Years: 1840 1841 1842 - 1843 - 1844 1845 1846

Decades: 1810s 1820s 1830s - 1840s - 1850s 1860s 1870s

Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

1843 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events

• February 6 - The first minstrel show in the United States The Virginia Minstrels opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City).
• February 11 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera I Lombardi premieres in Milan
• May 18 - The Disruption of the Church of Scotland took place in Edinburgh
• May 22 - The first major wagon train headed for the northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
• October 13 - In New York City, Henry Jones and 11 others found B'nai B'rith (the oldest Jewish service organization in the world).
• November 28 - Ka Lahui: Hawaiian Independence Day. The Kingdom of Hawai`i was officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.
• December 17 - First publication of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
• James Joule quantifies the conversion of work into heat
• In Barbados, the first colored man, Samuel Jackson Prescod , is elected to House of Assembly
• Danish government re-establishes althing in Iceland as an advisory body
• First tunnel under Thames is finished
• Argentina supports Rosas of Uruguay and begins a siege of Montevideo
• Quaternions are discovered by William Rowan Hamilton.
• The Economist is first published.
• Bishop's University is founded.
• Abbeville is founded by descendants of Acadians from Nova Scotia.

Births

• January 10 - Frank James, American outlaw (d. 1915)
• January 29 - William McKinley, 25th President of the United States (d. 1901)
• April 4 - William Jackson , photographer
• April 25 - Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
• June 3 - Frederick VIII of Denmark, King
• June 9 - Bertha von Suttner, winner of 1905 Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1914)
• June 15 - Edvard Grieg, composer (d. 1907)
• June 30 - Sir Ernest Satow, British diplomat and scholar in East Asia
• July 29 - Johannes Schmidt, German linguist (d. 1901)
• August 1 - Robert Todd Lincoln, American statesman, businessman (d. 1926)
• November 27 - Elizabeth Stride, third confirmed victim of Jack the Ripper (d. 1888)
• November 27 – Cornelius Vanderbilt II, railway magnate (d. 1899)
• December 11 - Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch, German bacteriologist (d. 1910)

Deaths

• March 21 - Robert Southey, English poet (b. 1774)
• March 25 - Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Scottish divine
• March 27 - Karl Salomo Zachariae Von Lingenthal, German jurist
• April 15 - Noah Webster, American lexicographer
• April 17 - Samuel Morey, American inventor
• June 6 - Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet, novelist, and dramatist (b. 1770)
• July 7 - John Holmes, American politician
• William Abbot - English actor
• Francis Scott Key, writer of the "Star Spangled Banner"