Explore 629 historical events from 1840–1849.
Giovanni Giolitti was an Italian statesman who was the prime minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. He is the longest-serving democratically elected prime minister in …
Giovanni Giolitti, Italian politician, 13th Prime Minister of Italy (died 1928)
Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville was a French explorer and naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. As a botanist and …
Jules Dumont d'Urville, French admiral and explorer (born 1790)
Walenty Wilhelm Wańkowicz was a Polish painter. He studied at the Jesuit College in Polotsk, the University of Wilno and the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He produced…
Walenty Wańkowicz, Belarusian-Polish painter (born 1799)
Dominique Jean, Baron Larrey was a French surgeon and soldier best known for his service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. An important innovator in battlefield medi…
Dominique Jean Larrey, French physician and surgeon (born 1766)
Clemens Wenzeslaus Brentano was a German poet and novelist, and a major figure of German Romanticism. He was the uncle, via his brother Christian, of Franz and Lujo Brentano.
Clemens Brentano, German author and poet (born 1778)
Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet was a French Navy officer. Following the 1800–1803 Baudin expedition to Australia, he published in 1811 the first map to show the full Australi…
Louis de Freycinet, French explorer and navigator (born 1779)
Letitia Christian Tyler was the first lady of the United States from 1841 to 1842 as the first wife of President John Tyler. After meeting in 1808, the two married in 1813. Tyler m…
Letitia Christian Tyler, American wife of John Tyler, 11th First Lady of the United States (born 1790)
José Francisco Morazán Quezada was a Central American statesman, military officer, and caudillo who served as the president of the Federal Republic of Central America on three occa…
Francisco Morazán, Guatemalan general, lawyer, and politician, President of Central American Federation (born 1792)
Allan Cunningham was a Scottish poet and author.
Allan Cunningham, Scottish author and poet (born 1784)
The Lombard Street riot was a racially motivated mob attack on the free Black community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 1, 1842.
Three days of rioting erupted after a parade in Philadelphia, celebrating the end of slavery in the West Indies, was…
Captain William Hobson was a Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator who served as the first governor of New Zealand from 1841 to 1842. He was a co-author of the Treaty of Wa…
William Hobson, Irish-New Zealand soldier and politician, 1st Governor of New Zealand (born 1792)
Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot was a French violinist and composer born in Passy. He studied the violin under Giovanni Battista Viotti and taught at the Conservatoire de Pa…
Pierre Baillot, French violinist and composer (born 1771)
Aleksey Vasilievich Koltsov was a Russian poet who has been called a Russian Burns. His poems, frequently placed in the mouth of women, stylize peasant-life songs and idealize agri…
Aleksey Koltsov, Russian poet and author (born 1808)
On 8 May 1842, a train crashed in the cutting between Meudon and Bellevue stations on the railway between Versailles and Paris, France. The train was travelling to Paris when it de…
A train derailed and caught fire near Versailles, France, killing at least 52 people
The Treaty of Nanjing was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–1842) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the second of w…
Under the Treaty of Nanking, an "unequal treaty" that ended the First Opium War, the Chinese island from which Hong…
The Paris Opera Ballet is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera. It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet …
The Paris Opera Ballet premieres Giselle in the Salle Le Peletier
Thomas James Lempriere was a British colonial administrator in the Australian colony of Van Diemen's Land. He is known for his diaries depicting the convict period in Van Diemen's …
Thomas Lempriere and James Clark Ross carve a marker on the Isle of the Dead in Van Diemen's Land to measure tidal…
Thomas Cook was the founder of the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. He was born into a poor family in Derbyshire and left school at the age of ten to start work as a gardener's boy…
Thomas Cook organises the first package excursion, from Leicester to Loughborough.
In the London Straits Convention concluded on 13 July 1841 between the Great Powers of Europe at the time—Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Austria and Prussia—the "ancient rule"…
Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia conclude the London Straits Convention, which prevents warships to cross…
Dom Pedro II, known as "the Magnanimous", was the second and final emperor of the Empire of Brazil. He reigned from 1831 until his deposition in the military coup of 1889, presidin…
Coronation of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil.
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government an…
U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States.…
Queen's University at Kingston, commonly known as Queen's University or simply Queen's, is a public research university in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Queen's holds more than 1,400 …
Queen's University is founded in the Province of Canada.
Clarence Edward Dutton was an American geologist and US Army officer.
Clarence Dutton, American commander and geologist (died 1912)
Abraham Catulle Mendès was a French poet and man of letters. He was associated with the Parnassianist school.
Catulle Mendès, French poet, author, and playwright (died 1909)