1850 CE

Don Pacifico affair: Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary, sends a Royal Navy squadron to blockade the port of Piraeus in the Aegean Sea in defence of the interests of a British citizen, causing a diplomatic incident with Russia and France. The hippopotamus Obaysch arrives at London Zoo from Egypt, the first seen in Europe since Roman times. The hippopotamus Obaysch arrives at London Zoo from Egypt, the first to live in the British Isles since prehistoric times.

In the 1850s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 29 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the United States Congress.source
  • March 7 – United States Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech, in which he endorses the Compromise of 1850, in order to prevent a possible civil war.source
  • April 4 – Los Angeles is incorporated as a city in California.source
  • April 15 – San Francisco is incorporated as a city in California.source
  • 23 April — A mass meeting is held in Cape Town to petition Queen Victoria to grant the Cape Colony a governmentSouth Africasource
  • July 9 – Vice President Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th president of the United States upon the death of President Zachary Taylor.source
  • 5 August – Port Phillip (later called Victoria) established as a separate colony from New South Wales.Australiasource
  • September 7 – After tense negotiations, the first of the Robinson Treaties, the Robinson-Superior Treaty, is signed. This treaty between William Benjamin Robinson and an assembly of Ojibwe chiefs from the shore of Lake Superior creates a system of Indian reserves and ultimately opens up the area to European settlement.Canadasource
  • September 9 – The New Mexico Territory is organized by order of the United States Congress.source
  • September 9 – California is admitted as the 31st U.S. state.source
  • September 9 – California is admitted to the Union as the 31st state (see History of California and An Act for the Admission of the State of California).United Statessource
  • September 18 – The Fugitive Slave Law is passed by the United States Congress.source
  • 25 September – King Leopold lays the first stone of the Congress Column in BrusselsBelgiumsource
  • October 1 – Der Bund is establishedSwitzerlandsource
  • October 28 – Delegate Edward Ralph May delivers a speech on behalf of African-American suffrage, to the Indiana Constitutional Convention.source
  • November 29 – The treaty known as the Punctation of Olmütz is signed in Olomouc. It means diplomatic capitulation of Prussia to the Austrian Empire, which takes over the leadership of the German Confederation.source
  • 29 November – The Punctation of Olmütz was agreed between the Austrian Empire and Prussia. It granted the Austrians leadership of the revived German Confederation.Germanysource
  • Iceland became the first country to grant equal rights to men and women.Icelandsource

Conflict & Security

  • February 8–17 – Battle at Fort Utah: The Nauvoo Legion kills Timpanogos hostile to the Mormon settlement at Fort Utah on the orders of Brigham Young.United Statessource
  • 8 May – Hans Christian Andersen's Danmark, mit fædreland is first time performed publicly as a song by a men's choir to a melody by Henrik Rung at a concert arranged by the Scandinavian Society in the Casino Theatre in Copenhagen to raise money for a monument commemorating the Danish victory in the Battle of Fredericia.Denmarksource
  • May 15 – The Bloody Island Massacre takes place at Clear Lake in northern California.source
  • July – Taiping Rebellion: Hong Xiuquan orders the general mobilisation of rebel forces in China.source
  • September 4: Law n° 581, known as the Eusébio de Queirós Law, is passed, which extinguishes the African slave trade to Brazil.Brazilsource
  • September – Outside the village of Särna, the toddler Jon Ersson encounters a female brown bear and her cubs. Believing them to be dogs, Ersson feeds and lies with them. In 1895 Alice Tegnér chronicles the event in her children's song "Mother's little Olle."Swedensource
  • December 1850 - Hong Xiuquan defeats Qing forces sent to quell an uprising in GuangxiChinasource
  • Taiping Rebellion: The first clashes of the Taiping Rebellion occur, between the Imperialist militia and the Heavenly Army.source
  • Dost Mohammad Barakzai, emir of Afghanistan, captures Balkh.source
  • Undated – The Port Phillip District Wars endAustraliasource
  • Shen-kuang-szu Incident (1850–51)Chinasource
  • Elijah Waring – Recollections and Anecdotes of Edward WilliamsWalessource

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 14 – Malcolm Cameron visits Washington, D.C. about a trade reciprocity agreement.Canadasource
  • 18 January – Don Pacifico affair: Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary, sends a Royal Navy squadron to blockade the port of Piraeus in the Aegean Sea in defence of the interests of a British citizen, causing a diplomatic incident with Russia and France.United Kingdomsource
  • March 19 – American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.source
  • 30 March – Denmark sells the Danish Gold Coast to the United KingdomDenmarksource
  • May 23 – The USS Advance puts to sea from New York to search for Franklin's lost expedition in the Arctic.source
  • May 23 – The USS Advance puts to sea from New York City to search for Franklin's lost expedition in the Arctic.United Statessource
  • June 1 – The transportation of British convicts to Western Australia begins, as the transportation of British convicts to other parts of Australia is phased out, when the ship Scindian arrives in Fremantle, with 75 male prisoners.source
  • September 4 – The Eusébio de Queirós Law is passed in the Brazilian Empire to abolish the international slave trade.source
  • December 16 – Members of the Canterbury Association, the first settlers bound for Christchurch, arrive from England at the port of Lyttelton, New Zealand, aboard the Charlotte Jane and Randolph.source
  • 16 December – The Charlotte-Jane, one of the First Four Ships bringing settlers to Canterbury arrives in Lyttelton Harbour followed by the Randolph later the same afternoon.New Zealandsource
  • Mayer Lehman arrives from Germany to join his siblings in Lehman Brothers dry-goods business (predecessor of the bank) in Montgomery, Alabama.source
  • From this year until 1880, 144,000 East Indian laborers go to Trinidad and 39,000 to Jamaica.source
  • The temperance organisation, International Organisation of Good Templars, is established in Utica, New York, as the order of the Knights of Jericho.source
  • One of the original segments of the historic Pacific Highway (United States) in Washington (state) in Clark and Cowlitz counties is established.source
  • Bucolus fourneti - described by Étienne MulsantAustraliasource
  • Cox Brothers open the Camperdown Works in Dundee which will become the world's largest jute works.Scotlandsource
  • Wesleyan settlers arrive in NatalSouth Africasource

Religion & Belief

  • 26 January – The Irish Exile, a weekly newspaper, starts publishing in Hobart by Patrick O'Donoghue: aimed mainly at fellow Irish prisoners and deportees.Australiasource
  • June 3 – Traditional date of Kansas City, Missouri's founding: it is incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri as the "Town of Kansas".United Statessource
  • 25 July – Scourmont Priory establishedBelgiumsource
  • September 13 – Piz Bernina, the highest summit of the eastern Alps, is first ascended.source
  • September 29 – Papal bull Universalis Ecclesiae: The Catholic hierarchy is re-established in England and Wales, by Pope Pius IX and future Pope Pius X.source
  • 29 September – By the Bull Universalis Ecclesiae, Pope Pius IX recreates the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales, which had become extinct with the death of the last Marian bishop in the reign of Elizabeth I, a move held by many Protestants to constitute "papal aggression". Nicholas Wiseman is appointed first Archbishop of Westminster and elevated to Cardinal. He issues a pastoral letter, From Without the Flaminian Gate, and on 21 November is enthroned in St George's Cathedral, Southwark.United Kingdomsource
  • The first portion of the Oudh Bequest is transferred from Oudh State in the British Raj to the Shia Islam holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, in Persia.source
  • Pope Pius IX returns from exile to Rome.source
  • Jan August Hendrik Leys, Divine Service in HollandBelgiumsource
  • The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sweden is established in Sweden.Swedensource
  • 'Elen Egryn' (Elin Evans) – Telyn Egryn (poems)Walessource
  • Morris Williams (Nicander) – Y PsalmwyrWalessource

Economy & Finance

  • 30 March – All Danish Gold Coast Settlements are sold to Britain and incorporated into the British Gold CoastDenmarksource
  • 5 May – National Bank of Belgium foundedBelgiumsource
  • May 7 – A single currency, the Swiss franc, is imposed to replace cantonal currencies in the first Federal Coinage ActSwitzerlandsource
  • June 3 – Kansas City, Missouri, is incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri, as the Town of Kansas (traditional date of its founding).source
  • National income - ₹5,910 millionIndiasource
  • Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstad is founded.Swedensource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 5 – The Britannia Bridge opens over the Menai Strait in Wales.source
  • 15 April – iron paddle steamer SS City of Glasgow, built by Tod & Macgregor of Partick, makes her maiden voyage as the first steamer on the Glasgow–New York route.Scotlandsource
  • April 19 – The Clayton–Bulwer Treaty is signed by the United States and Great Britain, allowing both countries to share Nicaragua, and not claim complete control over the proposed Nicaragua Canal.source
  • April 19 – Clayton–Bulwer Treaty is signed by the United States and Great Britain, allowing both countries to share Nicaragua and not claim complete control over the proposed Nicaragua Canal.United Statessource
  • June 1 – The postage stamp issues of Austria begin with a series of imperforate typographed stamps, featuring the coat of arms.source
  • 18 June – Opening of the South Wales Railway between Chepstow and Swansea.Walessource
  • 30 July – First issue of Hallandsposten.Swedensource
  • September 18 – Harriet Tubman becomes an official conductor of the Underground Railroad.source
  • October 11 – The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad opens.Canadasource
  • 21 December – Otago News finishes publication. The newspaper started in 1848.New Zealandsource
  • The American system of watch manufacturing is started in Roxbury, Massachusetts, by the Waltham Watch Company.source
  • The ceremony of turning the first sod for the Great Indian Peninsula Railway from Mumbai to Kalyan was performed by J. P. Willoughby at a place near Sion.Indiasource
  • The Swiss Federal Council asks two British engineers to design plans for a railway network for the Swiss ConfederationSwitzerlandsource

Science & Discovery

  • May 7 – The brigantine USS Advance is loaned to the United States Navy.United Statessource
  • 16 May - Battleship Le Napoléon is launched.Francesource
  • May 25 – The hippopotamus Obaysch arrives at London Zoo from Egypt, the first seen in Europe since Roman times.source
  • 25 May – The hippopotamus Obaysch arrives at London Zoo from Egypt, the first to live in the British Isles since prehistoric times.United Kingdomsource
  • June – Harper's Magazine published as a new monthly in New York City.United Statessource
  • July 17 – Vega becomes the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed.source
  • 17 December – The George Seymour arrives in Lyttelton.New Zealandsource
  • Astronomer Maria Mitchell becomes the first woman member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.United Statessource

Health & Medicine

  • March – The first federal population census in Switzerland takes placeSwitzerlandsource
  • June 1 – The 1850 United States census shows that 11.2% of the population classed as "Negro" are of mixed race.source
  • October – Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum for Ireland opened in Dundrum, Dublin, the first secure hospital in Europe.Irelandsource
  • October – The Merthyr Board of Health is founded, with John Josiah Guest as its first chairman.Walessource
  • November – The first issue of the periodical Y Drych is printed, though not in circulation for another two monthsWalessource
  • The city of Manchester, England, reaches 400,000 inhabitants.source
  • The 1846–1860 cholera pandemic claims 52,000 lives in England and Wales between 1848 and 1850.United Kingdomsource
  • The Llanelli Board of Health is founded, with William Chambers as its first chairman.Walessource

Crime & Justice

  • 1 June – First convicts arrive in Western Australia, ticket-of-leave transportation suspended in New South Wales.Australiasource
  • 27 June – Eccentric Robert Pate physically assaults Queen Victoria with his cane in Piccadilly (London).United Kingdomsource
  • Allan Pinkerton forms the North-Western Police Agency, later the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, in the United States.source
  • Undated – 16 Indigenous Australians are poisoned to death in Murrindal as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.Australiasource
  • Auguste Chauvin, Self-portraitBelgiumsource
  • In the United States, the Fugitive Slave Act is passed. It provides that even free persons can be made a slave if suspected of being a runaway. As a result, more fugitive slaves and free Black persons come to Canada.Canadasource
  • Judicial Officers Protection ActIndiasource
  • California gold rush (1848–1855)United Statessource
  • Allan Pinkerton forms the North-Western Police Agency, later the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, in Chicago.United Statessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • 30 March – The paddle steamer RMS Royal Adelaide, bound from Cork to London, sinks off Margate with the loss of all 250 on board.United Kingdomsource
  • March 31 – The paddle steamer RMS Royal Adelaide, bound from Cork to London, is wrecked in the English Channel with the loss of all 250 on board.source
  • 31 March – the paddle steamer RMS Royal Adelaide, bound from Cork to London, sinks in the English Channel with the loss of all 250 on board.Irelandsource
  • April 15 – Angers Bridge collapses in France killing around 226 of the soldiers crossing it at the time.source
  • 18 June – paddle steamer Orion sinks off Portpatrick through the negligence of her master with the loss of 50 lives.Scotlandsource
  • July 19 – The ship Elizabeth, an American merchant freighter carrying cargo that included mostly marble from Carrara, slammed into a sandbar less than 100 yards from Fire Island, New York, drowning Margaret Fuller, her husband Ossoli, and their young son Angelino.source
  • 19 November – the barque Edmond sinks off Kilkee with the loss of 98 of the 216 aboard.Irelandsource
  • 27 December – The Cressy is the last of the First Four Ships to arrive at Lyttelton.New Zealandsource
  • The "Childe Herold", a British ship en route from Bombay to London is wrecked off Dassen Island, Cape ColonySouth Africasource

Climate & Environment

  • 29 January – 'The Blizzard Tuesday', or 'Stormy Tuesday,' strikes large parts of central and southern Sweden, killing roughly 100 people.Swedensource
  • July–August – 'Great Stink': Hot weather exacerbates the effects of untreated sewage discharged into the River Thames in London.United Kingdomsource
  • September 12 – The 1850 Xichang earthquake (7.9) shakes the Chinese province of Sichuan killing more than 20,000 people.source
  • Ongoing – Great Famine (Ireland) subsides.source
  • Ongoing – Great Famine subsides.Irelandsource

Culture & Society

  • January 31 – The University of Rochester is founded in Rochester, New York.source
  • January 31 – The University of Rochester is chartered in Rochester, New York; it admits its first students in NovemberUnited Statessource
  • February 28 – The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City.source
  • 9 March - Xianfeng Emperor succeed Daoguang Emperor as Emperor of the Qing dynastyChinasource
  • March 16 – Nathaniel Hawthorne's historical novel The Scarlet Letter is published in Boston, Massachusetts.source
  • June 19 – Princess Louise of the Netherlands marries Crown Prince Karl of Sweden-Norway.Norwaysource
  • July 1 – St. Mary School for Boys (the future University of Dayton) opens its doors in Dayton, Ohio.source
  • August 28 – Richard Wagner's romantic opera Lohengrin (including the Bridal Chorus) premieres under the direction of Franz Liszt, in Weimar.source
  • 28 August – Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin premieres in Weimar under the direction of Franz Liszt.Germanysource
  • October 1 – The University of Sydney (the oldest in Australia) is founded.source
  • 1 October – University of Sydney is founded as Australia's first university.Australiasource
  • 18 October – the title Duke of Palmela established, first granted to Dom Pedro de Sousa HolsteinPortugalsource
  • October 19 – The Phi Kappa Sigma international fraternity is founded, at the University of Pennsylvania.source
  • Undergraduates at Exeter College, Oxford arrange a "foot grind" (a cross-country steeplechase), the first organised university athletic event.source
  • Bingley Hall, the world's first purpose-built exhibition hall, opens in Birmingham, England.source
  • Stephen Foster's parlor ballad "Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway" is published in the United States.source
  • German physicist Rudolf Clausius publishes his paper on the mechanical theory of heat ("On the Moving Force of Heat") which first states the basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics.source
  • Sint-Lodewijkscollege established in LokerenBelgiumsource
  • Bieler Tagblatt is establishedSwitzerlandsource

Births

Deaths

  • February 1 - Abraham Lincoln’s second son, Edward Baker Lincoln, died at the age of three after 52 days for struggling with tuberculosis (consumption) before his fourth birthday in Springfield, Illinois.source
  • March 31 – John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President of the United States (born 1782)source
  • April 23 – William Wordsworth, English poet (born 1770)source
  • June 3 – the Cayuse Five (five members of the Cayuse people) were executed for murder following the Whitman massacre (an attack on a mission settlement near present-day Walla Walla, Washington)source
  • July 2 – Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1788)source
  • July 9 – The Báb, Persian founder of the Bábí Faith (executed by a firing squad) (born 1819)source
  • July 9 – Zachary Taylor, 65, 12th President of the United States (born 1784)source
  • July 9 – The Báb (Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad) is executed by a firing squad in Tabriz, Persia, for claiming to be a prophet.source
  • July 9 – Báb, founder of Bábism and, according to the Baháʼís, predecessor of Baháʼu'lláh.Iransource
  • July 19 – Margaret Fuller, American journalist (born 1810)source
  • August 6 – Hōne Heke, Maori chief and war leader (born c. 1807)source
  • August 17 – General José de San Martín, Argentine military and South American independence hero (born 1778)source
  • August 18 – Honoré de Balzac, French author (born 1799)source
  • August 26 – King Louis Philippe I of France (born 1773)source
  • 12 October – Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmela, diplomat and statesman (born 1781)Portugalsource
  • November 19 – Richard Mentor Johnson, 9th Vice President of the United States (born 1780)source
  • November 22 – Lin Zexu, political philosopher and politician (b.1785)Chinasource
  • November 30 – Germain Henri Hess, chemist and doctor (born 1802)Switzerlandsource