istoryworld
All Events
Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his first collection of poems, many of which have appeared first in The Dial
William Hickling Prescott follows his great work on Mexico with a 2-volume History of the Conquest of Peru
Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights follows just two months after her sister Charlotte's Jane Eyre
Kneller Hall is bought by the Committee of the Privy Council for Education. The house is largely demolished and rebuilt with nothing remaining of Kneller's original house.
James Young Simpson is the first to deliver a baby (christened Anaesthesia) using chloroform
An uprising in Sicily in January starts off Europe's 'year of revolutions'
The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels, is published in Paris with the ringing slogan: 'Workers of the world, unite!'
A revolution in Paris in February removes Louis-Philippe and introduces France's second republic
An uprising in Vienna leads to the resignation, on the following day, of the long-serving chancellor Klemens von Metternich
Another uprising in Vienna causes the emperor Ferdinand I to flee for safety to Innsbruck
Martial law is imposed in Prague after a demonstration by radical Czech students following a Pan-Slav congress
Pugin marries his third wife, Jane Knill, with whom he has two more children
Suppression of unrest in Hungary provokes a third violent uprising in Vienna and another flight by Ferdinand I, this time to Olomouc
An uprising in Rome causes Pope Pius IX to flee for safety to a coastal fortress at Gaeta
Metternich and his family leave Vienna, in this year of revolutions, and live in Trumpeters' House until October 1849
Gold is found on the property of John Sutter, at Coloma on the Sacramento river in California, and news of it launches the first gold rush
A treaty signed in Guadalupe-Hidalgo, ending the Mexican-American War, gives the US six new states
Richmond's railway bridge, the first to cross the Thames, is built to continue the line on towards Windsor
Two New York girls, Maggie and Katie Fox, claim to be in touch with the spirit of a murdered man, thus launching the modern cult of spiritualism
The Prussian army is the first to adopt a breech-loading rifle, the 'needle-gun' developed by gunsmith Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse
The Wilmot Proviso is defeated in the US Senate, heightening north-south tensions on the issue of slavery
With Wisconsin admitted as the 30th state, the western boundary of the USA now runs from Lake Superior to the Rio Grande
Scottish physicist William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, proposes the 'absolute' scale of temperature
Harry Smith annexes for Britain the land between the Orange and Vaal rivers, calling it the Orange River Sovereignty
English caricaturist George Cruikshank publishes The Drunkard's Children in support of the developing Temperance movement
