Editing 1839 (section)

== Events ==

=== January–March ===
* [[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]] – The British [[Aden Expedition]] captures Aden.
* [[January 20]] – [[Battle of Yungay]]: [[Chile]] defeats the [[Peru–Bolivian Confederation]], leading to the restoration of an independent [[Peru]].
* [[January]] – The first [[parallax]] measurement of the distance to [[Alpha Centauri]] is published by [[Thomas Henderson (astronomer)|Thomas Henderson]].
* [[February 11]] – The [[University of Missouri]] is established, becoming the first public university west of the [[Mississippi River]].
* [[February 24]] – [[William Otis]] receives a U.S. [[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.
** The [[Pastry War]] between [[July Monarchy|France]] and [[Centralist Republic of Mexico|Mexico]] ends.
** [[Prussia]] imposes the Child Labor Law of 1839, becoming the first nation in the world to place restrictions on [[Child labour|child labor]].
* [[March 23]]
**An [[1839 Ava earthquake|earthquake in the Kingdom of Burma]] kills more than 400 people and destroys three cities, as well as heavily damaging the capital at [[Inwa|Ava]].
**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 [[Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph|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 (1839)|Treaty of London]] establishes [[Belgium]] as a [[Monarchy|kingdom]], with its independence and neutrality guaranteed by the [[great power]]s of Europe. Half of the [[Province of Limburg (1815–39)|Limburg]] province of [[Belgium]] is added to the [[Netherlands]], giving rise to a [[Limburg (Belgium)|Belgian Limburg]] and [[Limburg (Netherlands)|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]]–[[May 11|11]] – The [[Bedchamber Crisis]] in the United Kingdom: Following the announcement by Prime Minister [[William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne|Lord Melbourne]] that he intends to resign,<ref> Mark Hovell, ''The Chartist Movement'' (Manchester University Press, 1966) p143.</ref> [[Robert Peel]] asks (for political reasons) that [[Queen Victoria]] dismiss some of her personal attendants, [[Lady of the Bedchamber|Ladies of the Bedchamber]], as a condition for his forming a government. Victoria refuses to accept the condition and Melbourne is persuaded to stay on as Prime Minister.<ref>{{cite hansard |title = Ministerial Explanations |house = House of Commons |date = 13 May 1839 |url = https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1839/may/13/ministerial-explanations#column_984 |column_start = 984 |column_end = 985 |speaker = Robert Peel }}</ref>
* 13 May – First [[Rebecca Riots]] targeted against [[Turnpike trust|turnpikes]] in Wales, at [[Efailwen]] in [[Carmarthenshire]].<ref name="Welsh Academy">{{cite book |last=Davies |first=John |author2=Jenkins, Nigel  |title=The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales |year=2008 |publisher=University of Wales Press |location=Cardiff|page=730 |isbn=978-0-7083-1953-6}}</ref>
* [[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]].<ref> Jill Harsin, ''Barricades: The War of the Streets in Revolutionary Paris, 1830-1848'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) p124.</ref>
* [[May 22]] – Former British statesman [[John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham|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.<ref>T. Lindsay Buick, ''The French at Akaroa: An Adventure in Colonization'' (Cambridge University Press, 1928)(reprinted 2011) p294</ref>
* [[May 23]] – Turkish troops cross the [[Euphrates]] River and invade Syria, but are defeated in battle in June.<ref>Charles Alan Fyffe, ''A History of Modern Europe'', Volume 2 (Cassell & Company, 1886) p453</ref>
* [[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 (~{{convert|56,000|kg}} per annum)<ref>{{cite book|last=Greenberg|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Greenberg (economist)|title=British Trade and the Opening of China 1800-1841|year=1969|format=preview|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QNo8AAAAIAAJ|page=113|quote=expansion in imports from 16,550 chests in the season 1831-2 to over 30,000 in 1835-6, and 40,000 in 1838-9}}</ref><ref name=CIH>{{cite book|title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of China|editor1-last=Ebrey|editor1-first=Patricia Buckley|editor1-link=Patricia Buckley Ebrey|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-19620-8|page=236|edition=2nd|chapter=Chapter 9: Manchus and Imperialism: The Qing Dynasty 1644–1900}}</ref> has caused the Chinese government to dispatch scholar-official [[Lin Zexu]] to [[Guangzhou]] to deal with the [[History of opium in China|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).
* [[June 27]] – The [[emperor]] of the [[Sikh Empire]], [[Maharaja Ranjit Singh]], dies at 58.

=== July–September ===
[[File:Storming Column entering Fortress at Ghuznee.jpg|thumb|Lithograph depicting the [[July 23]] storming of the fortress during the [[Battle of Ghazni]].]]
* [[July 1]]
** Slaves aboard the ''[[United States v. The Amistad|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]] in [[Afghanistan]].
* [[August 8]] – The Fraternity of [[Beta Theta Pi]] is founded by John Reily Knox at Miami University.
* [[August 19]] – The French government 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, Prince of Vergara|Baldomero Espartero, Count of Luchana]] and Carlist General Rafael Maroto.
* [[September 4]] – [[Battle of Kowloon]]: British vessels open fire on Chinese war [[Junk (ship)|junk]]s enforcing a food sales embargo on the British community in China in the first armed conflict of the [[First Opium War]].

=== October–December ===
* [[October 3]] – A railway between [[Naples]] and [[Portici]] ({{convert|7.4|km|mi|abbr=on}}) in the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]] is inaugurated by [[Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies|King Ferdinand II]] of [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] as the first line in the [[Italian Peninsula]].
* [[October 15]] – [[Emir Abdelkader]] declares a [[jihad]] against the [[France|French]].
* [[November 4]] – [[Newport Rising]]: Between 5,000 and 10,000 [[Chartism|Chartist]] sympathisers march on [[Newport, Monmouthshire]], to liberate Chartist prisoners; around 22 are killed when troops fire on the crowd.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/lovell.htm|title=John Lovell and the People's Charter|work=The struggle for democracy|publisher=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]]|location=Kew|year=2003|access-date=2019-05-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926235009/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/lovell.htm|archive-date=2007-09-26|url-status=live}}</ref> This is the last large-scale armed civil rebellion against authority in mainland Britain and sees the most deaths.
* [[November 11]] – The [[Virginia Military Institute]] is founded in [[Lexington, Virginia]].
* [[November 17]] – [[Giuseppe Verdi]]'s first opera, ''[[Oberto (opera)|Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio]]'', opens in [[Milan]].
* [[November 25]] – A disastrous [[cyclone]] hits India with terrible winds and a giant 40-foot [[storm surge]], wiping out the port city of [[Coringa, Andhra Pradesh|Coringa]]; 300,000 people die.
* [[November 27]] – The [[American Statistical Association]] is founded in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]].
* [[December 6]] – The [[Whig Party (United States)]], at its first ever [[1839 Whig National Convention|national convention]], in [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania]], 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 has received 103 of the 128 necessary votes on the first ballot, he obtains only 90 on the final vote, while Harrison gets 148. Former U.S. Senator [[John Tyler]] is unanimously nominated for vice president.<ref>{{cite book|first=Stan M.|last=Haynes|title=The First American Political Conventions: Transforming Presidential Nominations, 1832-1872|publisher=McFarland|year=2012|page=54}}</ref>
* [[December 26]] – [[Heinola]] in the Grand Duchy of Finland is granted [[town rights]] by Czar [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.narc.fi:8080/VakkaWWW/Selaus.action;jsessionid=1EE6C5199C45DC7DEE91F3D1C5F1D8F1?kuvailuTaso=AM&avain=850.KA|title=Arkistonmuodostaja: Heinolan maistraatti|publisher=[[The National Archives of Finland]]|access-date=September 3, 2021|language=fi}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.heinola.fi/kaupunki-ja-paatoksenteko/kaupunkiesittely/tietoa-heinolasta/heinolan-historia/|title=Heinolan historia|publisher=Town of Heinola|access-date=September 3, 2021|language=fi}}</ref>

=== Date unknown ===
* The [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]], 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]].
* Khalid bin Saud Al Suad usurps the throne from [[Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud]], who assumed power of Nejd in 1834, and is sent to Cairo as prisoner. Omar bin Ofaysan, the Amir Faisal's governor in the Eastern Province seeks asylum in [[Bahrain]], but Khalid the pretender demands his surrender and the surrender of the fort at [[Dammam]]; then under the control of the Al Khalifa of Bahrain.
* Khorshid Pasha vows to attack Bahrain to exert Egyptian rule over Bahrain, but his attack is prevented after Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed of Bahrain pays tribute.
* A quarrel breaks out between the Chief of [[Abu Dhabi]] of the Beniyas tribe, Shaikh Khalifa bin Shakboot, and the fugitives who settled there after their departure from Bahrain, the Al Binali tribe. Under the command of their leader, Isa bin Tureef Al Binali, they relocate to Kenn Island where they exercise depredations over the Bahrain and other Gulf vessels. Their motive is to restore their belongings which they abandoned upon leaving Bahrain.
* ''[[Tanzimat]]'' starts in the [[Ottoman Empire]].
* Emperor [[Minh Mạng]] renames [[Việt Nam]] to Đại Nam.
* In the [[United States]], the first state law permitting women to own property is passed in [[Jackson, Mississippi]].
* [[Michael Faraday]] publishes ''Experimental Researches in Electricity'',<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14986|title=Experimental Researches in Electricity|access-date=2025-04-01}}</ref> clarifying the true nature of [[electricity]].
* [[Charles Goodyear]] [[Vulcanization|vulcanizes]] [[rubber]].
* [[Valley Falls Company]], a predecessor of [[Berkshire Hathaway]], a [[Conglomerate (company)|conglomerate]] and [[Holdings company|holdings company]] in the United States, is founded in [[Rhode Island]].{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}
* [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]], is incorporated as a town.
* [[Galveston, Texas]], is incorporated.
* [[Episcopal High School (Alexandria, Virginia)]] is founded in [[Alexandria, Virginia]], as the first high school in Virginia.
* Archaeological excavation at the Mayan site of [[Copán]] begins.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}