1849
1849 was a
common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).
*
January 1**
France issues
Ceres, France's first
postage stamp.
**In
Milan, anti-
Austrian activists
organize a smoking boycott in protest of the Austrian
monopoly on
tobacco. Protests erupts into brief riots.
*
January 12 - Uprising against Austrian troops in
Palermo,
Sicily*
January 21 - General elections in the
Papal States.
*
January 23 -
Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her MD by the Medical Institute of
Geneva, New York, thus becoming the
United States' first woman doctor.
*
January 31 -
Corn Laws abolished in the
United Kingdom.
*
February 8 -
New Roman Republic established.
*
February 14 - In
New York City,
James Knox Polk becomes the first
President of the United States to have his
photograph taken.
*
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 left
New York Harbor on
October 6,
1848, rounded
Cape Horn at the tip of
South America, and arrived at
San Francisco, California after the 4 month 21 day journey.
*
March 3** End of Term for
President of the United States James Knox Polk.
**
Minnesota becomes a
United States territory.
** The
United States Department of the Interior is established.
** The
U.S. Congress passes the
Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of
gold coins.
*
March 4 -
Zachary Taylor refuses to be sworn in office on a
Sabbath (Sunday). Consequently the office of
President of the United States of America is vacant for a single day.
Urban legend instead holds that
David Rice Atchison,
President pro tempore of the United States Senate was President
de jure for a single day.
*
March 5 -
Zachary Taylor becomes the 12th
President of the United States of America.
*
March 28 - 4
Christians are ordered burnt alive in Antananarivo
Madagascar by Queen
Ranavalona I and 14 others are executed.
*
March 29 - The
United Kingdom annexes the
Punjab*
April 1 - After ten days, the insurrection in
Brescia is ended by
Austrian troops.
*
April 2 -
The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states end and fail.
*
April 13 –
Hungary declares independence –
Austria crushes the rebellion with
Russian aid.
*
April 21 -
Irish Potato Famine: 96 inmates of the overcrowded
Ballinrobe Union Workhouse die over the course of the preceding week from illness and other famine-related conditions, a record high.
*
April 25 - The
Governor General of Canada,
Lord Elgin, signs the
Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging
Montreal's
English population and triggering the
Montreal Riots.
*
April 27 -
Giuseppe Garibaldi enters in
Rome to defend it from the French troops of General
Oudinot.
*
May 3 - The
May Uprising in Dresden begins - the last of the
German revolutions of 1848.
*
May 3 - Break in the
Mississippi River levee at
Sauvé's Crevasse which will flood much of
New Orleans, Louisiana*
May 15 - Troops of the
Two Sicilies take
Palermo and crush the republican government of
Sicily*
May 17 - The
St. Louis Fire started when a
steamboat caught fire and nearly burned down the entire city.
*
June 5 -
Denmark becomes
constitutional monarchy*
July 3 - French troops occupy
Rome.
Roman Republic surrenders.
*
August 24 -
Venice surrenders to
Austrian troops after a 4-month siege
*
September 1 - The first segment of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, from
Lewiston, Pennsylvania to
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, opens for service.
*
October 6 - The execution of the
13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian War of Independence.
* November -
Austin College received charter in Huntsville
*
November 16 - A
Russian court sentences
Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group, but his execution is canceled at the last minute
*
Irish Potato Famine (1845-1849)
*
First war of Schleswig (1848-1850)
*
January 18 -
Edmund Barton, first
Prime Minister of Australia (d.
1920)
*
January 22 -
August Strindberg, Swedish author, playwright, and painter (d.
1912)
*
February 18 -
Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (d.
1906)
*
February 22 -
Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, Russian mathematician (d.
1915)
*
March 2 -
Robert Means Thompson, American naval officer (d.
1930)
*
March 7 -
Luther Burbank, American biologist and botanist (d.
1926)
*
March 19 -
Alfred von Tirpitz, German soldier (d.
1930)
*
April 6 -
John William Waterhouse, Italian-born artist (d.
1917)
*
May 3 -
Bernhard von Bülow,
Chancellor of Germany (d.
1929)
*
June 9 -
Michael Peter Ancher, Danish painter (d.
1927)
*
July 22 -
Emma Lazarus, American Poet. (d.
1887)
*
July 29 -
Max Nordau, Austrian author, philosopher, and
Zionist leader (d.
1923)
*
August 28 -
Benjamin Godard, French composer (d.
1895)
*
September 3 -
Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (d.
1909)
*
September 14 -
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Russian researcher, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d.
1936)
*
November 29 -
John Ambrose Fleming, English electrical engineer and inventor (d.
1945)
*
December 4 -
Crazy Horse, Chief of the
Oglala Sioux (d.
1877)
*
December 6 -
August von Mackensen, German field marshal (d.
1945)
*
December 12 -
William Kissam Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (d.
1920)
*
February 8 -
France Prešeren, Slovenian poet (b.
1800)
*
March 14 - King
Willem II of the Netherlands (b.
1792)
*
May 22 -
Maria Edgeworth,
Irish novelist (b.
1767)
*
May 25 -
Benjamin d'Urban, British general and colonial administrator (b.
1777)
*
May 28 -
Anne Brontë, English author (b.
1820)
*
June 15 -
James Knox Polk, 11th
President of the United States (b.
1795)
*
July 12 -
Dolley Madison,
First Lady of the United States (b.
1768)
*
July 28 - King
Charles Albert of Sardinia (b.
1798)
*
September 25 -
Johann Strauss, Senior, Austrian composer (b.
1804)
*
October 7 -
Edgar Allan Poe, American writer (b.
1809)
*
October 17 -
Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French musician and composer (b.
1810)
*
October 22 -
William Miller, American Baptist preacher (b.
1782)
*
December 2 -
Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen of
William IV of the United Kingdom (b.
1792)
