Calendar year
June 3 : China's Imperial CommissionerLin Zexu begins month-long program of destroyingopium seized from British traders, triggering the First Opium War1839 by topic Humanities By country Other topics Lists of leaders Birth and death categories Establishments and disestablishments categories Works category
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1839 .
1839 (MDCCCXXXIX ) was acommon year starting on Tuesday of theGregorian calendar and acommon year starting on Sunday of theJulian calendar , the 1839th year of theCommon Era (CE) andAnno Domini 2nd millennium , the 39th year of the19th century , and the 10th and last year of the1830s decade. As of the start of 1839, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
Calendar year
April 9 – The world'sfirst commercial electric telegraph line comes into operation, alongside theGreat Western Railway line in England, fromLondon Paddington station toWest Drayton .April 19 – TheTreaty of London establishesBelgium as akingdom , with its independence and neutrality guaranteed by thegreat powers of Europe. Half of theLimburg province ofBelgium is added to theNetherlands , giving rise to aBelgian Limburg andDutch Limburg (the latter being joined (fromSeptember 5 ) to theGerman Confederation ).April 24 –Boston University is established as the Newbury Biblical Institute in Vermont.May 7 –11 – TheBedchamber Crisis in the United Kingdom: Following the announcement by Prime MinisterLord Melbourne that he intends to resign,[ 1] Robert Peel asks (for political reasons) thatQueen 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.[ 2] 13 May – FirstRebecca Riots targeted againstturnpikes in Wales, atEfailwen inCarmarthenshire .[ 3] May 12 – Socialist activistLouis Auguste Blanqui and theSociété des Saisons begin an uprising against the government ofFrance . The insurrection is suppressed, but not before 50 people are killed and 190 wounded. Blanqui is imprisoned until1848 .[ 4] May 22 – Former British statesmanLord Durham , as President of theNew Zealand Company , formally asks the British government for permission to colonizeNew Zealand , and to establish a colonial government under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.[ 5] May 23 – Turkish troops cross theEuphrates River and invade Syria, but are defeated in battle in June.[ 6] June 3 –Destruction of opium at Humen begins,casus belli First Opium War againstQing dynasty China. A rapid rise in the sale of opium in China to over 40,000 chests (~56,000 kilograms (123,000 lb) per annum)[ 7] [ 8] Lin Zexu toGuangzhou to deal with thegrowing problem of opium addiction .June 22 –Louis Daguerre receives a patent for his camera (commercially available by September at the price of 400 francs).June 27 – Theemperor of theSikh Empire ,Maharaja Ranjit Singh , dies at 58.[ 9] Lithograph depicting theJuly 23 storming of the fortress during theBattle of Ghazni . October 3 – A railway betweenNaples andPortici (7.4 km (4.6 mi)) in theKingdom of the Two Sicilies is inaugurated byKing Ferdinand II ofBourbon as the first line in theItalian Peninsula .October 15 –Emir Abdelkader declares ajihad against theFrench .November 4 –Newport Rising : Between 5,000 and 10,000Chartist sympathisers march onNewport, Monmouthshire , to liberate Chartist prisoners; around 22 are killed when troops fire on the crowd.[ 10] November 11 – TheVirginia Military Institute is founded inLexington, Virginia .November 17 –Giuseppe Verdi 's first opera,Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio Milan .November 25 – A disastrouscyclone hits India with terrible winds and a giant 40-footstorm surge , wiping out the port city ofCoringa ; 300,000 people die.November 27 – TheAmerican Statistical Association is founded inBoston ,Massachusetts .December 6 – TheWhig Party (United States) , at its first evernational convention , inHarrisburg, Pennsylvania , nominates former U.S. Army GeneralWilliam Henry Harrison to be its candidate for President of the United States in the1840 election. Although SenatorHenry 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. SenatorJohn Tyler is unanimously nominated for vice president.[ 11] December 26 –Heinola in the Grand Duchy of Finland is grantedtown rights by CzarNicholas I .[ 12] [ 13] TheUnited Kingdom , backed by theRussian Empire and theAustrian Empire , compelsJuly Monarchy France to abandonMuhammad Ali of Egypt , and forces him to returnSyria andArabia to theOttoman Empire . Khalid bin Saud Al Suad usurps the throne fromFaisal 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 inBahrain , but Khalid the pretender demands his surrender and the surrender of the fort atDammam ; then under the control of the Al Khalifa of Bahrain. 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. A quarrel breaks out between the Chief ofAbu 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. Tanzimat Ottoman Empire .EmperorMinh Mạng renamesViệt Nam to Đại Nam. In theUnited States , the first state law permitting women to own property is passed inJackson, Mississippi . Michael Faraday publishesExperimental Researches in Electricity ,[ 14] electricity .Charles Goodyear vulcanizes rubber .Valley Falls Company , a predecessor ofBerkshire Hathaway , aconglomerate andholdings company in the United States, is founded inRhode Island .[citation needed Chattanooga, Tennessee , is incorporated as a town.Galveston, Texas , is incorporated.Episcopal High School (Alexandria, Virginia) is founded inAlexandria, Virginia , as the first high school in Virginia.Archaeological excavation at the Mayan site ofCopán begins.[citation needed Paul Cézanne [dubious discuss Marianne Hainisch Josiah Willard Gibbs Frederic W. Tilton January 2 –Gustave Trouvé , French electrical engineer, inventor (d.1902 )January 8 –William A. Clark , American politician, entrepreneur (d.1925 )January 9 –John Knowles Paine , American composer (d.1906 )January 19 –Paul Cézanne , French painter (d.1906 )[ 15] January 26 –Rachel Lloyd , American chemist (d.1900 )February 6 –Caroline Testman , Danish women's rights activist (d.1919 )February 11 February 15 –Rayko Zhinzifov , Bulgarian poet and translator (d.1877 )[ 16] February 18 –Pascual Cervera y Topete , Spanish admiral (d.1909 )February 22 –Francis Pharcellus Church , American editor, publisher (d.1906 )March 3 –Jamsetji Tata , Indian Parsi businessman (d.1904 )March 8 –Josephine Cochrane , American inventor of the first commercially successful dishwasher (d.1913 )March 15 –Daniel Ridgway Knight , American artist (d.1924 )March 16 March 21 –Modest Mussorgsky , Russian composer (d.1881 )March 23 –Julius von Hann , Austrian meteorologist (The father of modern meteorology ) (d.1921 )March 25 March 27 –John Ballance , 14thPremier of New Zealand (d.1893 )April 3 –Karl, Freiherr von Prel , German philosopher (d.1899 )April 8 –Belle L. Pettigrew , American teacher, missionary (d.1912 )April 12 –Nikolay Przhevalsky , Russian explorer (d.1888 )April 16 –Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì , 12th Prime Minister of Italy (d.1908 )April 23 –Tom Allen , English boxer (d.1903 )April 30 May 21 –Mary of the Passion , FrenchRoman Catholic religious sister, missionary, and blessed (d.1904 )June 1 –Abdyl Frashëri , Albanian politician (d.1892 )June 10 –Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg , Prime Minister of Denmark (d.1912 )June 17 –Arthur Tooth ,Anglican clergyman prosecuted forRitualist practices in the1870s (d.1931 )June 21 –Machado de Assis , Brazilian author (d.1908 )John D. Rockefeller Alfred Sisley July –Baba Jaimal Singh , Founder of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (d.1903 )July 6 –Édouard Pottier , French admiral (d.1903 )July 8 –John D. Rockefeller , American industrialist, philanthropist (d.1937 )July 17 –Ephraim Shay , American inventor of theShay locomotive (d.1916 )July 18 –James Surtees Phillpotts , English author (d.1930 )July 22 –Jacob Hägg , Swedish admiral and painter (d.1931 )July 28 –Isabelle Gatti de Gamond , Italo-Belgian educationalist, feminist, and politician (d.1905 )July 31 –Ignacio Andrade , 37th President of Venezuela (d.1925 )August 4 –Walter Pater , English essayist, critic (d.1894 )August 8 –Nelson A. Miles , American general (d.1925 )August 15 –Antonín Petrof , Czech piano maker (d.1915 )September 2 –Henry George , American writer, politician, and political economist (d.1897 )September 7 –Patricio Montojo y Pasarón , Spanish admiral (d.1917 )September 8 –Gregorio Luperón , Dominican soldier, activist and general (d.1897 )September 9 –Maria Swanenburg , Dutch serial killer (d.1915 )September 10 –Charles Sanders Peirce , American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist (d.1914 )September 12 –Mary H. Graves , American minister, literary editor, writer (d.1908 )October 2 –Oscar de Négrier , French general (d.1913 )October 9 October 11 –Jeanne Merkus , Dutch deaconess, guerilla soldier, and political activist (d.1897 )October 30 –Alfred Sisley , French Impressionist landscape painter (d.1899 )November 1 –Pál Luthár , Slovene writer in Hungary (d.1919 )November 1 –Ahmed Muhtar Pasha , Ottoman field marshal (d.1919 )November 12 –Frank Furness , American architect, soldier (d.1912 )November 18 –Emil Škoda , Czech engineer, industrialist (d.1900 )November 20 –Christian Wilberg , German painter (d.1882 )November 30 –Catherine Amanda Coburn , American journalist, newspaper editor (d.1913 )December 5 –George Armstrong Custer , American cavalry officer (d.1876 )December 7 –Sir Redvers Buller , British general, Victoria Cross recipient (d.1908 )December 21 –Sherman Conant , American soldier and politician (d.1890 )William Farquhar January 6 –Princess Marie of Orléans , French princess, artist, and duchess (b.1813 )January 7 –Jacquette Löwenhielm , Swedish noble,lady-in-waiting , andmistress ofOscar I of Sweden (b.1797 )January 12 January 14 –John Wesley Jarvis , American painter (b.1780 /1781 )January 24 –Michele Cachia , Maltese architect, military engineer (b.1760 )January 28 –William Beechey , British portraitist (b.1753 )February 7 –Karl August Nicander , Swedish poet (b.1799 )February 8 –William Williams , English politician (b.1774 )February 10 –Pedro Romero , Spanishtorero (b.1754 )February 12 –Moulvi Syed Qudratullah , Bengali judge (b.1750 )[ 19] February 26 –Sybil Ludington , alleged heroine during theAmerican Revolutionary War (b.1761 )March 2 –Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte , niece of EmperorNapoleon (b.1802 )March 19 –Rachel Plummer , American writer, daughter ofJames W. Parker , and the cousin ofQuanah Parker (b.1819 )March 20 –Caspar Voght , German businessman (b.1752 )March 28 –Giuseppe Siboni , Italian operatictenor ,opera director ,choir conductor , andvoice teacher (b.1780 )April 1 –Benjamin Pierce , American politician (b.1757 )April 2 –Hezekiah Niles , American editor, publisher (b.1777 )April 4 – QueenKaahumanu II of HawaiiApril 5 –John Tipton , American politician (b.1786 )April 8 –Du Pré Alexander , Irish peer, landlord and colonial administrator (b.1777 )April 11 –John Galt ,Scottish novelist (b.1779 )April 15 –Christoph August Gabler , German classical composer (b. 1767)April 22 May 3 May 6 –John Batman , Australiangrazier , entrepreneur, and explorer (b.1801 )May 11 May 16 –Edward Clive , British politician who sat in theHouse of Commons (b.1754 )May 17 –Archibald Alison , Scottish author (b.1757 )May 24 –Anna Pak Agi ,Korean Martyr (b.1782 )May 27 –Barbara Yi ,Korean Martyr (b.1825 )June 10 –Jacob Munch , Norwegian military officer and painter (b. 1776)June 19 –Joseph Paelinck , painter from theSouthern Netherlands (b.1781 )June 23 –Lady Hester Stanhope , English archaeologist (b.1776 )June 27 June 30 –Johan Olof Wallin , Swedish minister,orator , poet and laterArchbishop (b.1779 )Friedrich Mohs July 1 –Mahmud II , Ottoman sultan (b.1785 )July 5 –Lady Flora Hastings , British aristocrat andlady-in-waiting (b.1806 )July 8 –Fernando Sor , Spanish guitarist, composer (b.1778 )July 15 –Winthrop Mackworth Praed , English politician, poet (b.1802 )July 16 –Chief Bowles , Cherokee leader (b. ~1756 )July 19 –Maurice de Guérin , French poet (b.1810 )July 20 –John Baptist Yi Kwang-nyol ,Korean Martyr (b. c.1800 )July 22 –John Birdsall , American lawyer and politician (b.1802 )July 24 –Richard Spencer , captain of theRoyal Navy (b.1779 )July 26 –Mervyn Archdall , Irish officer in the British Army andMember of Parliament forCounty Fermanagh (b.1763 )August 3 –Dorothea von Schlegel , German novelist and translator (b.1764 )August 7 –Erasme Louis Surlet de Chokier , politician and firstregent of Belgium (b.1769 )August 10 –Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet , English fossil collector (b.1758 )August 18 –Bendix Frantz Ludwig Schow , member of the nobility ofSchleswig-Holstein (b.1778 )August 22 –Benjamin Lundy , American abolitionist (b.1789 )August 28 –William Smith , English geologist, cartographer (b.1769 )September 4 –Hermann Olshausen , Germantheologian (b.1796 )September 10 –James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale , Scottish politician (b.1759 )September 18 –Jeanne-Charlotte Allamand ,Swiss -born Canadian pioneer, educator and artist (b.1760 )September 21 –Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert , French Roman Catholic saint (b.1796 )September 22 –Paul Chong Hasang ,Korean Roman Catholic saint and martyr (b.1794 /1795 )September 28 –William Dunlap , producer, playwright, actor, and historian (b.1766 )September 29 –Friedrich Mohs , German geologist, mineralogist (b.1773 )October 2 –Mary Ann Rundall , British educational writerOctober 6 –William Light , British Army colonel, first Surveyor-General ofSouth Australia (b.1786 )October 8 –Ee-mat-la ,Seminole chief during theSecond Seminole War (b.1739 )October 9 –James Oatley ,British -borncolonial Australian watch and clock maker (b. 1769)October 11 –Leonor de Almeida Portugal, 4th Marquise of Alorna , Portuguese painter, poet (b.1750 )October 24 –William Charles Ellis , pioneer in treatment of mental illness (b.1780 )October 27 –Frederik Hauch , Danish government official (b.1754 )October 28 –Makea Pori Ariki , sovereign of theCook Islands and one of threeHigh Chiefs ofTe Au O Tonga (b.October 31 –Peter Yu Tae-cholm ,Korean Martyr (b.1826 )November 15 –William Murdoch , Scottish inventor (b.1754 )November 18 –Hans Blackwood , Irish peer and politician (b.1758 )November 22 –Vénérande Robichaud , Canadian businesswoman (b.1753 )December 2 –Andreas Landmark , Norwegian politician and civil servant (b.1769 )December 3 –Frederick VI , King of Denmark, ex-King of Norway (b.1768 )December 4 –John Leamy , Irish–American merchant (b.1757 )December 15 –Ignaz Aurelius Fessler , Hungarian court councillor, minister to Alexander I (b.1756 )December 21 –Andrew Dũng-Lạc , VietnameseRoman Catholic priest, saint, andmartyr (b.1795 )December 26 –Laurent Jean François Truguet , French admiral (b.1752 )Thomas Plunket , Irish soldier (b.1785 )Walter Jones , Irish politician (b.1754 )Pierre le Pelley III ,Seigneur of Sark from 1820 to 1839 (b.1799 )George Scholey , banker who served asLord Mayor of London Otto Christian von Rohr ,Prussian army officer during theNapoleonic Wars John D'Arcy , founder of the town ofClifden (b.1785 )Jean-François Allard , French soldier and adventurer (b.1785 )Edmund Lodge ,English officer of arms and a writer onheraldic subjects and short biographies (b.1756 )Sankara Varman ,astronomer -mathematician (b.1774 )William Francklin , Englishorientalist and army officer (b.1763 )Mattheus Ignatius van Bree , Belgian painter (b.1773 )^ Mark Hovell,The Chartist Movement (Manchester University Press, 1966) p143. ^ Robert Peel (13 May 1839)."Ministerial Explanations" .Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) ^ Davies, John; Jenkins, Nigel (2008).The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales . Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 730.ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6 ^ Jill Harsin,Barricades: The War of the Streets in Revolutionary Paris, 1830-1848 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) p124. ^ T. Lindsay Buick,The French at Akaroa: An Adventure in Colonization (Cambridge University Press, 1928)(reprinted 2011) p294 ^ Charles Alan Fyffe,A History of Modern Europe , Volume 2 (Cassell & Company, 1886) p453 ^ Greenberg, Michael (1969).British Trade and the Opening of China 1800-1841 (preview) . p. 113.expansion in imports from 16,550 chests in the season 1831-2 to over 30,000 in 1835-6, and 40,000 in 1838-9 ^ Ebrey, Patricia Buckley , ed. (2010). "Chapter 9: Manchus and Imperialism: The Qing Dynasty 1644–1900".The Cambridge Illustrated History of China (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 236.ISBN 978-0-521-19620-8 ^ "The Death of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh: The End of an Era" .Timeless Tales India . Retrieved2025-07-17 .^ "John Lovell and the People's Charter" .The struggle for democracy . Kew:The National Archives . 2003.Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved2019-05-11 .^ Haynes, Stan M. (2012).The First American Political Conventions: Transforming Presidential Nominations, 1832-1872 . McFarland. p. 54. ^ "Arkistonmuodostaja: Heinolan maistraatti" (in Finnish).The National Archives of Finland . RetrievedSeptember 3, 2021 .^ "Heinolan historia" (in Finnish). Town of Heinola. RetrievedSeptember 3, 2021 .^ Experimental Researches in Electricity . Retrieved2025-04-01 .^ "Paul Cézanne | French artist | Britannica" .www.britannica.com . Retrieved14 May 2023 .^ Igor I. Kaliganov, ed. (2020).Materials for the virtual Museum of Slavic Cultures. Issue II ISBN 978-5-7576-0440-4 ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1901" .NobelPrize.org . Retrieved4 September 2021 .^ Byrne, James Patrick; Coleman, Philip; King, Jason Francis, eds. (2008).Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History : a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia ISBN 978-1-85109-614-5 ^ মৌলভী সৈয়দ কুদরত উল্লাহ'র ১৮০ তম মৃত্যুবার্ষিকী আজ MKantho (in Bengali). 12 February 2019. Archived fromthe original on February 16, 2019. RetrievedJanuary 10, 2022 .^ Gardner, Alexander. "XII".Memoirs Of Alexander Gardner - Colonel of Artillery in the Service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh 
