January 13–14 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks in icy waters, 4 miles off the coast of Long Island; 139 die, only 4 survive.
January 19 – Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what becomes known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
March 4 – Alexander S. Wolcott and John Johnson open their "Daguerreian Parlor" on Broadway (Manhattan), the world's first commercial photography portrait studio.
March 9 – The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is completed from Wilmington, North Carolina to Weldon, North Carolina. At 161.5 miles, it is the world's longest railroad.[1]
May 7 – The Great Natchez Tornado: A massive tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi during the early afternoon hours. Before it is over, 317 people are killed and 109 injured. It is the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
November 7 – U.S. presidential election, 1840: William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren.
Ongoing[]
Second Seminole War (1835–1842)
Births[]
January 1 – Patrick Walsh, Irish-born U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1894 to 1895 (died 1899)
January 29 – Henry H. Rogers, financier (died 1909)
February 4 – Hiram Stevens Maxim, firearms inventor (died 1916)
February 9 – William T. Sampson, U.S. Navy admiral (died 1902)
March 5 – Constance Fenimore Woolson, fiction writer and poet (died 1894)
April 28 – Caroline Shawk Brooks, sculptor (died 1913)
May 4 – George Gray, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1885 to 1899 (died 1925)
June 3 – Michael O'Laughlen, conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 (died 1867)
June 6 – William Dudley Chipley, railroad tycoon and statesman (died 1897)
June 14 – William F. Nast, attaché, railroad executive and inventor (died 1893)
June 27 – Alpheus Beede Stickney, railroad executive (died 1916)
July 21 – Christian Abraham Fleetwood, Union Army 4th Colored Infantry Regiment soldier and Medal of Honor recipient (died 1914)
Media related to 1840 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons
Years in the United States (1776–present)