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This page is about the year 1841. For the board game, see 1841.

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January 25 - Charles Elliot of Britain and Kei Sin of Qing signed the Convention of Chuenpeh. A navy official Edward Belcher led a fleet to land Hong Kong.

January 26 - The United Kingdom occupies Hong Kong. Later during the year, the first census of the island recorded a population of about 7,500.

January 30 - A fire destroys two-thirds of the then villa (now city) of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

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February 18 - The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins and lasts until March 11.

March 4 - Martin Van Buren, President of the United States is succeeded by William Henry Harrison.

March 9 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Amistad case that the Africans who seized control of the ship had been taken into slavery illegally.

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April 4 - President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and at one month, the elected president with the shortest term served. He is succeeded by Vice President John Tyler.

April 6 - John Tyler is inaugurated as the 10th President of the United States.

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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.

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September 24 - United Kingdom annexes Sarawak from Brunei; James Brooke is appointed rajah.

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November 13 - James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually calls hypnosis.

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December 23 - In a meeting with Akbar Khan, his men seize Sir William Macnaghten and tear him to pieces

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The two colonies of the Canadas are merged into the Province of Canada.

Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, by Rev. Thomas Liddell, who carried a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria and became the school's first Principal.

Fordham University is founded in The Bronx by the Society of Jesus. Its name at founding is St. John's College.

With the help of industrial espionage, August Borsig builds the first German locomotives.

The city of Dallas, Texas is founded by John Neely Bryan. The original town of few inhabitants and mud huts would later become a major city in the South, as well as the United States.

Valley Cemetery is founded in Manchester, New Hampshire

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January 7 - Bernadette Soubirous, a visionary from Lourdes. (d. 1879)

January 14 - Berthe Morisot, French painter (d. 1895)

January 25 - Jackie Fisher, British admiral (d. 1920)

January 28 - Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh explorer and journalist (d. 1904)

February 2 - François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist (d. 1912)

February 4 - Clément Ader, French engineer, inventor, and airplane pioneer (d. 1926)

February 25 - Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter (d. 1919)

March 8 - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1935)

April 13 - Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor (d. 1905)

May 10 - James Gordon Bennett, Jr., American newspaper publisher (d. 1918)

August 25 - Emil Kocher, Swiss medical researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1917)

September 8 - Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer (d. 1904)

September 28 - Georges Clemenceau, French statesman (d. 1929)

October 7 - King Nicholas I of Montenegro (d. 1921)

October 16 - Prince Hirobumi Ito, Japanese governor of Korea (d. 1909)

November 6 - Nelson W. Aldrich, Senator from Rhode Island (d. 1915)

November 9 - King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (d. 1910)

November 13 - Edward Burd Grubb, American Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General (d.1913)

November 20 - Wilfrid Laurier, seventh Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1919)

December 6 - Frédéric Bazille, French painter (d. 1870)

December 20 - Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1932)

William George Aston, British consular official (d. 1911)

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February 17 - Ferdinando Carulli, Italian guitarist

March 1 - Claude Victor-Perrin, duc de Belluno, French marshal (b. 1764)

April 4 - William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States (b. 1773)

April 28 - Peter Chanel, French Roman Catholic missionary (martyred) (b. 1803)

May 20 - Joseph Blanco White, British theologian (b. 1775)

May 23 - Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologian (b. 1765)

June 1 - David Wilkie, Scottish artist (b. 1785)

August 24 - Theodore Edward Hook, English author (b. 1788)

September 25 - John Chandler, American politician (b. 1762)

December 23 - William Hay Macnaghten, Anglo-Indian diplomat (b. 1793)