Events from the year 1840 in France.
Incumbents Monarch – Louis Philippe I
Events 20 January - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica. 1 March - Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister. 27 April – The Duke of Nemours, the second son of the king, marries Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at the Château de Saint-Cloud 30 September - The frigate Belle Poule arrives in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, returning the remains of Napoleon from Saint Helena. He is buried in Les Invalides. 15 December – The Return of Napoleon is completed with a public procession in Paris before he is buried in Les Invalides. Metric system again mandatory across France.
Arts and literature 11 February - Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Regiment premieres in Paris.
Births 23 March -Louis-Émile Bertin, naval engineer (died 1924) 2 April - Émile Zola, novelist (died 1902) 22 April - Odilon Redon, painter and printmaker (died 1916) 13 May - Alphonse Daudet, novelist (died 1897) 20 October - Désiré-Magloire Bourneville, neurologist (died 1909) 12 November - Auguste Rodin, sculptor (died 1917) 14 November - Claude Monet, Impressionist painter (died 1926) 1 December - Marie Bracquemond, Impressionist painter (died 1916)
Deaths 13 February - Nicolas Joseph Maison, Marshal of France and Minister of War (born 1770) 27 February - John Tessier, French Sulpician priest (born 1758) 22 March - Étienne Bobillier, mathematician (born 1798) 25 April - Siméon Denis Poisson, mathematician and physicist (born 1781) 7 June - Népomucène Lemercier, poet and dramatist (born 1771) 20 June - Pierre-Joseph Redouté, painter and botanist (born 1759) 7 September - Étienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald, Marshal of France (born 1765)
References