1848 CE

1848 is historically famous for the wave of revolutions, a series of widespread struggles for more liberal governments, which broke out from Brazil to Hungary; although most failed in their immediate aims, they significantly altered the political and philosophical landscape and had major ramifications throughout the rest of the century.

In the 1840s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 3 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia.source
February 2 – Mexican–American War: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – Mexico cedes virtually all of what becomes the Southwestern United States to the U.S. The unincorporated California Territory becomes a provisional official possession; it is never organized by the United States Congress as a territory, but directly passes the requirements for statehood in 1850.source
February 2 – Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the war and ceding to the United States virtually all of what is today the southwest of that country.Mexico source
8 February - The Treaty of Lima is signed.Chile source
February 21 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto (Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei) in London.source
February 24 – Louis Philippe I, King of the French, abdicates in favour of his grandson, Prince Philippe, Count of Paris (who is proclaimed as Louis Philippe II but not accepted by the people), and flees to England after days of revolution in Paris. The French Second Republic is later proclaimed by Alphonse de Lamartine, in the name of the provisional government elected by the Chamber, under the pressure of the mob.source
March 4 – Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia.source
March 11 – Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government.source
March 13 – Prince Klemens von Metternich gives up office as State Chancellor and Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire.source
March 22 – The Republic of San Marco comes into existence in Venice.source
22 March: Adam Wilhelm Moltke is appointed the first Prime Minister of Denmark.Iceland source
April 11 – The first Hungarian national government is formed, under the leadership of Lajos Batthyány. The April Laws, the first democratic revolutionary laws in Hungary, are promulgated, putting an end to the feudal privileges of the nobility and serfdom; proclaiming the freedom of religion, freedom of the press and foundation of the Hungarian National Bank; and organising the first democratic election in Hungary based in popular representation, a national guard and reunion of Transylvania with Hungary. The Habsburg emperor, and Hungarian king Ferdinand I of Austria, ratify these laws, which form the basis of modern Hungary.source
April 27 – The second abolition of slavery in France and its colonies initiated by Victor Schœlcher.source
May 15 – 40,000 Romanians meet at Câmpia Libertății in Blaj, to protest Transylvania becoming a part of Hungary.source
May 18 – The 'Frankfurt Parliament' (Nationalversammlung), the first German National Assembly, opens in Frankfurt.source
18 May - 379 deputies assembled in the Kaisersaal in Frankfurt am Main walked solemnly to the Paulskirche to hold the first session of the German national assembly, under its chairman (by seniority) Friedrich Lang. Heinrich von Gagern became first elected president of Frankfurt Parliament.Germany source
May 19 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of February 2, ending the Mexican–American War, is ratified by the Mexican government.source
June 21 – Wallachian Revolution of 1848: The Proclamation of Islaz is made public, and a Romanian revolutionary government led by Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Christian Tell is created.source
16 July - The Liberal Party of Colombia is founded.Colombia source
August 14 – American President James K. Polk annexes the Oregon Country, and renames it the Oregon Territory as part of the United States.source
August 17 – The Independent Republic of Yucatán officially unites with Mexico, in exchange for Mexican help in suppressing a revolt by the indigenous Maya population.source
September 5 – Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar ascends to throne.Iran source
September 12 – One of the successes of the Revolutions of 1848, the Swiss Federal Constitution, patterned on the Constitution of the United States, enters into force, creating a federal republic, and one of the first modern democratic states in Europe.source
October 2 – The National Defence Committee (Országos Honvédelmi Bizottmány), led by Lajos Kossuth, becomes the executive power in Hungary, after the resignation of the Lajos Batthyány government.source
November 3 – A new Constitution of the Netherlands (drafted by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke), severely limiting the power of the monarchy and introducing representative democracy, is proclaimed.source
November 4 – France ratifies a new constitution. The French Second Republic is set up, ending the state of temporary government.source
6 November – Nationalrat and Ständerat meet in Bern for the first timeSwitzerland source
November 7 – 1848 United States presidential election: Whig Zachary Taylor of Louisiana defeats Democrat Lewis Cass of Michigan, in the first U.S. presidential election held in every state on the same day.source
December 2 – Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicates in favour of his nephew, Franz Joseph I, who will serve as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary and Bohemia, until his death in 1916.source
December 10 – Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte is elected first president of the French Second Republic.source
December 20 – President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte takes his oath of office in front of the French National Assembly.source
Cape Governor Sir Harry Smith annexes Transorangia, land north of the Orange River, creating the Orange River Sovereignty.South Africa source

Conflict & Security

January 31 – John C. Frémont is court-martialed on grounds of mutiny and disobeying orders. The verdict is set aside by U.S. President James K. Polk, but Frémont retires to California Territory.source
February - Publication of The Communist ManifestoGermany source
February – Pro-republic uprising in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle, and Val-de-TraversSwitzerland source
March 2 – The March Unrest breaks out in Sweden.source
March 18 – At a Berlin barricade, fighting between revolutionaries and royalist forces marks the culmination of the German revolutions of 1848–49. As a result, King Frederick William IV of Prussia is forced to appoint a liberal government.source
March 24 – The First Schleswig War (Schleswig-Holsteinischer Krieg, or Three Years' War (Treårskrigen)), a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question, contesting the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, begins.source
29 March – Risquons-Tout incident: Belgian troops disperse a revolutionary republican force entering the country from France.Belgium source
March 31 – Lt. Col. Henry Stanton Burton defeated Mexican forces in Baja California SurMexico source
April 18 – The Second Anglo-Sikh War breaks out in the Punjab.source
May 15 – Radicals invade the French Chamber of Deputies.source
June 22 – The French government dissolves the national workshops in Paris, giving the workers the choice of joining the army or going to workshops in the provinces. The following day, the June Days Uprising begins in response.source
June – The Serbians from Vojvodina start a rebellion against the Hungarian government.source
July 26 – The Matale Rebellion breaks out against British rule in Sri Lanka.source
July 29 – Young Irelander Rebellion: A nationalist revolt in County Tipperary, against British rule, is put down by the Irish Constabulary.source
September 10 – The Austrian commander Karl von Urban makes the first stand against the Revolution in Hungary, assembling in his headquarters in Năsăud hundreds of delegates from all districts of the Principality of Transylvania. As a result, 918 communities in the region distance themselves from the Revolution.source
September 11 – The Croatian army of Josip Jelačić, encouraged in secret by the Habsburg government, crosses the Drava River and attacks Hungary, with the goal of ending the revolution in that country.source
September 25 – The Hungarian king and Habsburg emperor Ferdinand V refuses to recognise the Hungarian government, led by Lajos Batthyány. The Batthyány government resigns and the National Defence Committee is formed, which is a temporary crisis government, totally independent from Vienna, under the leadership of Lajos Kossuth.source
September 29 – Battle of Pákozd: The Hungarian revolutionary army, led by János Móga, defeats the Croatian army of Josip Jelačić, forcing him to retreat towards Vienna.source
October 3 – General Anton Puchner, commander of the Austrian armies of Transylvania, declares insurrection against Hungary, and, together with Karl von Urban in the north and the Romanian insurgents led by Avram Iancu, attacks and chases away the Hungarian armed forces occupying Transylvania.source
October 24 – Romanian bands massacre 640 Hungarian civilians at the town of Zlatna, Transylvania. The massacre continues into 1849.source
October 30 – Battle of Schwechat: Hungarian forces which crossed the Austrian border, in order to unite with the Viennese revolutionaries, are defeated by the imperial army, led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz and Josip Jelačić.source
October 31 – Vienna is occupied by the imperial forces led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, who crushes the revolution here.source
November 6 - beginning of Praieira revolt.Brazil source
November 13 – At the Battle of Gherla, the Austrian commander Karl von Urban wins a victory with his force of 3.000 against the 12.000-strong Hungarian Revolutionary Army led by Manó Baldacci, the Hungarian commander-in-chief in Transylvania.source
November 17 – Karl von Urban liberates Klausenburg (Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár), the capital of the Principality of Transylvania, during the Hungarian Revolutionary War.source
November 24 – At the Battle of Des, Karl von Urban, with 1.500 men, defeats a Hungarian army of 10.000 led by Katona Miklós.source
December 6 – The Austrian imperial army, led by Franz Schlik, attacks Hungary.source
December 25 – Hungarian forces, led by Józef Bem, enter Kolozsvár (Cluj), after defeating the Austrian armies in northern Transylvania.source
December 30 – Battle of Mór: The imperial army, led by Josip Jelačić, defeats the Hungarian army, led by Mór Perczel.source
Russia, despite being largely unaffected by the revolutions of 1848, sends armies to aid the Habsburgs in the Hungarian revolution of 1848.Russia source
Sir Harry Smith proposes vagrancy laws to force settlers into labor, but local resistance forces him to abandon the plan.South Africa source
Mexican–American War (1846–1848)United States source

Exploration & Expansion

January 26 – Justo Sierra (writer)Mexico source
13 February – The first non-British ship carrying immigrants to arrive in Victoria was from Germany; the Goddefroy. Many of those on board were political refugees and known as Forty-Eighters.Australia source
March 23 – The settlement of Dunedin, New Zealand is founded, with the arrival of settlers from Scotland on board the John Wickliffe.source
23 March – Scottish settlers on the John Wickliffe, captained by Edinburgh-born William Cargill, arrive at what will become Port Chalmers in the Otago region of New Zealand. Dunedin is established by the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland through the Otago Association.Scotland source
3 April – Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt was last seen on the Darling Downs. On that date he wrote a letter from MacPherson's Station, Cogoon. Leichhardt had set off for Swan River.Australia source
April 25 – Captain Francis Crozier and Commander James Fitzjames of the Royal Navy deposit the final formal record ever recovered from the Franklin Expedition in a cairn on King William Island, after deserting their ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, with their surviving 105 crew members on April 22 to attempt to march to the mainland of North America.source
August 6 – HMS Daedalus reports a sighting of a sea serpent.source
December 16 – The main Austrian imperial forces, led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, cross the Hungarian border.source
December 18 – Punta Arenas, the first major settlement in the Strait of Magellan, is founded.source
The city of Joensuu is founded in North Karelia, Finland by Czar Nicholas I of Russia.source
Admiral Nevelskoy demonstrates that the Strait of Tartary is a strait.source
Voortrekkers settle across the Vaal River.South Africa source
Approximately 163 German settlers, known as the Bergthiel Settlers, arrive in Natal.South Africa source
John Hughes - The Self-SearcherWales source
Butchers' Market in Wrexham opened.Wales source

Religion & Belief

February 17 – John Bird Sumner is nominated as Archbishop of Canterbury.source
1 March – Pro-republic forces overthrow the Council of State of the Canton of Neuchatel, declare the Canton a republicSwitzerland source
March 4 – The so-called Great Ministry of Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine begins.Canada source
17 March - Poem In Kümmernis und Dunkelheit was written in London by German poet Ferdinand Freiligrath.Germany source
25 March – Nicolai Wergeland, priest, writer and politician (born 1780).Norway source
April 29 – Pope Pius IX publishes an allocution announcing his refusal to support Piedmont-Sardinia in its war with Austria, and dispelling hopes that he might serve as ruler of a pan-Italian republic. The allocution, by which Pius is seen to withdraw his moral support for the Italian unification movement, is a key first step in the soon-to-be crushing reaction against the revolutions of 1848.source
May 7 - establishment of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Porto Alegre as the Diocese of São Pedro do Rio Grande.Brazil source
June 2–12 – The Prague Slavic Congress brings together members of the Pan-Slavism movement.source
November 24 – Pope Pius IX flees Rome in disguise for Naples.source
Guillaume Geefs's Le génie du mal installed in Liège CathedralBelgium source
In January 1848, God-Worshipping Society leader, Feng Yunshan was arrested and banished to Guangdong by the local authorities.China source
The Reverend Isaac Hughes founds a mission station on the farm Backhouse, near the confluence of the Orange and Vaal rivers, which later develops into the town Douglas.South Africa source

Economy & Finance

March 7 – Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris, predecessor of European bank BNP Paribas, is founded by decree of the French Provisional Government.source
7 March - The Provisional government establishes the Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris, a national bank which is the earliest predecessor of BNP Paribas.France source
April 3 – The Chicago Board of Trade is founded by 82 Chicago merchants and business leaders.source
20 June – Jens Carl Peter Brandt, businessperson and politician (died 1912)Norway source
Watch brand Omega is founded by Louis Brandt in Switzerland.source
Fred. Olsen & Co. was founded.Norway source
Scottish Building Society established as the Edinburgh Property Investment Company.Scotland source

Technology & Infrastructure

January 31 – Construction of the Washington Monument begins in Washington, D.C.source
January — California Gold Rush starts, as gold was discovered at Sutters mill, which inspires thousands of Chinese people to travel to America, in search of gold.China source
April 10 – The Illinois and Michigan Canal is completed.source
17 May – Erik Jørgensen, master gunsmith (died 1896)Norway source
July 11 – Waterloo railway station in London opens.source
1 August – Opening of an isolated section of the Chester and Holyhead Railway across Anglesey from Llanfair to Holyhead.Wales source
29 August – The Cape Otway lighthouse in Victoria is lit for the first time.Australia source
September 13 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives a 3-foot-plus iron rod being driven through his head.source
September 13 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage incredibly survives a 3-foot-plus iron rod being driven through his head.United States source
October 28 – In Catalonia, Spain, the Barcelona–Mataró railroad route (the first to be constructed in the Iberian Peninsula) is inaugurated.source
28 October 1848: the railway line Barcelona–Mataró is opened. It is the first railway line in Spain.Spain source
Richard Wagner begins writing the libretto that will become Der Ring des Nibelungen ("The Ring of the Nibelung").source
First telegraph lines in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.Canada source
Painting Gnome Watching Railway Train by Carl SpitzwegGermany source

Science & Discovery

25 April – Andrew Graham discovers asteroid 9 Metis from politician Edward Joshua Cooper's private Markree Observatory in County Sligo, the first (and until 2008 only) discovery from Ireland of a minor planet.Ireland source
May 3 – The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire.source
September 16 – William Cranch Bond and William Lassell discover Hyperion, Saturn's moon.source
16 September – William Lassell independently co-discovers Hyperion, one of the moons of Saturn.United Kingdom source
17 September – The first attempt at photography is made in New Zealand. Lieutenant-Governor Eyre is unsuccessful in his attempt to take a daguerreotype of Eliza Grey, wife of Governor Grey.New Zealand source
Undated - the Aboriginal Witnesses Act 1848. was enacted in South Australia.Australia source
Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, author and college professor in America (d.1895)Norway source
Cambridge rules for Association football drawn up.United Kingdom source
John Jenkins - National EducationWales source

Health & Medicine

3 February – Jørgen Løvland, politician and Prime Minister of Norway (died 1922)Norway source
The outbreak of the First Schleswig WarDenmark source
July – The Public Health Act establishes Boards of Health across England and Wales, the nation's first public health law, giving cities broad authority to build modern sanitary systems.source
31 August – The Public Health Act receives Royal Assent, establishing Boards of Health across England and Wales and paving the way for considerable improvements in public sanitation to counter endemic cholera in British cities. This year the third cholera pandemic reaches the UK.United Kingdom source
19 September – Gunnar Knudsen, politician and twice Prime Minister of Norway (died 1928)Norway source
November 1 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, the Boston Female Medical School (which later merges with Boston University School of Medicine), opens.source
November 1 – The first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merges with Boston University School of Medicine), opens in Boston, Massachusetts.United States source
14 November – Opening of the North Wales County Pauper Lunatic Asylum (North Wales Hospital), Denbigh.Wales source
Russia suffers major disasters such as a major cholera epidemic, a bad harvest, and an increase in fires due to weather.Russia source
Third cholera pandemic in Scotland, first breaking out in Edinburgh.Scotland source

Crime & Justice

February – John Mitchel publishes The United Irishman, a weekly Irish nationalist newspaper. It is suppressed and Mitchel arrested and convicted under the Treason Felony Act 1848 on 26 May and sentenced to transportation to Australia.Ireland source
April 10 – A Chartist 'Monster Rally' is held in Kennington Park London, headed by Feargus O'Connor. A petition demanding the franchise is presented to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.source
22 April – Treason Felony Act passed, reducing certain categories of capital high treason to felony punishable by penal transportation.United Kingdom source
July 5 – Run on the Savings Bank, Montreal, followed by re-deposit.Canada source
20 December – Ole Høiland, burglar and jail-breaker (born 1797)Norway source
Louis Gallait, The Fisherman's FamilyBelgium source
Painting Germania (St. Paul's Church, Frankfurt am Main)Germany source
California Gold Rush (1848–1855)United States source
Richard Williams Morgan - Maynooth and St. AsaphWales source

Disasters & Accidents

23 June: Government House, in Auckland is burned to the ground by a fire believed to have started in the butler's pantry. Most chattels and Government documents were saved.New Zealand source
August 24 – The U.S. barque Ocean Monarch is burnt out off the Great Orme, North Wales, with the loss of 178, chiefly emigrants.source
24 August – The U.S. barque Ocean Monarch is burnt out off the Great Orme, North Wales, with the loss of 178, chiefly emigrants.United Kingdom source
24 August – The American barque Ocean Monarch, loaded with would-be immigrants, catches fire off Colwyn Bay, with the loss of 178 lives.Wales source
Holm Hansen Munthe, architect (d.1898)Norway source
Henrik Nissen, architect (d.1915)Norway source

Climate & Environment

January 12 – Sicilian revolution of 1848: The Palermo rising erupts in Sicily against the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.source
May – Huddersfield workhouse scandal: an inquiry reveals the poor conditions in which inmates have been kept.United Kingdom source
July – famine victims on outdoor relief peak this month at almost 840,000 people.Ireland source
July – Great Famine (Ireland): Potato blight has returned and outbreaks of cholera are reported. Famine victims on outdoor relief peak this month at almost 840,000 people.United Kingdom source
19 August – Moray Firth fishing disaster: 100 fishermen lose their lives in a severe storm off the east coast.Scotland source
16 October – A magnitude 7.5 earthquake strikes Marlborough, causing three deaths.New Zealand source
Great Famine (Ireland) (1845–52).source
Ongoing – Great Famine: Potato blight returns and outbreaks of cholera are reported.Ireland source

Culture & Society

January 24 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California.source
February 2 – John Henry Newman founds the first Oratory in the English-speaking world, when he establishes the Birmingham Oratory at 'Maryvale', Old Oscott, England.source
4 March – Karl Marx deported from BelgiumBelgium source
March 15 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian young revolutionary intellectuals, led by Sándor Petőfi, Mór Jókai and others, called the Márciusi Ifjak (Young men of March) organize peaceful mass demonstrations in Pest, forcing the city's Habsburg authorities to accept the 12 Points: the Hungarian claim for freedom and self-determination within the Habsburg Empire. On the same day, Lajos Kossuth and representatives of the Diet of Hungary go to Vienna, and force the emperor and Hungarian king Ferdinand I of Austria to accept Hungarian claims for self-determination within the empire.source
March 18 – The Boston Public Library is founded by an act of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts.source
21 March – A large demonstration goes to Christiansborg Palace. Absolutism is abolished.Denmark source
March 29 – Queen's College, London, founded, the world's first school to award academic qualifications to young women.source
May 13 – "Maamme", the national anthem of Finland written by German composer Fredrik Pacius and Finnish poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg, was performed for the first time.source
May 30 – The Prudential Mutual Assurance Investment and Loan Association is established at Hatton Garden in London (England) to provide loans to professional and working people, origin of the multinational life insurance and financial services group.source
1 June - Foundation of Neue Rheinische ZeitungGermany source
June 24 – Anne Brontë published her final novel and her best-selling work, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.source
July 19 – Seneca Falls Convention: The 2-day women's rights convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York; "Bloomers" are introduced.source
July 26 – The University of Wisconsin–Madison is founded.source
August 19 – California Gold Rush: The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States that there is a gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).source
September 20 – Opening of the Jesuits' College, Montreal.Canada source
September 26 – The University of Ottawa is founded in Canada as the College of Bytown, a Roman Catholic institution.source
October 18 – Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life, is published anonymously in London.source
13 December – Otago News begins publication. The newspaper publishes fortnightly until closing in 1850.New Zealand source
December 20 – Slavery is abolished in Réunion (this day is celebrated every year from 1981).source
December 26 – The Phi Delta Theta fraternity is founded at Miami University.United States source
27 December – Marcus Thrane founded Drammens arbeiderforening (Drammen Labour Union).Norway source
The Shaker song "Simple Gifts" is written by Joseph Brackett in Alfred, Maine.source
Rhodes College is founded in Clarksville, Tennessee, as the Masonic University of Tennessee.source
The University of Mississippi admits its first students.source
Geneva College (Pennsylvania) is founded as Geneva Hall in Northwood, Logan County, Ohio.source
The first horse race was organized in Shanghai (see Shanghai Race Club).China source

Births

January 4 - Katsura Tarō (died 1913), general and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Japan.Japan source
January 27 – Tōgō Heihachirō, Japanese admiral (died 1934)source
February 18 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (died 1933)source
February 27 – Sir Hubert Parry, English composer (died 1918)source
March 18 – Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, daughter of Queen Victoria (died 1939)source
March 19 – Wyatt Earp, American lawman and gunfighter (died 1929)source
April 7 – Randall Davidson, British Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1930)source
9 April - Ezequiél Moreno y Díaz (died 1906)Colombia source
April 21/23 – Carl Rüedi, pulmonologist (died 1901)Switzerland source
May 23 – Otto Lilienthal, German engineer, aviation pioneer (died 1896)source
June 7 – Dolores Jiménez y Muro, Mexican revolutionary and educator (died 1925)source
June 7 – Paul Gauguin, French artist (died 1903)source
July 15 – Vilfredo Pareto, Italian economist (died 1923)source
July 18 – W. G. Grace, English cricketer (died 1915)source
July 25 – Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1930)source
4 August - Domingo M. Almenara Butler (Died 1931)Peru source
August 19 – Gustave Caillebotte, French painter (died 1894)source
November 8 – Gottlob Frege, German logician (died 1925)source

Deaths

January 9 – Caroline Herschel, German astronomer (born 1750)source
February 23 – French Revolution of 1848: François Guizot, Prime Minister of France, resigns; 52 people from the Paris mob are killed by soldiers guarding public buildings.source
February 23 – John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States, son of John Adams and Abigail Adams (born 1767)source
March 29 – John Jacob Astor, American businessman (born 1763)source
April 8 – Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (born 1797)source
June 27 – Heinrich Zschokke, author and reformer (born 1771)Switzerland source
July 4 – François-René de Chateaubriand, French writer, diplomat (born 1768)source
9 July – Jaime Balmes, philosopher, theologian and political writer (born 1810)Spain source
August 3 – Edward Baines, British newspaperman, politician (born 1774)source
August 7 – Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (born 1779)source
August 12 – George Stephenson, English locomotive pioneer (Locomotion No. 1 & Rocket) (born 1781)source
August 30 – Simon Willard, celebrated American horologist (born 1753)source
September 5 – Mohammad Shah Qajar dies in Tehran, Iran.Iran source
September 24 – Branwell Brontë, English painter, poet, brother of novelists Charlotte, Emily and Anne (born 1817)source
November 24 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1779)source
17 December - José María Urrutia Manzano (born 1771)Chile source
December 18 – Bernard Bolzano, Bohemian mathematician, logician, philosopher and theologian (born 1781)source
December 19 – Emily Brontë, English author (born 1818)source