1841 Calendar

January 20, 1841 – Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British.

January 26, 1841 – The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China later formally cedes.

January 30, 1841 – A fire destroys two-thirds of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

March 9, 1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.

April 4, 1841 – William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and the one with the shortest term served.

June 28, 1841 – The Paris Opera Ballet premieres Giselle in the Salle Le Peletier

August 16, 1841 – 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.

September 24, 1841 – The Sultan of Brunei cedes Sarawak to the United Kingdom.

October 16, 1841 – Queen’s University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

November 13, 1841 – James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually calls hypnotism.

January 18, 1841 – Emmanuel Chabrier, French composer (d. 1894)

February 18, 1841 – Gergely Luthár, Hungarian Slovene writer (d. 1925)

May 22, 1841 – Catulle Mendès, French poet (d. 1909)

June 6, 1841 – Eliza Orzeszkowa, Polish novelist (d. 1910)

June 12, 1841 – Watson Fothergill English Architect based in Nottingham (d. 1928)

August 13, 1841 – Johnny Mullagh, Australian cricketer (d. 1891)

September 8, 1841 – Charles J. Guiteau, American assassin of James A. Garfield (d. 1882)

November 6, 1841 – Nelson W. Aldrich, American politician (d. 1915)

November 20, 1841 – Wilfrid Laurier, seventh Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1919)

December 6, 1841 – Frédéric Bazille, French painter (d. 1870)