– David Livingstone leaves Britain for Africa. December 15 – The body of Napoleon is laid to rest in Les Invalides in Paris. December 21 – Stockport Viaduct is completed in North West England. It is one of the largest brick structures in Europe. Date unknown The first English translation of Goethe's Theory of Colours by Charles Eastlake is published. The first known photograph of Niagara Falls, a daguerreotype, is taken by English chemist Hugh Lee Pattinson. Kajima, a construction company based in Japan, is founded in Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Approximate date – Volcanic eruption of Tinakula in the Solomon Islands causes the island to be depopulated. Ongoing First Opium War (1839–1842) First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842) Egyptian–Ottoman War (1839–41) Births January–June January 1 – Dugald Drummond, British railway engineer (d. 1912) January 3 – Father Damien, Belgian missionary priest (d. 1889) January 9 – Samuel Baldwin Marks Young, American general, first Chief of Staff of the United States Army (d. 1924) January 18 – Alfred Percy Sinnett, British writer (d. 1921) January 21 – Sophia Jex-Blake, English physician (d. 1912) January 22 – Ernest Roland Wilberforce, English bishop (d. 1907) January 23 – Ernst Abbe, German physicist (d. 1905) February 4 – Sir Hiram Maxim, American-born British firearms inventor (d. 1916) February 5 – John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish inventor (d. 1921) February 9 – William T. Sampson, American admiral (d. 1902) February 15 – Titu Maiorescu, 23rd Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1917) February 21 – Murad V, 33rd Ottoman Sultan (d. 1904) February 22 – August Bebel, German politician (d. 1913) February 23 – Carl Menger, Austrian economist (d. 1921) February 29 – John Philip Holland, Irish inventor of the submarine (d. 1914) March 8 – Eduard von Knorr, German admiral (d. 1920) March 28 – Emin Pasha, German doctor, African administrator (d. 1892) March 31 – Sir Benjamin Baker, English civil engineer (d. 1907) April 2 – Émile Zola, French writer (d. 1902) April 11 – Robert Wentworth Little, British occultist (d. 1878) April 22 – Odilon Redon, French painter (d. 1916) April 27 – Edward Whymper, English mountaineer (d. 1911) May 7 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (d. 1893) May 10 – Eliza Trask Hill, American activist, journalist, philanthropist (d. 1908) May 13 – Alphonse Daudet, French writer (d. 1897) June 2 Thomas Hardy, English writer (d. 1928) Émile Munier, French artist (d. 1895) June 7