1846 CE

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Robert Peel, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom votes to repeal the Corn Laws by passing an Importation Bill, replacing the old colonial mercantile trade system with free trade in response to the Great Famine (Ireland). On June 25 the Duke of Wellington persuades the House of Lords to pass the Act, which will take full effect from February 1849. Peel, however, is forced to resign. The portion of the District of Columbia in the United States that was ceded by Virginia in 1790 is re-ceded to Virginia. The Great Western Steamship Company's SS Great Britain, bound from Liverpool for New York, runs aground in Dundrum Bay (County Down). She lies here for almost a year, protected by temporary measures organised by her designer, I. K. Brunel.

In the 1840s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 5 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Country with the United Kingdom.source
January 23 – Ahmad I ibn Mustafa, Bey of Tunis, declares the legal abolition of slavery in Tunisia.source
February 19 – Texas annexation: United States president James K. Polk's annexation of the Republic of Texas is finalized by Texas president Anson Jones in a formal ceremony of transfer of sovereignty. The newly formed Texas state government is officially installed in Austin.source
March 9 – The First Anglo-Sikh war ends with the signing of the Treaty of Lahore. Kashmir is ceded to the British East India Company, and the Koh-i-Noor diamond is surrendered to Queen Victoria.source
9 March - the Treaty of Lahore was a peace treaty marking the end of the First Anglo-Sikh War. As a result, Maharaja Ranjit Singh ceded Kashmir to the British East India Company.India source
June 10 – Mexican–American War: The California Republic declares independence from Mexico.source
14 June – Founding congress of the Liberal Party.Belgium source
June 15 – Britain and United States settle the long-disputed boundary across the Columbia District or Oregon Country from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, by drawing the boundary across the mountains along the 49th Parallel to the Strait of Georgia, and leaving the Colony of Vancouver Island, established in 1843, intact.Canada source
August 22 – The Second Federal Republic of Mexico is established.source
August 22 – President Salas decrees the 1824 Constitution of Mexico in effect again.Mexico source
August 28 – The New Zealand Constitution Act 1846 is passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom with the intention of granting self-government to the British colony. Governor George Grey suspends implementation of the majority of the Act, with the exception of the creation of New Ulster and New Munster Provinces, and it is superseded by the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852.source
28 August: The New Zealand Constitution Act 1846 is passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom with the intention of granting self-government to the colony. Governor George Grey suspends implementation of the majority of the Act, with the exception of the creation of New Ulster and New Munster Provinces, and it is superseded by the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852.New Zealand source
September 7 – The portion of the District of Columbia in the United States that was ceded by Virginia in 1790 is re-ceded to Virginia.source
18 September – Chilean presidential election, 1846Chile source
December 22 – The Guild system in Sweden is abolished by the Fabriks och Handtwerksordning and Handelsordningen, and trade and handicrafts permits are granted to every male and female applicant of legal majority.source
December 22 - The guild system in Sweden is abolished by the Fabriks och Handtwerksordning and Handelsordningen.Sweden source
December 24 – Great Britain acquires Labuan from the Sultanate of Brunei.source
December 28 – Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.source

Conflict & Security

February 10 – First Anglo-Sikh war: Battle of Sobraon – British forces in India defeat the Sikhs.source
February 18 – The Galician Peasant Uprising of 1846 begins in Austria.source
February 20–March 3 – Kraków uprising: Polish nationalists stage an uprising in the Free City of Kraków; it is suppressed by forces of the Austrian Empire, supported by peasants.source
February 22 – The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is cracked while being rung for George Washington's birthday.source
April 18 – The commission on Rebellion Losses reports.Canada source
April 25 – Mexican–American War: Open conflict begins, over the disputed border of Texas.source
May 8 – Mexican–American War – Battle of Palo Alto: Zachary Taylor defeats a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande at Palo Alto, Texas in the first major battle of the war.source
May 13 – Mexican–American War: The United States declares war on Mexico.source
May 16 – The Revolution of Maria da Fonte begins in Portugal. It will be by royalist troops on February 22, 1847.source
16 May: Māori led by Te Mamaku attack the fortified outpost at Boulcott's farm near the modern-day Belmont in the Hutt Valley. Six troopers and an unknown number of Māori are killed as the attack is repulsed.New Zealand source
June 14 – Bear Flag Revolt: American settlers in Sonoma, California, start a rebellion against Mexico and proclaim the California Republic.source
1 July – William Westwood, a bushranger, leads the Cooking Pot Uprising in the penal colony of Norfolk Island in response to the confiscation of convicts' cooking vessels under the orders of the Commandant of the penal settlement, Major Joseph Childs.Australia source
July 7 – Mexican–American War: Battle of Monterey – Acting on instructions from Washington, D.C., Commodore John Drake Sloat orders his troops to occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the United States annexation of California.source
July 7 – Acting on instructions from Washington, DC, Commodore John Drake Sloat orders his troops to occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the United States annexation of California.Mexico source
September 14 – Jang Bahadur and his brothers massacre about 40 members of the Nepalese palace court.source
September – The Second Carlist War (or the War of the Matiners or Madrugadores) begins in Spain.source
6 October – Emboscada (palace coup)Portugal source
Approximately 103 settlers start arriving in Port Elizabeth from war-torn Buenos Aires, Argentina.South Africa source
Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick - Heraldic Visitations of Wales and Part of the Marches between the years 1586 and 1613...Wales source

Exploration & Expansion

January – Gold is found at the Victoria Mine near Castambul, in the Adelaide HillsAustralia source
January – African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass arrives in Scotland from Ireland to continue his speaking tour of the United Kingdom.Scotland source
February 4 – Led by Brigham Young, many Mormons in the U.S. begin their migration west from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Great Salt Lake in what becomes Utah.source
February 11 – Many Mormons begin their migration west from Nauvoo, Illinois to the Great Salt Lake, led by Brigham Young.United States source
June 15 – The Oregon Treaty establishes the 49th parallel as the border between the United States and Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.source
August – Canadian physician and geologist Abraham Pineo Gesner demonstrates a process to refine a liquid fuel, which he calls kerosene, from coal, bitumen or oil shale.source
December: Thomas Brunner sets out on a journey of exploration south of Nelson which will eventually take 18 months to complete.New Zealand source
David Thompson begins compiling a book about his travels.Canada source
Banqiao District established in Fujian (now Taiwan)China source
Locations Commission established by Chief Justice Cloete & Sir Theophilus Shepstone to explore racial segregation in Natal.South Africa source
Trade and craft professions are opened to all unmarried women.Sweden source

Religion & Belief

21 March – Achel Priory founded as a filiation from Westmalle Abbey.Belgium source
June 16 – Pope Pius IX succeeds Pope Gregory XVI as the 255th pope. He will reign for 31½ years (the longest definitely confirmed).source
28 June: The Church of Sweden Härnösand Cathedral is inaugurated.Sweden source
November 9 – Pope Pius IX issues the encyclical Qui pluribus, in response to the growing trend of agnosticism among intellectuals in Europe.source
Undated – Launceston Synagogue is consecrated.Australia source
Helgi G. Thordersen becomes the third Bishop of Iceland, following the death of Steingrímur Jónsson the previous year.Iceland source
A wealthy landowner, Nikolai Bakhmetev, constructs a stone church, which would eventually be built into the Annunciation Monastery (Tolyatti) in Samara OblastRussia source
New College, Edinburgh, opens its doors as a theological training college for the Free Church of Scotland.Scotland source
Agapemone, a Christian sect and community, is founded by Rev. Henry Prince at Spaxton, Somerset.United Kingdom source
Halkyn-born Mormon missionary Dan Jones becomes mission president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wales, concentrating the church's efforts around Merthyr Tydfil, publishing (from July) the Welsh language monthly Prophwyd y Jubili and also the tract Hanes Saint y Dyddiau Diweddaf.Wales source

Economy & Finance

14 March – First property purchased for Feargus O'Connor's Chartist-backed English National Land Company to provide smallholdings and suffrage for working men, at Heronsgate (O'Connorville) in Hertfordshire.United Kingdom source
16 May – Under the leadership of British Prime Minister Robert Peel, the British Parliament repeals the Corn Laws, replacing the old Colonial mercantile trade system with Free Trade.Canada source
November 17 – Carl Zeiss, a major worldwide optoelectronics and digital camera brand, is founded in Thuringia, Germany.source
19 November – Banco de Portugal establishedPortugal source
The John Dewar & Sons company is created by John Dewar Sr. and his sonsScotland source

Technology & Infrastructure

9 January – Barentin Viaduct on the Paris–Le Havre railway collapses soon after its completion by English engineers.France source
January 13 – The Milan–Venice railway's 3.2 km bridge, over the Venetian Lagoon between Mestre and Venice in Italy, opens, the world's longest since 1151.source
January 30 – The City of Milwaukee is incorporated in Wisconsin, merging Juneautown, Kilbourntown and Walker's Point following the Milwaukee Bridge War of 1845. Solomon Juneau is elected first mayor.United States source
3 April – Last London-based mail coach runs to Norwich.United Kingdom source
6 May — Work begins on Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, designed by Jean-Pierre CluysenaarBelgium source
June 15 – Launceston Church Grammar School opens for the first time in Tasmania.source
22 June – the North British Railway is opened to public traffic between Edinburgh and Berwick-upon-Tweed, the first line to cross the border between Scotland and England. Edinburgh Waverley railway station is opened.Scotland source
June 28 – The saxophone is patented by Adolphe Sax.source
1 August - Opening of the Aberdare railway.Wales source
September 3 – Electric Telegraph Company founded in Britain.source
September 10 – Elias Howe is awarded the first United States patent for a sewing machine, using a lockstitch design.source
22 September – the Great Western Steamship Company's SS Great Britain, bound from Liverpool for New York, runs aground in Dundrum Bay (County Down). She lies here for almost a year, protected by temporary measures organised by her designer, I. K. Brunel.Ireland source
The first copper mine in Canada opens at Bruce Mines.Canada source

Science & Discovery

June 20 – The first officially recorded baseball game using modern rules developed by Alexander Cartwright is played in Hoboken, New Jersey.United States source
8 August – The planet Neptune is first observed but not recognised by James Challis, director of the Cambridge Observatory.United Kingdom source
September 23 – Discovery of Neptune: The planet is observed for the first time by German astronomers Johann Gottfried Galle and Heinrich Louis d'Arrest, as predicted by British astronomer John Couch Adams and French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier.source
October 1 – Triton, Neptune's largest moon, is discovered by William Lassell 17 days after the discovery of Neptune.source
10 October – William Lassell discovers Triton, one of the moons of Neptune.United Kingdom source
14-year-old James Clerk Maxwell's first scientific paper is presented to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.Scotland source

Health & Medicine

26 August – The Public Baths and Wash Houses Act (An Act to encourage the Establishment of public Baths and Wash-houses) is passed by Parliament permitting local authorities to establish baths and wash houses in Britain.United Kingdom source
October 16 – At Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. William T. G. Morton, a dentist, gives the first successful public demonstration of ether anesthesia.source
21 December – Scottish-born surgeon Robert Liston carries out the first operation under anesthesia in Europe, at University College Hospital in London.Scotland source
21 December – Surgeon Robert Liston carries out the first operation under anaesthesia in Britain.United Kingdom source
1846–1860 cholera pandemic breaks out in south Asia; in the United Kingdom, Parliament passes The Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act.source
Deodands Act, abolishing the ancient legal remedy of deodand, with effect from 1 September.United Kingdom source

Crime & Justice

January 29 – Many persons in the Eastern Townships are arrested on charge of counterfeiting, being afterwards tried before Sir James Stuart and other Judges. Hon L. T. Drummond and Edward Short, (afterwards judges), prosecute; H. B. Terrill (afterwards M.P.P. for Stanstead), defends. All are acquitted.Canada source
13 March – Ballinlass incident: eviction of 300 tenants at the village of Ballinlass in County Galway.Ireland source
September 19 – Our Lady of La Salette, a Marian apparition, is said to have been seen by two children at La Salette-Fallavaux in France.source
Catherine Murray, Countess of Dunmore, commissions "the Paisley Sisters" of Strond on Harris to weave tweed in the Clan Murray tartan, origin of the commercial Harris Tweed industry.Scotland source
Den broderade plånboken by August BlancheSweden source
Dubbelgångaren av Fjodor DostojevskijSweden source
Torparen och hans omgifning by Sophie von KnorringSweden source
African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass continues his speaking tour of the UK throughout the year.United Kingdom source
Griffith Edwards (Gutyn Padarn) - Gwaith PrydyddawlWales source

Disasters & Accidents

February – The Peruvian is shipwrecked after running into a submerged reef off the coast of north-eastern Australia, the few survivors making landfall at Cape Cleveland.Australia source
11 March: The brig H.M.S. Osprey (Captain Patten) is driven ashore and wrecked at Herekino Harbour, having mistaken it for the entrance to the Hokianga Harbour, but no lives are lost.New Zealand source
June 9 – Burning of St. John's, Newfoundland.Canada source
June 12 – Theatre burned at Quebec.Canada source
1 August – Fatal Accidents Act 1846 ("Lord Campbell's Act") provides for a wrongful death claim in civil law.United Kingdom source
Gothenburg becomes the first Swedish city to be lit up by voal gas.Sweden source

Climate & Environment

7 May: Little Waihi landslide kills around 60 Maori, including Mananui Te Heuheu Tukino II.New Zealand source
May 15 – Under the leadership of Prime Minister Robert Peel, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom votes to repeal the Corn Laws by passing an Importation Bill, replacing the old colonial mercantile trade system with free trade in response to the Great Famine (Ireland). On June 25 the Duke of Wellington persuades the House of Lords to pass the Act, which will take full effect from February 1849. Peel, however, is forced to resign.source
9 July – A flood at East Wheal Rose lead mine in Cornwall kills 39.United Kingdom source
November 4 – The Donner Party, a wagon train of 87 settlers traveling to California, is stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains by the first of several snowstorms. By the time a relief party reaches the starving settlers three months later, only 48 survivors are left, many of whom have survived by cannibalism.source
November 30 – The Donner Party becomes snowbound.United States source
The Great Famine continues in Ireland. The first deaths from hunger take place early in the year and Phytophthora infestans almost totally destroys the summer potato crop.source
The Great Famine begins, marking a change in the composition of Irish immigrating to Canada from mostly rich, well-connected, respectable Protestants to vastly poor, ill-equipped, poorly treated Catholics.Canada source
Ongoing – Great Hunger: The first deaths from hunger take place early in the year. Phytophthora infestans almost totally destroys the summer potato crop and the Famine worsens considerably. By December a third of a million destitute people are employed on public works.Ireland source
A devastating potato disease hit the Russian Empire. However, it was supposed to shield the peasants against famine.Russia source
Start of Highland Potato Famine.Scotland source
Carolina, Lady Nairne's Lays from Strathern are published posthumously, revealing her authorship. This includes the Jacobite song "The Hundred Pipers".Scotland source

Culture & Society

5 January: The Māori language magazine, Te Karere o Nui Tireni publishes its last issue. It started in 1842. It is revived as The Maori Messenger and Te Manuhiri Tuarangi between 1849 and 1863.New Zealand source
March 10 – Prince Osahito, fourth son of deceased Emperor Ninkō of Japan, becomes Emperor Kōmei.source
May 11 – The University at Buffalo is founded by future United States Vice President and President, Millard Fillmore.source
May 22 – Rita Cetina Gutiérrez, teacher, poet and activist (died 1908)Mexico source
May – The Associated Press is founded in New York.source
2 June – first editions of Melbourne's daily newspaper, The Argus; and of Brisbane's weekly newspaper, Moreton Bay Courier, are published.Australia source
August 11 – Establishment of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.United States source
September 12 – Poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning marry privately in London, departing a week later for the continent.source
October 1 – Christ College, Tasmania, opens with the hope that it will develop along the lines of an Oxbridge college, and provide the basis for university education in Tasmania. By the 21st century it will be the oldest tertiary institution in Australia.source
The first higher school of academic learning for women in Denmark, Den højere Dannelsesanstalt for Damer, is founded in Copenhagen.source
Fort Wayne Female College is founded in Indiana as a Methodist institution; it will later be renamed Taylor University.source
Astor House Hotel (Shanghai) (礼查饭店), established in 1846 as Richards' Hotel and Restaurant (礼查饭店) on The BundChina source
The of Den højere Dannelsesanstalt for Damer, the first secondary education school for women, is established by Annestine Beyer and Emil Bojsen.Denmark source
The Petrashevsky Circle, organized by Mikhail Petrashevsky, was active in the 1840s (founded in 1845) and by 1846 it existed as a gathering of intellectuals.Russia source
The Swedish History Museum is founded.Sweden source

Births

February 2 – Francis Marion Smith, American borax magnate (died 1931)source
February 9 – Wilhelm Maybach, German automobile designer (died 1929)source
February 26 – William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, American frontiersman, later showman (died 1917)source
24 March – Juan José Latorre, Vice Admiral (died 1912)Chile source
April 4 – Comte de Lautréamont, French writer (died 1870)source
May 5 – Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish author, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1916)source
May 22 – Rita Cetina Gutiérrez, Mexican teacher, poet and activist (died 1908)source
May 25 – Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (died 1923)source
May 29 – Winfield Scott Edgerly, United States Brigadier General (died 1927)source
June 13 – Rose Cleveland, de facto First Lady of the United States (died 1918)source
June 27 – Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish political leader (died 1891)source
July 29 – Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil (died 1921)source
July 29 - Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil.Brazil source
September 16 – Anna Kingsford, British spiritual writer, doctor, feminist and pioneering vegetarian (died 1888)source
October 6 – George Westinghouse, American entrepreneur, engineer (died 1914)source
5 November – Joaquim Pimenta de Castro, military officer, mathematician and politician (died 1918)Portugal source
November 25 – Carrie Nation, American temperance advocate (died 1911)source
? – Reza Khan Arfa Danesh, Iranian diplomat and poet.Iran source

Deaths

February 21 – Emperor Ninkō of Japan (born 1800)source
February 27 – María Trinidad Sánchez, heroine of the Dominican War of Independence (born 1794)source
March 17 – Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician and astronomer (born 1784)source
7 May: Mananui Te Heuheu Tukino II, tribal leaderNew Zealand source
June 1 – Pope Gregory XVI (born 1765)source
June 8 – Rodolphe Töpffer, Swiss author, painter, and caricature artist (born 1799)source
June 13 – Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès, French geographer, author and translator (born 1767)source
June 18 – Abdollah Mirza Dara, Iranian poet and Qajar prince.Iran source
23 June: Björn Blöndal, politician.Iceland source
August 5 – Dorothy Thomas, Caribbean entrepreneur and former slave (born 1756)source
August 16 – Sylvain Charles Valée, Marshal of France (born 1773)source
September 26 – Thomas Clarkson, English abolitionist (born 1760)source
October 2 – Benjamin Waterhouse, American physician, medical professor (born 1754)source
October 15 – Bagyidaw, Burmese king (born 1784)source
November 6 – Alexander Chavchavadze, Georgian Romantic poet, military figure (born 1786)source
November 12 – William Findlay, American politician (born 1768)source
December 18 – Emilie Högquist, Swedish dramatic star (born 1812)source
date unknown – Mariano Egaña, lawyer and politician (born 1793)Chile source