1841

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( 1840s: )     1841
The East India Company steamship Nemesis (right background) destroying Chinese war junks during the Second Battle of Chuenpi, 7 January 1841

Events

January–March

• January 20 – Charles Elliot of the United Kingdom, and Qishan of the Qing Dynasty, agree to the Convention of Chuenpi.
• January 26 – Britain occupies Hong Kong. Later in the year, the first census of the island records a population of about 7,500.
• January 27 – The active volcano Mount Erebus in Antarctica is discovered, and named by James Clark Ross.
• January 28 – Ross discovers the "Victoria Barrier", later known as the Ross Ice Shelf. On the same voyage, he discovers the Ross Sea, Victoria Land and Mount Terror.
• January 30 – A fire ruins and destroys two-thirds of the villa (modern-day city) of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
• February 4 – First known reference to Groundhog Day in North America, in the diary of a James Morris.
• February 10 – The Act of Union (British North America Act, 1840) is proclaimed in Canada.
• February 11 – The two colonies of The Canadas are merged, into the United Province of Canada.
• February 18 – The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins, and lasts until March 11.
• February – El Salvador proclaims itself an independent republic, bringing an end to the (already de facto defunct) Federal Republic of Central America.
• March 4 – William Henry Harrison is sworn in, as the ninth President of the United States.
• March 9 – United States v. The Amistad: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the case, that the Africans who seized control of the ship had been taken into slavery illegally.

April–June

• April 4 – President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, aged 68, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office, and at one month, the American president with the shortest term served. He is succeeded by Vice President John Tyler, who becomes the tenth President of the United States.
• April 6 – President John Tyler is sworn in.
• May – The Sino-Sikh War begins.
• May 3 – New Zealand becomes a British colony.
• May 22 – 1841 rebellion in Guria: The Georgian province of Guria revolts against the Russian Empire.
• June 6 – The United Kingdom Census is held, the first to record names and approximate ages of every household member, and to be administered nationally.
• June 21 – St. John's College (later Fordham University) is founded in The Bronx, by the Society of Jesus.
• June 28 – The ballet Giselle is first presented by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique, at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris, France.

July–September

• July – Scottish missionary David Livingstone arrives at Kuruman in the Northern Cape, his first posting in Africa.
• July 5 – Thomas Cook arranges his first railway excursion, in England.
• July 17 – The first edition of the humorous magazine Punch is published in London.
• July 18 (Sunday)
  • Emperor Pedro II of Brazil is crowned in Rio de Janeiro.
  • The sixth bishop of Calcutta, Daniel Wilson, and Dr. James Taylor, Civil Surgeon at Dhaka, establish the first modern educational institution on the Indian subcontinent, Dhaka College.
• July 20 – The Mercantile Agency (ancestor of Dun & Bradstreet) is founded in New York City, by Lewis Tappan.
• August 11 – Frederick Douglass speaks in front of the Anti-Slavery Convention in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
• August 16 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House, in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.
• August 20–October 16 – The Niger expedition of 1841 begins sailing up the Niger River by paddle steamers, under the auspices of the British Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and the Civilisation of Africa; it is largely abortive, due to the high incidence of disease among the crews.
• September 24 – Sarawak is broken away from Brunei, and becomes a protectorate of the United Kingdom; James Brooke is appointed rajah.

October–December

• October 10 – First Opium War: Battle of Chinhai – British capture a Chinese garrison.
• October 13 – First Opium War: British occupy Ningbo.
• October 16 – Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, by Rev. Thomas Liddell, who carries a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria, and becomes the school's first principal.
• October 30 – A fire at the Tower of London destroys its Grand Armoury, and causes a quarter of a million pounds worth of damage.
• November – The settlement of Dallas, Texas is founded by John Neely Bryan.
• November 13 – Scottish surgeon James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism by Charles Lafontaine in Manchester, which leads to his study of the phenomenon that he (Braid) eventually calls hypnotism.
• December 20 – The first multilateral treaty for the suppression of the African slave trade, the Treaty for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade, signed in London by the representatives of Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia.
• December 23 – First Anglo-Afghan War: At a meeting with the Afghan general Akbar Khan, British diplomat Sir William Hay Macnaghten is shot dead at close quarters.

 

Events

Event	Start	End
Pax Brittanica	1815	1915
Victorian era	1840	1901

 

New Groups

Group	Image
National Bank of Greece
Queen's University

 

A Death

Title	Born	Died	Summary	Description
Alexander Burnes	16 May 1805	2 November 1841	Diplomat Spook Explorer	UK "spymaster" diplomat

 

Births

Title	Born	Place of birth	Died	Summary	Description
John Philip Holland	24 February 1841		12 August 1914	Engineer	Submarine pioneer
Oliver Wendell Holmes	8 March 1841	Boston Massachusetts U.S.	6 March 1935
Francis Grenfell	29 April 1841		27 January 1925	Soldier
William Rockefeller	31 May 1841	New York Richford	24 June 1922	Financier Deep state operative Businessperson	Co-founded Standard Oil in 1870 with his more infamous brother, John D. Rockefeller.
William Collins Whitney	5 July 1841	Massachusetts Conway U.S.	2 February 1904	Politician Financier	US finanicer and politician of the John Whitney family
Nelson Aldrich	6 November 1841	Rhode Island Foster	16 April 1915	Politician Deep state operative	US Deep state operative, member of The Money Trust, attended the 1910 Jekyll Island meeting
Albert Edward	9 November 1841	London Buckingham Palace	6 May 1910	British royal family

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