1839 CE

The first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri is published by Thomas Henderson. Prussia imposes the Child Labor Law of 1839, becoming the first nation in the world to place restrictions on child labor. Destruction of opium at Humen begins, casus belli for Britain to open the 3-year First Opium War against Qing dynasty China. A rapid rise in the sale of opium in China to over 40,000 chests (~56,000 kg per annum) has caused the Chinese government to dispatch scholar-official Lin Zexu to Guangzhou to deal with the growing problem of opium addiction.

In the 1830s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • 13 April – Albury is proclaimed a villageAustraliasource
  • April 19 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom, with its independence and neutrality guaranteed by the great powers of Europe. Half of the Limburg province of Belgium is added to the Netherlands, giving rise to a Belgian Limburg and Dutch Limburg (the latter being joined (from September 5) to the German Confederation).source
  • 19 April – Treaty of London guarantees Belgian independence and neutrality; Luxembourg and Limburg partitioned.Belgiumsource
  • April 19- Britain, Prussia, France and the Netherlands agree to the Treaty of London that guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium.Germanysource
  • May 7–11 – The Bedchamber Crisis in the United Kingdom: Following the announcement by Prime Minister Lord Melbourne that he intends to resign, Robert Peel asks (for political reasons) that Queen Victoria dismiss some of her personal attendants, Ladies of the Bedchamber, as a condition for his forming a government. Victoria refuses to accept the condition and Melbourne is persuaded to stay on as Prime Minister.source
  • 30 July – Ratification of William Hobson as Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand.New Zealandsource
  • August 25 - dissolution of the Peru-Bolivian ConfederationBoliviasource
  • October – Robert Cornelius takes the first photographic self portrait in the United States.United Statessource
  • December 6 – The Whig Party (United States), at its first ever national convention, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, nominates former U.S. Army General William Henry Harrison to be its candidate for President of the United States in the 1840 election. Although Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky has received 103 of the 128 necessary votes on the first ballot, he obtains only 90 on the final vote, while Harrison gets 148. Former U.S. Senator John Tyler is unanimously nominated for vice president.source
  • December 26 – Heinola in the Grand Duchy of Finland is granted town rights by Czar Nicholas I.source
  • The United Kingdom, backed by the Russian Empire and the Austrian Empire, compels July Monarchy France to abandon Muhammad Ali of Egypt, and forces him to return Syria and Arabia to the Ottoman Empire.source
  • Emperor Minh Mạng renames Việt Nam to Đại Nam.source
  • Khorshid Pasha vows to attack Bahrain to exert Egyptian rule over Bahrain, but his attack is prevented after Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed of Bahrain pays tribute.source
  • Khanate of Kalat is reduced to a subsidiary alliance with the British Empire, self-governing under KhansIndiasource
  • The Cape Colony relinquishes Port Natal, and it is incorporated into the Natalia Republic.South Africasource

Conflict & Security

  • January 20 – Battle of Yungay: Chile defeats the Peru–Bolivian Confederation, leading to the restoration of an independent Peru.source
  • January 20 - War of the Confederation: Battle of YungayBoliviasource
  • March 9 – The Pastry War between France and Mexico ends.source
  • 30 April – Chartists riot in Llanidloes and seize control of the town for five days.Walessource
  • May 12 – Socialist activist Louis Auguste Blanqui and the Société des Saisons begin an uprising against the government of France. The insurrection is suppressed, but not before 50 people are killed and 190 wounded. Blanqui is imprisoned until 1848.source
  • 13 May – First Rebecca Riots targeted against turnpikes in Wales, at Efailwen in Carmarthenshire.source
  • May 23 – Turkish troops cross the Euphrates River and invade Syria, but are defeated in battle in June.source
  • July 1 – Slaves aboard the Amistad rebel, and capture the ship.source
  • July 23 – First Anglo-Afghan War: Battle of Ghazni – British forces capture the fortress city of Ghazni in Afghanistan.source
  • August 31 – The First Carlist War (Spain) ends with the Convenio de Vergara, also known as the Abrazo de Vergara ("the embrace in Vergara"; Bergara in Basque), between liberal general Baldomero Espartero, Count of Luchana and Carlist General Rafael Maroto.source
  • September 4 – Battle of Kowloon: British vessels open fire on Chinese war junks enforcing a food sales embargo on the British community in China in the first armed conflict of the First Opium War.source
  • October 15 – Emir Abdelkader declares a jihad against the French.source
  • Tanzimat starts in the Ottoman Empire.source
  • Khalid bin Saud Al Suad usurps the throne from Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud, who assumed power of Nejd in 1834, and is sent to Cairo as prisoner. Omar bin Ofaysan, the Amir Faisal's governor in the Eastern Province seeks asylum in Bahrain, but Khalid the pretender demands his surrender and the surrender of the fort at Dammam; then under the control of the Al Khalifa of Bahrain.source
  • Territorial disputes between lumbermen from Maine and New Brunswick lead to armed conflict in the Aroostook River valley (the Aroostook War).Canadasource
  • early July 1839 - a group of British merchant sailors in Kowloon became intoxicated after consuming rice liqueur. Two of the sailors became agitated with and beat to death Lin Weixi, a villager from nearby Tsim Sha Tsui. They are disciplined by British military court and the British refuse to hand them over to Chinese prosecutorsChinasource
  • Battle of Ghazni, part of the First Anglo-Afghan War, occurs on 23 July 1839 in Ghazni, AfghanistanIndiasource
  • Francisco María Ruiz – soldier and settler of San Diego, Alta California (born 1754)Mexicosource
  • Henry Jervis is elected the Military Administrator of Port NatalSouth Africasource
  • Second Seminole War (1835–1842)United Statessource

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 19 – The British Aden Expedition captures Aden.source
  • 1 May – Edward John Eyre explores the area north of Adelaide until 29 June, during the expedition he discovers Lake TorrensAustraliasource
  • 1 May – The start of Eyre's expeditions to the interior of South Australia.United Kingdomsource
  • May 22 – Former British statesman Lord Durham, as President of the New Zealand Company, formally asks the British government for permission to colonize New Zealand, and to establish a colonial government under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.source
  • 15 June – David Clark, the first emigrant ship to sail directly from Great Britain to Port Phillip sets out from Greenock under the command of Capt. J. B. Mills, with mainly Scots assisted immigrants, arriving in Australia on 27 October.Scotlandsource
  • October 19 – Charles Thomson, Governor of Upper and Lower Canada, arrives. It is determined that Upper and Lower Canada shall share revenue in the ratio of 2 to 3.Canadasource
  • 23 December – While visiting the Taranaki Ernst Dieffenbach, along with whaler James Heberley, becomes the first European to climb Mount Taranaki/Egmont.New Zealandsource
  • Archaeological excavation at the Mayan site of Copán begins.source
  • A quarrel breaks out between the Chief of Abu Dhabi of the Beniyas tribe, Shaikh Khalifa bin Shakboot, and the fugitives who settled there after their departure from Bahrain, the Al Binali tribe. Under the command of their leader, Isa bin Tureef Al Binali, they relocate to Kenn Island where they exercise depredations over the Bahraini and other Gulf vessels. Their motive is to restore their belongings which they abandoned upon leaving Bahrain.source
  • East India Company forces capture Aden to provide a coaling station for ships en route to India, founding the Aden ColonyIndiasource
  • The town of Pietermaritzburg is founded. It is named after the Voortrekker leaders Gert Maritz and Piet Retief.South Africasource
  • William Bingley – Excursions in North WalesWalessource

Religion & Belief

  • 8 January – By Roual Order of 8 January 1738, sletdaler (coin) is replaced by the kurantdaler (= 4 mark à 16 skilling).Denmarksource
  • July 1 – Abdülmecid I (1839–1861) succeeds Mahmud II (1808–1839) as Ottoman Emperor.source
  • Episcopal High School (Alexandria, Virginia) is founded in Alexandria, Virginia, as the first high school in Virginia.source
  • Bishop Hodges Higher Secondary School is establishedIndiasource
  • The cornerstone for St. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata is laidIndiasource
  • St. Paul's Church, Landour is establishedIndiasource
  • An Anglican mission station is established at Ōtaki by Reverend Octavius Hadfield.New Zealandsource
  • Sisters of Mercy establish the first native Roman Catholic convent in England since the Reformation, at Bermondsey in London.United Kingdomsource
  • date unknown – Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis resigns as chairman of the Poor Law Commission, to be replaced by his son, George Cornewall Lewis.Walessource
  • Maria James – Wales and other PoemsWalessource

Economy & Finance

  • 4 May – William Wakefield of the New Zealand Company leaves from London for New Zealand on the ToryNew Zealandsource
  • June 24 – Last meeting of the Committee of Trade, forerunner of the Board of Trade.Canadasource
  • August – National Chartist organisation set up in Scotland.Scotlandsource
  • 5 December - Uniform Fourpenny Post introduced in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, a major postal reform, whereby fourpence is levied for pre-paid letters up to half an ounce in weight instead of postage being calculated by distance and number of sheets of paper.Irelandsource
  • Galveston, Texas, is incorporated.source
  • Valley Falls Company, a predecessor of Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate and holdings company in the United States, is founded in Rhode Island.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • February 24 – William Otis receives a U.S. patent for the steam shovel.source
  • March 9 – Prussia imposes the Child Labor Law of 1839, becoming the first nation in the world to place restrictions on child labor.source
  • March 23 – The Boston Morning Post first records the use of "O.K." (oll korrect).source
  • March 23 – The Boston Morning Post first records the use of "OK".United Statessource
  • 3 April – William Light is replaced by Charles Sturt as Surveyor-General of South AustraliaAustraliasource
  • April 7- The first long-distance railway opened Leipzig-Dresden railway.Germanysource
  • April 9 – The world's first commercial electric telegraph line comes into operation, alongside the Great Western Railway line in England, from London Paddington station to West Drayton.source
  • 21 May – Royal Library of Belgium opens to the public.Belgiumsource
  • June 22 – Louis Daguerre receives a patent for his camera (commercially available by September at the price of 400 francs).source
  • September 19 – Opening of the Albion Mines Railway in Nova Scotia, an early Canadian steam-driven mining railwayCanadasource
  • October 3 – A railway between Naples and Portici (7.4 km) in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies is inaugurated by King Ferdinand II of Bourbon as the first line in the Italian Peninsula.source
  • In the United States, the first state law permitting women to own property is passed in Jackson, Mississippi.source
  • Chattanooga, Tennessee, is incorporated as a town.source
  • Jessop & Company work on construction of the first iron bridge in British India, Loha-ka-Pul over River Gomti at Lucknow, 1812–1840Indiasource
  • A whaling station and trading post is set up at Wairoa by Captain William Barnard Rhodes.New Zealandsource
  • Liljeholmens Stearinfabriks ABSwedensource

Science & Discovery

  • January 2 – The first photograph of the Moon is taken, by French photographer Louis Daguerre.source
  • January 9 – The French Academy of Sciences announces the daguerreotype photography process.source
  • 9 January – The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.Francesource
  • 25 January – H. Fox Talbot shows his "photogenic drawings" at the Royal Institution in London. Sara Anne Bright is also producing such photographic reproductions this year.United Kingdomsource
  • 29 May – Mungo Ponton presents his discovery of the light-sensitive quality of sodium dichromate as a method of permanent photography.Scotlandsource
  • August 19 – The French government gives the daguerreotype "for the whole world".source
  • November 10 - The first known photograph taken in Spain is taken at the Pla de Palau, BarcelonaSpainsource
  • December – New Committee of Council on education sets up a new national system of Inspectors of Schools for grant-aided establishments.United Kingdomsource
  • Michael Faraday publishes Experimental Researches in Electricity, clarifying the true nature of electricity.source
  • The Statue of Thomas Munro was shipped to MadrasIndiasource
  • Thomas John Newbold is appointed deputy assistant adjutant-general and postmaster to the field force of the East India CompanyIndiasource
  • Roderick Murchison publishes The Silurian System.Scotlandsource

Health & Medicine

  • 31 May – Important British constitutional case of Stockdale v Hansard is launched when publisher John Joseph Stockdale sues for libel after John Roberton's pseudo-medical work On Diseases of the Generative System (1811) is declared in a parliamentary report to be indecent.United Kingdomsource
  • June 3 – Destruction of opium at Humen begins, casus belli for Britain to open the 3-year First Opium War against Qing dynasty China. A rapid rise in the sale of opium in China to over 40,000 chests (~56,000 kg per annum) has caused the Chinese government to dispatch scholar-official Lin Zexu to Guangzhou to deal with the growing problem of opium addiction.source
  • Daoguang Emperor appointed scholar-official Lin Zexu to the post of Special Imperial Commissioner with the task of eradicating the opium trade. He bans the trade of opium and writes a letter to Queen Victoria asking her to stop the illegal importation of opiumChinasource
  • The Weller brothers whaling settlement at Otakou on the shore of Otago Harbour has the largest population of Europeans in New Zealand outside the Bay of Islands/Hokianga.New Zealandsource

Crime & Justice

  • March – John Frost, former mayor of Newport, is deprived of his position as a magistrate because of his Chartist sympathies.Walessource
  • May 3 José Antonio Mexía – politician executed in Acajete, Veracruz (born 1800)Mexicosource
  • 10 June – Major Chartist meeting on Glasgow Green.Scotlandsource
  • 23 November – Zephaniah Williams, one of the leaders of the Chartist march on Newport, is arrested on board ship at Cardiff.Walessource
  • Charles Goodyear vulcanizes rubber.source
  • Antoine Wiertz, Esmeralda, QuasimodoBelgiumsource
  • 12–13 May – Failed insurrection led by Louis Auguste Blanqui, Armand Barbès, Martin Bernard, and the Société des Saisons as part of the struggle for French worker's rights.Francesource
  • Maurits Hansen wrote the world's first crime novel with "Mordet på Maskinbygger Roolfsen" (The Murder of Engine Maker Roolfsen).Norwaysource
  • Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals established in Edinburgh.Scotlandsource

Disasters & Accidents

Climate & Environment

  • January 6 – Night of the Big Wind: Ireland is struck by the most damaging cyclone in 300 years.source
  • March 23 – An earthquake in the Kingdom of Burma kills more than 400 people and destroys three cities, as well as heavily damaging the capital at Ava.source
  • October – earthquakes across Scotland.Scotlandsource
  • November 25 – A disastrous cyclone hits India with terrible winds and a giant 40-foot storm surge, wiping out the port city of Coringa; 300,000 people die.source
  • 24 December – An enormous landslide occurs at Axmouth in Devon, creating the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliff. A report by geologists William Daniel Conybeare and William Buckland is one of the earliest scientific descriptions of such an event.United Kingdomsource
  • 6–7 January - Night of the Big Wind: a severe windstorm sweeps across Ireland killing hundreds and leaving thousands homeless.Irelandsource

Culture & Society

  • January – The first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri is published by Thomas Henderson.source
  • February 11 – The University of Missouri is established, becoming the first public university west of the Mississippi River.source
  • February 11 – The University of Missouri is established in Columbia, Missouri, becoming the first public university west of the Mississippi River.United Statessource
  • March 5 – Longwood University is founded in Farmville, Virginia.source
  • March 7 – Baltimore City College, the third public high school in the United States, is established in Baltimore, Maryland.source
  • March 9 – The Anti-Corn Law League is founded in Manchester, England.source
  • March 26 – The first Henley Royal Regatta is held on the River Thames in England.source
  • April 24 – Boston University is established as the Newbury Biblical Institute in Vermont.source
  • May 25 Manuel Sánchez Mármol – writer, lawyer, politician, and a member of the Mexican Academy of Language was born in Cunduacán, TabascoMexicosource
  • 25 July – William Ewart Gladstone marries Catherine Glynne of Hawarden.Walessource
  • August 8 – The Fraternity of Beta Theta Pi is founded by John Reily Knox at Miami University.source
  • November 11 – The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.source
  • November 17 – Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, opens in Milan.source
  • November 27 – The American Statistical Association is founded in Boston, Massachusetts.source
  • Mount Allison University founded by Charles Frederick Allison in Sackville, New Brunswick.Canadasource
  • Icelandic poet Bjarni Thorarensen publishes Íslands minniIcelandsource
  • Feast of Saint Raphael, Ollur is held for the first time in Ollur, near Thrissur, KeralaIndiasource
  • Det Dramatiske Selskab in Hammerfest was founded.Norwaysource
  • The revised edition of the radical novel Det går an by Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, first published in 1822, is publishedSwedensource

Births

  • January 8 – William A. Clark, American politician, entrepreneur (died 1925)source
  • January 19 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (died 1906)source
  • February 11 – Josiah Willard Gibbs, American physicist, chemist (died 1903)source
  • March 21 – Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer (died 1881)source
  • June 21 – Machado de Assis, Brazilian author (died 1908)source
  • 21 June: Machado de Assis, writer and first President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (died 1908)Brazilsource
  • July 8 – John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist, philanthropist (died 1937)source
  • July – Baba Jaimal Singh, Founder of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (died 1903)source
  • August 4 – Walter Pater, English essayist, critic (died 1894)source
  • August 8 – Nelson A. Miles, American general (died 1925)source
  • September 2 – Henry George, American writer, politician, and political economist (died 1897)source
  • September 8 – Gregorio Luperón, Dominican soldier, activist and general (died 1897)source
  • September 10 – Charles Sanders Peirce, American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist (died 1914)source
  • October 2 – Hans Thoma, German painter (died 1924)Germanysource
  • November 12 – Frank Furness, American architect, soldier (died 1912)source
  • December 5 – George Armstrong Custer, American cavalry officer (died 1876)source
  • 7 December - Redvers Henry Buller in at Crediton, DevonshireSouth Africasource
  • ? – Muhammad Kazim Khurasani, Iranian Shi'a jurist and political activist.Iransource

Deaths

  • January 6 – Princess Marie of Orléans, Duchess of Wurtenberg (born 1813)Germanysource
  • February 12 – Moulvi Syed Qudratullah, Bengali judge (born 1750)source
  • April 11 – John Galt, Scottish novelist (born 1779)source
  • May 6 – John Batman, Australian grazier, entrepreneur, and explorer (born 1801)source
  • May 11 – William Farquhar, First British Resident and Commandant of colonial Singapore (born 1774)source
  • June 27 – The emperor of the Sikh Empire, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, dies at 58.source
  • June 27 – Ranjit Singh, Maharaja of The Punjab (Sikh Empire) (born 1780)source
  • July 1 – Mahmud II, Ottoman sultan (born 1785)source
  • July 8 – Fernando Sor, Spanish guitarist, composer (born 1778)source
  • August 28 – William Smith, English geologist, cartographer (born 1769)source
  • October 6 – William Light, British Army colonel, first Surveyor-General of South Australia (born 1786)source
  • November 4 – Newport Rising: Between 5,000 and 10,000 Chartist sympathisers march on Newport, Monmouthshire, to liberate Chartist prisoners; around 22 are killed when troops fire on the crowd. This is the last large-scale armed civil rebellion against authority in mainland Britain and sees the most deaths.source
  • November 15 – William Murdoch, Scottish inventor (born 1754)source
  • December 3 – Frederick VI, King of Denmark, ex-King of Norway (born 1768)source
  • 3 December: Frederick VI, king of Denmark (and Iceland) dies and is succeeded by his half-first cousin Christian VIII.Icelandsource
  • December 4 – John Leamy, Irish–American merchant (born 1757)source
  • José María Lanz – engineer and author, died in Paris (born 1764)Mexicosource
  • Du Pré Alexander, Earl of Caledon and Governor of the Cape Colony, diesSouth Africasource