Today in History for Year 1839

Months in Year 1839: January February March April May June July August September October November December

Historical Events

Events 1 - 52 of 52

Jan 2nd - 1st photo of the Moon (French photographer Louis Daguerre)
Jan 6th - 2 day storm off Irish & English coast immortalized as "Big Wind"
Jan 9th - Daguerrotype photo process announced at French Academy of Science
Jan 9th - Thomas Henderson measures 1st stellar parallax (Alpha Centauri)
Jan 10th - Tea from India 1st arrives in UK
Jan 11th - Earthquake at Martinique destroys half of Port Royal - 700 die
Jan 12th - Anthracite coal 1st used to smelt iron, Mauch Chunk, Penn
Jan 19th - Aden conquered by British East India Company
Jan 20th - In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance.
Jan 24th - Charles Darwin elected member of Royal Society
Feb 7th - Henry Clay declares in Senate "I had rather be right than president"
Feb 12th - Aroostock War: Boundary dispute between Maine & New Brunswick
Feb 18th - Detroit Boat Club forms (& still exists)
Feb 20th - Congress prohibits dueling in District of Columbia
Feb 24th - Steam shovel patented by William Otis, Philadelphia
Feb 25th - Seminoles & black allies shipped from Tampa Bay Florida, to West
Feb 26th - Jem Mason on Lottery wins 1st Grand National Steeplechase (Britain)
Mar 9th - Prussian government limits work week for children to 51 hours
Mar 23rd - 1st recorded use of "OK" [oll korrect] (Boston's Morning Post)
Naturalist Charles Darwin Mar 26th - 1st Henley Royal Regatta
Apr 17th - Guatemala forms republic
Apr 19th - Treaty of London constitutes Belgium an independent kingdom & Luxembourg a Grand Duchy
May 4th - The Cunard Steamship Company Ltd forms San Bonifacio
Jun 7th - Hawaiian Declaration of Rights is signed
Jun 12th - 1st baseball game played in America
Jun 14th - 1st Henley Regatta held
Jun 17th - In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is later established as a result
Jul 1st - Abdul-Medjid succeeds Mahmud II as Sultan of Turkey
Jul 3rd - 1st state normal school in US opens, Lexington, Mass, with 3 students
Jul 27th - Chartist riots break out in Birmingham England
Jul 30th - Slave rebels, take over slaver Amistad
Aug 8th - Beta Theta Pi is founded in Oxford, Ohio.
Aug 19th - Details of Louis Daguerre's 1st practical photographic process are released in Paris
Aug 23rd - British capture Hong Kong from China
Aug 26th - The ship Amistad is captured off Long Island.
Sep 2nd - Salon of Varietes opens in Amsterdam
Sep 5th - The First Opium War begins in China.
Sep 6th - Cherokee Nation forms
Sep 6th - Great fire in NY
Sep 9th - John Herschel takes 1st glass plate photograph
Sep 11th - 1st Canadian track & field meet held (Caer Howell Grounds)
Sep 20th - 1st railroad in Netherland opens (Amsterdam-Haarlem)
Oct 10th - British troops under Gen Charles Napier occupy Beirut
Nov 3rd - 1st opium war - 2 British frigates engage several Chinese junks
Nov 3rd - Palace of Gulhane Turkey, freedom of religion proclaimed
Nov 4th - The Newport Rising is the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain.
Nov 11th - The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.
Nov 13th - 1st US anti-slavery party, Liberty Party, convenes in NY
Composer Giuseppe Verdi Nov 17th - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Oberte Conti Di," premieres in Milan
Nov 25th - A cyclone slams India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying the port city of Coringa (never to be entirely rebuilt again). The storm wave sweeps inland, taking with it 20,000 ships and thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths result from the disaster.
Nov 27th - American Statistical Association organizes in Boston
Dec 18th - 1st celestial photograph (of Moon) made in US, John Draper, NYC

Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 83 of 83

Jan 4th - Carl Humann, German engineer (d. 1896)
Jan 9th - John Knowles Paine, Portland Maine, composer
Jan 11th - Eugenio Maria de Hostos, Puerto Rico, patriot/scholar
Jan 14th - Emil Bohn, composer
Jan 19th - Bohumil Pazdirek, composer
Jan 19th - Paul Cézanne, French painter (d. 1906)
Jan 25th - Seldon Connor, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1917
Feb 1st - James A Herne, [J Aherne], US playwright (Hearts of Oak)
Feb 7th - Nicolaas G Pierson, Dutch banker/Suriname premier (1897-1901)
Feb 9th - Silas Adams, American lawyer and politician (d. 1896)
Feb 11th - Josiah Willard Gibbs, theoretical physicist/chemist
Feb 20th - Benjamin Waugh, American minister; founder of the NSPCC (d. 1908)
Feb 22nd - Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor and publisher (d. 1906)
Mar 3rd - Jamsetji Tata, Indian industrialist (d. 1904)
Mar 8th - James Mason Crafts, US chemist (Friedel-Crafts-synthesis)
Mar 9th - Felix Huston Robertson, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1928
Mar 9th - Phoebe Knapp, American hymn writer (d. 1908)
Mar 10th - Dudley Buck, Hartford, Ct, organist/church composer
Mar 16th - René F Armand Sully-Prudhomme, France, poet, 1st Nobel winner (1901)
Mar 17th - Josef Rheinberger, Vaduz Liechtenstein, opera composer (Munich Conser)
Mar 18th - Francis Fessenden, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1906
Mar 21st - Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Karevo, Russian composer (Boris Gudunov, Night on Bald Mt) [NS]
Mar 25th - William Bell Wait, US, educated the blind
Mar 31st - Nikolay Przhevalsky, naturalist, explorer of east central Asia (OS)
Apr 5th - Robert Smalls, Beaufort SC, black congressman 1875-87 (Rep-SC)
Apr 5th - Stanislaw Pilinski, composer
Apr 12th - Victorin de Joncieres, composer
Apr 18th - Frantz Jehin-Prume, composer
Apr 18th - Henry Clarence Kendall, New South Wales Australia, poet (Bell Birds)
Apr 20th - Carol I, King of Romania (1881-1914)
Apr 22nd - August W Eichler, German botanist
Apr 26th - Cyrus Hamblin, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1867
May 1st - Chardonnet, inventor (rayon)
May 8th - Francis W Warre-Cornish, English vice-provost of Eton/writer
May 8th - Adolphe-Basile Routhier, French Canadian lyricist (O Canada) (d. 1920)
May 19th - Alice Mary Smith, composer
May 25th - John Eliot, English meteorologist
May 27th - Luigi Capuana, Sicilian author/critic (Roccaverdina)
May 29th - Ned Gregory, cricketer (bro of Dave, father of Syd Played 1st Test)
Jun 3rd - Paul Lindau, German playwright/critic (Der Herr im Hause)
Jun 10th - Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg, Council President of Denmark (d. 1912)
Jun 17th - Fr. Arthur Tooth SSC, Anglican Clergyman prosecuted for ritualist activities (d. 1931)
Jun 18th - William Henry Seward Jr, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1920
Jun 21st - Joaquim M Machado de Assic, Brazil, writer (Epitaph of a small winner)
Jun 21st - Johannes P R Tak, Dutch liberal politician
Jun 21st - John Decatur Barry, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1867
Jun 21st - Machado de Assis, writer
Jun 24th - Gustavus Franklin Swift, founded Swift & Co
Oil Industrialist John D Rockefeller (Jul 8th) Jul 8th - John D Rockefeller, Richford New York, US capitalist/founder (Standard Oil), (d. 1937)
Jul 9th - Carl Baermann, composer
Jul 10th - Adolphus Busch, German-born brewer (d. 1913)
Jul 14th - Edward Sydney Smith, composer
Jul 16th - Philipus J Hoedemaker, Dutch theologist
Jul 17th - Friedrich Gernsheim, composer
Jul 17th - Ephraim Shay, American inventor (d. 1916)
Jul 25th - Francis Garnier, French explorer (d. 1873)
Aug 4th - Walter Pater, London England, writer (Plato & Platoism)
Aug 8th - Nelson Appleton Miles, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1925
Aug 10th - Aleksandr Grigorievich Stoletov, Russian physicist (d. 1896)
Aug 15th - Hugh Archibald Clarke, composer
Aug 17th - Hubert Platt Main, composer
Aug 17th - Thijs [Matthijs] Maris, Dutch painter/etcher
Aug 19th - Oskar Brefeld, German botanist
Aug 24th - Eduard Napravnik, composer
Aug 27th - Emory Upton, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1881
Aug 30th - Gulstan Ropert, French Catholic prelate (d. 1903)
Sep 2nd - Henry George, land reformer/writer (Progress & Poverty)
Sep 10th - Isaac Kauffman Funk, US, publisher (Funk & Wagnalls)
Sep 10th - Charles Peirce, American philosopher (d. 1914)
Sep 25th - Karl A von Zittel, German geologist/paleontologist (Libya)
Sep 25th - [Wilhel]Mina JPR Kruseman, writer/feminist
Sep 28th - Frances E C Willard, NY, founder (Woman's Christian Temperance Union)
Oct 2nd - Hans Thoma, painter
Oct 21st - Georg von Siemens, founder (Deutsche Bank)
Oct 30th - Alfred Sisley, French impressionist painter
Nov 7th - Henry Holmes, composer
Nov 16th - Louis-Honoré Fréchette, French Canadian poet (d. 1908)
Nov 18th - August A Kundt, German physicist (sound vibration, test of Kundt)
Nov 20th - Christian Wilberg, German painter (d. 1882)
Nov 25th - Stanislaw Duniecki, composer
Nov 29th - Ludwig Anzengruber, Austrian playwright (Der Schandfleck)
US Calvary Commander George Armstrong Custer (Dec 5th) Dec 5th - George Armstrong Custer, New Rumley, Ohio, Mjr General (Union volunteers), (d. 1876)
Dec 7th - Redvers H Buller, English general/large landowner: Natal

Famous Weddings

Weddings 1 - 2 of 2

Jan 29th - English Naturalist and author of Origin of the Species Charles Darwin marries Emma Wedgwood
Jun 18th - Dutch prince Willem Alexander (later William III) weds cousin Princess Sophia

Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 45 of 45

Jan 12th - Joseph A Koch, Aust painter/cartoonist/etcher/illustrator, dies at 70
Jan 19th - Georg Abraham Schneider, composer, dies at 38
Feb 1st - Giuseppe Valadier, Italian architect/archaeologist, dies at 76
Feb 7th - Karl August Nicander, Swedish poet (b. 1799)
Feb 15th - Chevalier de Lorimier, Quebec notary (b. 1803)
Mar 4th - Ignace Antoine Ladurner, pianist/composer, dies at 72
Mar 13th - Robert Gallenberg, composer, dies at 55
Mar 29th - Bernardus JC Dibbets, Dutch baron/gen-major (Maastricht), dies at 56
Apr 1st - Benjamin Pierce, American politician (b. 1757)
Apr 11th - John Galt, Scottish writer (Last of the Lairds), dies at 59
Apr 20th - Giuseppe Rossini, father of Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini, dies
Apr 22nd - Denis Davydov, Russian general and poet (b. 1784)
Apr 23rd - Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, French explorer (b. 1768)
May 3rd - Ferdinando Paer, composer, dies at 67
May 13th - Israel Ashkenazi of Shklov, found Ashkenazic community (1815), dies
May 13th - Joseph Fesch, French cardinal/war commission/earl/senator, dies
May 17th - Archibald Alison, Scottish author (b. 1757)
May 18th - Carolina [Maria A] Bonaparte (countess Lipona), dies at 57
Jun 2nd - Wijnand YY Nuijen, painter/lithographer (Wrecked), dies at 26
Jun 9th - Gerrit J Pijman, Dutch minister of War (1798-1800), dies at 89
Jun 10th - Nathaniel Pryor, sgt of Lewis & Clark Expedition, dies
Jun 13th - Martin-Pierre Dalvimare, composer, dies at 66
Jun 15th - Hans Skramstad, composer, dies at 41
Jun 27th - Ranjit Singh, gov of Lahore, dies
Jun 30th - Johan O Wallin, Swedish poet/archbishop (Dead Angel), dies
Jul 1st - Mahmud II, sultan of Turkey (1808-39), dies at 53
Jul 10th - Fernando Joseph Maria Sor, composer, dies at 61
Jul 12th - Christian Traugott Tag, composer, dies at 62
Jul 15th - Winthrop Mackworth Praed, politician/poet, dies
Jul 29th - Gaspard de Prony, French mathematician (b. 1755)
Aug 3rd - Dorothea von Schlegel, German novelist (b. 1763)
Aug 10th - John St Aubyn, British fossil collector (b. 1758)
Aug 23rd - Charles Philippe Lafont, composer, dies at 57
Aug 28th - William Smith, English geologist (b. 1769)
Sep 10th - Pieter Fontijn, Dutch painter, dies at 66
Sep 17th - Ethel Mary Dell, [Mrs G T Savage], romantic novelist, dies
Sep 20th - Jose Gaspar de Francia, dictator of Paraguay (1816-39), dies at 74
Sep 21st - Jacob Gottfried Weber, German composer, dies at 60
Oct 11th - Leonor de Almeida marquesa de Alorna, Portuguese poet, dies at 88
Oct 18th - French Jozef Kinsoen, Flemish portrait painter, dies at 68
Nov 6th - Hayim Rapoport, Rabbi of Ostrowiec/author (Maxim Chayyim), dies
Dec 3rd - Frederik VI, king of Denmark (1808-39)/Norway (1803-14), dies at 71
Dec 7th - Jan Matyas Nepomuk August Vitasek, composer, dies at 69
Dec 15th - Matthijs I van Bree, Flemish court-painter, dies at 66
Dec 18th - Charles-Henri Plantade, composer, dies at 75