1848

January 1

• Britain takes Mosquito Coast from Nicaragua. [1]

January 5

• Ferdinando Orlandi composer, dies at age 73. [1]

January 8

• Austrian soldiers kill ten students, Pavia. [1]

January 9

• Death of Caroline Lucretia Herschel in Hannover, Germany; discovered three nebulae and eight comets, given a gold medal by the British Astronomical Society. [37]
• First commercial bank in San Francisco established. [1]
• People's uprising in Palermo Sicily. [1]

January 24

• James Marshall finds gold in Sutter's Mill in Coloma California. [1]

January 28

• King of Naples grants his subjects a constitution. [1]

January 29

• Sicily accepts new Constitution (choose parliament/freedom of press). [1]

February 2

• First shipload of Chinese arrive in San Francisco. [1]
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican War; US acquires Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona for $15 million. [1]

February 12

• Ballet "Faust" premieres, Milan. [1]

February 14

• James K Polk became first President photographed in office (Matthew Brady). [1]

February 15

• Sarah Roberts barred from white school in Boston. [1]

February

• The Communist Party Manifesto, written by Karl Marx, is published in London, England, in German. This becomes the blueprint for world revolutionary Communism. [55.43]

February 17

• Toscane gets liberal Constitution. [1]

February 20

• [Willem] Alexander prince of Netherlands/General-Major, dies at age 29. [1]

February 23

• John Quincy Adams 6th US President (1825-1829), dies of a stroke at age 80. [1]

February 24

• Frans van Campenhout Belgian singer/composer (Brabançonne), dies at age 69. [1]
• King Louis-Philippe abdicates, second French republic declared. [1]

February 26

• Second French Republic forms. [1]
• Marx and Engels publish "The Communist Manifesto". [1]

February 29

• Neufchatel declares independence of Switzerland. [1]

March 3

• Heinrich Olivier German painter, dies. [1]

March 4

• Sardinia-Piemonte gets new Constitution. [1]

March 7

• In Hawaii, Great Mahele (division of lands) signed. [1]

March 12

• Second republic established in France. [1]

March 20

• Abraham des Amorie van der Hoeven Dutch theologist/poet, dies at age 27. [1]
• King Louis I of Bayern abdicates to marry dancer Lola Montez. [1]

March 24

• State of siege proclaimed in Amsterdam. [1]

March 27

• John Parker Paynard originates medicated adhesive plaster. [1]

March 29

• John Jacob Astor chartered American Fur Company, dies at age 84. [1]
• Niagara Falls stops flowing for 30 hours due to an ice jam. [1]

April 3

• Thomas Douglas becomes first San Francisco public teacher. [1]

April 6

• Jews of Prussia granted equality. [1]

April 8

• First battle at Gioto: Sardinia-Piemonte beats Austrians. [1]
• Battle at Xaquixaguana, Peru: Pedro de la Gasca beats Gonzalo Pizarro. [1]
• Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti Italian composer, dies at age 50. [1]

April 10

• Godert AGP baron van Capellen Governor-General of Dutch-Indies, dies at age 69. [1]

April 11

• Hungary becomes constitutional monarchy under king Ferdinand of Austria. [1]

April 24

• François van Campenhout Belgian composer (Brabançonne), dies at age 69. [1]

April 28

• Free last slaves in French colonies. [1]

April 30

• Friedrich Freiherr Gagern German/Dutch army commandant, dies at age 53. [1]

May 6

• Otto Tank ends slavery in Suriname colony. [1]

May 7

• Prussians stop insurrection in Varsovia. [1]

May 17

• Premier Earl Schimmelpenninck resigns. [1]

May 18

• William A Leidesdorf black, dies at age 38 in San Francisco. [1]

May 19

• México gives Texas to US, ending the war. [1]

May 23

• Otto Lilienthal, pioneer aviator. [1]

May 24

• A V Droste-Hülshoff writer, dies at age 51. [1]

May 29

• Battle at Curtazone: Austrians beat Sardinia-Piemonte. [1]
• Wisconsin becomes 30th state. [1]

May 30

• Second battle at Gioto: Sardinia-Piemonte beats Austrians. [1]
• México ratifies treaty giving US New Mexico, California and parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado in return for $15 million. [1]
• William G Young patents ice cream freezer. [1]

June 10

• First telegraph link between New York City and Chicago. [1]

June 22

• Barnburners (anti-slavery) party nominates Martin Van Buren for President. [1]

June 23

• Bloody insurrection of workers in Paris. [1]

July 4

• In Washington, D.C., construction begins on a 24,500-pound block of white marble monument to president George Washington. [129]
• Francois Rene de Chateaubriand French novelist/politician, dies. [1]

July 19

• First women's rights convention (Seneca Falls, New York). [1]

July 26

• First Woman's Rights Convention (Senecca Falls New York). [1]

August 9

• Barnburners (anti-slavery) party merges with the Free Soil Party nominating Martin Van Buren for president. [1]

August 14

• Oregon Territory created. [1]

August 19

• The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although it had started in January). [5]

September 6

• National Black Convention meets (Cleveland). [1]

September 14

• Alexander Stewart opens the first US department store. [1]

September 19

• Bond (US) and Lassell (England) independently discover Hyperion, moon of Saturn. [1]

October 16

• First US homeopathic medical college opens in Pennsylvania. [1]

November 1

• First US women's medical school opens (Boston). [1]

November 9

• Post office at Clay and Pike opens. [1]

November 21

• Cincinnati Turngemeinde founded. [1]

November 23

• Female Medical Educational Society founded in Boston. [1]

December 2

• Franz Josef I becomes emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. [1]

December 5

• President Polk triggers Gold Rush of '49, confirms California gold discovery. [1]

December 19

• Adam van Duyn governor of South Holland, dies at age 77. [1]

December 25

• Johann Erik Nordblom composer, dies at age 60. [1]
• New Haven Railroad opens. [1]

December 26

• First gold seekers arrive in Panamá en route to San Francisco. [1]
• William and Ellen Craft escape from slavery in Georgia. [1]

December 29

• Gas lights first installed at White House (Polk's administration). [1]

December 31

• Oliver Shaw composer, dies at age 69. [1]

1849

January 9

• Jan Kops Dutch agriculturist/vicar, dies at age 83. [1]

January 13

• Vancouver Island granted to Hudson's Bay Co. [1]

January 16

• Wilhelm M L de Wette German theologist, dies at age 69. [1]

January 23

• Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor. [1] [5]
• Patent granted for an envelope-making machine. [1]

January 26

• Thomas Lovell Beddoes English poet (Death's Jest-Book), suicide at age 45. [1]

January 31

• Corn Laws abolished in Britain. [1]

February 4

• University of Wisconsin begins in one room with 20 students. [1]

February 8

• France Preseren Slovenian poet (Sonetni Venec), dies at age 48. [1]
• François-Antoine Habeneck composer, dies at age 68. [1]

February 9

• Corneille Vander Planken composer, dies at age 76. [1]
• Roman Republic declared. [1]

February 13

• Christian Rummel composer, dies at age 61. [1]

February 15

• Pierre F Verhulst Belgian mathematician (logistic curve), dies at age 44. [1]

February 18

• First regular steamboat service to San Francisco California starts: gold rush prospectors from east coast. [1]

February 22

• Alexander Ernst Fesca composer, dies at age 28. [1]

March 3

• US Gold Coinage Act authorizes $20 Double Eagle gold coin. [1]
• Territory of Minnesota is organized. [1]
• US Department of the Interior established by Congress. [1]

March 4

• US had no President, Polk's term ends on a Sunday, Taylor couldn't be sworn-in, Senator David Atchison (pres pro tem) term ended March third. [1]

March 5

• Zachary Taylor sworn in as 12th President. [1]

March 9

• Carl Nikolais opera "Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor" premieres. [1]

March 10

• Abraham Lincoln applies for a patent; only US President to do so. [1]

March 12

• First gold seekers arrive in Nicaragua en route to California. [1]

March 17

• Willem II Frederik GL King of Netherlands (1840-49), dies at age 56. [1]

March 23

• Battle of Novara (King Charles Albert versus Italian republic). [1]

March 27

• Joseph Couch patents steam-powered percussion rock drill. [1]

March 28

• Dutch princess Marianne and Prince Albert of Prussia separate. [1]
• Stephan L Endlicher Austrian priest/botany, dies at age 44. [1]

March 29

• Britain formally annexs Punjab after defeat of Sikhs in India. [1]

March 31

• Colonel John W Geary arrives as first postmaster of San Francisco. [1]

April 3

• Juliusz Slowacki Pol poet (Father of the Plague-Patient), dies at age 39. [1]

April 6

• Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera "Le Prophète", premieres in Paris France. [1]

April 10

• Safety pin patented by Walter Hunt (New York City, New York); sold rights for $100. [1]

April 13

• Hungarian Republic proclaimed. [1]

April 16

• The opera "Il Profeta" premieres (Paris France). [1]

May 2

• David H Chassé Baron/General (fought Napoleon at Waterloo), dies at age 84. [1]

May 10

• Katsushika Hokusai Japanese painter, dies at age 89. [1]
• Pack destroys Astor Place opera house in New York City (22 killed). [1]

May 11

• Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai composer/conductor, dies at age 38. [1]

May 12

• Willem Alexander PFL crowned king Willem III in Amsterdam. [1]

May 15

• Philadelphia Turngemeinde founded. [1]

May 17

• Fire destroy Centrum in Saint Louis Missouri. [1]

May 22

• Abraham Lincoln patents a buoying device. [1]

May 25

• Andreas Michiels Dutch Military Governor of West Sumatra, dies in battle at age 52. [1]

May 28

• Anne Bronté novelist, dies. [1]
• Princess WFLC Marianne and Albrecht of Prussia separate. [1]

May 29

• Lincoln says "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and of people some of time, but you can't fool all of the people all of time". [1]
• Patent for lifting vessels granted to Abraham Lincoln. [1]

May 31

• Last edition of Orange sheet "Journal de La Haye". [1]
• Léonard du Bus de Gisignies Governor-General of Netherlands-Indies, dies at age 69. [1]

June 5

• Danish National Day-Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy. [1]

June 12

• Gas mask patented by Lewis Haslett, Louisville, Ky. [1]

June 15

• James Knox Polk the 11th US Pres, dies in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. [1]

June 22

• Stephen C Massett opens courthouse using only piano in California. [1]

July 8

• Saint Paul's Place in the Bronx named. [1]

July 28

• Memmon is first clipper to reach SF, 120 days out of New York. [1]

August 9

• Hungarian Republic crushed by Austria and Russia. [1]

August 22

• Austria launches the first air raid in history: Pilotless balloons against the Italian city of Venice. [5]

September 1

• California Constitutional Convention held in Monterey. [1]

September 3

• California State Constitutional Convention convenes in Monterey. [1]

September 13

• First US prize fight fatality (Tom McCoy). [1]

September 19

• First commercial laundry established, in Oakland, California. [1]

September 29

• First passenger train service to Peekskill New York (New Haven Railroad). [1]

October 3

• Edgar Allan Poe is found unconscious in Baltimore, Maryland. He may hve been a victim of "cooping", forced to vote repeatedly. [255.43]

October 7

• Death of Edgar Allen Poe, at age 40; poet, author and literary critic (The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, The Raven). [1] [255.43]

October 16

• Avery College establishes in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. [1]
• British seize Tigre Island in Gulf of Fonseca from Honduras. [1]
• George Washington Williams Penns, first major black historian. [1]

October 19

• Elizabeth Blackwell became first woman in US to receive medical degree. [1]

November 13

• Peter Burnett elected first governor of California. [1]

November 15

• First US poultry show opens in Boston. [1]

December 6

• Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland. [1]

December 8

• Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Luisa Miller" premieres in Naples. [1]

December 14

• First chamber music group in US gives their first concert (Boston). [1]
• Conradin Kreutzer composer, dies at age 69. [1]

December 18

• William Bond obtains first photograph of Moon through a telescope. [1]

December 28

• M Jolly-Bellin discovers dry-cleaning, he accidentally upset lamp containing turpentine and oil on his clothing and sees cleaning effect. [1]