British naval officer James Clark Ross commands the first scientific expedition to survey Antarctica, comprising the vessels HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.

Departing from Britain in 1839, the four-year voyage will chart much of the coastline of the Antarctic continent.

William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone build the world's first commercial telegraph line, which runs for thirteen miles (twenty-one kilometers) from Paddington station to West Drayton, comes into operation on April 9, 1839, commissioned by The Great Western Railway, founded in 1833.

Telegraph systems quickly become the earliest major market for batteries.