1843

Events in 1843 48

• 1755 – 1843 Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) Died 2 July 1843, aged 88 Samuel Hahnemann was a German physician who founded homeopathy, based on the principle that like cures like. He spent his last years practising in Paris, where he died.
• 1756 – 1843 John Trumbull (1756-1843) Died 10 November 1843, aged 87 John Trumbull was an American painter of the Revolutionary War era. His painting Declaration of Independence hangs in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol.
• 1758 – 1843 Noah Webster (1758-1843) Died 28 May 1843, aged 84 Noah Webster was an American lexicographer whose American Dictionary of the English Language of 1828 standardised American spelling. His Blue-Backed Speller taught generations of American children to read.
• 1770 – 1843 Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) Died 7 June 1843, aged 73 Friedrich Hölderlin was a German lyric poet and the author of the novel Hyperion. He spent his last 36 years mentally ill in a tower in Tübingen, and his reputation grew greatly in the twentieth century.
• 1773 – 1843 Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843) Died 21 April 1843, aged 70 Prince Augustus Frederick was the sixth son of George III and an uncle of Queen Victoria. Known for his liberal politics, he was President of the Royal Society and Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England.
• 1774 – 1843 Robert Southey (1774-1843) Died 21 March 1843, aged 68 Robert Southey was an English Romantic poet, one of the Lake Poets, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. He is also remembered for writing the best-known version of the story of the three bears.
• 1779 – 1843 Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) Died 11 January 1843, aged 63 Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer who wrote the poem Defence of Fort M'Henry after watching the British bombard Baltimore in 1814. Set to music, it became The Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem of the United States.
• 1779 – 1843 Washington Allston (1779-1843) Died 9 July 1843, aged 63 Washington Allston was an American painter and poet who was among the first Romantic painters in the United States. He was known for dramatic landscapes and for his use of light and colour.
• 1792 – 1843 Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis (1792-1843) Died 19 September 1843, aged 51 Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis was a French mathematician and engineer who described the inertial force on bodies moving in a rotating frame of reference. The Coriolis effect, which is central to meteorology and oceanography, is named after him.
• 1793 – 1843 Casimir Delavigne (1793-1843) Died 11 December 1843, aged 50 Casimir Delavigne was a French poet and playwright whose patriotic verse and historical dramas were popular in the Restoration and July Monarchy periods. He was elected to the Académie française in 1825.
• 1815 – 1843 William I First King of the Netherlands William I became the first king of the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands after the Napoleonic Wars.
• 1843 Ada Lovelace publishes her notes on the Analytical Engine Translation with notes includes an early computer algorithm Ada Lovelace translated Luigi Menabrea's paper on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine and added long notes of her own. Note G set out a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers on the machine, which is often called the first published computer program.
• 1843 – 1920 Benito Perez Galdos (1843-1920) Died 4 January 1920, aged 76 Spanish novelist widely regarded as the leading figure of nineteenth-century Spanish literary realism after Cervantes. His extensive body of work includes the multi-volume "Episodios Nacionales" chronicling Spanish history. He was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature but never won.
• 1843 – 1914 Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914) Died 21 June 1914, aged 71 An Austrian writer and pacifist, von Suttner authored the influential anti-war novel Lay Down Your Arms and helped inspire Alfred Nobel to create a peace prize. In 1905 she became the first woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She died just weeks before the war she had spent decades warning against.
• 1843 – 1916 Henry James (1843-1916) Died 28 February 1916, aged 72 Henry James was an American-born author of novels including "The Portrait of a Lady" and "The Turn of the Screw," who became a British subject the year before his death. He died in London, having spent most of his career in Europe.
• 1843 – 1910 Robert Koch (1843-1910) Died 27 May 1910, aged 66 German physician and microbiologist who identified the bacteria causing tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, establishing key principles of modern bacteriology. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905. His methods for isolating and studying pathogens remain foundational to microbiology.
• 1843 Poe publishes The Tell-Tale Heart Short story appears in The Pioneer Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart was published in James Russell Lowell's magazine The Pioneer. The story is narrated by a murderer who is driven to confess by the imagined beating of his victim's heart, and it is one of Poe's best-known works.
• 1843 Premiere of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman Wagner conducts the first performance in Dresden Richard Wagner conducted the first performance of Der fliegende Holländer at the Royal Saxon Court Opera in Dresden. It is the earliest of his operas to stay in the standard repertoire.
• 1843 Premiere of Donizetti's Don Pasquale Comic opera opens at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera Don Pasquale premiered at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris. It is regarded as one of the last great works of the opera buffa tradition.
• 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.
• 1843 – 1901 William McKinley 25th President — led US into imperialism William McKinley (Jan 29, 1843 – Sep 14, 1901) was the 25th President 1897-1901. He led the US to victory in the Spanish-American War (1898), acquiring Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. He was assassinated in 1901.
• 1843 Guadeloupe earthquake Earthquake destroys Pointe-à-Pitre A powerful earthquake struck the Lesser Antilles and destroyed most of Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe, where the fire that followed added to the damage. Several thousand people were killed.
• 1843 Great Siege of Montevideo begins Oribe's forces start a siege that lasts nine years Manuel Oribe's Blanco forces, backed by Juan Manuel de Rosas of Argentina, began besieging Montevideo during the Uruguayan Civil War. The siege lasted until 1851.
• 1843 Battle of Miani Charles Napier defeats the Talpur amirs of Sindh A British force under General Sir Charles Napier defeated a much larger army of the Baluchi amirs of Sindh near Hyderabad. The victory began the British conquest of Sindh.
• 1843 Kierkegaard publishes Either/Or Debut work of the Danish philosopher appears in Copenhagen Søren Kierkegaard published Either/Or under the pseudonym Victor Eremita. It compares an aesthetic way of life with an ethical one and is regarded as a founding text of existentialism.
• 1843 Paulet Affair in Hawaii British captain occupies the Kingdom of Hawaii for five months Captain Lord George Paulet of HMS Carysfort forced King Kamehameha III to cede the Hawaiian Kingdom to Britain. Rear Admiral Richard Thomas restored Hawaiian sovereignty on 31 July, which Hawaii later marked as Restoration Day.
• 1843 Great Comet of 1843 reaches perihelion Sungrazing comet visible in daylight The Great March Comet passed extremely close to the Sun and became visible in daylight. Its tail stretched across a large part of the sky, and it was one of the brightest comets of the nineteenth century.
• 1843 Congress funds Morse's telegraph line $30,000 granted for a Washington-Baltimore line The United States Congress voted $30,000 for Samuel Morse to build an experimental telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore. The line carried its first message in May 1844 and showed that electric telegraphy worked in practice.
• 1843 Fall of Jean-Pierre Boyer in Haiti President of 25 years overthrown and exiled A revolt led by Charles Rivière-Hérard forced President Jean-Pierre Boyer to resign and go into exile in Jamaica. His fall weakened Haitian control of the eastern part of the island, which declared independence as the Dominican Republic in 1844.
• 1843 Battle of Hyderabad completes the conquest of Sindh Napier defeats Sher Muhammad Talpur at Dubba Napier defeated the remaining Talpur forces under Sher Muhammad at Dubba near Hyderabad. Sindh was then annexed to British India, which ended the rule of the Talpur dynasty.
• 1843 Thames Tunnel opens First tunnel known to be built under a navigable river The Thames Tunnel between Rotherhithe and Wapping opened to pedestrians after nearly two decades of construction led by Marc Isambard Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It was the first tunnel known to have been built under a navigable river.
• 1843 Natal proclaimed a British colony Britain annexes the former Boer Republic of Natalia Britain proclaimed Natal a British colony, taking over the short-lived Boer Republic of Natalia. Many Voortrekkers then left the territory and moved inland across the Drakensberg.
• 1843 Disruption of the Church of Scotland Over 450 ministers leave to form the Free Church At the General Assembly in Edinburgh, more than 450 ministers walked out in protest at the state's power to appoint parish ministers. Led by Thomas Chalmers, they founded the Free Church of Scotland.
• 1843 Great Emigration sets out on the Oregon Trail About a thousand settlers leave Missouri for Oregon A wagon train of roughly a thousand emigrants left Elm Grove, Missouri, for the Oregon Country. It was the first large-scale overland migration on the Oregon Trail and opened the route to mass settlement of the Pacific Northwest.
• 1843 Alexander Bain patents the facsimile Scottish clockmaker patents electrical image transmission Alexander Bain received a British patent for a device that used synchronised pendulums to scan and reproduce images over telegraph wires. It was the first patented design for what became the fax machine.
• 1843 Wairau Affray First armed clash between Maori and British settlers in New Zealand A New Zealand Company party tried to arrest the Ngati Toa chiefs Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata over a land dispute in the Wairau Valley. Twenty-two settlers and at least four Maori were killed, the first serious armed clash after the Treaty of Waitangi.
• 1843 Hong Kong becomes a British Crown colony Treaty of Nanking ratifications exchanged The exchange of ratifications of the Treaty of Nanking formally made Hong Kong Island a British Crown colony. Sir Henry Pottinger became its first governor.
• 1843 SS Great Britain launched Brunel's iron screw steamship floated out at Bristol Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain was floated out at Bristol in the presence of Prince Albert. It was the first ocean-going ship with an iron hull and a screw propeller, and at the time the largest ship in the world.
• 1843 The Economist first published James Wilson launches a weekly to campaign for free trade The Scottish hatmaker James Wilson founded The Economist in London to argue for repealing the Corn Laws. It became one of the world's best-known current affairs publications.
• 1843 3 September Revolution in Greece Army uprising forces King Otto to grant a constitution Soldiers and townspeople surrounded the royal palace in Athens and demanded a constitution from the Bavarian-born King Otto. He agreed to call a national assembly, which drew up the Greek Constitution of 1844 and ended absolute monarchy in Greece.
• 1843 News of the World first published Cheap Sunday newspaper launched in London John Browne Bell launched the News of the World as a cheap Sunday paper that relied on crime and scandal. It grew into one of the best-selling English-language newspapers and was closed in 2011.
• 1843 Clontarf Repeal meeting banned Government stops O'Connell's largest monster meeting The British government banned the mass meeting for repeal of the Act of Union that Daniel O'Connell had called at Clontarf. O'Connell called it off to avoid bloodshed but was arrested soon afterwards on a charge of conspiracy.
• 1843 Treaty of the Bogue Supplementary treaty grants Britain most-favoured-nation status Britain and Qing China signed the Treaty of the Bogue as a supplement to the Treaty of Nanking. It gave Britain most-favoured-nation treatment and extraterritorial rights in the treaty ports.
• 1843 Hamilton discovers quaternions Formula carved into Dublin's Brougham Bridge While walking along the Royal Canal in Dublin, William Rowan Hamilton worked out the basic formula for quaternions and carved it into the stone of Brougham Bridge. Quaternions extended complex numbers into four dimensions and are now used in physics and computer graphics.
• 1843 Isabella II of Spain declared of age Thirteen-year-old queen begins her personal reign After Regent Espartero was overthrown, the Spanish Cortes declared Isabella II an adult at the age of thirteen. Her personal reign lasted until the Glorious Revolution of 1868.
• 1843 Britain and France recognise Hawaiian independence Anglo-French Proclamation guarantees the Hawaiian Kingdom Britain and France signed a joint declaration recognising the Kingdom of Hawaii as an independent state. The date was later celebrated in Hawaii as Independence Day.
• 1843 First commercial Christmas card Henry Cole commissions a printed Christmas greeting Henry Cole commissioned the artist John Callcott Horsley to design a printed card showing a family at a Christmas celebration. About a thousand copies were printed and sold in London, starting the custom of sending Christmas cards.
• 1843 Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol Novella about Ebenezer Scrooge appears in London Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol through Chapman & Hall, and the first printing sold out by Christmas Eve. The story of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and the visiting ghosts shaped how Christmas was celebrated in Britain and beyond.