1840


Events

   * January 3 - One of the Herald-Sun of Melbourne, Australia's predecessor
     papers The Port Phillip Herald is founded by George Cavanaugh.
   * January 19 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica,
     claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
   * January 20 - Dumont D'Urville discovers AdŽlie Land, Antarctica.
   * January 22 - British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding
     date of Wellington, New Zealand.
   * February 6 - Treaty of Waitangi, founding document of 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 6 - Great Britain issues the Penny Black, world's first postage
     stamp.
   * 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.

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
   * April 2 - Emile Zola, writer (+ 1902)
   * April 22 - Odilon Redon, painter
   * 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
   * May 27 - Niccolo Paganini, violinist and composer
   * June 7 - King Frederick William III of Prussia
   * Emperor Kokaku of Japan

Heads of states

   * Prussia
        o Frederick William III King of Prussia (1797-1840)
        o Frederick William IV King of Prussia (1840-1861)