1839
Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
---|---|
Centuries: | 18th century – 19th century – 20th century |
Decades: | 1800s 1810s 1820s – 1830s – 1840s 1850s 1860s |
Years: | 1836 1837 1838 – 1839 – 1840 1841 1842 |
Events
- January 19 – British East India Company captures Aden
- January 20 – In the Battle of Yungay, Peruvian and Bolivian soldiers lose to Chilean soldiers.
- February 24 – William Otis patents for the steam shovel
- March 23 – First known use of "OK" oll korrect in the Boston Morning Post
- March 26 – The first Henley Royal Regatta
- April 9 – The world's first commercial electric telegraph line is built, next to the Great Western Railway line from Paddington station to West Drayton.
- April 19 – The Treaty of London makes the kingdom of Belgium
- June 22 – Louis Daguerre receives patent for his Daguerrotype camera. By September a company sells copies of the camera for 400 French Francs.
- July 1 – Slaves fight their masters on the Amistad
- November 11 – The Virginia Military Institute starts in Lexington, Virginia, USA
- November 17 – Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio opens in Milan.
Undated
- Abd-ul-Mejid becomes emperor of the Ottoman Empire.
- Mississippi passes the first state law in the U.S. letting women own property.
- The first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri is found by Thomas Henderson.
- Excavation on Copan begins
- Half of the Limburg province of Belgium was added to the Netherlands, making a Belgian Limburg and Dutch Limburg.
- Abd al-Kader makes a jihad against the French.
Births
- January 19 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (died 1906)
- February 11 – Josiah Willard Gibbs American physicist and chemist (died 1903)
- February 22 – Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor and publisher (died 1906)
- March 9 – Phoebe Knapp, American hymnwriter (died 1908)
- March 21 – Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer (died 1881)
- April 12 – Nikolai Przhevalsky, Russian explorer (died 1888)
- July 8 – John Davison Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist (died 1937)
- July 17 – Ephraim Shay, Inventor (died 1916, see Shay locomotive)
- December 5 – George Armstrong Custer, American cavalry officer (died 1876)
Deaths
- April 1 – Benjamin Pierce, U.S. politician (born 1757)
- April 2 – Hezekiah Niles, American editor and publisher (born 1777)
- April 11 – John Galt, Scottish novelist (born 1779)
- May 17 – Archibald Alison, Scottish writer (born 1757)
- August 10 – John St Aubyn, British fossil collector (born 1758)
- August 22 – Benjamin Lundy, American abolitionist (born 1789)
- August 28 – William Smith, English geologist and cartographer (born 1769)
- November 15 – William Murdoch, Scottish inventor (born 1754)
- December 3 – Frederick VI, King of Denmark, ex-King of Norway (born 1768)