1841

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Events

January–March

January 20 – Charles Elliot of the United Kingdom and Qishan of the Qing dynasty agree to the Convention of Chuenpi.
January 26 – Britain occupies Hong Kong. Later in the year, the first census of the island records a population of about 7,500.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
January 27 – The active volcano Mount Erebus in Antarctica is discovered, and named by James Clark Ross.<ref>Ross, Voyage to the Southern Seas, 1, pp. 216–218.</ref>
January 28 – Ross discovers the "Victoria Barrier", later known as the Ross Ice Shelf. On the same voyage, he discovers the Ross Sea, Victoria Land and Mount Terror.
January 30 –
- El Salvador proclaims itself an independent republic, bringing an end to the Federal Republic of Central America.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- A fire destroys two-thirds of the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.<ref>"Mayagüez; Notas para su Historia"; by Silvia Aguilo Ramos (Author); Page: 76; Publisher: Model Offset Printing, San Juan (1984); Language: Spanish</ref>
February 4 – The first known reference is made to Groundhog Day, celebrated in North America, in the diary of a James Morris.
February 10 – The Act of Union (British North America Act, 1840) is proclaimed in Canada.
February 11 – Upper Canada and Lower Canada are merged to create the United Province of Canada.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
February 18 – The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins, and lasts until March 11.
March 9 – United States v. The Amistad: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the case, that the Africans who seized control of the ship had been taken into slavery illegally.
March 12 – All 136 passengers and crew on steamship Template:SS, commanded by legendary captain Richard Roberts (known for saying "I'd go to sea in a bathtub"), are killed when the ship founders in rough seas.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

April–June

April 4 – President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, aged 68, becoming the first president of the United States to die in office, and at one month, the American president with the shortest term served. He is succeeded by Vice President John Tyler.
May – The Sino-Sikh War begins.
May 3 – New Zealand becomes a separate British colony,<ref name="Pocket On This Day">Template:Cite book</ref> having previously been administered as part of the Colony of New South Wales.
May 22 – The Georgian province of Guria revolts against the Russian Empire.
June 6 – The United Kingdom Census is held, the first to record names and approximate ages of every household member, and to be administered nationally.
June 21 – St. John's College, later Fordham University, is founded in The Bronx by Jesuits.
June 28 – The ballet Giselle is first presented by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique, at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris, France, with music by Adolphe Adam and Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi in the title role.

July–September

July 5 – Thomas Cook arranges his first railway excursion in England.<ref name="Pocket On This Day"/>
July 17 – The first edition of the humorous magazine Punch is published in London.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
July 18 (Sunday)
- Emperor Pedro II of Brazil is crowned in Rio de Janeiro.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref>
- The sixth bishop of Calcutta, Daniel Wilson, and Dr. James Taylor, Civil Surgeon at Dhaka, establish the first modern educational institution on the Indian subcontinent, Dhaka College.
July 20 – The Mercantile Agency (ancestor of Dun & Bradstreet) is founded in New York City by Lewis Tappan.
July 31 – Scottish missionary David Livingstone arrives at Kuruman in the Northern Cape, his first posting in Africa.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
August 11 – Frederick Douglass speaks in front of the Anti-Slavery Convention in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
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.
August 20–October 16 – The Niger expedition of 1841 begins sailing up the Niger River by paddle steamers, under the auspices of the British Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and the Civilisation of Africa; it is largely abortive, due to the high incidence of disease among the crews.
September 24 – Sarawak is broken away from Brunei, and James Brooke is appointed Rajah.

October–December

October 10 – First Opium War: Battle of Chinhai – British capture a Chinese garrison.
October 13 – First Opium War: British occupy Ningbo.
October 16 – Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, by Rev. Thomas Liddell, who carries a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria, and becomes the school's first principal.
October 30 – A fire at the Tower of London destroys its Grand Armoury and causes a quarter of a million pounds' worth of damage.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
November – The settlement of Dallas, Texas, is founded by John Neely Bryan.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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November 13 – Scottish surgeon James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism by Charles Lafontaine in Manchester, which leads to his study of the phenomenon that he (Braid) eventually calls hypnotism.
December 20 – The first multilateral treaty for the suppression of the African slave trade, the Treaty for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade, signed in London by the representatives of Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia.
December 23 – First Anglo-Afghan War: At a meeting with the Afghan general Akbar Khan, British diplomat Sir William Hay Macnaghten is shot dead at close quarters.
December 27 – Franz Liszt gives a piano recital at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin to an enthusiastic audience, retrospectively marked as the beginning of Lisztomania, which will accompany his tours across Europe during the decade.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>