1840 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1840 in the United Kingdom.

[edit] Events

10 January - Uniform penny postage introduced.
22 January - British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding date of Wellington.
6 February - Treaty of Waitangi, document granting British sovereignty in New Zealand, is signed. ^[1]
10 February - Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha. ^[1]
15 April - King's College Hospital opens in Portugal Street, London.
1 May - issue of the Penny Black, the world's first postage stamp.
4 July - The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax , Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic passenger cruise.
15 July - Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia sign a London Treaty with the Sublime Porte, ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
23 July - The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union.
10 September - Ottoman and British troops bombard Beirut and land troops on the coast to pressure Egyptian Muhammad Ali to retreat from the country.
16 September - Joseph Strutt handed over the deeds and papers concerning the Arboretum, which was to become England's first public park.
14 October - Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta.
December - Stockport viaduct was completed in this year. It is one of the largest brick structures in Europe.

6 January - Fanny Burney, novelist (b. 1752)
1 May - Joseph Williamson, philanthropist and builder of Williamson's tunnels (b. 1769)
26 May - Sidney Smith, admiral (b. 1764)