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January 3 - One of the predecessor papers of the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia, The Port Phillip Herald, is founded by George Cavanaugh.

January 10 - Uniform penny postage introduced in the UK.

January 13 - The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.

January 19 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.

January 20 - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.

January 22 - British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding date of Wellington.

February 6 - Treaty of Waitangi, document granting British sovereignty in New Zealand, is signed.

February 10 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha.

February 11 - Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Regiment premieres in Paris.

March 1 - William Hobson, first Governor of New Zealand, suffers a stroke.

March 1 - Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France.

May 1 - Britain issues the Penny Black, world's first postage stamp.

May 6 - The Penny Black, world's first postage stamp becomes valid for the pre-payment of postage.

May 7 - The Great Natchez Tornado: A massive tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi during the early afternoon hours. Before it was over, 317 people had lost their lives and 209 were injured. It is the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

July 4 - 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.

July 15 – Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia sign a London Treaty with the Sublime Porte, ruler of the Ottoman Empire.

August 10 - Fortsas hoax - number of book collectors gather to Binche, Belgium to attend a non-existent book auction of the late "Count of Fortsas"

September 10 - Ottoman and British troops bombard Beirut and land troops on the coast to pressure Egyptian Muhammad Ali to retreat from the country.

September 16 - Joseph Strutt handed over the deeds and papers concerning the Arboretum, which was to become England's first public park.

October 7 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.

October 14 – Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta.

November - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren in the U.S. presidential election.

Louis Agassiz publishes his work in two volumes entitled Etudes sur les glaciers ("Study on Glaciers"), the first major work to scientifically propose that the Earth has been subject to a past ice age.

David Livingstone leaves for Africa.

Punch caricature magazine begins publication.

Pedro II is declared "of age" prematurely and begins to reassert central control in Brazil.

Mount Allison University is founded in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.

Washingtonian Temperance Society is founded.

December - Stockport viaduct (located in Greater Manchester, England) was completed in this year. It is one of the largest brick structures in Europe.

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January 3 - Father Damien, Belgian missionary priest (d. 1888)

January 23 - Ernst Abbe, German physicist (d. 1905)

January 26 - John Clayton Adams, British landscape artist (d. 1906)

February 4 - Hiram Stevens Maxim, American firearms inventor (d. 1916)

February 5 - John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish inventor (d. 1921)

February 21 - Murad V, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1904)

February 22 - August Bebel, German politician (d. 1913)

February 23 - Carl Menger, Austrian economist (d. 1921)

February 29 - John Philip Holland, Irish inventor (d. 1914)

March 28 - Emin Pasha, German doctor and African administrator (d. 1892)

April 2 - Emile Zola, French writer (d. 1902)

April 22 - Odilon Redon, French painter (d. 1916)

April 27 - Edward Whymper, English mountaineer (d. 1911)

May 7 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (d. 1893)

May 13 - Alphonse Daudet, French writer (d. 1897)

June 2 - Thomas Hardy, English writer (d. 1928)

August 4 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German sexologist (d. 1902)

October 9 - Simeon Solomon, British artist (d. 1905)

October 16 - Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1900)

November 12 - Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (d. 1917)

November 14 - Claude Monet, French painter (d. 1926)

November 21 - Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom and Empress of Germany (d. 1901)

November 29 - Rhoda Broughton, Welsh writer (d. 1920)

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January 6 - Fanny Burney, English novelist (b. 1752)

January 22 - Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (b. 1752)

February 13 - Nicolas Joseph Maison, French marshal and Minister of War (b. 1770)

April 25 - Siméon-Denis Poisson, French mathematician, geometer, and physicist (b. 1781)

May 1 - Joseph Williamson, philanthropist and builder of Williamson's tunnels (b. 1769)

May 7 - Caspar David Friedrich, German artist (b. 1774)

May 26 - Sidney Smith, British admiral (b. 1764)

May 27 - Nicolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1782)

June 7 - King Frederick William III of Prussia (b. 1770)

September 7 - Étienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald, French marshal (b. 1765)

December 11 - Emperor Kokaku of Japan (b. 1771)