1840

Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

Decades: 1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s - 1840s - 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s

Years: 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 - 1840 - 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845

• 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 Adélie Land[?], Antarctica.
• January 20 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
• 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.
• November - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren in the U.S. presidential election.
• Mount Allison University is founded in Sackville[?], New Brunswick, Canada.

Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy

• 1840 in literature:
  • Two Years Before the Mast[?] - Richard Henry Dana, Jr.[?]

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)
• 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