1840
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- January 3 - One of the predecessor papers to the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia, The Port Phillip Herald, is founded by George Cavanaugh.
- January 10 - Uniform penny postage introduced in the UK.
- January 19 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
- January 20 - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.
- January 22 - British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding date of Wellington.
- February 6 - Treaty of Waitangi, document granting British sovereignty in New Zealand, is signed.
- February 10 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha.
- February 11 - Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Regiment premieres in Paris.
- March 1 - William Hobson, first Governor of New Zealand, suffers a stroke.
- March 1 - Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France.
- May 1 - Britain issues the Penny Black, world's first postage stamp.
- May 6 - The Penny Black, world's first postage stamp becomes valid for the pre-payment of postage.
- July 4 - The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic passenger cruise.
- July 15 – Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia sign a London Treaty with the Sublime Porte, ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
- September 10 - Ottoman and British troops bombard Beirut and land troops on the coast to pressure Egyptian Muhammad Ali to retreat from the country.
- October 7 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
- October 14 – Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta.
- November - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren in the U.S. presidential election.
Births
- January 3 - Father Damien, missionary priest in Hawai'i (d. 1888)
- February 4 - Hiram Stevens Maxim, inventor of Maxim Gun (d. 1916)
- February 5 - John Boyd Dunlop, inventor (d. 1921)
- February 11 - Samuel Dana Greene, Lieutenant Commander (Union Navy)
- February 21 - Murad V, future Ottoman sultan (d. 1904)
- February 22 - August Bebel, politician (d. 1913)
- February 23 - Carl Menger, economist (d. 1921)
- February 29 - John Philip Holland, developer of the first submarine (d. 1914)
- March 28 - Emin Pasha, German doctor, naturalist to Africa (d. 1892)
- April 2 - Emile Zola, writer (d. 1902)
- April 22 - Odilon Redon, painter (d. 1916)
- April 27 - Edward Whymper, explorer - first ascent of the Matterhorn (1865) (d. 1911)
- May 7 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer (d. 1893)
- June 2 - Thomas Hardy, novelist (d. 1928)
- August 4 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, sexologist
- November 12 - Auguste Rodin, sculptor
- November 14 - Claude Monet, painter
- November 21 - Victoria, Princess Royal, "Vicky," eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
- November 29 - Rhoda Broughton (d. 1920)
Deaths
