date: June 29

text: June 29 – An earthquake at Fort Nisqually is experienced by William Fraser Tolmie; his journal entry records the first written eyewitness account of an earthquake in the Puget Sound region.


date: September 6

section: Climate & Environment

text: September 6 – At least 6,000 people are killed when an 8.0 magnitude earthquake shakes the Chinese province of Yunnan destroying buildings, homes and temples.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: November 25

text: November 25 – An 8.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Sumatra in what is now Indonesia.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: April 18

section: Culture & Society

text: April 18 – Over 300 delegates from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland travel to the office of the Prime Minister, the Earl Grey, to call for the immediate abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: August 1

text: August 1 – King William's College opens on the Isle of Man.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Oberlin College is founded in the U.S. at Oberlin, Ohio.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Alfred, Lord Tennyson, publishes his oft-quoted poem, Ulysses.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – The national anthem of the Russian Empire, God Save the Tsar!, is first performed.


date: December

text: December – The American Anti-Slavery Society is founded.


text: H.R.H. Prince Mongkut of Siam founds the Dhammayut Buddhist reform movement.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan.


date: January 1

section: Births

text: January 1 – Robert Lawson, New Zealand architect (d. 1902)

source_section: Births › January–June


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Eugene W. Hilgard, German-American "Father of soil science" (d. 1916)


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Charles George Gordon, British army officer, administrator (d. 1885)


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Abu Bakar of Johor, Malaysian sultan (d. 1895)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – J. E. B. Stuart, American Confederate general (d. 1864)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Melville Fuller, 8th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1910)


date: February 25

text: February 25 – John St. John, American temperance movement leader (d. 1916)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Daniel Dunglas Home, Scottish medium (d. 1886)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – John Marshall Harlan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1911)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, British field marshal (d. 1913)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Félicien Rops, Belgian artist (d. 1898)

source_section: Births › July–December


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Alfred Biliotti, Italian Levantine British consular officer and archaeologist (d. 1915)


text: September 2 – Henry Hotze, Swiss American Confederate propagandist (d. 1887)


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Samuel Mudd, American doctor to John Wilkes Booth (d. 1883)


date: January 16

section: Deaths

text: January 16 – Banastre Tarleton, British general, politician (b. 1754)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


text: January 16 – Nannette Streicher, German piano maker, composer, music educator and writer (b. 1769)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, British admiral (b. 1757)


date: March 13

text: March 13 – William Bradley, British naval officer, cartographer (b. 1758)


text: June 1 – Oliver Wolcott Jr., American lawyer, politician, 2nd United States Secretary of the Treasury, 24th Governor of Connecticut (b. 1760)


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Yagan, Noongar indigenous Australian warrior (killed) (b. c. 1795)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: July 19

text: July 19 – George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland, British landowner (b. 1758)


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Ninian Edwards, American politician, Governor of and Senator from Illinois (b. 1775)


date: July 29

text: July 29 – William Wilberforce, English politician, abolitionist (b. 1759)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Hannah More, English religious writer, Romantic, and philanthropist (b. 1745)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Maria Jane Jewsbury, English poet and literary reviewer (b. 1800)


date: November 16

text: November 16 – John McMillan, Presbyterian minister, missionary in Pennsylvania (b. 1752)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Kaspar Hauser, the well known and mysterious German youth, is fatally stabbed. He dies three days later on December 17.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Kaspar Hauser, German youth of uncertain origin (stabbed) (b. 1812?)


date: February 12

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: February 12 – Freed American slaves from Maryland form a settlement in Cape Palmas, it is named the Republic of Maryland.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: April 14

text: April 14 – The Whig Party is officially named by United States Senator Henry Clay.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Spain, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom sign the Quadruple Alliance.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, succeeds Earl Grey as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – The Liberal Wars end in Portugal.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Slavery is abolished in the British Empire, by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – In the Empire of Brazil, the Additional Act provides for establishment of the Provincial Legislative Assembly, extinction of the State Council, replacement of the Regency Trina, and introduction of a direct and secret ballot.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – The South Australia Act allows for the creation of a colony there.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Athens becomes Greece's capital city, replacing the provisional capital of Nafplio.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne becomes the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to be dismissed by the British monarch. King William IV temporarily appoints Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, to form a caretaker government.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Sir Robert Peel succeeds The Duke of Wellington as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.


date: May 9

section: Conflict & Security

text: May 9 – The founder of the Second Saudi State, Imam Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud, is assassinated after the Friday prayers by Ibrahim Hamza, following the orders of his cousin Mishari.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – The Peasants' Revolt in Egyptian-ruled Palestine begins; it is suppressed in August.


date: July 7

text: July 7–10 – Anti-abolitionist riots break out in New York City.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Imam Faisal bin Turki enters Riyadh and upon entering his father's palace, assassinates his father's murderer, Ibrahim Hamza, and his master; Mishari, and becomes the ruler and founder of the Second Saudi State.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The Spanish Inquisition, which began in the 15th century, is suppressed by royal decree.


date: January 1

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: January 1 – Zollverein (Germany): Customs charges are abolished at borders within its member states.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – The United States Survey of the Coast is transferred to the Department of the Navy.


date: March

text: March – John Scott Russell's Scottish Steam Carriage Company begins operating a regular passenger service in west central Scotland on the open road between Glasgow and Paisley, Renfrewshire.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – The ship Atlas docks in Mauritius carrying the first group of laborers (from Calcutta) under the Indian indenture system to work on sugar plantations following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – The Sixth Xhosa War is characterized by severe clashes between white settlers and Bantu peoples in Cape Colony; Dutch-speaking settlers colonize the area north of Orange River.


date: February 13

section: Economy & Finance

text: February 13 – Robert Owen organizes the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union in the United Kingdom.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – York, Upper Canada, is incorporated as Toronto.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Andrew Jackson is censured by the United States Congress (expunged in 1837).


text: The British East India Company monopoly on China trade ends. It appoints a Tea Committee to assess the potential of Assam tea.


date: January

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: January – The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is chartered in Wilmington, North Carolina.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – American inventor and businessman Cyrus McCormick is granted a patent for his mechanical reaper.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Construction work begins on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston upon Hull, England.


text: Charles Babbage begins the conceptual design of the Analytical Engine, a mechanical forerunner of the modern computer. It will not be built in his lifetime.


text: Thomas Davenport, inventor of the first American DC electrical motor, installs his motor in a small model car, creating one of the first electric cars.


text: Statue of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is erected in his birthplace of Geneva.


date: March 14

section: Science & Discovery

text: March 14 – John Herschel discovers the open cluster of stars now known as NGC 3603, observing from the Cape of Good Hope.


date: December 3

section: Health & Medicine

text: December 3 – The Zollverein institutes the first regular census in Germany. The population is 23,478,120.


text: The Romanian language is banned in the schools and government facilities of the Russian Empire's Bessarabia Governorate.


date: January 3

section: Crime & Justice

text: January 3 – The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Greek independence: General Theodoros Kolokotronis is sentenced to death for treason, for resisting the rule of Otto of Greece (he is released the following year).


date: August 14

text: August 14 – The Poor Law Amendment Act in the United Kingdom states that no able-bodied British man can receive assistance, unless he enters a workhouse (a kind of poorhouse).


date: April 10

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: April 10 – The LaLaurie mansion in New Orleans burns, and Madame Marie Delphine LaLaurie flees to France.


date: August 11

text: August 11–12 – Ursuline Convent riots: A convent of Ursuline nuns is burned near Boston.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – The emigrant ship Sybelle out of Cromarty (Scotland) is wrecked off St. Paul Island (Nova Scotia) with the loss of all 316 passengers and all but six of her crew.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Wake Forest University is founded as the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute in Wake Forest, North Carolina.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – The Office of Indian Affairs is organized in the United States.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – The Gleaner newspaper is first published in Jamaica.


text: The Medical School of Louisiana (later Tulane University) is founded in New Orleans.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Piet Joubert, Boer politician, military commander (d. 1900)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Edwin Klebs, German-Swiss pathologist who discovered Diphtheria (d. 1913)


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist (d. 1907)


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist, philosopher (d. 1919)


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Charles Davis Lucas, British Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1914)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Charles W. Eliot, American President of Harvard University (d. 1926)


date: March 24

text: March 24 – John Wesley Powell, American explorer (d. 1902)


text: March 24 – William Morris, English poet, artist (d. 1896)


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Paškal Buconjić, Herzegovinian Catholic bishop (d. 1910)


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Charles Spurgeon, English Baptist preacher (d. 1892)


date: July 10

text: July 10 – James McNeill Whistler, American painter, etcher (d. 1903)


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Edgar Degas, French painter (d. 1917)


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer, physicist, and aeronautics pioneer (d. 1906)


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner, German astrophysicist (d. 1882)


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Richard Martin, Irish founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (b. 1754)


date: January 12

text: January 12 – William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Amélie-Julie Candeille, French composer, librettist, writer, singer, actress, comedian, and instrumentalist (b. 1767)


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian and philosopher (b. 1768)


date: February 18

text: February 18 – William Wirt, 9th United States Attorney General (b. 1772)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats, Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1757)


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Edmond-Charles Genêt, French ambassador to the United States during the French Revolution (b. 1763)


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Jonathan Jennings, American politician and the first governor of Indiana (b. 1784)


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Robert Morrison, British Protestant missionary to China (b. 1782)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Thomas Telford, Scottish engineer (b. 1757)


date: September 15

text: September 15 – William H. Crawford, American politician, judge (b. 1772)


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Fath Ali Shah Qajar, King of Iran (b. 1772)


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Thomas Malthus, English economist, political philosopher (b. 1766)


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Charles Lamb, English essayist (b. 1775)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Slavery is finally abolished in British-administered Mauritius, with compensation to slaveowners.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Ferdinand becomes Emperor of Austria.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Lord Melbourne succeeds Sir Robert Peel as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Braulio Carrillo is sworn in as Head of State of Costa Rica.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – The Mexican State of Aguascalientes is formed, by decree of President Antonio López de Santa Anna.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – The United Tribes of New Zealand is founded at Waitangi, with the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Future U.S. President James K. Polk becomes Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – The Texas Declaration of Independence is signed by American residents rebelling against Mexico at Goliad, Texas.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – The Treaty of New Echota is signed between the United States Government and representatives of the Cherokee Nation.


text: English becomes the official language of India.


text: Juan Manuel de Rosas becomes Caudillo of Argentina.


text: The French word for their language changes to français, from françois.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Malê Revolt: African slaves of Yoruba Muslim origin revolt against Brazilian owners at Salvador, Bahia.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson: The first assassination attempt against a President of the United States is carried out against President Andrew Jackson at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., by English-born delusional unemployed house painter Richard Lawrence; the attempt fails when his pistols misfire due to humidity.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – An assassination attempt against King Louis Philippe I of France is attempted by Giuseppe Marco Fieschi, who uses a home-made volley gun and kills 10 people. The King escapes with a minor wound.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – The Ragamuffin War begins in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – The Texas Revolution – Battle of Gonzales: Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, Texas, but encounter stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia.


text: October 28 – Texas Revolution – Battle of Concepción: The Texian Army defeats the Mexicans.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Start of Moriori genocide, the killing and enslavement of the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands by 500 Māori people from New Zealand.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – The Army of the Republic of Texas captures San Antonio.


date: December 28

text: December 28 — The Second Seminole War, led by Seminole Chief Osceola breaks out in the U.S. state of Florida.


text: Fort Cass is established, the military headquarters and site of the largest internment camps during the 1838 Trail of Tears.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – anchors off the Chonos Archipelago on her second voyage, with Charles Darwin on board as a scientist.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – European settlers, landing on the north banks of the Yarra River in Victoria, Australia, found the settlement of Melbourne.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Charles Darwin arrives at the Galápagos Islands, aboard .


text: The British East India Company negotiates a lease of the Darjeeling area west of the Mahananda River, from the Kingdom of Sikkim.


date: May 11

section: Religion & Belief

text: May 11 – Matua, High Priest (taura tupua) of the Polynesian island of Mangareva, is baptized into the Roman Catholic Church.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – The universal Catholic Apostolic Church is organized, initially in the U.K.


date: August

text: August – H. Fox Talbot exposes the world's first known photographic negatives, at Lacock Abbey in England.


text: David Strauss begins publication of Das Leben Jessu, kritisch bearbeitet ("The life of Jesus, critically examined") in Tübingen.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – The United States public debt contracts to zero, for the only time in history.


date: July

text: July – The Bertelsmann company is founded by Carl Bertelsmann as a religious printer and publisher in Prussia.


date: December 16

text: December 16– The Great Fire of New York begins and lasts until the next day, destroying 530 buildings, including the New York Stock Exchange.


text: The British Geological Survey is founded, as the world's first national geological survey.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – The first railway in continental Europe is opened between Brussels and Mechelen in Belgium.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Kingston Penitentiary opens in Kingston, Ontario.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Construction is completed on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston Upon Hull.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – The Bavarian Ludwig Railway opens between Nuremberg and Fürth, with a train hauled by the English-built Der Adler ("The Eagle"), the first railway in Germany.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad is chartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.


text: The Cachar Levy, forerunner of the Assam Rifles, is founded in India.


text: Charles-Louis Havas creates Havas, the first news agency in the world (which later spawns Agence France-Presse).


date: August 25

text: August 25 – In the U.S., The New York Sun prints the first of six installments of the Great Moon Hoax.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Halley's Comet reaches perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Two London men, James Pratt and John Smith, are hanged in front of Newgate Prison in London, after a conviction of buggery. They are the last to suffer capital punishment for homosexual acts in England.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – At least 224 people, most of them female convicts being transported from Cork, Ireland, to Australia, are drowned when the British barque Neva is wrecked in the Bass Strait. Only 15 people survive.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Saint Paul's in Macau is largely destroyed by fire after a typhoon hits.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – 1835 Concepción earthquake: Concepción, Chile, is destroyed by an earthquake. The resulting tsunami destroys the neighboring city of Talcahuano.


text: Civil war erupts in Uruguay, between supporters of the Blanco and Colorado parties.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – The Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (Mexican Academy of Language) is established.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection. is first published.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – James Bowman Lindsay demonstrates a constant electric light at a public meeting in Dundee, Scotland.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – St. Vincent's Ecclesiastical Seminary, a predecessor of Castleknock College, is founded by the Vincentian community in Dublin, Ireland.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – William Lloyd Garrison publishes Angelina Grimké's anti-slavery letter in The Liberator.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – The Staedtler Company (pencil manufacturers) is founded by J. S. Staedtler in Nuremberg, Germany.


text: The first Bulgarian-language school opens in the Ottoman Empire.


text: Edward Strutt Abdy publishes his Journal of a Residence and Tour in the United States of North America: From April, 1833, to October 1834.


text: The first Egyptian Museum in Cairo opened.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Demetrius Vikelas, Greek International Olympic Committee president (d. 1908)


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Charles N. Sims, American Methodist preacher, third chancellor of Syracuse University (d. 1908)


date: June 12

text: June 12 – George Atzerodt, conspirator with John Wilkes Booth, assigned to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson (d. 1865)


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Fanny Eaton, Jamaican-born artists model and domestic worker (d. 1924)


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Giosuè Carducci, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Edmund Francis Dunne, American politician, jurist, and Catholic orator (d. 1904)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Tom Wills, Australian cricketer, pioneer of Australian rules football (d. 1880)


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Raphael Kalinowski, Polish Discalced Carmelite friar, saint (d. 1907)


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer (d. 1921)


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Adlai Stevenson I, American lawyer and politician, 23rd Vice President of the United States (d. 1914)


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1917)


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Cesare Lombroso, Italian criminologist (d. 1909)


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Matilda Carse, Irish-born American businesswoman, social reformer (d. 1917)


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Samuel Butler, English writer (d. 1902)


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Queen Maria II of Portugal marries Auguste de Beauharnais, 2nd Duke of Leuchtenberg, in Lisbon; he dies only two months later.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Guillaume Dupuytren, French anatomist, military surgeon (b. 1777)


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Auguste de Beauharnais, Prince consort of Queen Maria II of Portugal (b. 1810)


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Richard Sharp, English hat-maker, banker, merchant, poet, critic, Member of Parliament, and conversationalist


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Wilhelm von Humboldt, German linguist, philosopher (b. 1767)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Magdalene of Canossa, Italian Catholic religious professed, saint (b. 1774)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – John Nash, English architect (b. 1752)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – William Cobbett, English journalist, author (b. 1763)


date: July 6

text: July 6 – John Marshall, influential American Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (b. 1755)


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Izabela Czartoryska, Polish magnate princess (b. 1746)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer (b. 1801)


date: November 14

text: November 14 – James Freeman, first American clergyman to call himself a Unitarian (b. 1759)


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Princess Catharina of Württemberg, wife of Jérôme Bonaparte (b. 1783)


date: December 22

text: December 22 – David Hosack, American physician and educator, attending doctor at the Hamilton-Burr duel (b. 1769)


date: January 1

text: January 1 — Hill Street Academy is named Colombo Academy and acquired by the Government, establishing the first public school in Sri Lanka.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Former U.S. Representative Davy Crockett of Tennessee arrives in Texas to join the Texan fight for independence from Mexico.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Texas Revolution – Convention of 1836: Delegates from many Texas communities gather in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, to deliberate independence from Mexico.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Texas Revolution – Convention of 1836: The Texas Declaration of Independence is signed by 60 delegates, and the Republic of Texas is declared.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Sultan Mahmud II abolishes the posts of Reis ül-Küttab and Kahya Bey, and establishes the Ottoman ministries of Foreign Affairs and of the Interior in their place.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Texas Revolution – Convention of 1836: Delegates adopt the Constitution of the Republic of Texas, modeled after the United States Constitution. It allows slavery, requires free blacks to petition Congress to live in the country, but prohibits the slave trade.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – The United States Survey of the Coast is returned to the U.S. Treasury Department, and renamed the U.S. Coast Survey.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – The Wisconsin Territory is created; the first capital is Belmont.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Texas Revolution: The Treaties of Velasco are signed, between Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna and the Republic of Texas. In exchange for his freedom and the guarantee of free passage back to Mexico, General Santa Anna gives his recognition to the independence of Texas. The Mexican government refuses to ratify the treaties.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Arkansas is admitted into as the 25th state of the United States of America.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – The Riograndense Republic is proclaimed in South America.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Sam Houston is inaugurated as first elected President of the Republic of Texas.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – 1836 United States presidential election: Martin Van Buren defeats William Henry Harrison, and three other Whig candidates, marking the most recent time a Democrat is elected to succeed a two-term Democratic U.S. president.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – The Crown colony of South Australia is officially proclaimed (subsequently celebrated in the state of South Australia as Proclamation Day).


date: December 28

text: December 28 – The Colony of South Australia is founded by Captain John Hindmarsh.


text: December 28 – Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico.


text: The Sylhet Government Pilot High School is established in Sylhet as Government Provisional School


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Texas Revolution: The Battle of the Alamo begins, with an American settler army surrounded by the Mexican Army, under Santa Anna.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Texas Revolution: The Battle of the Alamo ends. At least 182 Texan settler soldiers die in a struggle against more than 2,000 Mexican soldiers.


text: March 27 – Texas Revolution – Goliad massacre: 342 Texan prisoners are shot and killed, along with Texan General James Walker Fannin, by Mexican troops in Goliad, near the Presidio La Bahía.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Texas Revolution – Battle of San Jacinto: Mexican forces under General Antonio López de Santa Anna are defeated at San Jacinto, Texas.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Texas Revolution: Forces under Texas General Sam Houston capture Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Fort Parker massacre: Among those captured by Native Americans is 9-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker. She later gives birth to a son named Quanah, who becomes the last chief of the Comanche.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Louis Napoleon launches the unsuccessful Strasbourg Coup to overthrow the July Monarchy in France


date: July 27

text: July 27 – The settlement of Adelaide, South Australia, is founded.


text: George Catlin ends his 6-year tour of 50 tribes in the Dakota Territory.


text: John Murray III publishes A Hand-book for Travellers on the Continent; being a guide through Holland, Belgium, Prussia and northern Germany, and along the Rhine from Holland to Switzerland, the first of Murray's Handbooks for Travellers, in London.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – The Kirtland Temple, the first Mormon temple, is dedicated by Joseph Smith Jr. in Kirtland, Ohio.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – The Arc de Triomphe, is dedicated in Paris, France.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – The settlement of Houston, Texas is founded.


text: The first printed literature in Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is produced by Justin Perkins, an American Presbyterian missionary in Persia.


text: The New Board brokerage group is founded in New York City.


text: Eugène Schneider and his brother Adolphe Schneider purchase a bankrupt ironworks near the town of Le Creusot, in the Burgundy region of France, and found the steelworks and engineering company Schneider Frères & Cie.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – London and Greenwich Railway opens its first section, the first railway in London, England.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Samuel Colt receives a United States patent for the Colt revolver, the first revolving barrel multishot firearms.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – The first numbered (after filing 9,957 unnumbered patents) is granted to John Ruggles, for improvements to railroad steam locomotive tires.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – The Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad opens between St. John and La Prairie, Quebec, the first steam-worked passenger railroad in British North America.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Rebuilding begins at the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – The earliest United States patent for a phosphorus friction match is granted to Alonzo Dwight Phillips, of Springfield, Massachusetts.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Construction begins on the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad in North Carolina. Due to a lack of support in Raleigh, the route is revised to run from Wilmington to the Petersburg Railroad in Weldon.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The United States Patent Office burns in Washington, D.C.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – During an eclipse of the Sun, English astronomer Francis Baily observes the phenomenon named after him as Baily's beads.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Charles Darwin returns to England aboard , with biological data he will later use to develop his theory of evolution, having left South America on August 17.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Theodor Fliedner, a Lutheran minister, and Friederike, his wife, open the Deaconess Home and Hospital at Kaiserswerth, Germany, as an institute to train women in nursing.


text: Chatsworth Head is found near Tamassos, Cyprus.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – In Saint Petersburg, the Lehman Theater catches fire, killing 800 people.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Lewes avalanche: An avalanche at Lewes in Sussex, England, kills eight of fifteen people buried, when a row of cottages is engulfed in snow.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Queen Maria II of Portugal marries Prince Ferdinand Augustus Francis Anthony of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.


date: February 29

text: February 29 - Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera, Les Huguenots is performed for the first time in Paris, France.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Richard Wagner's opera Das Liebesverbot is performed for the first time, in Magdeburg.


date: March 31

text: March 31 (dated April) – The first monthly part of Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers ("The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club..., edited by Boz") is published in London.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – The Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish Catholic fraternal organization, is founded in New York City.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – The settlement of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico is elevated to the royal status of villa, by the government of Spain.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – The first English-language newspaper is published in Hawaii.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – The Marriage Act in the United Kingdom establishes civil marriage and registration systems that permit marriages in nonconformist chapels, and a Registrar General of Births, Marriages, and Deaths.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – The University of London is established by Royal Charter, with University College London and King's College London named as the first affiliated colleges.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – The Whig Party (United States) holds its first national convention, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.


text: In Munich, the art museum Alte Pinakothek opened.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, American general, politician, and diplomat (d. 1881)


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Indian religious leader (d. 1886)


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Winslow Homer, American painter (d. 1910)


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Henry Billings Brown, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1913)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Isabella Beeton, English writer on household management (d. 1865)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Friedrich Baumfelder, German composer, conductor, and pianist (d. 1916)


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, English physician, suffragette (d. 1910)


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Joseph Chamberlain, British politician (d. 1914)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1908)


date: September 17

text: September 17 – William Jackson Palmer, American founder of Colorado Springs, Colorado (d. 1909)


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Benjamin Harris Babbidge, 19th Mayor of Brisbane (d. 1905)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Andrés Avelino Cáceres, Peruvian general, twice President of Peru (d. 1923)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – W. S. Gilbert, British playwright, librettist best known for his collaborations with Arthur Sullivan (d. 1911)


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Frank Manly Thorn, American lawyer, politician, essayist and journalist (d. 1907)


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Betsy Ross, maker, designer of the first American flag (b. 1752)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, French chemist (b. 1758)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Madame Mère (Letizia Ramolino Bonaparte) mother of Napoleon I (b. 1749)


text: February 18 – Cornplanter, native American (Seneca) chief (b. 1750)


date: February 21

text: February 21 – William Van Mildert, last Prince Bishop of Durham, and founder of Durham University (b. 1765)


text: March 2 – James Grant, Texas politician, physician and military participant in the Texas Revolution (b. 1793)


date: April 7

text: April 7 – William Godwin, English writer (b. 1756)


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Simon Kenton, American frontiersman, Revolutionary militia general (b. 1755)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – John Littlejohn, American sheriff and Methodist preacher (b. 1756)


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Edward Livingston, American jurist, statesman (b. 1764)


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, French cleric, constitutional theorist (b. 1748)


date: June 23

text: June 23 – James Mill, British historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher (b. 1773)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Maria Malibran, Spanish-French operatic singer (b. 1808)


date: November

text: November – Tenskwatawa, Shawnee prophet, political leader (b. 1775)


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Michigan becomes the 26th state admitted to the United States.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – The city of Houston is incorporated by the Republic of Texas.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – The Slave Compensation Act is signed into law by the government of the United Kingdom. This pays a substantial amount of money, constituting 40% of the Treasury’s tax receipts at the time, to former enslavers but nothing to those formerly enslaved.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Seminoles attack Fort Foster in Florida.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – The Panic of 1837 begins in New York City.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, Massachusetts, fueled by ethnic tensions between the Irish and the Yankees.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – The Dutch colonial forces sack the fortress of Bonjol, Indonesia, ending the Padri War.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – First Carlist War: Battle of Aranzueque – The liberal forces loyal to Queen Isabel II of Spain are victorious, ending the Carlist campaign known as the Expedición Real.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – The French army under Sylvain Charles Valée captures the city of Constantine in French Algeria after a siege of three days.


date: November 6

text: November 6 Louis-Joseph Papineau begins the Lower Canada Rebellion in the Quebec city of Montreal.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Samuel Lount begins the Upper Canada Rebellion by marching with rebel followers to Toronto, one month after a similar rebellion against British rule had begun in Lower Canada.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – The Caroline Affair, on the Niagara River, becomes the basis for the Caroline test for anticipatory self-defence in international relations.


date: July

text: July – Charles W. King sets sail on the American merchant ship Morrison. In the Morrison incident, he is turned away from Japanese ports with cannon fire.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The Congregation of Holy Cross is formed in Le Mans, France, by the signing of the Fundamental Act of Union, which legally joins the Auxiliary Priests of Blessed Basil Moreau, CSC, and the Brothers of St. Joseph (founded by Jacques-François Dujarié) into one religious association.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – The Prussian king has Clemens August Droste zu Vischering, archbishop of Cologne, arrested over differences concerning the treatment of mixed protestant-catholic marriages. The archbishop remains in custody for over a year.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – The conglomerate of Procter & Gamble has its origins, when British-born businessmen William Procter and James Gamble begin selling their first manufactured goods (soap and candles) in Cincinnati, Ohio.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – In what will become the world's leading consumer goods brand, Procter & Gamble is founded in Ohio in the United States.


date: May

text: May – W. F. Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patent an electrical telegraph system.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Samuel Morse files a caveat for a patent for the telegraph.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – The Tsarskoye Selo Railway, the first in the Russian Empire, opens between Saint Petersburg Tsarskoselsky station and Tsarskoye Selo (modern-day Pushkin), engineered by Franz Anton von Gerstner.


text: The first electric locomotive built is a miniature battery locomotive constructed by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen in Scotland, and powered by galvanic cells (batteries).


text: Atlanta is fixed as the terminal of the Western and Atlantic Railroad; it is originally named Marthasville.


text: Louis Daguerre develops the daguerreotype.


date: February

text: February – Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist begins publication in serial form in London.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – American abolitionist and newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy is killed by a pro-slavery mob, at his warehouse in Alton, Illinois.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – The great fire in Surat, a city of India, begins. Over a three-day period, the fire kills more than 500 people and destroys more than 9,000 houses.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Fire breaks out in the Winter Palace, in Saint Petersburg, Russia killing 30 guards.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The destructive Galilee earthquake causes thousands of deaths in Ottoman Syria.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – The destructive "Racer's hurricane" sweeps across the Caribbean, northeastern Mexico, the Republic of Texas and the Gulf Coast of the United States and lasts until October 9, after killing at least 105 people.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – An earthquake in Valdivia, south-central Chile, causes tsunamis that led to significant destruction along Japan's coast.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – In Philadelphia, the Institute for Colored Youth (ICY) is founded, as the first institution for the higher education of black people in the United States.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Queen Victoria moves from Kensington Palace into Buckingham Palace, the first reigning British monarch to make this, rather than St James's Palace, as her London home.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, later Mount Holyoke College, is founded in South Hadley, Massachusetts.


text: The Olney Friends School is founded in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States.


text: The 5th century B.C. Berlin Foundry Cup is acquired for the Antikensammlung Berlin in Germany.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – William Dean Howells, American writer, historian, editor, and politician (d. 1920)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Sir Charles Wyndham, English actor, theatrical manager (d. 1919)


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Georges Ernest Boulanger, French general, politician (d. 1891)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (d. 1876)


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Petre P. Carp, 2-time prime minister of Romania (d. 1919)


date: August 1

text: August 1 – (bapt.) Mary Harris Jones ("Mother Jones"), Irish-American labor leader (d. 1930)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: September 2

text: September 2 – James H. Wilson, Union Army major general in the American Civil War (d. 1925)


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Mark Hanna, United States Senator from Ohio (d. 1904)


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Robert Gould Shaw, Union Army general in the American Civil War, social reformer (k. 1863)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: November 1

text: November 1 – John Leary, American businessman, politician, and civic leader (d. 1905)


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1923)


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Cosima Wagner, wife of German composer Richard Wagner (d. 1930)


text: December 24 – Empress Elisabeth of Austria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I (d. 1898)


date: December 26

text: December 26 – George Dewey, American admiral (d. 1917)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – John Soane, British architect (b. 1753)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – John Field, Irish composer (b. 1782)


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Alexander Pushkin, Russian author, wound received in duel (b. 1799)


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Friedrich Ludwig Weidig, German Protestant theologian, pastor and radical, suicide (b. 1791)


date: March 31

text: March 31 – John Constable, English painter (b. 1776)


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Giacomo Leopardi, Italian writer (b. 1798)


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Queen Victoria, 18, accedes to the throne of the United Kingdom, on the death of her uncle King William IV without legitimate heirs (she will reign for more than 63 years). Under Salic law, the Kingdom of Hanover passes to William's brother, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, ending the personal union of Britain and Hanover which has persisted since 1714.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Nathaniel Macon, American politician (b. 1757)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Fabian Gottlieb von Osten-Sacken, Russian military leader (b. 1752)


text: October 10 – Charles Fourier, French philosopher (b. 1772)


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Charles-Marie Denys de Damrémont, French governor-general of French Algeria (killed during the siege of Constantine) (b. 1783)


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Peter Lebeck, French trapper and namesake of Lebec, California (birth unknown)


text: October 17 – Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Austrian composer (b. 1778)


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Elijah P. Lovejoy, American abolitionist (b. 1802)


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Nicaragua declares independence from the Federal Republic of Central America.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Trail of Tears: The Cherokee Nation is forcibly relocated in the United States.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Braulio Carrillo is sworn in as Head of State of Costa Rica, thus beginning his second term in office.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – In the United States, the Iowa Territory is formally established, following the signing of a bill by President Martin Van Buren on June 12. In addition to Iowa, which will become a state on December 28, 1846, the Territory also includes most of what will become the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Robert Lucas, former Governor of Ohio, takes office as the first Territorial Governor.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Most former slaves in the British Empire are released from apprenticeships, giving them full emancipation under terms of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Dissolution of the Federal Republic of Central America: Honduras and Costa Rica follow the example of Nicaragua and secede from the federation.


text: The People's Charter is drawn up in the United Kingdom, demanding universal suffrage.


text: The Pitcairn Islands become a Crown colony of the United Kingdom, and women there are the first in the world to be granted and maintain women's suffrage.


text: An insurrection breaks out in Tizimín, beginning the campaign for the independence of Yucatán from Mexico.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Weenen massacre: Zulu impis massacre about 532 Voortrekkers, Khoikhoi and Basuto around the site of Weenen in South Africa.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – U.S. Representatives William J. Graves of Kentucky and Jonathan Cilley of Maine face each other in a duel with rifles at 80 yards near Bladensburg, Maryland. On the third attempt, Congressman Cilley is fatally wounded and bleeds to death.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Myall Creek massacre: 28 Indigenous Australians are killed.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – First Carlist War – Battle of Maella: Supporters of Infante Carlos María Isidro of Spain are victorious.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Killough massacre, believed to be both the largest and last Native American attack on white settlers in East Texas. 18 casualties are either killed or carried away.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Pastry War: Mexico is invaded by French forces.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Battle of Blood River: The Boers win a decisive victory over the Zulus.


date: December

text: December – First Anglo-Afghan War: British and Presidency armies set out from Punjab in support of Shah Shujah Durrani's claim to the throne of Afghanistan.


text: Lord Durham and his entourage arrive in Upper Canada, to investigate the cause of the 1837 rebellion in that province. This leads to Durham submitting the Durham Report to Britain.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Boer explorer Piet Retief and 60 of his men are massacred by King Dingane kaSenzangakhona of the Zulu people, after Retief accepts an invitation to celebrate the signing of a treaty, and his men willingly disarm as a show of good faith.


date: April 4

text: April 4–22 – The paddle steamer makes the transatlantic crossing to New York from Cork, Ireland in 18 days, though not using steam continuously.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Grace Darling and her father rescue 13 survivors from the Forfarshire, off the Farne Islands.


text: Sylvain Charles Valée founds Skikda, Algeria.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom takes place at Westminster Abbey in London.


text: Biblical criticism: Christian Hermann Weisse proposes the two-source hypothesis.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – At Morristown, New Jersey, Samuel Morse, Alfred Vail and Leonard Gale give the first public demonstration of Morse's new invention, the telegraph.


date: April 8

text: April 8–23 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's paddle steamer (1838) makes the transatlantic crossing to New York from Avonmouth, England, in 15 days, inaugurating a regular steamship service.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Austria: Moravia opens the final section of Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (Rajhrad–Brno) for exhibition (preliminary) use.


text: Proteins are discovered by Gerardus Johannes Mulder. and named by Jöns Jacob Berzelius.


text: Friedrich Bessel makes the first accurate measurement of distance to a star.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Lilburn Boggs, Governor of Missouri, by Missouri Executive Order 44, declares Mormons to be enemies of the state, and encourages the extermination or exile of the religious minority, forcing nearly 10,000 Mormons out of the state. It was later rescinded in 1976.


text: The 5th century BC bronze Chatsworth Head is acquired by the 6th Duke of Devonshire at Smyrna, from H. P. Borrell.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – A fire destroys Lloyd's Coffee House and the Royal Exchange in London.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – The first known report about the lowest temperature on Earth is made, indicating -60 °C °F in Yakutsk.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – A 7.5 earthquake strikes the Romanian district of Vrancea causing damage in Moldavia and Wallachia, killing 73 people.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – A combination of rain and melting snow causes the Danube River to overflow its banks, washing away villages in western Hungary and inundating the twin cities that become Budapest. More than 150 people are drowned and Europe's nations come to Hungary's aid to prevent the spread of famine and disease.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The first installment of Nicholas Nickleby, the new novel by Charles Dickens, is released as the opener of a 20-part serialization in London.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – The Polytechnic Institution, predecessor of the University of Westminster and Britain's first polytechnic, opens in Regent Street, London.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – The Anti-Corn Law League is established in Britain by Richard Cobden.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce is founded (renamed The Times of India in 1861).


text: Duke University is established in North Carolina.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Edward W. Morley, American chemist noted for working on the Michelson–Morley experiment (d. 1923)


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Sir Evelyn Wood, British field marshal, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1919)


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Alice Cunningham Fletcher, American ethnologist, anthropologist, and social scientist (d. 1923)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – John Muir, American ecologist (d. 1914)


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Yamagata Aritomo, Japanese field marshal, Prime Minister (d. 1922)


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German military officer, founder of the Zeppelin Company (d. 1917)


date: July

text: July full date unknown – Bass Reeves, one of the first black Deputy U.S. Marshals west of the Mississippi River (d. 1910)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Liliuokalani, last Queen of Hawaii (d. 1917)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Victoria Woodhull, American woman's suffrage leader; first woman to run for U.S. President (d. 1927)


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Confederate brigadier general, Texas governor and president of Texas A&M University (d. 1898)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Sai Baba, Indian spiritual master and National saint (d. 1918)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – John Hay, diplomat, private secretary to Abraham Lincoln, 37th United States Secretary of State (d. 1905)


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Rufus W. Peckham, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1909)


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Joseph F. Smith, 6th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1918)


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Anthony Van Egmond, leader in Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 (d. in jail) (b. 1778)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1751)


date: March 7

text: March 7 – Robert Townsend (spy), American member of the Culper Spy Ring (b. 1753)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, Brazilian statesman, naturalist (b. 1763)


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French politician (b. 1754)


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Jan Willem Janssens, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1762)


date: August 1

text: August 1 – John Rodgers, American naval officer (b. 1772)


date: August 17

text: August 17 – Lorenzo Da Ponte, librettist for Mozart (b. 1749)


date: September 1

text: September 1 – William Clark, American explorer (b. 1770)


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Alexandra Branitskaya, Russian political activist, courtier and businessperson (b. 1754)


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist, industrialist (b. 1768)


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Black Hawk, Sauk Indian chief, autobiographer (b. 1767)


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Anne Grant, Scottish poet (b. 1755)


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Georges Mouton, count of Lobau, Marshal of France (b. 1770)


date: April 19

text: 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).


date: May 7

text: 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.


date: December 6

text: 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.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Heinola in the Grand Duchy of Finland is granted town rights by Czar Nicholas I.


text: 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.


text: Emperor Minh Mạng renames Việt Nam to Đại Nam.


text: 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.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Battle of Yungay: Chile defeats the Peru–Bolivian Confederation, leading to the restoration of an independent Peru.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – The Pastry War between France and Mexico ends.


date: May 12

text: 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.


date: May 13

text: 13 May – First Rebecca Riots targeted against turnpikes in Wales, at Efailwen in Carmarthenshire.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Turkish troops cross the Euphrates River and invade Syria, but are defeated in battle in June.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Slaves aboard the Amistad rebel, and capture the ship.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – First Anglo-Afghan War: Battle of Ghazni – British forces capture the fortress city of Ghazni in Afghanistan.


date: August 31

text: 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.


date: September 4

text: 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.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Emir Abdelkader declares a jihad against the French.


date: November 4

text: 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.


text: Tanzimat starts in the Ottoman Empire.


text: 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.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – The British Aden Expedition captures Aden.


date: May 22

text: 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.


text: Archaeological excavation at the Mayan site of Copán begins.


text: 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.


text: July 1 – Abdülmecid I (1839–1861) succeeds Mahmud II (1808–1839) as Ottoman Emperor.


text: Episcopal High School (Alexandria, Virginia) is founded in Alexandria, Virginia, as the first high school in Virginia.


text: Galveston, Texas, is incorporated.


text: Valley Falls Company, a predecessor of Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate and holdings company in the United States, is founded in Rhode Island.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – William Otis receives a U.S. patent for the steam shovel.


text: March 9 – Prussia imposes the Child Labor Law of 1839, becoming the first nation in the world to place restrictions on child labor.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – The Boston Morning Post first records the use of "O.K." (oll korrect).


date: April 9

text: 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.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Louis Daguerre receives a patent for his camera (commercially available by September at the price of 400 francs).


date: October 3

text: October 3 – A railway between Naples and Portici (7.4 km mi) in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies is inaugurated by King Ferdinand II of Bourbon as the first line in the Italian Peninsula.


text: In the United States, the first state law permitting women to own property is passed in Jackson, Mississippi.


text: Chattanooga, Tennessee, is incorporated as a town.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – The first photograph of the Moon is taken, by French photographer Louis Daguerre.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – The French Academy of Sciences announces the daguerreotype photography process.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – The French government gives the daguerreotype "for the whole world".


text: Michael Faraday publishes Experimental Researches in Electricity, clarifying the true nature of electricity.


date: June 3

text: 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.


text: Charles Goodyear vulcanizes rubber.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Night of the Big Wind: Ireland is struck by the most damaging cyclone in 300 years.


text: 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.


date: November 25

text: 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.


date: January

text: January – The first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri is published by Thomas Henderson.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The University of Missouri is established, becoming the first public university west of the Mississippi River.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Longwood University is founded in Farmville, Virginia.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – Baltimore City College, the third public high school in the United States, is established in Baltimore, Maryland.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – The Anti-Corn Law League is founded in Manchester, England.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – The first Henley Royal Regatta is held on the River Thames in England.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Boston University is established as the Newbury Biblical Institute in Vermont.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – The Fraternity of Beta Theta Pi is founded by John Reily Knox at Miami University.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, opens in Milan.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – The American Statistical Association is founded in Boston, Massachusetts.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – William A. Clark, American politician, entrepreneur (d. 1925)


date: January 19

text: January 19 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (d. 1906)


text: February 11 – Josiah Willard Gibbs, American physicist, chemist (d. 1903)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì, 12th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1908)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Mary of the Passion, French Roman Catholic religious sister, missionary, and blessed (d. 1904)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Arthur Tooth, Anglican clergyman prosecuted for Ritualist practices in the 1870s (d. 1931)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Ephraim Shay, American inventor of the Shay locomotive (d. 1916)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Walter Pater, English essayist, critic (d. 1894)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Henry George, American writer, politician, and political economist (d. 1897)


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Gregorio Luperón, Dominican soldier, activist and general (d. 1897)


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Charles Sanders Peirce, American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist (d. 1914)


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Alfred Sisley, French Impressionist landscape painter (d. 1899)


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Frank Furness, American architect, soldier (d. 1912)


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Sir Redvers Buller, British general, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1908)


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Sybil Ludington, alleged heroine during the American Revolutionary War (b. 1761)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Rachel Plummer, American writer, daughter of James W. Parker, and the cousin of Quanah Parker (b. 1819)


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Giuseppe Siboni, Italian operatic tenor, opera director, choir conductor, and voice teacher (b. 1780)


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Pär Aron Borg, Swedish educator and a pioneer in the education for the blind and deaf (b. 1776)


date: May 3

text: May 3 – Pehr Henrik Ling, pioneer of physical education in Sweden (b. 1776)


date: May 6

text: May 6 – John Batman, Australian grazier, entrepreneur, and explorer (b. 1801)


date: June 27

text: June 27 – The emperor of the Sikh Empire, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, dies at 58.


text: June 27 – Allan Cunningham, English botanist and explorer (b. 1791)


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Mervyn Archdall, Irish officer in the British Army and Member of Parliament for County Fermanagh (b. 1763)


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Paul Chong Hasang, Korean Roman Catholic saint and martyr (b. 1794/1795)


date: October 6

text: October 6 – William Light, British Army colonel, first Surveyor-General of South Australia (b. 1786)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Ee-mat-la, Seminole chief during the Second Seminole War (b. 1739)


date: October 9

text: October 9 – James Oatley, British-born colonial Australian watch and clock maker (b. 1769)


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Makea Pori Ariki, sovereign of the Cook Islands and one of three High Chiefs of Te Au O Tonga


text: The Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions ends.

source_section: Events › By place › China


date: June

text: June – Ling of Han places his brother-in-law, He Jin, in command of the imperial army and sends them to attack the Yellow Turban rebels.


text: Zhang Jue leads the peasant revolt against Emperor Ling of Han of the Eastern Han dynasty. Heading for the capital of Luoyang, his massive and undisciplined army (360,000 men), burns and destroys government offices and outposts.


text: King Gogukcheon (Gaonanwu) of Goguryeo (Gaogouli) pushes Chinese armies back to Liaodong.

source_section: Events › By place › Korea


text: Last (6th) year of Guanghe era and the start of Zhongping era of the Eastern Han dynasty.


text: The Yellow Turban Rebellion and Liang Province Rebellion break out in China.


text: Beolhyu becomes king of Silla.


text: Origen, Christian scholar and theologian (approximate date)

source_section: Births


text: Sun Yi, Chinese general (d. 204)


text: Wang Xiang, Chinese official and politician (d. 268)


text: Guo Nüwang, Chinese empress of the Cao Wei state (d. 235)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Qiao Xuan (or Gongzu), Chinese official (b. 110)

source_section: Deaths


text: Winter – Zhang Jue dies of illness while his brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang are killed in battles against Han imperial forces. The Yellow Turban rebels become scattered.


text: Zhang Jue, Chinese leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion


text: Adalla of Silla, Korean ruler (House of Park)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – The Treaty of Waitangi, granting British sovereignty in New Zealand, is signed.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – New Zealand is declared a British colony.


date: July 15

text: 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.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: July 23

text: July 23 – The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union, but not proclaimed until 10 February 1841.


text: July 23 – Pedro II is declared "of age" prematurely, and begins to reassert central control in Brazil.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Remaining former slaves in the British Empire are released from apprenticeships under terms of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – William II becomes King of the Netherlands.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: February

text: February – The Rhodes blood libel is made against the Jews of Rhodes.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Maria massacre: British brigantine Maria is wrecked off South Australia. All 26 passengers and crew make it to the shore but none survive the trek to safety over the following two weeks, most being massacred by Aboriginal Australians.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: August 19

text: August 19 – The Battle of the Barrier.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Ottoman and British troops bombard Beirut, and land troops on the coast, to pressure Egyptian Muhammad Ali to retreat from the country.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – The French frigate Belle Poule arrives in Cherbourg, bringing back the remains of Napoleon from Saint Helena to France.


date: October 8

text: 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).


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the Ottomans, and on October 14 goes into exile, initially in Malta.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The body of Napoleon is laid to rest in Les Invalides in Paris.


text: Egyptian–Ottoman War (1839–41)

source_section: Events › Ongoing


text: First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842)


date: January 19

text: January 19 – Captain Charles Wilkes' United States Exploring Expedition sights what becomes known as Wilkes Land in the southeast quadrant of Antarctica, claiming it for the United States, and providing evidence that Antarctica is a complete continent.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Jules Dumont d'Urville discovers Adélie Land in Antarctica, claiming it for France.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – British colonists reach New Zealand, officially founding the settlement of Wellington.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Uniform Penny Post is introduced in the United Kingdom.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is completed, from Wilmington, North Carolina to Weldon, North Carolina. At 161.5 mi km, it is the world's longest railroad.


date: April

text: April – The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad is completed from Raleigh to near Weldon, North Carolina.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Britain issues the Penny Black, the world's first postage stamp; it becomes valid for the pre-payment of postage from May 6.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer departs from Liverpool, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the first steam transatlantic passenger mail service.


date: July 21

text: 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.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Stockport Viaduct is completed in North West England. It is one of the largest brick structures in Europe.


text: Kajima, a construction company based in Japan, is founded in Edo (modern-day Tokyo).

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Paweł Strzelecki reaches Australia's highest summit, Mount Kosciuszko.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – David Livingstone leaves Britain for Africa.


text: The first known photograph of Niagara Falls, a daguerreotype, is taken by English chemist Hugh Lee Pattinson.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – King's College Hospital opens in London.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – Damascus Affair: The murder of a Capuchin friar and his Greek servant leads to a highly publicized case of blood libel, against the Jews of Damascus.


date: August 10

text: 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".


date: January 13

text: January 13 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks in icy waters, four miles off the coast of Long Island; 139 die, only four survive.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Great Natchez Tornado: A massive tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi during the early afternoon. Before it is over, 317 people are killed and 109 injured (the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history).


date: November 4

text: November 4 – 1840 United States presidential election: William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren in a landslide.


text: Approximate date – Volcanic eruption of Tinakula in the Solomon Islands causes the island to be depopulated.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – One of the predecessor papers of the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia, The Port Phillip Herald, is founded.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Gaetano Donizetti's opera La fille du régiment premieres in Paris.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Alexander S. Wolcott and John Johnson open the world's first commercial photography portrait studio, their Daguerreian Parlor, on Broadway in Manhattan.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The Washingtonian movement for teetotalism is founded by a group of alcoholics in Baltimore, Maryland.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – Johnny Appleseed meets Abraham Lincoln, and plants apple trees in New York City.


date: June 12

text: June 12–23 – The World Anti-Slavery Convention is organised by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, at Exeter Hall in London, England. Arguments over the exclusion of women from the convention have important ramifications for the movement for women's suffrage in the United States.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Joseph Strutt hands over the deeds and papers concerning the Derby Arboretum, which is to become England's first public park.


text: The first English translation of Goethe's Theory of Colours by Charles Eastlake is published.


text: January 3 – Father Damien, Belgian missionary priest (d. 1889)


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Samuel Baldwin Marks Young, American general, first Chief of Staff of the United States Army (d. 1924)


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Alfred Percy Sinnett, English writer and theosophist (d. 1921)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Ernst Abbe, German physicist (d. 1905)


text: February 5 – Hiram Maxim, American-born British firearms inventor (d. 1916)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Titu Maiorescu, 23rd Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1917)


text: April 2 – Émile Zola, French writer (d. 1902)


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Thomas Hardy, English writer (d. 1928)


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Carlota of Mexico, Empress of Mexico (d. 1927)


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Mary Jane Patterson, the first African-American woman to receive a B.A. degree in 1862. (d. 1894)


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Alfred Thayer Mahan, United States Navy admiral, American geostrategist and historian (d. 1914)


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Helena Modjeska, Polish stage actress (d. 1909)


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (d. 1917)


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Victoria, Princess Royal (d. 1901)


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Fanny Burney, English novelist (b. 1752)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (b. 1752)


date: March 19

text: March 19 - The Council House Fight results in the deaths of 35 Comanche and seven Texas Rangers/militia, ending any hopes for peace in the Texas–Indian wars.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Siméon Denis Poisson, French mathematician, geometer, and physicist (b. 1781)


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Joseph Williamson, builder of the Williamson Tunnels (b. 1769)


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, Russian aristocrat, priest (b. 1770)


text: May 6 – Francisco de Paula Santander, President of Colombia (b. 1792)


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Caspar David Friedrich, German artist (b. 1774)


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Sidney Smith, British admiral (b. 1764)


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist, composer (b. 1782)


text: June 7 – On the death of Frederick William III of Prussia, he is succeeded on the throne of the Kingdom of Prussia (which he has ruled for more than 40 years) by his eldest son Frederick William IV.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Joseph Smith, Sr., American father of Joseph Smith, Jr. (b. 1771)


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, Constantinople-born French polymath (b. 1783)


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Anne Lister, English landowner, diarist, mountaineer and traveller, "the first modern lesbian" (b. 1791)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Charles Elliot of the United Kingdom and Qishan of the Qing dynasty agree to the Convention of Chuenpi.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – El Salvador proclaims itself an independent republic, bringing an end to the Federal Republic of Central America.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – The Act of Union (British North America Act, 1840) is proclaimed in Canada.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Upper Canada and Lower Canada are merged to create the United Province of Canada.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – New Zealand becomes a separate British colony, having previously been administered as part of the Colony of New South Wales.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Frederick Douglass speaks in front of the Anti-Slavery Convention in Nantucket, Massachusetts.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Sarawak is broken away from Brunei, and James Brooke is appointed Rajah.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – The first multilateral treaty for the suppression of the African slave trade, the Treaty for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade, signed in London by the representatives of Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The Georgian province of Guria revolts against the Russian Empire.


date: May

text: May – The Sino-Sikh War begins.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House, in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – First Opium War: Battle of Chinhai – British capture a Chinese garrison.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – First Opium War: British occupy Ningbo.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – First Anglo-Afghan War: At a meeting with the Afghan general Akbar Khan, British diplomat Sir William Hay Macnaghten is shot dead at close quarters.


text: First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–42)


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Ross discovers the "Victoria Barrier", later known as the Ross Ice Shelf. On the same voyage, he discovers the Ross Sea, Victoria Land and Mount Terror.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – The Mercantile Agency (ancestor of Dun & Bradstreet) is founded in New York City by Lewis Tappan.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Scottish missionary David Livingstone arrives at Kuruman in the Northern Cape, his first posting in Africa.


date: August 20

text: August 20–October 16 – The Niger expedition of 1841 begins sailing up the Niger River by paddle steamers, under the auspices of the British Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and the Civilisation of Africa; it is largely abortive, due to the high incidence of disease among the crews.


date: November

text: November – The settlement of Dallas, Texas, is founded by John Neely Bryan.


text: The sixth bishop of Calcutta, Daniel Wilson, and Dr. James Taylor, Civil Surgeon at Dhaka, establish the first modern educational institution on the Indian subcontinent, Dhaka College.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Thomas Cook arranges his first railway excursion in England.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Britain occupies Hong Kong. Later in the year, the first census of the island records a population of about 7,500.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Scottish surgeon James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism by Charles Lafontaine in Manchester, which leads to his study of the phenomenon that he (Braid) eventually calls hypnotism.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins, and lasts until March 11.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – United States v. The Amistad: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the case, that the Africans who seized control of the ship had been taken into slavery illegally.


text: John Augustus develops the concept of probation in Boston, Massachusetts.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – A fire destroys two-thirds of the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – All 136 passengers and crew on steamship , commanded by legendary captain Richard Roberts (known for saying "I'd go to sea in a bathtub"), are killed when the ship founders in rough seas.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – A fire at the Tower of London destroys its Grand Armoury and causes a quarter of a million pounds' worth of damage.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – The active volcano Mount Erebus in Antarctica is discovered, and named by James Clark Ross.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – The first known reference is made to Groundhog Day, celebrated in North America, in the diary of a James Morris.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – The United Kingdom Census is held, the first to record names and approximate ages of every household member, and to be administered nationally.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – St. John's College, later Fordham University, is founded in The Bronx by Jesuits.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The ballet Giselle is first presented by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique, at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris, France, with music by Adolphe Adam and Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi in the title role.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The first edition of the humorous magazine Punch is published in London.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, by Rev. Thomas Liddell, who carries a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria, and becomes the school's first principal.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Franz Liszt gives a piano recital at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin to an enthusiastic audience, retrospectively marked as the beginning of Lisztomania, which will accompany his tours across Europe during the decade.


text: Emperor Pedro II of Brazil is crowned in Rio de Janeiro.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Hakeem Noor-ud-Din, Muslim scholar, 1st Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam (d. 1914)

source_section: Births › January–June


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, English-Canadian politician, soldier (d. 1908)


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Luigi Luzzatti, Italian financier, economist, philosopher, and jurist, 20th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1927)


date: March 8

text: March 8 – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1935)


date: April 11

text: April 11 – John Stillwell Stark, American publisher of Ragtime (d. 1927)


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Mary Arthur McElroy, de facto First Lady of the United States (d. 1917)

source_section: Births › July–December


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Emil Kocher, Swiss medical researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1917)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Louis Le Prince, French inventor, Father of Cinematography (d. 1890)


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer (d. 1904)


text: September 8 – Charles J. Guiteau, American lawyer, assassin of James A. Garfield (d. 1882)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Georges Clemenceau, French statesman (d. 1929)


text: October 16 – Prince Itō Hirobumi, 4-time prime minister of Japan (d. 1909)


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Edward Burd Grubb Jr., American Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General (d.1913)


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1932)


text: January 15 – Johann Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot, Baltic-German naturalist, traveller (b. 1792)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Sir Astley Cooper, British surgeon and anatomist (b. 1768)


text: March 1 – Claude-Victor Perrin, Duc de Belluno, French marshal (b. 1764)


date: April 4

text: April 4 – President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, aged 68, becoming the first president of the United States to die in office, and at one month, the American president with the shortest term served. He is succeeded by Vice President John Tyler.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Peter Chanel, French Roman Catholic priest, missionary, and saint (martyred) (b. 1803)


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Marie Boivin, French midwife, inventor, and obstetrics writer (b. 1773)


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher, theologian (b. 1765)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Nicolas Appert, French inventor (b. 1749)


text: June 1 – David Wilkie, Scottish artist (b. 1785)


date: July

text: July – Mary Rogers ("Beautiful Cigar Girl"), American murder victim (b. c. 1820)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Fernando Errázuriz Aldunate, Chilean politician, President of Chile (b.c 1777)


date: September 25

text: September 25 – John Chandler, American politician (b. 1762)


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Karl Friedrich Schinkel, German architect (b. 1781)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Agustín Gamarra, Peruvian general and politician, 10th and 14th President of Peru (b. 1785)


date: March

text: March – Commonwealth v. Hunt: The Massachusetts Supreme Court rules that labor strikes and the formation of labor unions are both legal in the United States.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Education in Sweden: A primary school system is established in Sweden.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – The Webster–Ashburton Treaty is signed between the United States and United Kingdom, establishing the United States–Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – The Treaty of Nanking, an unequal treaty between the United Kingdom and Qing dynasty China, ends the First Opium War, and establishes Hong Kong as a British colony (later a British dependent territory until 1997).


date: September 16

text: September 16–17 – The Treaty of Chushul ends the Dogra–Tibetan war (Sino-Sikh War).


text: The New Zealand seat of government moves from Russell to Auckland.


text: The Polynesian islands of Tahiti and Tahuata are declared a protectorate of France.


date: January 6

text: January 6–13 – First Anglo-Afghan War – Massacre of Elphinstone's army (Battle of Gandamak): British East India Company troops are destroyed by Afghan forces on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, by Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammad Khan.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia, defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Mexican troops led by Ráfael Vásquez invade the Republic of Texas, briefly occupy San Antonio, and then head back to the Rio Grande. This is the first such invasion since the Texas Revolution.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – First Anglo-Afghan War: Battle of Jellalabad – British troops are victorious.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Dorr Rebellion: Militiamen supporting Thomas Wilson Dorr attack the arsenal in Providence, Rhode Island, but are repulsed.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – In South Africa, hunter Dick King rides into a British military base in Grahamstown, to warn that the Boers have besieged Durban (he had left 11 days earlier). The British army dispatches a relief force.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – The Armed Occupation Act is signed, providing for the armed occupation and settlement of the unsettled part of the Peninsula of East Florida.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – American Indian Wars: United States general William J. Worth declares the Second Seminole War to be over.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross, charting the eastern side of James Ross Island, reaches a Farthest South of 78°09'30"S.


text: The Sons of Temperance is founded in New York City.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, forerunner to the philanthropic and educational women's organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is formally organized.


text: Michael Alexander takes office, as the first appointee to the Anglican-German Bishopric in Jerusalem.


text: American medical student William E. Clarke of Berkshire Medical College becomes the first person to administer an inhaled anesthetic, to facilitate a surgical procedure. After Clarke uses a towel and ether to anesthetize a patient identified as "Miss Hobbie", Dr. Elijah Pope pulls her tooth.


text: Dzogchen Monastery, in Sichuan, China, is almost completely destroyed by an earthquake.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – The Income Tax Act establishes the first peacetime income tax in the United Kingdom; 7 pence in the pound, for incomes over 150 pounds.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway line is opened up to Werneth in North West England.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Queen Victoria becomes the first reigning British monarch to travel by train, on the Great Western Railway between Slough and London Paddington station.


date: June

text: June – James Nasmyth patents the steam hammer in the United Kingdom.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Josef Groll brews the first pilsner light lager beer in the city of Pilsen, Bohemia (the modern-day Czech Republic).


text: Pickelhaube helmet introduced in the Prussian Army.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – The total solar eclipse of July 8, 1842 is visible from Asia.


text: Julius von Mayer proposes that work and heat are equivalent.


text: English palaeontologist Richard Owen coins the name Dinosauria, hence the Anglicized dinosaur.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – American physician and pharmacist Crawford Long administers an inhaled anesthetic (diethyl ether) to facilitate a surgical procedure, performing the removal of a neck tumor.


text: Beecham's Pills (a laxative) is first marketed in Lancashire, England, by Thomas Beecham, forming the basis of the Beecham Group and GSK plc pharmaceutical companies.


date: April

text: April–September – 1842 general strike spreads across England's industrial districts, driven by Chartism. Includes the Preston Strike and Pottery Riots. Protestors are killed by the military in several places.


date: November 10

text: November 10 & 19 – London debtor's prisons the Fleet Prison and Marshalsea are closed and inmates transferred to Queen's Bench Prison. Pentonville Prison for criminals is completed in north London this year.


date: May 5

text: May 5–8 – The Great fire of Hamburg in Germany destroys around one-third of the city centre and kills 51.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Versailles rail accident: A train traveling between Versailles and Paris, France derails, due to a broken locomotive axle, and catches fire, killing at least 55 passengers in the locked carriages.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – The Mines and Collieries Act 1842 in the United Kingdom makes it illegal for women and girls of any age, and boys under ten years, to work underground.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – The Iberian Peninsula is struck by a category 2 hurricane.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Delft University of Technology is established by William II of the Netherlands, as a 'Royal Academy for the education of civilian engineers'.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – The modern-day Willamette University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the western United States, is established in Salem, Oregon as "The Oregon Institute". The first students begin classes begin on August 13, 1844.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Gaylad, ridden by Tom Olliver, wins the Grand National at Aintree Racecourse in England.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Giuseppe Verdi's third opera Nabucco premieres at La Scala in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy's foremost operatic composers.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, founded by Otto Nicolai, performs its first concert.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – The Tri-Kap fraternity is founded at Dartmouth College (the oldest local fraternity in the United States).


date: September

text: September – Wesleyan University is established in Ohio.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – The University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana (United States) is established by Father Edward Sorin, of the Roman Catholic Congregation of Holy Cross.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – The New York Philharmonic, founded by Ureli Corelli Hill, performs its first concert.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, is established.


text: Indiana University Maurer School of Law at Indiana University Bloomington.


text: Villanova University (in Villanova, Pennsylvania by the Augustinian order).


text: Cumberland University (in Lebanon, Tennessee).


text: Hollins University (as Valley Union Seminary in Roanoke, Virginia by Charles Cocke).


date: January 11

text: January 11 – William James, American psychologist, philosopher (d. 1910)


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Mary MacKillop, first Australian saint (d. 1909)


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher (d. 1906)


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Karl May, German writer (d. 1912)


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Dominic Savio, Italian adolescent student of John Bosco (d. 1857)


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Ambrose Bierce, American writer, satirist (d. ca. 1914)


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Henry Granger Piffard (d. 1910), New York dermatologist and author of the first systematic treatise on dermatology in America


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Giovanni Giolitti, 5-time prime minister of Italy (d. 1928)


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, American orator (d. 1932), younger sister of journalist Susan E. Dickinson


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Ōyama Iwao, Japanese field marshal, a founder of the Imperial Japanese Army (d. 1916)


text: November 12 – John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1919)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – C. W. Alcock, English footballer, football official (d. 1907)


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Ellen Swallow Richards, American chemist (d. 1911)


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist (d. 1921)


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Constanze Mozart, German-born wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b.1762)


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Samuel Eells, American founder of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity (b. 1810)


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Stendhal, French novelist (b. 1783)


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, French painter (b. 1755)


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Jules Dumont d'Urville, French explorer (b. 1790)


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Maria Dalle Donne, Bolognese physician (b. 1778)


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans, French prince (b. 1810)


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon (b. 1766)


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Leona Vicario, leader of Mexican War of Independence and wife of Andrés Quintana Roo (b. 1789)


text: September 10 – Letitia Christian Tyler, First Lady of the United States 1841–1842 (b. 1790)


text: September 10 – William Hobson, Irish-born officer in the British Royal Navy, first Governor-General of New Zealand and co-author of Treaty of Waitangi (b. 1792)


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Francisco Morazán, Honduran-born politician, President of Federal Republic of Central America (b. 1792)


date: October 2

text: October 2 – William Ellery Channing, American Unitarian theologian, minister (b. 1780)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Philip Spencer, American founder of Chi Psi fraternity, midshipman aboard the , hanged for mutiny.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Paulet Affair: Lord George Paulet occupies the Kingdom of Hawaii in the name of Great Britain.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The Danish government re-establishes the Althing in Iceland as an advisory body, by royal decree.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Natal is proclaimed a British colony.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Chile takes possession of the Strait of Magellan.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – In Barbados, Samuel Jackman Prescod is the first non-white person elected to the House of Assembly.