1850
This page is about the year 1850. For the board game, see 1850.1850 was a
common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).
*
January 4 - The first American
ice-skating club is formed (
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).
*
January 29 -
Henry Clay introduces the
Compromise of 1850 to the
U.S. Congress*
February 20 - The first train to ever run in
Columbus, Ohio runs from
Columbus, Ohio to
Xenia, Ohio, a distance of 54 miles, in three hours and five minutes on the
Columbus & Xenia Railroad.
*
February 28 -
University of Utah opens in
Salt Lake City,
Utah*
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.
*
March 19 -
American Express is founded by
Henry Wells &
William Fargo.
*
April 4 -
Los Angeles, California is incorporated as a city.
*
June 3 - The traditional date of
Kansas City, Missouri's founding. This is the date on which it was incorporated by
Jackson County, Missouri as the "City of Kansas".
*
July 9 - President
Zachary Taylor dies while in office and Vice President
Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th
President of the United States (he is inaugurated the next day).
*
July 9 - The
Báb, founder of the
Bábí Faith, is executed by firing squad in
Tabriz,
Persia*
August 28 -
Richard Wagner's opera
Lohengrin premieres
*
September 9 -
California is admitted as the 31st
U.S. state.
*
September 9 -
New Mexico Territory is organized by order of the U.S. Congress
*
September 29 - The
Catholic hierarchy is re-established in
England and
Wales by
Pope Pius IX.
*
November 29 - The treaty called
Punctation of Olmütz was signed in
Olomouc. It meant diplomatic capitulation of
Prussia to
Austrian Empire, which took over the leadership of
German Confederation.
*
December 16 - The first four sailing ships arrived at the Port of
Lyttelton (
New Zealand), with 792 emigrants or
Canterbury Pilgrims as they called themselves. On this day they founded an exclusive theocratic
Utopia, which they called
Christchurch.
Unknown Date
* Foundation of the
University of Sydney, the oldest in
Australia* The
American System of Watch Manufacturing starts in Roxbury, Mass.U.S.A.
Waltham Watch Company*
Bingley Hall, the world's first purpose- built exhibition hall, opens in
Birmingham,
England.
*
Pinkerton Detective Agency* France begins to transport colonists to
Algeria* Modern
acoustic guitar created in Spain
*
Rifling becomes common in firearms
*
Entre Ríos Province in
Argentina revolts - it is backed by
Brazil in alliance with
Paraguay and the
Uruguayan
Colorado Party*
Harriet Tubman becomes an official conductor of the
Underground Railroad*
James Beckwourth discovers Beckwourth Pass.
* the
International Organisation of Good Templars is established, then as the order
Knights of Jericho.
January - April
*
January 4 -
Frederick York Powell, English historian and scholar (d.
1904)
*
January 6 -
Eduard Bernstein, German social democratic theoretician and politician (d.
1932)
*
January 6 -
Xaver Scharwenka, Polish-German composer (d.
1924)
*
January 10 -
John Wellborn Root, U.S. architect (d.
1891)
*
January 11 -
Philipp von Ferrary, Italian stamp collector (d.
1917)
*
January 14 -
Pierre Loti, French sailor and writer (d.
1923)
*
January 15 -
Mihai Eminescu, Romanian romantic poet (d.
1889)
*
January 15 -
Leonard Darwin, son of the British naturalist Charles Darwin (d.
1943)
*
January 15 -
Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician (d.
1891)
*
January 17 -
Aleksandr Taneyev, Russian composer (d.
1918)
*
January 18 -
Seth Low, American educator (d.
1916)
*
January 19 -
Augustine Birrell, English author and politician (d.
1933)
*
January 24 -
Mary Noailles Murfree, American novelist (d.
1922)
*
January 27 -
Edward Smith, Captain of the Titanic (d.
1912)
*
January 27 -
Samuel Gompers, U.S. labor union leader (d.
1924)
*
January 28 -
Edward Merritt Hughes, U.S. Navy officer (d.
1903)
*
February 12 -
William Morris Davis, U.S. geographer (d.
1934)
*
February 14 -
Kiyoura Keigo, Prime Minister of Japan (d.
1942)
*
February 15 -
Albert B. Cummins, U.S. political figure (d.
1926)
*
February 17 -
Alf Morgans, Premier of Western Australia (d.
1933)
*
February 23 -
César Ritz, Swiss hotelier (d.
1918)
*
February 27 -
Henry Huntington, U.S. railroad pioneer and art collector (d.
1927)
*
March 7 -
Tomáš Masaryk, President of Czechoslovakia (d.
1937)
*
March 7 -
Champ Clark, U.S. politician (d.
1921)
*
March 7 -
Éphrem-A. Brisebois, Canadian police officer (d.
1890)
*
March 13 -
Hugh John Macdonald, premier of Manitoba (d.
1929)
*
March 26 -
Edward Bellamy, U.S. author (d.
1898)
*
March 31 -
Charles Doolittle Walcott, U.S. invertebrate paleontologist (d.
1927)
*
April 11 -
Isidor Rayner, U.S. senator (d.
1912)
*
April 12 -
Nikolai Golitsyn, Prime Minister of Russia (d.
1925)
*
April 13 -
Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, British astronomer (d.
1917)
*
April 15 -
William Thomas Pipes, Nova Scotia politician (d.
1909)
*
April 15 -
Edmund Peck, Canadian missionary (d.
1924)
*
April 16 -
Paul von Breitenbach, German railway planner (d.
1930)
*
April 18 -
Joseph Labadie, U.S. labor organizer (d.
1933)
*
April 20 -
Daniel Chester French, U.S. sculptor (d.
1931)
*
April 26 -
Harry Bates, British sculptor (d.
1899)
*
April 26 -
James Drake, Australian politician (d.
1915)
*
April 27 -
Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German soldier (d.
1921)
*
April 29 -
George Murdoch, first mayor of Calgary (d.
1910)
May - December
*
May 1 -
Prince Arthur of the United Kingdom (d.
1942)
*
May 7 -
Anton Seidl, Hungarian conductor (d.
1898)
*
May 8 -
Ross Barnes, U.S. baseball player (d.
1915)
*
May 10 -
Thomas Lipton, Scottish merchant and yachtsman (d.
1931)
*
May 12 -
Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. statesman (d.
1924)
*
May 12 -
Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, Scottish Liberal politician and jurist (d.
1934)
*
May 12 -
Frederick Holder, premier of South Australia (d.
1909)
*
May 14 -
Alva Adams, Governor of Colorado (d.
1922)
*
May 18 -
Oliver Heaviside, British engineer (d.
1925)
*
May 21 -
Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian volcanologist (d.
1914)
*
May 27 -
Thomas Neill Cream, serial killer (d.
1892)
*
May 28 -
Frederic William Maitland, English jurist and historian (d.
1906)
*
May 30 -
Frederick Dent Grant, U.S. soldier and statesman (d.
1912)
*
June 2 -
Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent, British businessman (d.
1931)
*
June 3 -
Albert M. Todd, American businessman and politician (d.
1931)
*
June 5 -
Pat Garrett, American bartender and sheriff (d.
1908)
*
June 6 -
Karl Ferdinand Braun, German physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1918)
*
June 12 -
Roberto Ivens, Portuguese explorer of Africa (d.
1898)
*
June 22 -
Ignaz Goldziher, Jewish Hungarian orientalist (d.
1921)
*
June 24 -
Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British field marshal and statesman (d.
1916)
*
June 27 -
Ivan Vazov, Bulgarian poet (d.
1921)
*
June 27 -
Lafcadio Hearn, Greco-Japanese author (d.
1904)
*
June 27 -
Jørgen Pedersen Gram, Danish mathematician (d.
1916)
*
July 2 -
Robert Ridgway, U.S. ornithologist (d.
1929)
*
July 8 -
Charles Rockwell Lanman, U.S. Sanskrit scholar (d.
1941)
*
July 12 -
Newell Sanders, U.S. businessman and politician (d.
1938)
*
July 12 -
Otto Schoetensack, German anthropologist (d.
1912)
*
July 15 -
Mother Cabrini, U.S. saint (d.
1917)
*
July 20 -
John G. Shedd, U.S. businessman (d.
1926)
*
July 28 -
William Whittingham Lyman, U.S. vintner (d.
1921)
*
July 31 -
Robert Love Taylor, Tennessee congressman (d.
1912)
*
July 31 -
Robert Planquette, French composer of stage musicals (d.
1903)
*
August 5 -
Guy de Maupassant, French writer (d.
1893)
*
August 6 -
Henri Chantavoine, French writer (d.
1918)
*
August 14 -
W. W. Rouse Ball, British mathematician (d.
1925)
*
August 26 -
Charles Robert Richet, French physiologist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1935)
*
August 27 -
Silas Alexander Ramsay, mayor of Calgary (d.
1942)
*
August 30 -
Cal McVey, U.S. baseball player (d.
1926)
*
September 2 -
Woldemar Voigt, German physicist (d.
1919)
*
September 2 -
Eugene Field, U.S. writer (d.
1895)
*
September 2 -
Albert Spalding, U.S. baseball player and businessman (d.
1915)
*
September 2 -
Alfred Pringsheim, German mathematician (d.
1941)
*
September 8 -
Paul Gerson Unna, German dermatologist (d.
1929)
*
September 9 -
Jane Ellen Harrison, British classical scholar and feminist (d.
1928)
*
September 28 -
Charles William Dorsett, U.S. prohibitionist (d.
1936)
*
October 1 -
David R. Francis, Governor of Missouri (d.
1927)
*
October 1 -
Thomas Vincent Welch, American politician and first Superintendent of Niagara Falls State Park (d.
1903)
*
October 18 -
Pablo Iglesias, Spanish socialist politician (d.
1925)
*
October 18 -
Basil Hall Chamberlain, British Japanologist (d.
1935)
*
October 22 -
Charles Kingston, Premier of South Australia (d.
1908)
*
October 30 -
John Patton, Jr., U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan (d.
1907)
*
November 5 -
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, U.S. author and poet (d.
1919)
*
November 12 -
Mikhail Chigorin, Russian chess player (d.
1908)
*
November 13 -
Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish writer (d.
1894)
*
November 13 -
Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet, British politician (d.
1922)
*
November 16 -
Federico Errázuriz Echaurren, Chilean political figure (d.
1901)
*
November 22 -
Georg Dehio, German historian of art (d.
1932)
*
November 28 -
Robert Koehler, German-born painter and art teacher (d.
1917)
*
November 30 -
Cayetano Coll y Toste, Puerto Rican historian and writer (d.
1930)
*
December 8 -
Robert E. Pattison, governor of Pennsylvania (d.
1904)
*
December 9 -
Emma Abbott, U.S. opera singer (d.
1891)
*
December 11 -
Mary Victoria Hamilton, Scottish-German-French great-grandmother of Prince Rainier III of Monaco (d.
1922)
*
December 12 -
Martin F. Ansel, Governor of South Carolina (d.
1945)
*
December 21 -
Zdeněk Fibich, Czech composer (d.
1900)
*
December 24 -
Brandon Thomas, British actor and playwright (d.
1914)
*
December 25 -
Florence Griswold, U.S. art curator (d.
1937)
*
December 28 -
Francesco Tamagno, Italian operatic tenor (d.
1905)
Unknown Date
A - H
*
Abdul Rahman bin Faisal, Saudi ruler (d.
1928)
*
Abraham Fischer, Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony in South Africa (d.
1913)
*
Alexandre Luigini, French conductor and composer (d.
1906)
*
Alfred Gabriel Nathorst, Swedish Arctic explorer and geologist (d.
1921)
*
Alfred Maudslay, British colonial diplomat (d.
1931)
*
Andria Dadiani, Prince of Samegrelo (d.
1910)
*
Bernhard Baron, Jewish cigarette-manufacturer and philanthropist (d.
1929)
*
Artur Władysław Potocki, Polish nobleman (d.
1890)
*
Bernardo Reyes, Mexican general (d.
1913)
*
Charles Braithwaite, Manitoba politician and agrarian leader (d.
1910)
*
Charles Hazelius Sternberg, U.S. fossil collector and amateur paleontologist (d.
1943)
*
Cuthbert A. Brereton, British civil engineer (d.
1910)
*
Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis, U.S. publisher (d.
1933)
*
Daniel Carter Beard, U.S. scouting pioneer (d.
1941)
*
Daniel J. Greene, Newfoundland politician (d.
1911)
*
Ebenezer Howard, British urban planner (d.
1928)
*
Edgar Wilson Nye, U.S. humorist (d.
1896)
*
Edmond Holmes, English writer and poet (d.
1936)
*
Edmond Nocard, French veterinarian and microbiologist (d.
1903)
*
Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer, responsible for diabetes mellitus (d.
1935)
*
Edward John Gregory, British painter (d.
1909)
*
Emanuel Schiffers, Russian chess player (d.
1904)
*
Ernest Albert Waterlow, English painter (d.
1919)
*
Ernst Bernheim, German-Jewish historian (d.
1922)
*
Fanny Davenport, U.S. actress (d.
1898)
*
Fernando Fernandez, Puerto Rican distiller (approximate date; died
1940)
*
Georg von Vollmar, Socialist politician in Bavaria (d.
1922)
*
George Henschel, English musician (d.
1934)
*
George Hitchcock, U.S. artist (d.
1913)
*
Hamo Thornycroft, British sculptor (d.
1925)
*
Hendry Brown, U.S. outlaw (approximate date; died
1884)
*
Henricus van de Wetering, Archbishop of Utrecht (d.
1929)
*
Hermann Ebbinghaus, German psychologist (d.
1909)
*
Hermann von Ihering, German-Brazilian zoologist (d.
1930)
J-Z
*
J. Walter Fewkes, U.S. anthropologist (d.
1930)
*
James Kenyon, British pioneer of cinematography (d.
1925)
*
James Moore, British cyclist (d. ?)
*
Johann Büttikofer, Swiss zoologist (d.
1929)
*
John Casper Branner, U.S. geologist (d.
1922)
*
John Collier, British writer and painter (d.
1934)
*
John Perry, Irish engineer (d.
1920)
*
John Wycliffe Lowes Forster, Canadian portrait painter (d.
1938)
*
Johnny Ringo, U.S. cowboy (d.
1892)
*
Julius Wernher, German-born British businessman and art collector (d.
1912)
*
Kate Chopin, U.S. novelist (d.
1904)
*
László Lukács, Prime Minister of Hungary (d.
1932)
*
Laura E. Richards, U.S. author (d.
1943)
*
Lawrence Hargrave, Australian engineer (d.
1915)
*
Léon-Adolphe Cardinal Amette, French Catholic cardinal and archbishop of Paris (d.
1920)
*
Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Catalan architect (d.
1923)
*
Lucien Gaulard, French inventor (d.
1888)
*
Maria Beatrix Krasińska, Polish noblewoman (d.
1884)
*
Montague Aldous, Canadian surveyor (d.
1946)
*
Murdo MacKenzie, Scottish-Brazilian rancher (d.
1939)
*
Oscar Straus, U.S. politician (d.
1936)
*
Pavel Axelrod, Russian politician (d.
1928)
*
Per Hasselberg, Swedish sculptor (d.
1894)
*
Philip Bourke Marston, English poet (d.
1887)
*
Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, U.S. Roman Catholic nun and social worker (d.
1926)
*
Rose la Touche, lover of
John Ruskin (d.
1875)
*
Rudolf Hoernes, Austrian geologist (d.
1912)
*
Solomon Schechter, founder of the United Synagogue of America (d.
1915)
*
Steve Bellan, Cuban baseball player (d.
1932)
*
Thomas Alexander Smith, U.S. politician (d.
1932)
*
Victor Henry, French philologist (d.
1907)
*
Victor Laloux, French Beaux-Arts architect (d.
1937)
*
Vissarion Jughashvili, Joseph Stalin's father (approximate date; died
1890)
*
William Lawrence, U.S. Episcopalian bishop of Massachusetts (d.
1941)
*
William Pugsley, Canadian politician and lawyer (d.
1925)
*
William Wallace Wotherspoon, U.S. general (d.
1921)
*
Yaa Asantewaa, Queen Mother of Edweso (approximate date; died
1921)
*
Zaharoff Basil, Anglo-Turkish financier and arms manufacturer (d.
1936)
*
Hugh Jass, American volconologist (d.
1938)
January - May
*
January 20 -
Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, Danish poet and playwright (b.
1779)
*
January 22 -
William Joseph Chaminade, French Catholic priest (b.
1761)
*
January 26 -
Francis Jeffrey, Scottish judge and literary critic (b.
1773)
*
January 27 -
Johann Gottfried Schadow, German sculptor (b.
1764)
*
January 27 -
Philipp Roth, composer (b.
1779)
*
February 4 -
Daniel Turner, officer in the United States Navy (b.
1794)
*
February 25 -
Daoguang Emperor, of the
Qing dynasty of China (b.
1782)
*
February 27 -
Samuel Adams, Democratic Governor of the State of Arkansas (b.
1805)
*
March 3 -
Oliver Cowdery, U.S. religious leader (b.
1806)
*
March 26 -
Samuel Turell Armstrong, U.S. political figure (b.
1784)
*
March 27 -
Wilhelm Beer, German banker and astronomer (b.
1797)
*
March 28 -
Gerard Brandon, Governor of Mississippi (b.
1788)
*
March 31 -
John C. Calhoun, U.S. politician (b.
1782)
*
April 7 -
William Lisle Bowles, English poet and critic (b.
1762)
*
April 9 -
William Prout, English chemist and physician (b.
1785)
*
April 12 -
Adoniram Judson, U.S. Baptist missionary (b.
1788)
*
April 16 -
Marie Tussaud, French wax sculptor (b.
1761)
*
April 23 -
William Wordsworth, English poet (b.
1770)
*
April 24 -
John Norvell, U.S. newspaperman and senator (b.
1789)
*
May 1 -
Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, French zoologist and anatomist (b.
1777)
*
May 10 -
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French chemist and physicist (b.
1778)
*
May 21 -
Christoph Friedrich von Ammon, German theological writer and preacher (b.
1766)
*
May 31 -
Giuseppe Giusti, Tuscan satirical poet (b.
1809)
June - December
*
June 9 -
John Green Crosse, English surgeon and Fellow of the
Royal Society*
June 19 -
Margaret Fuller, U.S. journalist (b.
1810)
*
June 30 -
Richard Dillingham, U.S. Quaker teacher (b.
1823)
*
July 2 -
Robert Peel, British Prime Minister (b.
1788)
*
July 4 -
William Kirby, English entomologist (b.
1759)
*
July 7 -
Timothy Hackworth, British steam locomotive engineer
*
July 8 -
Prince Adolphus of the United Kingdom, 1st Duke of Cambridge (b.
1774)
*
July 9 - The
Báb, Persian founder of the
Bábí Faith (b.
1819)
*
July 9 -
Zachary Taylor, 12th
President of the United States (b.
1784)
*
July 9 -
Jean Pierre Boyer, president of Haiti (b.
1776)
*
July 14 -
August Neander, German theologian and church historian (b.
1789)
*
July 25 -
Richard Barnes Mason, military governor of California (b.
1797)
*
August 3 -
Jacob Jones, officer in the United States Navy (b.
1768)
*
August 6 -
Edward Walsh, Irish poet (b.
1805)
*
August 13 -
Martin Archer Shee, Irish portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy (b.
1770)
*
August 18 -
Honoré de Balzac, French author (b.
1799)
*
August 22 -
Nikolaus Lenau, Austrian poet (b.
1802)
*
August 26 - King
Louis-Philippe of France (b.
1773)
*
August 27 -
Thomas Kidd, English classical scholar and schoolmaster (b.
1770)
*
September 12 -
Presley O'Bannon, officer in the United States Marine Corps (b.
1784)
*
September 22 -
Johann Heinrich von Thünen, German economist (b.
1783)
*
September 23 -
José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan revolutionary (b.
1764)
*
October 2 -
Sarah Biffen, English painter (b.
1784)
*
October 29 -
Marmaduke Williams, Democratic-Republican U.S. Congressman from North Carolina (b.
1774)
*
November 2 -
Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr., Democratic governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina (b.
1796)
*
November 3 -
Thomas Ford, governor of Illinois (b.
1800)
*
November 4 -
Gustav Schwab, German classical scholar (b.
1792)
*
November 19 -
Richard Mentor Johnson,
Vice President of the United States (b.
1780)
*
November 22 -
Lin Zexu, Chinese politician (b.
1785)
*
November 30 -
Germain Henri Hess, Swiss chemist and doctor (b.
1802)
*
December 4 -
William Sturgeon, English physicist and inventor (b.
1783)
*
December 10 -
François Sulpice Beudant, French mineralogist and geologist (b.
1787)
*
December 22 -
William Plumer, U.S. lawyer and lay preacher (b.
1759)
*
December 24 -
Frédéric Bastiat French author and economist (b.
1801)
*
December 28 -
Heinrich Christian Schumacher, German astronomer (b.
1780)
Unknown Date
*
Antoni Potocki, Polish nobleman (b.
1780)
*
Báb, Bahá'í herald (b.
1819)
*
Charles Arbuthnot, British Tory politician (b.
1767)
*
Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn, British Tory politician (b.
1775)
*
Edward Bickersteth, English evangelical divine (b.
1786)
*
Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of John Graves Simcoe (b.
1762)
*
Frances Sargent Osgood, U.S. poet (b.
1811)
*
François-Xavier-Joseph Droz, French writer on ethics and political science (b.
1773)
*
Hone Heke, Maori chief and war leader
*
Jan Krukowiecki, Polish general (b.
1772)
*
Jane Porter, English novelist (b.
1776)
*
José Manuel de la Peña y Peña, interim President of Mexico (b.
1789)
*
Józef Bem, Polish general (b.
1794)
*
Juan Martín de Pueyrredón y O'Dogan, Argentine general and politician (b.
1776)
*
Michał Gedeon Radziwiłł, Polish noble (b.
1778)
*
Matthew Whitworth-Aylmer, 5th Baron Aylmer, British military officer and colonial administrator (b.
1775)
*
Owen Stanley, British naval officer and explorer of New Guinea (b.
1811)
*
Robert Gilfillan, Scottish poet (b.
1798)
*
Robert Stevenson, Scottish lighthouse engineer (b.
1772)
*
Tan Tock Seng, Singaporean businessman philanthropist
*
Valentín Canalizo, acting president of Mexico (b.
1794)
* Saint
Vincent Pallotti, Italian missionary (b.
1795)
*
William Lawson, British explorer of New South Wales (b.
1774)
*
William Hamilton Maxwell, Scots-Irish novelist (b.
1792)
