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1840 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). Events - January 3 - One of the predecessor papers to the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia, The Port Phillip Herald, is founded by George Cavanaugh.
- January 10 - Uniform penny postage introduced in the UK.
- January 19 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
- January 20 - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adlie Land, Antarctica.
- January 22 - British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding date of Wellington.
- February 6 - Treaty of Waitangi, document granting British sovereignty in New Zealand, is signed.
- February 10 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha.
- February 11 - Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Regiment premieres in Paris.
- March 1 - William Hobson, first Governor of New Zealand, suffers a stroke.
- March 1 - Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France.
- May 1 - Britain issues the Penny Black, world's first postage stamp.
- May 6 - The Penny Black, world's first postage stamp becomes valid for the pre-payment of postage.
- May 7 - The Great Natchez Tornado: A massive tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi during the early afternoon hours. Before it was over, 317 people had lost their lives and 209 were injured. It is the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
- July 4 - The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic passenger cruise.
- July 15 – Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia sign a London Treaty with the Sublime Porte, ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
- September 10 - Ottoman and British troops bombard Beirut and land troops on the coast to pressure Egyptian Muhammad Ali to retreat from the country.
- October 7 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
- October 14 – Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta.
- November - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren in the U.S. presidential election.
Births - January 3 - Father Damien, missionary priest in Hawai'i (d. 1888)
- February 4 - Hiram Stevens Maxim, inventor of Maxim Gun (d. 1916)
- February 5 - John Boyd Dunlop, inventor (d. 1921)
- February 11 - Samuel Dana Greene, Lieutenant Commander (Union Navy)
- February 21 - Murad V, future Ottoman sultan (d. 1904)
- February 22 - August Bebel, politician (d. 1913)
- February 23 - Carl Menger, economist (d. 1921)
- February 29 - John Philip Holland, developer of the first submarine (d. 1914)
- March 28 - Emin Pasha, German doctor, naturalist to Africa (d. 1892)
- April 2 - Emile Zola, French writer (d. 1902)
- April 22 - Odilon Redon, French painter (d. 1916)
- April 27 - Edward Whymper, English mountaineer (d. 1911)
- May 7 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (d. 1893)
- June 2 - Thomas Hardy, English novelist (d. 1928)
- August 4 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German sexologist
- October 16 - Kuroda Kiyotaka, Japanese politician and prime minister (d. 1900)
- November 12 - Auguste Rodin, French sculptor
- November 14 - Claude Monet, French painter (d. 1926)
- November 21 - Victoria, Princess Royal, "Vicky," eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
- November 29 - Rhoda Broughton (d. 1920)
- Ernst Abbe, German physicist.
Deaths
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