date: November 28

text: November 28 – Hawaii is recognized as an independent nation by the United Kingdom and France. The holiday is celebrated annually as La Ku'oko'a (Independence Day).


date: December 13

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: December 13 – Basutoland becomes a British protectorate.

source_section: Events › October–December


text: In Asia, the House of Jamalullail is established in the state of Perlis Darul Sunnah (formally as Perlis Indera Kayangan) after separation from the state of Kedah.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: February 3

section: Conflict & Security

text: February 3 – Uruguayan Civil War: Argentina supports Oribe of Uruguay, and begins a siege of Montevideo.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: February

text: February – Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa captures the fort and town of Riffa after the rival branch of the family fails to gain control of the Riffa Fort and flees to Manama. Shaikh Mohamed bin Ahmed is killed at the battle, called the Battle of Hunayniya.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Battle of Hyderabad: The Bombay Army, led by Major General Sir Charles Napier, defeats the Talpur Mirs, securing Sindh as a province of British India.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – In New Zealand, a posse of British settlers sent to arrest Māori chief Te Rauparaha clash with members of his Ngāti Toa tribe, resulting in 26 deaths.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: July

text: July – Margaret Fuller's "The Great Lawsuit. Man versus Men. Woman versus Women" appears in The Dial magazine in the United States.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: September 15

text: September 15 (Sept. 3, O.S.) – A Popular uprising in Athens, Greece, including citizens and military captains, demands from King Otto a liberal Constitution from the state, which has been governed since independence (1830) by various domestic and foreign business interests.


date: January 6

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: January 6 – Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross discovers Snow Hill Island.


date: April 16

text: April 16 or 17 – A group of 24 West Indian Moravians from Jamaica and Antigua, recruited by the Danish minister and Basel missionary, Andreas Riis, arrive in Christiansborg (Osu), Gold Coast, now Ghana, to set up schools and Presbyterian churches in the country.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Père Antoine Désiré Mégret, a Capuchin missionary, purchases the land that will become Abbeville, Louisiana for $900, a town founded by descendants of Acadians from Nova Scotia.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world still intact, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – The crew of schooner Ancud, including John Williams Wilson, takes possession of the Strait of Magellan on behalf of the Chilean government.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Fuerte Bulnes, the first Chilean settlement in the strait of Magellan, is founded.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – The city of Shanghai opens for trade with foreigners for the first time, welcoming a party of traders from the United Kingdom.


text: Kurdish leader Bedir Khan Beg launched an expedition against the Assyrians in the Hakkari region.Thousands of Assyrians were massacred during the campaign.


date: January 20

section: Religion & Belief

text: January 20 – Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, Marquis of Paraná is appointed by the Emperor, Dom Pedro, as the leader of the Brazilian Council of Ministers, although the office of Prime Minister of Brazil will not be officially created until 1847.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – The world does not end, contrary to the first prediction by American preacher William Miller.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – In Edinburgh, the Free Church of Scotland is disrupted from the Church of Scotland.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil marries Dona Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, in a state ceremony in Rio de Janeiro Cathedral.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Elling Eielsen is ordained as the first Norwegian Lutheran minister in the United States.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Bishop's University is founded as Bishop's College by Bishop George Jehoshaphat Mountain in Lennoxville, Quebec, for the education of members of the Church of England.


date: March 13

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: March 13 – Catawba County, North Carolina is created, and its first court is held in Mathias Barringer Jr.'s house.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Victoria, British Columbia, is founded by the Hudson's Bay Company as a trading post and fort.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Marc Isambard Brunel's Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel under the River Thames and the world's first bored underwater tunnel, is opened in London for pedestrians.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The first major wagon train headed for the American Northwest sets out with 1,000 pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Gold-Bug" begins serialization in American newspapers.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's is launched from Bristol; it will be the first iron-hulled, propeller-driven ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.


date: September

text: September – Ada Lovelace translates and expands Menabrea's notes on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, including an algorithm for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers, regarded as the world's first computer program.


date: December

text: December – The world's first Christmas cards, commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London from the artist John Callcott Horsley, are sent.


text: The steam powered rotary printing press is invented, by Richard March Hoe in the United States.


date: March 11

section: Science & Discovery

text: March 11–14 – Eta Carinae flares, to become the second-brightest star.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Brazil becomes the second country, after Great Britain, to issue nationally valid postage stamps, with the release of its Bull's Eye series.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Black Cat" is first published in The Saturday Evening Post.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Søren Kierkegaard's philosophical book Fear and Trembling is first published, in Denmark.


text: October 16 – Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton discovers the calculus of quaternions and deduces that they are non-commutative.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Charles Dickens's novella A Christmas Carol is first published in London, England. Released on December 19, it sells out by Christmas Eve.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The first total solar eclipse of Saros 139 occurs over southern Asia.


text: The Quaker magazine The Friend is first published in London.


text: James Joule experimentally finds the mechanical equivalent of heat.


date: February 8

section: Climate & Environment

text: February 8 – The 1843 Guadeloupe Earthquake hits the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, killing 1,500–5,000 people.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Mount Etna erupts in Italy, and kills 69 people in the village of Bronte.


date: January 3

section: Culture & Society

text: January 3 – The Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms (海國圖志, Hǎiguó Túzhì) compiled by Wei Yuan and others, the first significant Chinese work on the West, is published in China.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – The Virginia Minstrels perform the first minstrel show, at the Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera I Lombardi alla prima crociata premieres at La Scala in Milan.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – The event that will inspire The Beatles' 1967 song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is held in England.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The city of Petrópolis is founded by the government of Brazil.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – The Indian Slavery Act, 1843 removes legal support for slavery within the territories of the East India Company


date: September 2

text: September 2 – The Economist newspaper is first published in London (preliminary issue dated August).


text: Saint Louis University School of Law becomes the first law school west of the Mississippi River.


text: Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is published in The Pioneer, a Boston magazine.


text: Serial publication of Charles Dickens's novel Martin Chuzzlewit begins in London; in the July chapters, he lands his hero in the United States.


date: January 8

section: Births

text: January 8 – Karl Eduard Heusner, Vice-Admiral of the German Imperial Navy (d. 1891)

source_section: Births › January


text: January 8 – Frederick Abberline, Chief Inspector of the London Metropolitan Police, investigator in the Jack the Ripper murders (d. 1929)


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Léon Dehon, French Roman Catholic priest, founder of Priests of the Sacred Heart (d. 1925)

source_section: Births › March


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Thomas Pennington Lucas, Scottish-born Australian medical practitioner, naturalist, author, philosopher and utopianist (d. 1917)

source_section: Births › April


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, third child of Queen Victoria (d. 1878)


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Pedro Américo, Brazilian novelist, poet, scientist, art theorist, essayist, philosopher, politician and professor (d. 1905)


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Louis Boehmer, German-American agronomist (d. 1896)

source_section: Births › May


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Bertha von Suttner, Austrian writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1914)

source_section: Births › June


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Adolf Neuendorff, German American composer (d. 1897)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Camillo Golgi, Italian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1926)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Robert Todd Lincoln, American politician, businessman, first son of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (d. 1926)

source_section: Births › August


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Joseph McKenna, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1926)


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Louis Gathmann, German American inventor (d. 1917)


date: August 17

text: August 17 – Mariano Rampolla, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1913)


date: January 11

section: Deaths

text: January 11 – Francis Scott Key, American songwriter of The Star-Spangled Banner (b. 1779)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Nathaniel Chipman, United States federal judge (b. 1752)


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Robert Southey, English poet (b. 1774)


text: March 21 – Guadalupe Victoria, 1st President of Mexico (b. 1786)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Samuel Morey, American inventor (b. 1762)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer (b. 1758)


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Friedrich Hölderlin, German writer (b. 1770)


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Samuel Hahnemann, German physician (b. 1755)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: August

text: August – Sequoyah, Native American silversmith, creator of the Cherokee syllabary (b. c. 1767)


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Ezekiel Hart, Canadian entrepreneur, politician (b. 1767 or 1770)


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Sir Archibald Campbell, 1st Baronet, British army general (b. 1769)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – John Trumbull, American painter (b. 1756)


date: November

text: November – Esther Leach, English-Indian actress and director (b. 1809)


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, British Governor-General of India (b. 1748)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The Althing, the parliament of Iceland, is reopened after 45 years of closure.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – The dictator Carlos Antonio López becomes first President of Paraguay.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – The Edict of Toleration is passed in the Ottoman Empire.


date: July 3

text: July 3 – The United States signs the Treaty of Wanghia with the Qing Empire. The treaty establishes five U.S. treaty ports in China with extraterritoriality and is the first unequal treaty that the United States imposes on the dynasty.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx meet in Paris, France.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – The Dominican Republic drafts its first Constitution.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – 1844 United States presidential election: James K. Polk defeats Henry Clay.


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Hungarian becomes the official language of Hungary.


text: Flags of the Ottoman Empire: a national flag is adopted for the Empire.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Start of the Silesian weavers' uprising. It is crushed by Prussian military on June 6, with 11 weavers killed and numerous arrested.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Abdelkader El Djezairi is defeated at the Battle of Isly in Morocco; sultan Abd al-Rahman of Morocco soon repudiates his ally.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – This date is omitted from the calendar in the Philippines in order to align it with the calendar elsewhere in East Asia, essentially moving the International Date Line to the east of the archipelago.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – The Baháʼí calendar begins.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Persian prophet The Báb privately announces his revelation to Mullá Husayn, just after sunset, founding the Bábí faith (later evolving into the Baháʼí Faith as the Báb intended) in Shiraz, Persia (modern-day Iran). Contemporaneously, on this day in nearby Tehran, is the birth of `Abdu'l-Bahá; the eldest Son of Bahá'u'lláh, Prophet-Founder of the Baháʼí Faith. The Báb's mission is to proclaim He whom God shall make manifest. `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself is later proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh to be His own successor, thus being the third "central figure" of the Baháʼí Faith.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – During a meeting held in Nauvoo, Illinois, the Quorum of the Twelve, headed by Brigham Young, is chosen as the leading body of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Narciso Claveria, Governor-General of the Philippines, makes a decree announcing that Monday, December 30, 1844, will be immediately followed by Wednesday, January 1, 1845. (Tuesday, December 31, 1844, is removed from the Philippine calendar because since 1521 the country has been one day behind its Asian neighbors.)


date: October 23

text: October 23 – The Báb is publicly proclaimed to be the promised one of Islam (the Qá'im, or Mahdi). He is also considered to be simultaneously the return of Elijah, John the Baptist and the "Ushídar-Máh" referred to in the Zoroastrian scriptures. He announces to the world the coming of "He whom God shall make manifest". He is considered the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh – the founder of the Baháʼí Faith – whose claims include being the return of Jesus.


text: The Free Church Institution is established by Reverend Alexander Duff in Calcutta, India. This is later merged with the General Assembly's Institution to form the Scottish Church College, one of the pioneering institutions that ushers in the Bengali Renaissance.


date: July 19

section: Economy & Finance

text: July 19 – The Bank Charter Act 1844 is approved, which restricts the powers of British banks, limiting note-issuing powers outside the central Bank of England.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – The Columbus and Xenia Railroad, the first railroad planned to be built in Ohio, is chartered.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – The Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second and Asia's first modern, police force is established.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – The first electrical telegram is sent by Samuel Morse from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. to the B&O Railroad "outer depot" in Baltimore, saying "What hath God wrought".


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Charles Goodyear receives a United States patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – German astronomer Friedrich Bessel deduces from the motion of the bright stars Sirius and Procyon that they have dark companions.


text: Swedish chemistry professor Gustaf Erik Pasch is granted a privilege for his invention of a safety match.


date: June 27

section: Crime & Justice

text: June 27 – Killing of Joseph Smith: Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum, are murdered in Carthage Jail, Carthage, Illinois by an armed mob, leading to a succession crisis in the movement. John Taylor, future president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is severely injured but survives, while the fourth man inside the upper room, then-apostle Willard Richards, escapes with only a graze to his upper ear.


date: February 28

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: February 28 – A gun on the USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing U.S. Secretary of State Abel Upshur, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer and four other people. President John Tyler is below decks and is uninjured.


text: In Tibet, the Temple of Guardians burns down.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – The last definitely recorded pair of great auks are killed on the Icelandic island of Eldey.


date: June 12

text: June 12 –In the United States, after nine days of heavy rains, the Missouri River and the Mississippi River overflow their banks as the Great Flood of 1844 begins. The water begins to recede by June 28 and the rivers return to their normal level by mid-July.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – 1844 Salta earthquake. A magnitude 6.5 earthquake hits Argentina's Salta Province.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – The first issue of the Swedish-languaged Saima newspaper founded by J. V. Snellman is published in Kuopio, Finland.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – The University of Notre Dame, based in the city of the same name, receives its charter from Indiana.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Ernani debuts at Teatro La Fenice, Venice.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – George Williams sets up (in London) what is often cited as the first youth organisation in the world – "The Young Men's Christian Association", commonly known as YMCA. It will grow to a worldwide organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 57 million beneficiaries from 125 national associations. George Williams aims to put Christian principles into practice by developing a healthy "body, mind, and spirit." These three angles are reflected by the different sides of the (red) triangle – part of all YMCA logos.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Søren Kierkegaard's The Concept of Anxiety is published in Denmark (as Begrebet Angest by 'Vigilius Haufniensis').


date: June 22

text: June 22 – The Delta Kappa Epsilon student fraternity is founded at Yale College in the United States. ΔΚΕ will be home to many well known figures, such as U.S. Presidents George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford and Theodore Roosevelt.


date: September 25

text: September 25–27 – The first ever international cricket match is played in New York City, United States v Canadian Provinces.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera I due Foscari debuts at Teatro Argentina, Rome.


text: In Munich, the Feldherrnhalle is completed.


text: Robert Chambers' anonymous Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, which paves the way for acceptance of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, is published in Britain.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Bernadette Soubirous, French visionary from Lourdes (d. 1879)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Joshua Slocum, Canadian-born American seaman and adventurer (d. 1909)


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Horace Harmon Lurton, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1914)


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (d. 1908)


date: April 13

text: April 13 – John Surratt, suspect in the Abraham Lincoln assassination, son of Mary Surratt (d. 1916)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Anatole France, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924)


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Lewis Powell, attempted assassin of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, conspirator with John Wilkes Booth (d. 1865)


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Francis William Reitz, 5th State President of the Orange Free State (d. 1934)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (d. 1900)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Ismail Kemal, Albanian politician and statesman, 1st Prime Minister of Albania (d. 1919)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Louis Riel, Canadian-American leader (d. 1885)


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Sarah Bernhardt, French actress (d. 1923)


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Karl Lueger, Austrian politician, Mayor of Vienna (d. 1910)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Alexandra of Denmark, Queen of Edward VII of the United Kingdom (d. 1925)


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon, French marshal (b. 1765)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Charles Nodier, French writer (b. 1780)


text: January 27 – Wiliam Gadsby, English Strict Baptist leader (b. 1773)


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Johannes van den Bosch, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1780)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1757)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Nicholas Biddle, president of the Second Bank of the United States (b. 1786)


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Gabriel Duvall, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (b. 1752)


date: March 8

text: March 8 – King Charles XIV John of Sweden-Norway, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, French Napoleonic general (b. 1763)


date: March

text: March – Carlota, Cuban slave rebel leader


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Thomas Charles Hope, Scottish chemist, discoverer of strontium (b. 1766)


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Hyrum Smith, American Latter Day Saint leader (b. 1800)


date: July 27

text: July 27 – John Dalton, English chemist, physicist (b. 1766)


date: September

text: September ? – Robert Taylor, English-born Radical writer, freethought advocate (b. 1784)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Melchor Múzquiz, 5th President of Mexico (b. 1790)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – The United States Congress establishes a uniform date for federal elections, which will henceforth be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – The United States Congress approves the annexation of Texas.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas, subject to approval by the voters in the Republic. The territory claimed includes all of the future U.S. state of Texas, as well as portions of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Florida is admitted as the 27th U.S. state. On the same day, both houses of the U.S. Congress vote by a two-thirds majority, to override a presidential veto for the first time in history in order to pass legislation.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Ramón Castilla becomes president of Peru.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – The Aberdeen Act is passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, empowering the British Royal Navy to search Brazilian ships, as part of the abolition of the slave trade from Africa.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – A majority of voters in the Republic of Texas approve a proposed constitution that, if accepted by the United States Congress, will make Texas a U.S. state.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Manifest destiny: U.S. President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly enforced, and that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – American newspaper editor John L. O'Sullivan claims (in connection with the annexation of the Oregon Country) in The United States Magazine and Democratic Review that the United States should be allowed "the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions". It is the second time he uses the term manifest destiny (first in connection with the Republic of Texas in July – August), and it will have a huge influence on American imperialism in the following century.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – Texas is admitted as the 28th U.S. state.


text: The Republic of Yucatán separates from Mexico for a second time.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: March 11

text: March 11 – The New Zealand Wars open with the Flagstaff War. Chiefs Kawiti and Hōne Heke lead 700 Maoris in the burning of the British colonial settlement of Kororareka (modern-day Russell, New Zealand).

source_section: Events › January–March


date: September 18

text: September 18 – The Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata is formally declared.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata – Battle of Vuelta de Obligado: The Argentine Confederation is narrowly defeated by an Anglo–French fleet on the waters of the Paraná River, but the victors suffer serious damage to their ships, and Argentina attracts political support in South America.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – First Anglo-Sikh War: Sikh army crosses the Sutlej in the Punjab.


date: December 22

text: December 22–23 – Battle of Ferozeshah (Anglo-Sikh War): East India Company forces are victorious over those of the Sikh Empire.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Philippines began reckoning Asian dates by hopping the International Date Line through skipping Tuesday, December 31, 1844. That time zone shift was a reform made by Governor–General Narciso Claveria on August 16, 1844, in order to align the local calendars in the country with the rest of Asia as trade interests with Imperial China, Dutch East Indies and neighboring countries increased, after Mexico became independent in 1821. The reform also applied to Caroline Islands, Guam, Marianas Islands, Marshall Islands, and Palau as part of the Captaincy General of the Philippines.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, with 134 men, comprising Sir John Franklin's expedition to find the Northwest Passage, sail from Greenhithe on the Thames. They will last be seen in the summer, entering Baffin Bay.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Fatel Razack (Fath Al Razack, 'Victory of Allah the Provider', ) is the first ship to bring indentured labourers from India to Trinidad and Tobago, landing in the Gulf of Paria with 227 immigrants.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – HMS Terror and HMS Erebus of the Franklin Expedition go missing in the Davis Strait west of Greenland, while searching for the Northwest Passage.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: October 9

text: October 9 – The eminent and controversial Anglican, John Henry Newman, is received into the Roman Catholic Church.


text: The Ancient and Accepted Rite for England and Wales and its Districts and Chapters Overseas is founded in Freemasonry.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Galway are incorporated in Ireland.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Stephen Perry patents the rubber band, in the United Kingdom.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Yarmouth suspension bridge in Great Yarmouth, England, collapses leaving around 80 dead, mostly children.


date: July 26

text: July 26–August 10 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iron steamship Great Britain makes the transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to New York, the first screw propelled vessel to make the passage.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – The journal Scientific American begins publication.


text: Ephraim Bee reveals that the Emperor of China has given him a special dispensation: that he has entrusted him with certain sacred and mysterious rituals through Caleb Cushing, the U.S. Commissioner to China, to "extend the work and influence of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus" in the New World.


text: Heinrich Hoffmann publishes a book (Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder), introducing his character, Struwwelpeter, in Germany.


date: December 27

section: Health & Medicine

text: December 27 – Anesthesia is used for childbirth for the first time, by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The Great Fire of Pittsburgh destroys much of the American city of Pittsburgh.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – A theater fire in Canton, China, kills 1,670.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – British emigrant barque Cataraqui is wrecked on King Island (Tasmania) with 400 people killed and only 9 survivors.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – An earthquake destroys part of Mexico City, along with the nearby towns of Tlalpan and Xochimilco.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – A tornado kills 75 in France at Montville while destroying two large factories.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Potato blight breaks out in Ireland, beginning the Great Famine.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Elizabeth Barrett receives a love letter from the younger poet Robert Browning; on May 20, they meet for the first time in London. She begins writing her Sonnets from the Portuguese.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is published for the first time, in the New York Evening Mirror.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Anson Jones, President of the Republic of Texas, signs the charter officially creating Baylor University (the oldest university in the U.S. state of Texas that still operates under its original name).


date: February 7

text: February 7 – A drunken visitor smashes the Portland Vase in the British Museum, requiring months of repair work.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – The Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn premieres in Leipzig, with Ferdinand David as soloist.


date: May

text: May – Frederick Douglass's autobiographical Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is published by the Boston Anti-Slavery Society.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – The Phi Alpha Literary Society is founded, in Jacksonville, Illinois.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipmen and seven professors.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser debuts at the Dresden Royal Court Theater.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – The New York Herald becomes the first newspaper to mention the game of baseball.


text: Eugénie Luce founds the Luce Ben Aben School in Algiers.


text: Friedrich Engels' treatise The Condition of the Working Class in England is published in Leipzig as Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Elihu Root, American statesman, diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)

source_section: Births › January–June


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Sir George Reid, 4th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1918)


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Georg Cantor, German mathematician (d. 1918)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Victor Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey, 18th Governor of New South Wales (d. 1915)


date: May 4

text: May 4 – William Kingdon Clifford, English mathematician, philosopher (d. 1879)


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Gabriel Fauré, French composer (d. 1924)


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Élie Metchnikoff, Russian microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1916)


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1922)


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Richard Seddon, 15th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1906)


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Gabriel Lippmann, Luxembourger-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1921)

source_section: Births › July–December


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Edmond James de Rothschild, French philanthropist (d. 1934)


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Albert Chmielowski, Polish painter, Roman Catholic religious professed and saint (d. 1916)


date: August 25

text: August 25 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria (d. 1886)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Sir John Thompson, 4th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1894)


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Etheldred Benett, British geologist (b. 1776)


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Emiliano Madriz, acting Supreme Director of Nicaragua (b. 1800)


date: February 22

text: February 22 – William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington, British politician (b. 1763)


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Johnny Appleseed, American pioneer (b. 1774)


text: May 12 – August Wilhelm Schlegel, German poet, translator and critic (b. 1767)


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Former U.S. President Andrew Jackson, 78, dies at The Hermitage (Nashville, Tennessee).


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian writer (b. 1808)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1764)


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Heinrich Graf von Bellegarde, Austrian field marshal, statesman (b. 1756)


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Charlotte Ann Fillebrown Jerauld, American poet and story writer (b. 1820)


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Rafael Urdaneta, hero of the Latin American War of Independence (b. 1788)


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Elizabeth Fry, British humanitarian (b. 1780)


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Sir Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, British admiral (b. 1778)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – King Aleamotuʻa of Tonga (b. 1738)


date: January 5

text: January 5 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Country with the United Kingdom.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Ahmad I ibn Mustafa, Bey of Tunis, declares the legal abolition of slavery in Tunisia.


date: February 19

text: 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.


date: March 9

text: 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.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Mexican–American War: The California Republic declares independence from Mexico.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – The Second Federal Republic of Mexico is established.


date: August 28

text: 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.


date: September 7

text: 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.


date: December 22

text: 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.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Great Britain acquires Labuan from the Sultanate of Brunei.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – First Anglo-Sikh war: Battle of Sobraon – British forces in India defeat the Sikhs.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – The Galician Peasant Uprising of 1846 begins in Austria.


date: February 20

text: 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.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is cracked while being rung for George Washington's birthday.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Mexican–American War: Open conflict begins, over the disputed border of Texas.


date: May 8

text: 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.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Mexican–American War: The United States declares war on Mexico.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – The Revolution of Maria da Fonte begins in Portugal. It will be by royalist troops on February 22, 1847.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Bear Flag Revolt: American settlers in Sonoma, California, start a rebellion against Mexico and proclaim the California Republic.


date: July 7

text: 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.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Jang Bahadur and his brothers massacre about 40 members of the Nepalese palace court.


date: September

text: September – The Second Carlist War (or the War of the Matiners or Madrugadores) begins in Spain.


date: February 4

text: 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.


date: June 15

text: 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.


date: August

text: 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.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Pope Pius IX succeeds Pope Gregory XVI as the 255th pope. He will reign for 31½ years (the longest definitely confirmed).


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Pope Pius IX issues the encyclical Qui pluribus, in response to the growing trend of agnosticism among intellectuals in Europe.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Carl Zeiss, a major worldwide optoelectronics and digital camera brand, is founded in Thuringia, Germany.


date: January 13

text: January 13 – The Milan–Venice railway's 3.2 km mi bridge, over the Venetian Lagoon between Mestre and Venice in Italy, opens, the world's longest since 1151.


text: June 15 – Launceston Church Grammar School opens for the first time in Tasmania.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The saxophone is patented by Adolphe Sax.


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Electric Telegraph Company founded in Britain.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Elias Howe is awarded the first United States patent for a sewing machine, using a lockstitch design.


date: September 23

text: 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.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Triton, Neptune's largest moon, is discovered by William Lassell 17 days after the discovery of Neptune.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – At Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. William T. G. Morton, a dentist, gives the first successful public demonstration of ether anesthesia.


text: 1846–1860 cholera pandemic breaks out in south Asia; in the United Kingdom, Parliament passes The Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act.


date: September 19

text: 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.


date: May 15

text: 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.


date: November 4

text: 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.


text: 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.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Prince Osahito, fourth son of deceased Emperor Ninkō of Japan, becomes Emperor Kōmei.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – The University at Buffalo is founded by future United States Vice President and President, Millard Fillmore.


date: May

text: May – The Associated Press is founded in New York.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning marry privately in London, departing a week later for the continent.


text: 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.


text: The first higher school of academic learning for women in Denmark, Den højere Dannelsesanstalt for Damer, is founded in Copenhagen.


text: Fort Wayne Female College is founded in Indiana as a Methodist institution; it will later be renamed Taylor University.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Mariam Baouardy, Syrian Melkite Greek Catholic nun, canonized (d. 1878)


text: January 5 – Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926)


date: February 26

text: February 26 – William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, American frontiersman, later showman (d. 1917)


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1916)


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Rita Cetina Gutiérrez, Mexican teacher, poet and activist (d. 1908)


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (d. 1923)


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Winfield Scott Edgerly, United States Brigadier General (d. 1927)


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Rose Cleveland, de facto First Lady of the United States (d. 1918)


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish political leader (d. 1891)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Tokugawa Iemochi, 14th shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan (d. 1866)


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Texas Jack Omohundro, American frontier scout, actor, and cowboy (d. 1880)


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil (d. 1921)


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Anna Kingsford, British spiritual writer, doctor, feminist and pioneering vegetarian (d. 1888)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, 29th Prime Minister of France (d. 1904)


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Emperor Ninkō of Japan (b. 1800)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – María Trinidad Sánchez, heroine of the Dominican War of Independence (b. 1794)


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1784)


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Jane Irwin Harrison, de facto First Lady of the United States (b. 1804)


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki, Polish politician (b. 1778)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Pope Gregory XVI (b. 1765)


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Rodolphe Töpffer, Swiss author, painter, and caricature artist (b. 1799)


text: June 13 – Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès, French geographer, author and translator (b. 1767)


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Dorothy Thomas, Caribbean entrepreneur and former slave (b. 1756)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – John Ainsworth Horrocks, English-born explorer of South Australia (b. 1818)


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Thomas Clarkson, English abolitionist (b. 1760)


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Benjamin Waterhouse, American physician, medical professor (b. 1754)


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Bagyidaw, Burmese king (b. 1784)


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Alexander Chavchavadze, Georgian Romantic poet, military figure (b. 1786)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends fighting in the Mexican–American War in California.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Faustin Soulouque is elected President of Haiti.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The 30th United States Congress is sworn into office.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Bahrain's ruler, Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, signs a treaty with the British to prevent and combat the slave trade in the Arabian Gulf.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Second Treaty of Erzurum: the Ottoman Empire cedes Abadan Island to the Persian Empire.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – The nation of Liberia, founded as a haven for freed African-American slaves, becomes independent.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – Mexican–American War: Battle of Buena Vista – 5,000 American troops under General Zachary Taylor use their superiority in artillery to drive off 15,000 Mexican troops under Antonio López de Santa Anna, defeating the Mexicans the next day.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Mexican–American War: United States forces under General Winfield Scott invade Mexico near Veracruz.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Mexican–American War: United States forces under General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – New Zealand Wars: A minor Māori chief is accidentally shot by a junior British Army officer in Whanganui on New Zealand's North Island, triggering the Wanganui Campaign (which continues until July 23).


date: July 12

text: July 12 – A riot occurs in Woodstock, New Brunswick, between Catholics and members of the Orange Order that results in up to ten deaths.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Mexican–American War: U.S. troops of General Winfield Scott begin to advance along the aqueduct around Lakes Chalco and Xochimilco in Mexico.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Mexican–American War – Battle of Churubusco: U.S. troops defeat Mexican forces.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Mexican–American War: U.S. general Winfield Scott enters Mexico City, marking the end of organized Mexican resistance.


date: November 3

text: November 3–29 – Sonderbund War: In Switzerland, General Guillaume-Henri Dufour's Federal Army defeats the Sonderbund (an alliance of seven Catholic cantons) in a civil war, with a total of only 86 deaths.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – The Battle of Um Swayya Spring takes place near a spring in Qatar, after a Bahraini force under Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Deputy Ruler of Bahrain defeats the Al Binali tribe. The chief of the Al Binali, Isa bin Tureef, is slain in battle with over 70 fatalities from his side.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Emir Abdelkader surrenders to the French in Algeria.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City in what becomes Utah.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë publish Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, respectively, in a 3-volume set under the pen names of Ellis Bell and Acton Bell in England.


date: June

text: June – E. H. Booth & Co. Ltd, which becomes the northern England supermarket chain Booths, is founded when tea dealer Edwin Henry Booth, 19, opens a shop called "The China House" in Blackpool.


text: Cartier, a luxury brand in France, is founded.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the U.S. government.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – The first passenger railway wholly within modern-day Denmark opens, from Copenhagen to Roskilde.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The United States issues its first postage stamps.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – German inventors and industrialists Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske found Siemens & Halske to develop the electrical telegraph.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – The first brew of Carlsberg beer is finished in Copenhagen.


text: The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the railroad town of Goldsborough, and the Wayne county seat is moved to the new town.


date: March

text: March – The first known publication of the classic joke "Why did the chicken cross the road?" occurs in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Charlotte Brontë publishes Jane Eyre under the pen name of Currer Bell in England.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – A rescue effort, called the First Relief, leaves Johnson's Ranch to save the ill-fated Donner Party of California-bound migrants who became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada earlier this winter. Some have resorted to survival by cannibalism.


date: November 4

text: November 4–8 – James Young Simpson discovers the anesthetic properties of chloroform and first uses it, successfully, on a patient, in an obstetric case in Edinburgh.


text: Welfare in Sweden takes its first step with the introduction of the 1847 års fattigvårdförordning.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The state of Michigan formally abolishes the death penalty.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – The , carrying Irish emigrants from Derry bound for Quebec, is wrecked off Islay, with only three survivors from more than 250 on board.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – British Royal Navy steam frigate is wrecked on the Sorelle Rocks in the Mediterranean Sea with the loss of 246 lives and only eight survivors.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – The Nagano earthquake leaves more than 8,600 people dead in Japan.


date: October

text: October – The last volcanic eruption of Mount Guntur in West Java occurs.


text: The Great Famine continues in Ireland.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – St. Anthony Hall fraternity is founded at Columbia University, New York City.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Yerba Buena, California, is renamed San Francisco.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – State University of Iowa is founded in Iowa City, Iowa.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Verdi's opera Macbeth premieres at the Teatro della Pergola, in Florence, Italy.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – The world's first municipally-funded civic public park, Birkenhead Park in Birkenhead on Merseyside, England, is opened.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – The Lawrence School, Sanawar is established in India.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – In Philadelphia, the American Medical Association (AMA) is founded.


date: May

text: May – The Architectural Association School of Architecture is founded in London.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – The first congress of the Communist League is held in London.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Radley College, an English public school, is founded near Oxford as a High Anglican institution.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – The Cumberland School of Law is founded at Cumberland University, in Lebanon, Tennessee. At the end of this year, only 15 law schools exist in the United States.


date: August

text: August – Yale Corporation establishes the first graduate school in the United States, as Department of Philosophy and the Arts (renamed Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1892).


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Theta Delta Chi is founded as a social fraternity at Union College, Schenectady, New York.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor (d. 1931)

source_section: Births › February


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Sidney Sonnino, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1922)

source_section: Births › March


text: March 14 – Castro Alves, Brazilian poet (d. 1871)


date: March 18

text: March 18 – William O'Connell Bradley, American politician from Kentucky (d. 1914)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-born journalist, newspaper publisher (d. 1911)

source_section: Births › April


text: May 7 – Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1929)

source_section: Births › May


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Ida Saxton McKinley, First Lady of the United States (d. 1907)

source_section: Births › June


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Max Liebermann, German painter, printmaker (d. 1935)

source_section: Births › July


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Bram Stoker, Irish author of the Gothic novel Dracula (d. 1912)

source_section: Births › November


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Dagmar of Denmark, empress of Tsar Alexander III of Russia (d. 1928)


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Afonso Pena, Brazilian president (d. 1909)


date: December 9

text: December 9 – George Grossmith, English comic writer and performer (d. 1912)

source_section: Births › December


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Michel-Joseph Maunoury, French general during World War I (d. 1923)


date: December 30

text: December 30 – John Peter Altgeld, American politician, 20th Governor of Illinois (d. 1902)


date: January 19

text: January 19 – Charles Bent, first Governor of New Mexico Territory (b. 1799) (assassinated)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 5

text: February 5 – Luis José de Orbegoso, Peruvian general and politician, 11th and 12th President of Peru (b. 1795)


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Charles Hatchett, English chemist (b. 1765)


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Mary Anning, British paleontologist (b. 1799)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Barbara Spooner Wilberforce, wife of British abolitionist William Wilberforce (b. 1777)


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Fanny Hensel, German composer, pianist (b. 1805)


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Daniel O'Connell, Irish politician who promoted the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 (b. 1775)


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Emmanuel de Grouchy, Marquis de Grouchy, French marshal (b. 1766)


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Sir John Franklin, British explorer (b. 1786)


text: June 11 – Afonso, Prince Imperial of Brazil (b. 1845)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Thomas Carpenter, American glassmaker (b. 1752)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Vasil Aprilov, Bulgarian educator, merchant and writer (b. 1789)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Negus Sahle Selassie of Shewa (b. c. 1795)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Zebulon Crocker, American congregationalist pastor (b. 1802)


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia.


date: February 2

text: 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.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto (Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei) in London.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia.


date: March 11

text: 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.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Prince Klemens von Metternich gives up office as State Chancellor and Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – The Republic of San Marco comes into existence in Venice.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – The second abolition of slavery in France and its colonies initiated by Victor Schœlcher.


text: May 15 – 40,000 Romanians meet at Câmpia Libertății in Blaj, to protest Transylvania becoming a part of Hungary.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – The 'Frankfurt Parliament' (Nationalversammlung), the first German National Assembly, opens in Frankfurt.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of February 2, ending the Mexican–American War, is ratified by the Mexican government.


date: June 21

text: 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.


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Governor-General Peter von Scholten emancipates all remaining slaves in the Danish West Indies


date: August 14

text: August 14 – American President James K. Polk annexes the Oregon Country, and renames it the Oregon Territory as part of the United States.


date: August 17

text: 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.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Louisy Mathieu becomes the first black member to join the French Parliament, as a representative of Guadeloupe.


date: September 12

text: 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.


date: October 2

text: 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_section: Events › October–December


date: November 3

text: 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.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – France ratifies a new constitution. The French Second Republic is set up, ending the state of temporary government.


date: November 7

text: 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.


date: December 2

text: 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.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte is elected first president of the French Second Republic.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte takes his oath of office in front of the French National Assembly.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – The March Unrest breaks out in Sweden.


date: March 18

text: 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.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – The Second Anglo-Sikh War breaks out in the Punjab.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Radicals invade the French Chamber of Deputies.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – The Austrian army bombards Prague, and crushes a working-class revolt.


date: June 22

text: 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.


date: June

text: June – The Serbians from Vojvodina start a rebellion against the Hungarian government.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – The Matale Rebellion breaks out against British rule in Sri Lanka.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Young Irelander Rebellion: A nationalist revolt in County Tipperary, against British rule, is put down by the Irish Constabulary.


date: September 10

text: 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.


date: September 11

text: 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.


date: September 25

text: 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.


date: September 29

text: 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.


date: October 3

text: 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.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Romanian bands massacre 640 Hungarian civilians at the town of Zlatna, Transylvania. The massacre continues into 1849.


date: October 30

text: 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.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Vienna is occupied by the imperial forces led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, who crushes the revolution here.


date: November 13

text: 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.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Karl von Urban liberates Klausenburg (Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár), the capital of the Principality of Transylvania, during the Hungarian Revolutionary War.


date: November 24

text: 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.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The Austrian imperial army, led by Franz Schlik, attacks Hungary.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Hungarian forces, led by Józef Bem, enter Kolozsvár (Cluj), after defeating the Austrian armies in northern Transylvania.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Battle of Mór: The imperial army, led by Josip Jelačić, defeats the Hungarian army, led by Mór Perczel.


text: 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.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – The settlement of Dunedin, New Zealand is founded, with the arrival of settlers from Scotland on board the John Wickliffe.


date: April 25

text: 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.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – HMS Daedalus reports a sighting of a sea serpent.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – The main Austrian imperial forces, led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, cross the Hungarian border.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Punta Arenas, the first major settlement in the Strait of Magellan, is founded.


text: The city of Joensuu is founded in North Karelia, Finland by Czar Nicholas I of Russia.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: Admiral Nevelskoy demonstrates that the Strait of Tartary is a strait.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – John Bird Sumner is nominated as Archbishop of Canterbury.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: April 29

text: 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_section: Events › April–June


date: June 2

text: June 2–12 – The Prague Slavic Congress brings together members of the Pan-Slavism movement.


text: November 24 – Pope Pius IX flees Rome in disguise for Naples.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris, predecessor of European bank BNP Paribas, is founded by decree of the French Provisional Government.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – The Chicago Board of Trade is founded by 82 Chicago merchants and business leaders.


text: Watch brand Omega is founded by Louis Brandt in Switzerland.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – In the United States:


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The Illinois and Michigan Canal is completed.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Waterloo railway station in London opens.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives a 3-foot-plus iron rod being driven through his head.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – In Catalonia, Spain, the Barcelona–Mataró railroad route (the first to be constructed in the Iberian Peninsula) is inaugurated.


text: Richard Wagner begins writing the libretto that will become Der Ring des Nibelungen ("The Ring of the Nibelung").


text: Construction of the Washington Monument begins in Washington, D.C.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – William Cranch Bond and William Lassell discover Hyperion, Saturn's moon.


date: July

text: 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.


date: November 1

text: 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.


date: February 23

text: 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.


text: 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.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – The U.S. barque Ocean Monarch is burnt out off the Great Orme, North Wales, with the loss of 178, chiefly emigrants.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Sicilian revolution of 1848: The Palermo rising erupts in Sicily against the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.


text: Great Famine (Ireland) (1845–52).

source_section: Events › Ongoing events


date: January 24

text: January 24 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California.


date: February 2

text: 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.


date: March 15

text: 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.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – The Boston Public Library is founded by an act of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Queen's College, London, founded, the world's first school to award academic qualifications to young women.


date: May 13

text: 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.


date: May 30

text: 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.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Anne Brontë published her final novel and her best-selling work, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Seneca Falls Convention: The 2-day women's rights convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York; "Bloomers" are introduced.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – The University of Wisconsin–Madison is founded.


date: August 19

text: 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).


date: September 26

text: September 26 – The University of Ottawa is founded in Canada as the College of Bytown, a Roman Catholic institution.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life, is published anonymously in London.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Slavery is abolished in Réunion (this day is celebrated every year from 1981).


text: The Shaker song "Simple Gifts" is written by Joseph Brackett in Alfred, Maine.


text: Rhodes College is founded in Clarksville, Tennessee, as the Masonic University of Tennessee.


text: The University of Mississippi admits its first students.


text: Geneva College (Pennsylvania) is founded as Geneva Hall in Northwood, Logan County, Ohio.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (d. 1933)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Andrew Inglis Clark, Australian jurist and politician (d. 1907)


text: March 18 – Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, daughter of Queen Victoria (d. 1939)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Wyatt Earp, American lawman and gunfighter (d. 1929)


text: March 29 – Aleksey Kuropatkin, Russian general, Imperial Russian Minister of War (d. 1925)


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Randall Davidson, British Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1930)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Dolores Jiménez y Muro, Mexican revolutionary and educator (d. 1925)


text: June 7 – Paul Gauguin, French artist (d. 1903)


date: July 18

text: July 18 – W. G. Grace, English cricketer (d. 1915)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1930)


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Susie Taylor, African American nurse and first nurse in the Black Army (d. 1912)


text: August 19 – Gustave Caillebotte, French painter (d. 1894)


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Lewis Howard Latimer, African-American inventor (d. 1928)


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Gottlob Frege, German logician (d. 1925)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Christian VIII, King of Denmark (b. 1786)


date: February 23

text: February 23 – John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States, son of John Adams and Abigail Adams (b. 1767)


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (b. 1797)


date: July 4

text: July 4 – François-René de Chateaubriand, French writer, diplomat (b. 1768)


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Edward Baines, British newspaperman, politician (b. 1774)


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (b. 1779)


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Puran Appu, Sri Lankan hero who led the Matale rebellion against the British (b. 1812)


date: August 12

text: August 12 – George Stephenson, English locomotive pioneer (Locomotion No. 1 & Rocket) (b. 1781)


date: August 30

text: August 30 – Simon Willard, celebrated American horologist (b. 1753)


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Branwell Brontë, English painter, poet, brother of novelists Charlotte, Emily and Anne (b. 1817)


date: November 24

text: November 24 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1779)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Kyokutei Bakin, Japanese author (b. 1767)


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Bernard Bolzano, Bohemian mathematician, logician, philosopher and theologian (b. 1781)


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Emily Brontë, English author (b. 1818)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – The Colony of Vancouver Island is established.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – The short-lived Roman Republic is proclaimed.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – In New York City, James K. Polk becomes the first President of the United States to have his photograph taken.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Minnesota becomes a United States territory.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Habsburg emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria promulgates at Olomouc the March Constitution of Austria, which abolishes the April Laws promulgated by the Hungarian Batthyány-govern, and degrades Hungary to a simple Austrian province.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – The Frankfurt National Assembly adopts the Frankfurt Constitution, providing for a constitutional monarchy for Germany under a hereditary emperor and with a two-chamber parliament.


date: March

text: March – The Frankfurt Parliament completes its drafting of a liberal constitution, and elects Frederick William IV emperor of the new German national state.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The German revolutions of 1848–49 end in failure, as King Frederick William IV of Prussia refuses to accept the offer of the Frankfurt National Assembly, to be crowned as German emperor.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian revolutionary parliament in Debrecen declares independence from the Habsburg Empire.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: A new independent Hungarian government, led by Bertalan Szemere, is formed. The head of state of Hungary becomes Lajos Kossuth, as governor president.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – The Stuttgart Rump Parliament, made up of the remaining 154 mostly democratic and republican deputies of the Frankfurt National Assembly who moved there in early June, is dissolved by Württemberg military. Most of the liberal and conservative deputies of the National Assembly had already laid down their mandates in May under pressure of the Austrian and Prussian governments.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian government, led by Bertalan Szemere promulgates the Nationality Law, which gives important rights to the nationalities of Hungary, like the right to use their mother tongue in school, church, army, court and administration. The Romanians are declared a nation, and not a minority, in Transylvania. The Jews receive equality thanks to the Emancipation Decree.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – The Constitution of California is ratified in a general election.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – The Abgeordnetenhaus, lower house of the parliament of the Kingdom of Bavaria, passes a bill granting German Jews the same legal rights as German Christians. The measure draws a strong reaction from Christians across Bavaria, who sign petitions urging the upper house to prevent the equal rights measure from becoming law.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – After 17 days of deadlock and 63 votes, Democrat Howell Cobb of Georgia is elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, by a plurality of 102 votes to 99 for the former Speaker, the Whig Party's Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts. Neither the Democrats nor the Whigs have a majority of the 230 seats in the House, and after neither candidate can obtain the required 116 votes, the Representatives agree that the plurality will decide the leadership.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Austrian army, led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, enters in the Hungarian capitals, Buda and Pest. The Hungarian government and parliament flee to Debrecen.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Romanian armed groups massacre 600 unarmed Hungarian civilians, at Nagyenyed.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: At Nagyszeben (now Sibiu in Romania)– The Hungarian army in Transylvania, led by Josef Bem, is defeated by the Austrians, led by Anton Puchner.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Battle of Vízakna – The Austrian army, led by Anton Puchner, defeats the Hungarians, led by general Josef Bem.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian revolutionary army, led by Richard Guyon, breaks through the pass of Branyiszkó, defeating the Austrian defenders.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Battle of Piski – Josef Bem's Hungarian army defeats Anton Puchner.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Battle of Kápolna – The Austrians defeat the Hungarians.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Second Battle of Szolnok – The Hungarians led by János Damjanich and Károly Vécsey defeat the Austrians.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian army of Transylvania, under general Josef Bem, defeats the Russian-Austrian army at Second Battle of Nagyszeben, capturing the city which is the headquarters of Austrian general Anton Puchner. Most of Transylvania is liberated from the Austrian rule. The Austrian and the Russian troops flee to Wallachia.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – First Italian War of Independence: Battle of Novara – The Kingdom of Sardinia suffers a huge defeat after a two day battle, and King Charles Albert of Sardinia abdicates.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian Revolutionary Army, under the leadership of Arthur Görgey, starts the victorious Spring Campaign, which leads to the liberation of much of Hungary from the Austrian forces.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Hatvan: The Hungarian revolutionary army, under the command of András Gáspár, defeats the Austrians, led by general Franz Schlik.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Isaszeg: The main Hungarian forces, led by Arthur Görgey, defeat the main imperial forces, led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, forcing them to retreat westward.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The Austrian government asks Russian help against the Hungarian Revolution. Tsar Nicholas I of Russia agrees to send troops against Hungary.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, the Governor General of Canada, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Komárom: Hungarian forces relieve the city and castle with the same name from a long Austrian siege. The Austrian imperial forces and their Croatian, Romanian and Serbian allies are chased out from Hungary, or near the borders of the country.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The first Russian troops, led by Lieutenant General Fyodor Sergeyevich Panyutin, who come in the aid of the Habsburgs, cross the Hungarian border at Pozsony, in order to crush the Hungarian revolution.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Russian troops, under the command of Alexander von Lüders, break in Transylvania, and, together with the Austrian forces, start to operate against the Hungarian troops, led by Józef Bem.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Russo-Austrian army, led by Julius Jacob von Haynau, defeats the Hungarians under the command of Arthur Görgey in the Battle of Pered.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Austrian army, led by Julius Jacob von Haynau, defeats the Hungarians, led by Ernő Poeltenberg, in the Battle of Győr. The Hungarian army is forced to retreat towards Budapest.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Third Battle of Komárom: The Hungarian army, led by Arthur Görgey, is defeated by the Austrians, led by Julius Jacob von Haynau.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Hungarians, led by Arthur Görgey, and the Russians, led by Ivan Paskevich, battle indecisively in the Second Battle of Vác. The Russians are unsuccessful in destroying the Hungarian army, which retreats towards the east.


date: August 2

text: August 2 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Russian main forces, under Ivan Paskevich, defeat the Hungarian army under József Nagysándor, in the Battle of Debrecen.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Temesvár: The main Russo-Austrian forces, led by Julius Jacob von Haynau, win a decisive victory against the Hungarians, led by Józef Bem.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins, with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay. The California leaves New York Harbor on October 6, 1848, rounds Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrives at San Francisco after the 4-month, 21-day journey.


date: November

text: November – English-born merchant Joshua Norton, the future "Emperor Norton", arrives in San Francisco.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – German missionaries Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann become the first Europeans to see Mount Kenya.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – General elections are held in the Papal States.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – The settlement of Fort Worth, Texas, is founded.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – The Fayetteville and Western Plank Road Company is incorporated, to build a plank road from Fayetteville to Bethania, North Carolina.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – The abolition of the Corn Laws by the United Kingdom's Importation Act 1846 comes fully into effect.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – The United States Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of two additional denominations of gold coins, the gold dollar and the double eagle.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – France begins issue of the Ceres series, the nation's first postage stamps.


text: January 27 – The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the North Carolina Railroad, to complete a rail line from Goldsboro through Raleigh, and Salisbury to Charlotte.


text: March 3 – The United States Department of the Interior is established, incorporating the Census Office, United States General Land Office, Office of Indian Affairs and Patent and Trademark Office.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The first airstrike in history: Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – The first segment of the Pennsylvania Railroad, from Lewistown to Harrisburg, opens for service.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Astronomer Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid 10 Hygiea.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – The first Kennedy arrives in America.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – French scientist Hippolyte Fizeau makes a measurement of the speed of light in air using a specially devised apparatus.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor.


text: A cholera epidemic in New York kills 5,000.


text: Global healthcare and pharmaceutical company Pfizer founded in New York, United States.


date: July 31

text: July 31–August 1 – Joven Daniel wrecks at the coast of Araucanía, Chile, leading to allegations that local Mapuche tribes murdered survivors and kidnapped Elisa Bravo.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Swiss-born Marie Manning and her husband Frederick are publicly hanged for the murder of her lover in London, before a crowd of 30,000-50,000.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – A Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoyevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group, the Petrashevsky Circle. Facing a firing squad on December 23, the group members are reprieved at the last moment, and exiled to the katorga prison camps in Siberia.


text: Seven of the "best known" opium clippers go missing: Sylph, Coquette, Kelpie, Greyhound, Don Juan, Mischief, and Anna Eliza.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Four Christians are ordered to be burnt alive in Antananarivo, Madagascar, by Queen Ranavalona I; 14 others are executed.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – The St. Louis Fire starts when a steamboat catches fire and nearly burns down the entire city.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – The Mississippi River levee at Sauvé's Crevasse breaks, flooding much of New Orleans.


date: November

text: November – Austin College receives a charter in Huntsville, Texas.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – James Moore, English winner of the first ever cycle race (d. 1935)


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Sir Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1920)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – August Strindberg, Swedish author, playwright, and painter (d. 1912)


text: May 3 – Bernhard von Bülow, 8th Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Max Nordau, Austrian author, philosopher and Zionist leader (d. 1923)


date: August 23

text: August 23 – William Ernest Henley, English poet, writer, critic (d. 1903)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Emma Curtis Hopkins, American spiritual writer (d. 1925)


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1936)


date: October 7

text: October 7 – James Whitcomb Riley, American poet and author (d. 1916)


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Frances Hodgson Burnett, English-American playwright, author (d. 1924)


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Sir Ambrose Fleming, English electrical engineer, inventor (d. 1945)


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Saionji Kinmochi, Japanese prince and prime minister (d. 1940)


date: December 12

text: December 12 – William Kissam Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (d. 1920)


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Henry Clay Frick, American industrialist, art collector (d. 1919)


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti, Italian Catholic cardinal, linguist (b. 1774)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Vác: The Hungarians, led by János Damjanich, defeat the Austrians, led by Christian Götz, who dies after the battle due to his injuries.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Great Famine (Ireland): 96 inmates of the overcrowded Ballinrobe Union Workhouse died over the course of the preceding week from illness and other famine-related conditions, a record high.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Hokusai, Japanese Ukiyo-e Artist (b. 1760)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian army, led by Arthur Görgey, captures the Castle of Buda, liberating the Hungarian capital city completely. The leader of the defending Austrian forces, General Heinrich Hentzi, dies because of his injuries. The Hungarian government moves back from Debrecen to Budapest.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Maria Edgeworth, Irish novelist (b. 1767)


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Leonard du Bus de Gisignies, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1780)


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Thomas Robert Bugeaud, Marshal of France, duke of Isly (b. 1784)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – James Knox Polk, 53, 11th president of the United States (b. 1795)


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Dolley Madison, 81, First Lady of the United States (b. 1768)


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Sándor Petőfi, Hungarian poet (b. 1823)


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Andreas Joseph Hofmann, German philosopher and revolutionary (b. 1752)


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French musician, composer (b. 1810)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen of William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1792)


date: February

text: February – The rebels of the Yellow Turban are defeated by the imperial army, but only two months later, the rebellion breaks out again. It spreads to the Taihang Mountains on the western border of Hebei Province.

source_section: Events › By place › China


text: Publius Helvius Pertinax is made governor of Britain and quells a mutiny of the British Roman legions who wanted him to become emperor. The disgruntled usurpers go on to attempt to assassinate the governor.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: Nobles of Britain demand that Emperor Commodus rescind all power given to Tigidius Perennis, who is eventually executed.


text: Zhi Yao, a Kushan Buddhist monk of Yuezhi ethnicity, translates Buddhist texts into the Chinese language during the Han dynasty.


text: Irenaeus writes that there are only four Gospels (approximate date).

source_section: Events › By topic › Religion


text: A supernova now known as SN 185 is noted by Chinese astronomers in the Astrological Annals of the Houhanshu, making it the earliest recorded supernova.

source_section: Events › By topic › Art and Science


text: Cleomedes discovers the refraction of light by the Earth's atmosphere.


text: Tigidius Perennis, his family and many others are executed for conspiring against Commodus.


text: Commodus drains Rome's treasury to put on gladiatorial spectacles and confiscates property to support his pleasures. He participates as a gladiator and boasts of victory in 1,000 matches in the Circus Maximus.


text: Liu Ji (or Jingyu), Chinese official and minister (d. 233)

source_section: Births


text: Origen, Christian scholar and theologian (approximate date)


text: Wang Xiang, Chinese minister of the Cao Wei state (d. 269)


text: April 21 – Apollonius the Apologist, Christian apologist

source_section: Deaths


text: Pharasmanes III (or P'arsman), Georgian king of Iberia


text: Tigidius Perennis, Roman praetorian prefect (executed)


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the United States Congress.


date: March 7

text: 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.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Los Angeles is incorporated as a city in California.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – San Francisco is incorporated as a city in California.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – The New Mexico Territory is organized by order of the United States Congress.


text: September 9 – California is admitted as the 31st U.S. state.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – The Fugitive Slave Law is passed by the United States Congress.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Delegate Edward Ralph May delivers a speech on behalf of African-American suffrage, to the Indiana Constitutional Convention.


date: November 29

text: 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.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – The Bloody Island Massacre takes place at Clear Lake in northern California.


date: June 3

text: 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)


date: July

text: July – Taiping Rebellion: Hong Xiuquan orders the general mobilisation of rebel forces in China.


text: Taiping Rebellion: The first clashes of the Taiping Rebellion occur, between the Imperialist militia and the Heavenly Army.


text: Dost Mohammad Barakzai, emir of Afghanistan, captures Balkh.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – The puts to sea from New York to search for Franklin's lost expedition in the Arctic.


date: June 1

text: 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.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – The Eusébio de Queirós Law is passed in the Brazilian Empire to abolish the international slave trade.


date: December 16

text: 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.


text: Mayer Lehman arrives from Germany to join his siblings in Lehman Brothers dry-goods business (predecessor of the bank) in Montgomery, Alabama.


text: From this year until 1880, 144,000 East Indian laborers go to Trinidad and 39,000 to Jamaica.


text: The temperance organisation, International Organisation of Good Templars, is established in Utica, New York, as the order of the Knights of Jericho.


text: One of the original segments of the historic Pacific Highway (United States) in Washington (state) in Clark and Cowlitz counties is established.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – The Báb (Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad) is executed by a firing squad in Tabriz, Persia, for claiming to be a prophet.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Piz Bernina, the highest summit of the eastern Alps, is first ascended.


date: September 29

text: 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.


text: 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.


text: Pope Pius IX returns from exile to Rome.


text: June 3 – Kansas City, Missouri, is incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri, as the Town of Kansas (traditional date of its founding).


date: March 5

text: March 5 – The Britannia Bridge opens over the Menai Strait in Wales.


date: April 19

text: 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.


text: June 1 – The postage stamp issues of Austria begin with a series of imperforate typographed stamps, featuring the coat of arms.


text: September 18 – Harriet Tubman becomes an official conductor of the Underground Railroad.


text: The American system of watch manufacturing is started in Roxbury, Massachusetts, by the Waltham Watch Company.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – The hippopotamus Obaysch arrives at London Zoo from Egypt, the first seen in Europe since Roman times.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Vega becomes the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed.


text: June 1 – The 1850 United States census shows that 11.2% of the population classed as "Negro" are of mixed race.


text: The city of Manchester, England, reaches 400,000 inhabitants.


text: Allan Pinkerton forms the North-Western Police Agency, later the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, in the United States.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The paddle steamer , bound from Cork to London, is wrecked in the English Channel with the loss of all 250 on board.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Angers Bridge collapses in France killing around 226 of the soldiers crossing it at the time.


date: July 19

text: 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.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – The 1850 Xichang earthquake (7.9) shakes the Chinese province of Sichuan killing more than 20,000 people.


text: Ongoing – Great Famine (Ireland) subsides.