mar 26th - George Smith, London England, assyriologist (cuneiform (script))
Mar 28th - Mehemed Emin Pasja, German explorer/governor (Equatoria)
Mar 31st - John Herbert Kelly, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1864
Apr 2nd - Émile Zola, French novelist and critic (d. 1902)
Apr 11th - John Conrad Nordqvist, composer
Apr 12th - Edmond Audran, composer
Apr 19th - Andrea Bezzola, writer
Apr 21st - Franz Xaver Haberl, German priest/musicologist (Magister choralis)
Apr 22nd - Odilon Redon, French painter (d. 1916)
Apr 25th - James Dearing, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1865
Apr 25th - Peter Il'yich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (1812 Overture) (5/7 NS)
Apr 27th - Edward Whymper, 1st to climb Matterhorn (1865)
May 7th - Peter Il'yich Tchaikovsky, Votkinsk Rus, composer (1812 Overture) [NS]
May 10th - Hadzhi Dimitar, Bulgarian revolutionist (d. 1868)
May 11th - Filippo Capocci, composer
May 13th - Alphonse Daudet, writer
May 13th - L-M Alphonse Daudet, French writer (Tartarin of Tarascon)
May 24th - Frederick Walker, painter
May 29th - Hans Makart, Austrian painter (Plague in Florenz)
Jun 2nd - Thomas Hardy, England, poet/novelist (Far from the Madding Crowd)
Jun 3rd - Eugeen van Oye, Flemish writer/poet (Morning Twilight)
Jun 6th - John Stainer, composer
Jun 6th - William Francis Bartlett, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
Jun 7th - Charlotte MAAVCL, princess of Belgium/Emperor of Mexico (1864-67)
Jun 10th - Thomas Fentress Toon, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1902
Jun 10th - Theodor Philipsen Danish painter (d. 1920)
Jun 11th - Henri Braekeleer, Flemish painter/etser
Jun 16th - Ernst Otto Schlick, German engineer (d. 1913)
Jun 22nd - Ernest Debes, German cartographer (Baedeker)
Jun 24th - Louis Brassin, composer
Jul 1st - Robert S Ball, Irish mathematician/astronomer
Jul 4th - James McGranahan, composer
Jul 12th - Abraham Goldfaden, Eastern European Yiddish dramatist
Jul 25th - Flora Adams Darling, founded Daughters of American Revolution
Jul 27th - Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
Aug 1st - Aldine Sillman Kieffer, composer
Aug 13th - Giovanni Verga, Italian writer (Eros)
Aug 14th - Baron Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, psychiatrist
Aug 17th - Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, England, writer (Irish Land League)
Aug 28th - Ira D Sankey, US evangelist/composer/singer (Gospel hymns)
Aug 28th - Alexander Cameron Sim, Scottish merchant (d. 1900)
Sep 3rd - Jacob Fabricius, composer
Sep 9th - Gentil T Antheunis, Flemish poet/music/composer
Sep 14th - George Elbridge Whiting, composer
Sep 21st - Murad V, sultan of Turkey (1876)
Sep 26th - Louis-Olivier Taillon, French Canadian politician (d. 1923)
Sep 27th - Alfred Thayer Mahan, US, naval officer (Influence of Sea Power)
Sep 27th - Thomas Nast, political cartoonist of late 1800s America
Sep 28th - Alexander Swift "Sandie" Pendleton, Lt-Col (Confederate Army)
Sep 28th - Rudolf Baumbach, Thuringia [Germany], writer of student drinking songs
Sep 30th - Johan Severin Svendsen, composer
Oct 4th - Charles Ferdinand Lenepveu, composer
Oct 5th - Fran Gerbic, composer
Oct 5th - John Addington Symonds, Brit historian/writer (Probs in Greek Ethics)
Oct 9th - Simeon Solomon, British artist (d. 1905)
Oct 12th - Helena Modjeska, Poland, Shakespearian actress (Juliet)/anti-Russian
Oct 15th - Honoré Mercier, politician and premier of Quebec (d. 1894)
Oct 16th - Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1900)
Oct 30th - Carlotta Patti, Italian soprano
Oct 30th - William G Sumner, US sociologist/political analyst
Nov 9th - Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, French Canadian lawyer (d. 1898)
Nov 12th - Auguste Rodin, France, sculptor (Kiss, Thinker)
Nov 14th - Claude Monet, France, impressionist (Water Lilies)
Nov 15th - Aleksei N Apuchtin, Russian poet/friend of Tsjaikovski [NS=11/27]
Nov 16th - Frederick Scotson Clark, composer
Nov 21st - Victoria, Empress of Germany/Queen of Prussia
Nov 25th - Hugo Verriest, Flemish author/poet (Flemish Movement)
Nov 27th - Aleksei N Apuchtin, Russian poet/friend of Tsjaikovski [OS=11/15]
Nov 30th - Henry Birks, Canadian businessman (d. 1928)
Dec 4th - Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux chief (d. 1877)
Dec 7th - Hermann Goetz, composer
Dec 11th - Kemal Bey, Turkey, poet/author (Fatherland-1872)

Famous Deaths

Results 1 - 33 of 33

Jan 6th - Fanny Burney, English novelist and diarist (b. 1752)
Jan 22nd - Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (b. 1752)
Mar 2nd - Heinrich Olbers, German astronomer (comets & asteroids), dies at 81
Mar 12th - Friedrich Westenholz, composer, dies at 61
Mar 22nd - Étienne Bobillier, French mathematician (b. 1798)
Mar 28th - Simon-Antoine-Jean Lhuillier, Swiss mathematician, dies at 89
Mar 30th - George (Beau) Brummell, Dandy, dies
Apr 19th - Jean-Jacques Lartigue, Roman catholic bishop of Montreal (b. 1777)
Apr 25th - Siméon-Denis Poisson, French mathematician (b. 1781)
May 5th - Gottlob Benedikt Bierey, composer, dies at 67
May 5th - Matthaus Fischer, composer, dies at 76
May 6th - Francisco de Paula Santander, Colombian president and independence leader (b. 1792)
May 7th - Caspar David Friedrich, German painter (b. 1774)
May 17th - Niccolo Paganini, composer, dies at 57
May 26th - Sidney Smith, British admiral (b. 1764)
May 27th - Niccolo Paganini, composer/violinist, dies at 57
May 30th - Dominique J de Eerens, gov-gen of Dutch-Indies, dies at 59
Jun 6th - Marcellin Champagnat, French priest (b. 1789)
Jun 7th - Frederik Willem III, King of Prussia (1797-1840), dies at 69
Jun 19th - John Cockerill, English/Belgian industrial/orangist, dies at 50
Jun 25th - Leopold count of Limburg Stirum, Dutch general/politician, dies at 82
Jun 29th - Lucien Bonaparte, prince of Canino/Musignano, dies at 65
Jul 22nd - Josef Jawurek, composer, dies at 83
Jul 23rd - Frantisek Max Knize, composer, dies at 55
Aug 18th - Antony CW Staring, Dutch patriot/poet (Jaromir), dies at 73
Aug 24th - Joseph Waast Aubert Nonot, composer, dies at 89
Aug 25th - K L Immermann, writer, dies at 44
Aug 27th - William Kneass, 3rd US chief engraver (1824-40), dies in office
Sep 8th - John H van de Palm, theologist/literature/speaker, dies at 77
Sep 15th - Franz Xaver Pechacek, composer, dies at 47
Sep 25th - Jacques-Etienne-Joseph-Alexandre Macdonald, Duc de Tarente, soldier
Nov 24th - Cornelis RT Krayenhoff, fortress architect/cartographer, dies at 82
Dec 11th - Emperor Kokaku of Japan (b. 1771)