1840 – 1850s

Events in the 1840s 22

• 1760 – 1842 Luigi Cherubini Classical opera composer Italian composer based in Paris, known for his operas and sacred music. Beethoven considered him the greatest living composer.
• 1782 – 1840 Niccolò Paganini Violin virtuoso & composer Italian violinist and composer whose dazzling technique revolutionised violin playing. His 24 Caprices remain among the most challenging violin works ever written.
• 1797 – 1848 Gaetano Donizetti Italian bel canto opera composer Italian composer of over 70 operas including Lucia di Lammermoor and L'elisir d'amore, a pillar of the bel canto tradition.
• 1809 – 1849 Edgar Allan Poe American writer and poet Poe pioneered horror and detective fiction, creating psychologically intense and Gothic narratives.
• 1809 – 1847 Felix Mendelssohn Romantic composer & conductor German Romantic composer who rediscovered Bach, wrote the famous Wedding March and composed the Violin Concerto and Italian Symphony.
• 1810 – 1849 Frédéric Chopin Romantic piano poet Polish-French composer who wrote almost exclusively for the piano. His nocturnes, études, ballades and mazurkas define Romantic piano music.
• 1820 – 1840 Antarctica confirmed as a continent The seventh continent discovered by three expeditions Between 1820 and 1840, Russian, British, and American expeditions independently confirmed the existence of a massive continental landmass at the South Pole. Fabian von Bellingshausen, Edward Bransfield, and Nathaniel Palmer all sighted the Antarctic coast in 1820. The continent was confirmed by the Wilkes Expedition in 1840, completing the map of the Earth's major landmasses.
• 1839 – 1842 First Opium War Britain forces China to open — the century of humiliation begins Britain went to war with China to force it to continue accepting opium imports from British India, which China had banned. The technologically superior British fleet defeated China decisively. The 1842 Treaty of Nanking ceded Hong Kong to Britain, opened five treaty ports, and paid a massive indemnity. It was the first of the "unequal treaties" that humiliated China and began what Chinese call the "century of humiliation" lasting until 1949.
• 1840 – 1902 Emile Zola French novelist Zola led the Naturalist movement, depicting social conditions with scientific realism and political critique.
• 1840 – 1893 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Russian Romantic composer Russian composer whose Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty ballets and 1812 Overture are among the most beloved works in classical music.
• 1840 – 1926 Claude Monet Impressionism · France Claude Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was the founder of French Impressionism, whose series paintings of haystacks, Rouen Cathedral and water lilies are among the most beloved works in art history.
• 1841 – 1919 Pierre-Auguste Renoir Impressionism · France Pierre-Auguste Renoir (February 25, 1841 – December 3, 1919) was a French Impressionist painter whose warm, sensuous depictions of leisure and pleasure are among the most joyful in art history.
• 1841 – 1904 Antonín Dvořák Czech Romantic composer Czech composer best known for his New World Symphony, Cello Concerto and Slavonic Dances. He drew on folk music to create a distinctly Czech voice.
• 1842 – 1846 Anesthesia in surgery Operations become painless — modern surgery begins In 1842-1846, Crawford Long, Horace Wells, and William Morton independently demonstrated the use of ether and nitrous oxide as surgical anesthetics. Morton's public demonstration at Massachusetts General Hospital on 16 October 1846 is considered the birth of modern anesthesia. Surgery was transformed from a terrifying, often fatal ordeal into a controlled medical procedure.
• 1843 – 1907 Edvard Grieg Norwegian national composer Norwegian composer whose Piano Concerto and Peer Gynt Suite made him the most celebrated Scandinavian composer of the 19th century.
• 1844 – 1908 Pablo de Sarasate Spanish violin virtuoso Spanish violinist and composer whose Carmen Fantasy and Zigeunerweisen remain showpieces for every great violinist.
• 1844 – 1900 Friedrich Nietzsche German philosopher Nietzsche challenged morality and religion, influencing existentialism and modern philosophy.
• 1846 Neptune discovered by mathematical prediction An invisible planet found by pure calculation In 1846, Johann Galle of Berlin observed Neptune exactly where Urbain Le Verrier of France had predicted it must lie, based entirely on mathematical analysis of perturbations in Uranus's orbit. It was the first planet discovered by prediction rather than observation, a triumph of Newtonian mechanics. John Adams of England had independently made the same prediction months earlier.
• 1847 – 1912 Bram Stoker Irish novelist Stoker wrote Dracula, defining modern vampire fiction and Gothic horror literature.
• 1848 – 1849 German Revolutions of 1848 Liberal and nationalist uprisings Revolutionary movements across the German states demanded constitutional government and national unification.
• 1848 – 1903 Paul Gauguin Post-Impressionism · France Paul Gauguin (June 7, 1848 – May 8, 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist who left Europe for Tahiti, seeking a more primal authenticity. His bold colour and flat forms influenced Fauvism, Expressionism and Primitivism.
• 1849 – 1944 Bertha Benz The investor who was not allowed to be one Bertha Ringer put her dowry into Carl Benz's failing workshop in 1870, while still unmarried and therefore still legally able to invest. On marrying him in 1872 she lost that standing under the law of Baden, and continued funding him anyway. She wound ignition coils, argued down the doubters, and in August 1888 took the Patent-Motorwagen and her two sons on an unauthorised hundred-kilometre drive that invented the brake lining, exposed the need for a lower gear, and turned an unsellable curiosity into a product. She was ninety-five when she died, and still driving into old age.