General
Population: 1.18 Billion*
- Entertainment: Writers include Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Bulwer-Lytton, Dickens Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, Victor Hugo,
JP Kennedy (Maryland), Gustav Schwab,
Philosopher Auguste Comte gives sociology its name
Art includes THorvaldsen's "Christ and the Twelve Apostles",
Music includes Berlioz, Chopin (liason with George Sand (female)), Jenny Lind,
- Finance: Economist Cournot published theory of health
- Science: Fourth and last volume of Audubon's "Birds of America" published
Bessel makes definite measurements of fixed star - 3 astronomers determine parallax
- Technology: Daguerre-Niepce photography presented to Academy of Science and Arts in Paris
Ericsson develops screw propeller
Morse demonstrates telegraph
- Transportation: First transatlantic steamship journey - 703 ton steamer "Sirius" to New York while 1440 ton "Great Western" to Britain
- Deaths: Statesman Talleyrand, Architect Charles Percier, Composer Thmas Attwood, Poet Adelbert von Chamisso, Native American Osceola,
1812 hero John Rodgers, Diarist Thomas Creevy, Astronomer Nathaniel Bowditch, Historian JA Mohler, Architect Charles Percier, Explorer William Clark,
Physicist Pierre Dulong, Inventor John Stevens,
Start of Aroostook War until 1839,
Africa
- Natal: Boers found Republic – wars begin between Boers and Zulu – Massacre of 500 Boers by Zulus led by Dingaan –
Boers get revenge at Battle of Blood River – Zulus defeated
Americas
- General: Central America civil war to 1840
- Costa Rica: Independence
- Guatemala: Independence
- Honduras: Independence
- Nicaragua: Independence
Asia
- India: Cholera outbreak ends after 12 years
- Japan: Nakayama Miki founds faith healing Tenri sect
Europe
- France: Rachel debuts at Theater Français in Paris
- Great Britain: People's Charter allows for political reform - Start of Chartists
Queen Victoria's coronation
Anti-Corn Law League established in Manchester
London National Gallery opens
First traveling post office between Birmingham and Liverpool
First "verified" sighting of "Spring-heeled Jack", a strange creature who clawed at women wearing a helmet, white costume,
and spitting fire with fiery eyes in London that leapt and flew and vanished – last seen in 1904
Middle East
- Afghanistan: First Anglo-Afghan war
Pacific
- Antarctica: Lt. Charles Wilkes leads US expedition