Major Events
- Jan 9 Louis Daguerre demonstrates his 'daguerreotype' photographic process to the French Academy of Science
- Jan 10 First tea from leaves of indigenous plants of Assam, India, arrives in the United Kingdom [date approximate] [1]
- Aug 19 Louis Daguerre's daguerreotype photographic process with complete working instructions is published "free to the world" in Paris as a gift to the world from the French government
- Sep 5 The First Opium War begins in China
- Nov 25 Cyclone slams south eastern India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying city of Coringa. Storm waves sweep inland, destroying 20,000 ships and killing an estimated 300,000 people.
- More 1839 Events
1839 in Sport
- Feb 26 1st Grand National steeplechase, Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool: Jem Mason wins aboard 5/1 favourite Lottery
Did You Know?
Slaves aboard a Spanish schooner La Amistad revolt to secure their freedom while being transported from one Cuban port to another
Paul Cézanne
Modest Mussorgsky
John Ballance
John D. Rockefeller
George Armstrong CusterMore People Born in 1839
Mahmud IIMore 1839 Deaths
Articles About 1839
First Photograph of a Person
In the bottom left corner a man can be seen having his shoes shined on the Boulevard du Temple in ParisJanuary 9
Bulls Finally Spared 700 Years of Cruelty
The dangerous and despicably cruel “sport” of bull-running came to an end on this day in an English market town. It had been going on for 700 years.November 13
Famous Weddings in 1839
- Jan 29 English naturalist and "On the Origin of Species" author Charles Darwin (42) marries Emma Wedgwood (41)
- Jun 18 Dutch prince Willem Alexander (later William III) weds cousin Princess Sophia
- Jul 25 British PM William Gladstone (29) weds Catherine Glynne (27) in England
Charles Dickens
Martin Van Buren
William Lamb