1850

January 1

• Raphael G Kiesewetter Austria musicologist, dies at age 76. [1]

January 5

• California Exchange opens. [1]

January 14

• Anthony van Hoboken Rotterdam merchant/ship owner, dies at age 93. [1]

January 18

• British blockade Piræus, Greece to enforce mercantile claims. [1]

January 20

• Investigator, first ship to effect northwest passage, leaves England. [1]

January 22

• Alta California becomes a daily paper, first such in California. [1]
• Vincenzo Pallotti Italian saint, dies at age 54. [1]

January 26

• First German-language daily newspaper in US published, New York City, New York. [1]
• Francis Jeffrey Baron Jeffrey, judge/literary critic, dies. [1]

January 27

• J Gottfried Schadow German sculptor/cartoonist/writer, dies at age 85. [1]
• Philipp Roth composer, dies at age 70. [1]

January 29

• Henry Clay introduces a comprise bill on slavery to US Senate. [1]

February 5

• Adding machine employing depressible keys patented, New Paltz New York. [1]

February 12

• Original Washington's Farewell Address manuscript sells for $2,300. [1]

February 18

• California Legislature creates 9 Bay Area counties. [1]

March 7

• Daniel Webster endorses Compromise of 1850. [1]

March 11

• Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania (first female medical school). [1]

March 12

• First US $20 gold piece issued. [1]

March 16

• Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" published. [1]

March 18

• Henry Wells and William Fargo form American Express in Buffalo, New York. [1] [5]

March 19

• Adalbert Gyrowetz composer, dies at age 87. [1]

March 27

• Wilhelm Bear German banker/astronomer (Moon Map), dies at age 53. [1]

March 29

• Ireland's SS Royal Adelaide sinks in storm; 200 die. [1]

March 31

• John Calhoun dies at age 68. [1]
• US population hits 23,191,876 (Black population: 3,638,808 (15.7%)). [1]

April 1

• San Francisco County government established. [1]

April 3

• Vaclav Jan Krtitel Tomasek organist/pianist/composer, dies at age 75. [1]

April 4

• City of Los Angeles incorporated. [1]

April 7

• William Lisle Bowles English poet (14 Sonnets), dies at age 87. [1]

April 9

• William Prout physician/chemist, dies. [1]

April 15

• City of San Francisco incorporated. [1]

April 23

• William Wordsworth poet, dies at age 80. [1]

April 24

• Louis Alexandre Piccinni composer, dies at age 70. [1]

April 25

• Paul Julius Reuter, use 40 pigeons to carry stock market prices. [1]

May 1

• John Geary becomes first San Francisco mayor. [1]

May 9

• Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac chemist/physicist, dies. [1]

May 11

• Work starts on first brick building in San Francisco. [1]

May 24

• Jane Porter novelist (Scottish Chiefs), dies at age 74. [1]

May 27

• Mormon Temple in Nauvoo Illinois destroyed by tornado. [1]

June 4

• Empire Engine Company No 1 organized. [1]

June 14

• Fire destroys part of San Francisco. [1]

June 17

• Paddle-wheeler "G P Griffith" burns off Mentor Ohio (206 die). [1]

July 1

• At least 626 ships lie at anchor around San Francisco Bay. [1]

July 9

• Báb [Bahá'í prophet] executed in Tabriz, Iran; Rahmat 16, 7. [1]
• Zachary Taylor, 12th president of US, dies in White House after serving 16 mongth. [1] [5]
• Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th President of the United States. [5]

July 14

• First public demonstration of ice made by refrigeration. [1]

July 17

• Harvard Observatory takes first photograph of a star (Vega). [1]

August 17

• José Francisco de San Martin South American revolutionary hero, dies. [1]

August 28

• The opera "Lohengrin" is produced (Weimar). [1]

August 30

• Honolulu, Hawaii becomes a city. [1]

August 31

• California pioneers organized at Montgomery and Clay Streets. [1]

September 9

• California becomes 31st state. [1]
• Territories of New Mexico and Utah created. [1]

September 11

• "Swedish Nightingale" Jenny Lind gives first US concert. [1]

September 20

• Slave trade abolished in DC, but slavery allowed to continue. [1]

September 28

• Flogging in US Navy and on merchant vessels abolished. [1]

October 17

• Knickerbocker Engine Company Number 5 organized. [1]

October 23

• The first National Women's Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. [5]

November 6

• First Hawaiian fire engine. [1]
• Yerba Buena and Angel Islands (San Francisco Bay) reserved for military use. [1]

December 20

• Hawaiian post office established. [1]

December 27

• Hawaiian Fire Department established. [1]

December 28

• Rangoon Burma destroyed by fire. [1]

1851

January 1

• City of Glasgow steamer inaugurates Philadelphia-Liverpool line. [1]

January 12

• Johan Herman Koekkoek painter, dies at age 72. [1]

January 15

• General Arista replaces Mexican President Herrera. [1]

January 21

• Gustav Albert Lortzing composer, dies at age 49. [1]

January 24

• Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini Italian composer, dies at age 76. [1]

January 25

• Sojourner Truth addresses first Black Women's Rights Convention (Akron). [1]

January 27

• John James Audubon conservationist (Audubon Society), dies at age 65. [1]
• Karl Moser composer, dies at age 77. [1]

January 28

• Northwestern University (Chicago) chartered. [1]

January 31

• Gail Borden announces invention of evaporated milk. [1]
• San Francisco Orphan's Asylum, first in California founded. [1]

February 1

• Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley novelist (Frankenstein), dies at age 53. [1]

February 6

• Robert Schumann's third Symphony "Rhenisch" premieres in Düsseldorf. [1]

February 15

• Black abolitionists invade Boston courtroom rescuing a fugitive slave. [1]

February 16

• Anne Nagell van Ampsen Dutch politician, dies at age 95. [1]

February 20

• Josef Alois Ladurner composer, dies at age 81. [1]

February 25

• Ferdinand Simon Gassner composer, dies at age 53. [1]

March 4

• Michael Henkel composer, dies at age 70. [1]

March 6

• Alexander Aliabiev composer, dies at age 63. [1]
• Dion Boucicault's "Love in a Maze" premieres in London. [1]

March 7

• Poll tax levied on Russo-Polish Jews entering Austrian Galicia ends. [1]

March 11

• Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Rigoletto" premieres in Venice. [1]

March 21

• Yosemite Valley discovered in California. [1]

April 8

• John Parry composer, dies at age 75. [1]

April 9

• Antoine-Charles Glachant composer, dies at age 80. [1]

April 15

• Earl G Andrássy sentenced to death in Hungary. [1]

April 23

• Canada issues its first postage stamps. [1]

May 1

• Great Exhibition opens in London's Hyde Park, at Crystal Palace. [1]

May 3

• Most of San Francisco destroyed by fire; 30 die. [1]

May 4

• First major San Francisco fire. [1]

May 6

• Dr John Gorrie patents a "refrigeration machine". [1]
• Linus Yale patents Yale-lock. [1]
• New slave regulations go into effect in Suriname. [1]
• San Francisco Chamber of Commerce starts. [1]

May 15

• Rama IV, [Phra Chomklao Chaoyuhua], king of Thai (1851-68), crowned. [1]

May 17

• Jean E "Adrian" van Bevervoorde journalist (Treason), dies at age 31. [1]

May 18

• Amsterdam-Nieuwediep telegraph connection linked. [1]

May 23

• Lucas Pieter Roodbaard architect, dies at age 69. [1]

May 24

• Stanko Vraz [Jakob Frass] Slavic poet (Grammatica), dies at age 40. [1]

May 28

• Sojourner Truth attends Women's Rights Convention. [1]

June 2

• First US alcohol prohibition law enacted (Maine). [1]

June 5

• Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin begins a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper. [5]

June 9

• San Francisco Committee of Vigilance forms (first time). [1]

June 15

• Jacob Fussell, Baltimore dairyman, sets up first ice-cream factory. [1]

June 22

• Fire destroys part of San Francisco. [1]

July 28

• Total solar eclipse captured on a daguerreotype photograph. [1]

July 29

• A De Gasparis discovers asteroid #15 Eunomia. [1]

August 12

• Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine. [1] [5]

August 22

• Gold fields discovered in Australia. [1]

September 18

• New York Times starts publishing, at 2 cents a copy. [1]

October 1

• First Hawaiian stamps issued. [1]

October 2

• The pasilalinic-sympathetic compass, built to prove that snails create a telepathic link when they touch, was demonstrated, but proved to be a fake. [5]

October 24

• William Lassell discovers Ariel and Umbriel, satellites of Uranus. [1]

November 14

• Harper & Brothers in New York publishes the book Moby-Dick, written by Herman Melville. [1] [5]

November 22

• The opera "La Perle Du Brésil" is produced (Paris). [1]

December 4

• President Louis Napolean Boaparte forces crush a coup d'etat in France. [1]

December 9

• First Young Men's Christian Association in North America (Montréal). [1]

December 19

• J M William Turner British painter (Rain, Steam and Speed), dies at age 76. [1]

December 24

• The U.S. Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., experiences its worst fire, which destroys 35,000 books, about two-thirds of the Library's collection. [1] [5]

December 29

• First Young Men's Christian Association chapter opened (Boston). [1]

1852

January 1

• First US public bath opens in New York City, New York. [1]
• Netherlands begins issuing postage stamps. [1]

January 3

• First Chinese arrive in Hawaii. [1]

January 17

• British recognize independence of Transvaal (in South Africa). [1]

January 22

• George Rodwell composer, dies at age 51. [1]

February 2

• First British public men's toilet opens (Fleet Steet London). [1]
• Alexandre Dumas Jr's "Le Dame aux Camélias" premieres in Paris. [1]
• François Liberman French founder (Congr of H Heart), dies at age 49. [1]

February 11

• First British public female toilet opens (Bedford Street London). [1]

February 15

• Great Ormond Steet Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits first patient. [1]

February 17

• Micha Joseph Levenson Hebrew poet, dies. [1]

February 21

• Nikolai Gogol Russian playwright (Dead Souls), dies. [1]

February 23

• "H M S Birkenhead" sinks off South Africa killing 420 troops. [1]

February 25

• Thomas Moore writer (Odes of Anacreon), dies. [1]

February 26

• British frigate Birkenhead sinks off South Africa-458 die. [1]

February 27

• Joseph Drechsler composer, dies at age 69. [1]

February 29

• John Landseer printer/engraver (Royal Academy), dies. [1]

March 4

• Nikolai Gogol writer, dies at age 43. [1]

March 7

• Dutch telegraph traffic regulated by law. [1]

March 12

• Juan Bros y Bertomel composer, dies at age 75. [1]

March 13

• Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the New York Lantern weekly. [1]

March 18

• In New York City, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo join with several other investors to launch the Wells, Fargo and Company shipping company. [129]

March 20

• Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin book is published (Boston). [1] [5]

March 25

• Alexis Garaude composer, dies at age 73. [1]
• Friedrich Hebbel's "Agnes Bernauer" premieres in Munich. [1]

March 29

• Ohio makes it illegal for children under 18 and women to work more than ten hours a day. [1]

April 2

• Theodor Althaus writer, dies. [1]

April 9

• John Howard Payne actor/playwright (Fair Warning), dies. [1]

April 19

• California Historical Society forms. [1]
• Vasili A Zjukovski Russian folk poet/translator (Homerus), dies at age 69. [1]

April 29

• First edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus published. [1]

April 30

• Anton Rubinsteins opera "Dmitri Donskoi", premieres in Saint Petersburg. [1]

May 6

• Charles-Louis-Joseph Hanssens composer, dies at age 75. [1]

May 12

• John Richardson Canadian writer (War of 1812), dies. [1]

May 18

• Massachusetts rules all school-age children must attend school. [1]

June 24

• J R Hind discovers asteroid #18 Melpomene. [1]

June 29

• Henry Clay the great compromiser, dies at age 75. [1]

July 23

• First internment in US National Cemetary at Presidio. [1]

August 3

• First intercollegiate rowing race, Harvard beats Yale by four lengths. [1]

August 20

• Steamer "Atlantic" collided with fishing boat, sinks with 250 aboard. [1]

September 3

• Anti Jewish riots break out in Stockholm. [1]

September 11

• Olympia Columbian is first newspaper published north of Columbia R. [1]

September 14

• Arthur Wellesley General/Duke of Wellington, dies at age 83. [1]

September 24

• A new invention, the dirigible, is demonstrated. [1]

November 23

• Just past midnight, a sharp jolt causes Lake Merced to drop 30 feet (9m). [1]

December 1

• Telegraph company opens throughout Netherlands. [1]

December 2

• Second French empire established; Louis Napoleon becomes emperor. [1]

December 8

• Gustav Freytag's "Die Journalisten" premieres in Breslau. [1]

December 16

• Andries H Potgieter South African/Transvaal explorer, dies at age 59. [1]
• Henri-Jean Rigel composer, dies at age 80. [1]

December 17

• First Hawaiian cavalry organized. [1]

December 23

• First Chinese theater in US, Celestial John, opens in San Francisco. [1]

December 29

• Emma Snodgrass arrested in Boston for wearing pants. [1]

December 31

• Future President and Mrs Rutherford B Hayes marry. [1]