Explore 510 historical events from 1840–1849.
Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette was a German Lutheran theologian and biblical scholar.
Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette, German theologian and scholar (born 1780)
Sarah Allen was an American abolitionist and missionary for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She is known within the AME Church as The Founding Mother.
Sarah Allen, African-American missionary for the African Methodist Episcopal Church (born 1764)
Charles Albert was the King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard state from 27 April 1831 until his abdication in 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constitution, t…
Charles Albert of Sardinia (born 1798)
Muhammad Ali was the Ottoman viceroy and governor of Albanian origin, who became the de facto ruler of Egypt from 1805 to 1848, widely considered the founder of modern Egypt. At th…
Muhammad Ali of Egypt, Ottoman Albanian commander (born 1769)
Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin was a Genevan-American politician, diplomat, ethnologist, and linguist. Often described as "America's Swiss Founding Father", he was a leading figur…
Albert Gallatin, Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, and politician, 4th United States Secretary of the Treasury…
Friedrich August Schulze was a German novelist, who wrote under the pen name Friedrich Laun. Schulze was born in Dresden. His first novel, Der Mann, auf Freiersfüssen (1801), was f…
Friedrich Laun, German author (born 1770)
Edwin Forrest was a nineteenth-century American Shakespearean actor. His feud with the British actor William Macready was the cause of the deadly Astor Place Riot of 1849.
A personal dispute between actors Edwin Forrest and William Macready in New York City devolved into a riot that left at
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating t…
Abraham Lincoln was issued a patent for an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, making him the only U
Epaulettes is the name given by philatelists to the first series of postage stamps issued by Belgium. The stamps, which depicted King Leopold I with prominent epaulettes from which…
Belgium introduced its first series of postage stamps, known as epaulettes (example pictured).
Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her fami…
Harriet Tubman (pictured) escaped from slavery in the U.S. state of Maryland, and later orchestrated the rescues of…
This is a page on the history of the island of Martinique.
Slavery is abolished in Martinique
The Prague Slavic Congress of 1848 took place in Prague, Austrian Empire between 2 June and 12 June 1848. It was the first occasion on which representatives from nearly all Slav po…
The Slavic Congress opens in Prague
Peter Carl Frederik von Scholten was a Danish army officer and colonial administrator who served as Governor-General of the Danish West Indies from 1827 to 1848.
Governor-General Peter von Scholten emancipates all remaining slaves in the Danish West Indies.
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scot…
The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire
The rise of federalism in Switzerland began on 12 September 1848, with the creation of a federal constitution in response to a 27-day civil war, the Sonderbundskrieg.
A new constitution marks the establishment of Switzerland as a federal state.
Otto was King of Bavaria from 1886 until 1913. However, he never actively ruled because of alleged severe mental illness. His uncle, Luitpold, and his cousin, Ludwig, served as reg…
Otto, King of Bavaria (died 1916)
Ludvig Schytte was a Danish composer, pianist, and teacher.
Ludvig Schytte, Danish pianist, composer, and educator (died 1909)
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English …
Opening of the first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, was an invasion of Mexico by the United Stat…
Mexican–American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada,
The Wallachian Revolution of 1848 was a Romanian liberal and nationalist uprising in the Principality of Wallachia. Part of the Revolutions of 1848, and closely connected with the …
In the Wallachian Revolution, Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Christian Tell issue the Proclamation of Islaz and create a new
The June Days were an uprising staged by French workers from 22 to 26 June 1848. It was in response to plans to close the National Workshops, created by the Second Republic in orde…
A photograph of the June Days uprising becomes the first known instance of photojournalism
The June Days were an uprising staged by French workers from 22 to 26 June 1848. It was in response to plans to close the National Workshops, created by the Second Republic in orde…
End of the June Days Uprising in Paris
Eugène Louis Simon was a French naturalist who worked particularly on insects and spiders, but also on birds and plants. He is by far the most prolific spider taxonomist in history…
Eugène Simon, French naturalist (died 1924)
Eilert Adelsteen Normann was a Norwegian painter who worked in Berlin. He was a noted painter of landscapes of Norway. Normann was the artist who invited Edvard Munch to Berlin, wh…
Adelsteen Normann, Norwegian painter (died 1919)