During an exploring expedition, Captain Charles Wilkes sights the coast of eastern Antarctica and claims it for the United States. Wilkes’ group had set out in 1838, sailing around South America to the South Pacific and then to Antarctica, where they explored a 1,500-mile stretch of the eastern Antarctic coast that later became known as Wilkes Land. In 1842, the expedition returned to New York, having circumnavigated the globe.

On January 22, 1840, colonists aboard The New Zealand Company’s ship, the Aurora, become the first European settlers to arrive at Petone to found the settlement that would become Wellington.

On October 8, 1840, the Kingdom of Hawaii (Native spelling: Hawai‘i) adopts its first constitution, creating a formal government and granting all citizens of the independent nation equal rights, stating that “chiefs and people may enjoy protection under one and the same law.”