1839

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century 19th century 20th century
Decades:	1810s 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s
Years:	1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842

1839 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1839 MDCCCXXXIX
Ab urbe condita	2592
Armenian calendar	1288 ԹՎ ՌՄՁԸ
Assyrian calendar	6589
Balinese saka calendar	1760–1761
Bengali calendar	1246
Berber calendar	2789
British Regnal year	2 Vict. 1 – 3 Vict. 1
Buddhist calendar	2383
Burmese calendar	1201
Byzantine calendar	7347–7348
Chinese calendar	戊戌年 (Earth Dog) 4536 or 4329     — to — 己亥年 (Earth Pig) 4537 or 4330
Coptic calendar	1555–1556
Discordian calendar	3005
Ethiopian calendar	1831–1832
Hebrew calendar	5599–5600
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1895–1896
- Shaka Samvat	1760–1761
- Kali Yuga	4939–4940
Holocene calendar	11839
Igbo calendar	839–840
Iranian calendar	1217–1218
Islamic calendar	1254–1255
Japanese calendar	Tenpō 10 (天保１０年)
Javanese calendar	1766–1767
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 12 days
Korean calendar	4172
Minguo calendar	73 before ROC 民前73年
Nanakshahi calendar	371
Thai solar calendar	2381–2382
Tibetan calendar	阳土狗年 (male Earth-Dog) 1965 or 1584 or 812     — to — 阴土猪年 (female Earth-Pig) 1966 or 1585 or 813

1839 (MDCCCXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1839th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 839th year of the 2nd millennium, the 39th year of the 19th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1830s 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.

Events

January–March

• January – The first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri is published by Thomas Henderson.
• January 2 – The first photograph of the Moon is taken, by French photographer Louis Daguerre.
• January 6 – Night of the Big Wind: Ireland is struck by the most damaging cyclone in 300 years.
• January 9 – The French Academy of Sciences announces the daguerreotype photography process.
• January 19 – British forces capture Aden.
• January 20 – Battle of Yungay: Chile defeats the Peru–Bolivian Confederation, leading to the restoration of an independent Peru.
• January 29 – English naturalist Charles Darwin marries his cousin Emma Wedgwood.
• February 11 – The University of Missouri is established, becoming the first public university west of the Mississippi River.
• February 24 – William Otis receives a patent for the steam shovel.
• March 5 – Longwood University is founded in Farmville, Virginia.
• March 7 – Baltimore City College, the third public high school in the United States, is established in Baltimore, Maryland.
• March 9 – The Anti-Corn Law League is founded in Manchester, England.
• March 23 – The Boston Morning Post first records the use of "O.K." (oll korrect).
• March 26 – The first Henley Royal Regatta is held on the River Thames, in England.

April–June

• April 9 – The world's first commercial electric telegraph line comes into operation, alongside the Great Western Railway line in England, from London Paddington station to West Drayton.
• April 19 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom, with its independence and neutrality guaranteed by the great powers of Europe. Half of the Limburg province of Belgium is added to the Netherlands, giving rise to a Belgian Limburg and Dutch Limburg (the latter being joined (from September 5) to the German Confederation).
• April 24 – Boston University is established as the Newbury Biblical Institute in Vermont.
• May 7 – The Bedchamber Crisis begins in the United Kingdom, after Prime Minister Lord Melbourne announces his resignation. Queen Victoria asks several MPs to form a new government, and they insist on the condition that the Queen dismiss several of her personal attendants, the ladies of the bedchamber, for political reasons.
• May 12 – Socialist activist Louis Auguste Blanqui and the Société des Saisons begin an uprising against the government of France. The insurrection is suppressed, but not before 50 people are killed and 190 wounded. Blanqui is imprisoned until 1848.
• May 22 – Former British statesman Lord Durham, as President of the New Zealand Company, formally asks the British government for permission to colonize New Zealand, and to establish a colonial government under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.
• May 23 – Turkish troops cross the Euphrates River and invade Syria, but are defeated in battle in June.
• June 3 – Destruction of opium at Humen begins, casus belli for Britain to open the 3-year First Opium War against Qing 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 results. has caused the Chinese government to dispatch scholar-official Lin Zexu to Guangzhou to deal with the growing problem of opium addiction.
• June 22 – Louis Daguerre receives a patent for his camera (commercially available by September at the price of 400 francs).

July–September

• July 1
  • Slaves aboard the Amistad rebel, and capture the ship.
  • Abdülmecid I (1839–1861) succeeds Mahmud II (1808–1839) as Ottoman Emperor.
• July 23 – First Anglo-Afghan War – Battle of Ghazni: British forces capture the fortress city of Ghazni, Afghanistan.
• August 8 – The Fraternity of Beta Theta Pi is founded by John Reily Knox at Miami University.
• August 19 – The French government gives Louis Daguerre a pension, and gives the daguerreotype "for the whole world".
• August 31 – The First Carlist War (Spain) ends with the Convenio de Vergara, also known as the Abrazo de Vergara ("the embrace in Vergara"; Bergara in Basque), between liberal general Baldomero Espartero, Count of Luchana and Carlist General Rafael Maroto.
• September 4 – Battle of Kowloon: British vessels open fire on Chinese war junks enforcing a food sales embargo on the British community in China in the first armed conflict of the First Opium War.
• September 9 – In the Great Fire of Mobile, Alabama, hundreds of buildings are burned.

October–December

• October 3 – In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a railway between Naples and Portici (7.4 km (4.6 mi) length) is inaugurated by King Ferdinand II of Bourbon, as the first railway in the Italian Peninsula.
• October 15 – Abdelkader El Djezairi declares a jihad against the French.
• November 4 – The Newport Rising is the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority, in mainland Britain.
• November 11 – The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.
• November 17 – Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, opens in Milan.
• November 25 – A disastrous cyclone slams India with terrible winds and a giant 40-foot storm surge, wiping out the port city of Coringa; 300,000 people die.
• November 27 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the American Statistical Association is founded.
• December 6 – In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at its first ever national convention, the Whig Party nominates former U.S. Army General William Henry Harrison, to be its candidate for President of the United States in the 1840 election. Although Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky had received 103 of the 128 necessary votes on the first ballot, he receives only 90 on the final vote, while Harrison gets 148. Former U.S. Senator John Tyler is unanimously nominated for Vice President.

Date unknown

• In the United States, the first state law permitting women to own property is passed in Jackson, Mississippi.
• The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, backed by the Russian Empire and the Austrian Empire, compels July Monarchy France to abandon Muhammad Ali of Egypt, and forces him to return Syria and Arabia to the Ottoman Empire.
• Tanzimat starts in the Ottoman Empire.
• Emperor Minh Mạng renames Việt Nam to Đại Nam.
• Michael Faraday publishes "Experimental Researches in Electricity", clarifying the true nature of electricity.
• Charles Goodyear vulcanizes rubber.
• An archaeological excavation on Copán begins.

Births

January–June

Paul Cézanne

Marianne Hainisch

Josiah Willard Gibbs

• January 2 – Gustave Trouvé, French electrical engineer, inventor (d. 1902)
• January 6 – Arthur Gore, 5th Earl of Arran, Irish peer and diplomat (d. 1901)
• January 8 – William Andrews Clark, American politician, entrepreneur (d. 1925)
• January 9 – John Knowles Paine, first well-known American-born composer of large-scale orchestral music (d. 1906)
• January 19 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (d. 1906)
• January 26 – Rachel Lloyd, American chemist (d. 1900)
• February 6 – Caroline Testman, Danish women's rights activist (d. 1919)
• February 11
  • Josiah Willard Gibbs, American physicist, chemist (d. 1903)
  • Almon Strowger, American telecommunications engineer (d. 1902)
• 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)
  • James Craft, American chemist (d. 1917)
• March 9 – Phoebe Knapp, American hymn writer (d. 1908)
• March 15 – Daniel Ridgway Knight, American artist (d. 1924)
• March 16
  • Sully Prudhomme, French poet, critic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)
  • John Butler Yeats, Irish artist (d. 1922)
• March 21 – Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer (d. 1881)
• March 23 – Julius von Hann, Austrian meteorologist (The father of modern meteorology) (d. 1921)
• March 25
  • Carlo Pellegrini, Italian caricaturist (d. 1889)
  • Marianne Hainisch, founder, leader of the Austrian women's movement (d. 1936)
• March 27 – John Ballance, 14th Premier 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, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1908)
• April 30
  • Floriano Peixoto, Brazilian president (d. 1895)
  • Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria, (d. 1892)
  • Yoshitoshi, Japanese artist (d. 1892)
• May 1 – Adolf Guyer-Zeller, Swiss entrepreneur (d. 1899)
• May 21
  • Nils Christoffer Dunér, Swedish astronomer (d. 1914)
  • Mary of the Passion, French Roman 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 for Ritualist practices in the 1870s (d. 1931)
• June 21 – Machado de Assis, Brazilian author (d. 1908)

July–December

John D. Rockefeller

Alfred Sisley

• July 6 – Édouard Pottier, French admiral (d. 1903)
• July 8 – John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist, philanthropist (d. 1937)
• July 9 – Enrico Cruciani Alibrandi, Italian politician (d. 1921)
• July 17 – Ephraim Shay, American inventor of the Shay locomotive (d. 1916)
• July 18 – James Surtees Phillpotts, English author (d. 1930)
• 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, Spanish admiral (d. 1917)
• September 10 – Charles Sanders Peirce, American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist (d. 1914)
• October 2 – Oscar de Négrier, French general (d. 1913)
• October 9
  • Georges Leclanché, French electrical engineer, inventor (d. 1882)
  • Winfield Scott Schley, American admiral (d. 1911)
• October 30 – Alfred Sisley, French Impressionist landscape painter (d. 1899)
• November 1 – Pál Luthár, Slovene writer in Hungary (d. 1919)
• November 12 – Frank Furness, American architect, soldier (d. 1912)
• November 18
  • August Kundt, German physicist (d. 1894)
  • Emil Škoda, Czech engineer, industrialist (d. 1900)
• November 20 – Christian Wilberg, German painter (d. 1882)
• December 5 – George Armstrong Custer, American cavalry officer (d. 1876)
• December 7 – Redvers Buller, British general, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1908)
• December 12 – Caroline Ingalls (b. Caroline Lake Quiner), American pioneer, mother of author Laura Ingalls Wilder (d. 1924)
• December 23 – János Murkovics, Slovene writer, teacher in Hungary (d. 1917)

Deaths

January–June

William Farquhar

• January 24 – Michele Cachia, Maltese architect, military engineer (b. 1760)
• February 7 – Karl August Nicander, Swedish poet (b. 1799)
• February 10 – Pedro Romero, Spanish torero (b. 1754)
• March 2 – Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte, niece of Napoleon I of France (b. 1802)
• April 1 – Benjamin Pierce, American politician (b. 1757)
• April 2 – Hezekiah Niles, American editor, publisher (b. 1777)
• April 4 – Queen Kaahumanu II of Hawaii
• April 11 – John Galt, Scottish novelist (b. 1779)
• April 22 – Denis Davydov, Russian general, poet (b. 1784)
• May 11
  • Thomas Cooper, American political philosopher (b. 1759)
  • William Farquhar, First British Resident and Commandant of colonial Singapore (b. 1774)
• May 17 – Archibald Alison, Scottish author (b. 1757)
• June 23 – Lady Hester Stanhope, English archaeologist (b. 1776)
• June 27 – Ranjit Singh, Maharaja of The Punjab (Sikh Empire) (b. 1780)

July–December

Friedrich Mohs

• July 1 – Mahmud II, Ottoman sultan (b. 1785)
• 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)
• August 10 – Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet, English fossil collector (b. 1758)
• August 22 – Benjamin Lundy, American abolitionist (b. 1789)
• August 28 – William Smith, English geologist, cartographer (b. 1769)
• September 10 – James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale, Scottish politician (b. 1759)
• September 29 – Friedrich Mohs, German geologist, mineralogist (b. 1773)
• October 6 – William Light, British Army colonel, first Surveyor-General of South Australia (b. 1786)
• October 11 – Leonor de Almeida Portugal, 4th Marquise of Alorna, Portuguese painter, poet (b. 1750)
• November 15 – William Murdoch, Scottish inventor (b. 1754)
• 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)