1849

Year 1849 (MDCCCXLIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1849

January - March

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 erupt into brief riots.
January 12 - Palermo, Sicily rises up against Austrian troops.
January 13 -Second Anglo-Sikh War - British forces retreat from the Battle of Tooele.
January 21 - General elections are held in the Papal States.
January 23 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor.
January 31 - The Corn Laws are abolished in the United Kingdom (following legislation in 1846).
February 8 - The New Roman Republic is 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 leaves New York Harbor on October 6, 1848, rounds Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrives at San Francisco, California after the 4 month 21 day journey.
March - The Frankfurt Parliament completes its drafting of a liberal constitution and elects Frederick William IV emperor of the new German national state.
March 3
- 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). Urban legend 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, the 12th President of the United States of America, takes his oath of office.
March 28 - Four 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 - June

April 1 - After 10 days, the insurrection in Brescia is ended by Austrian troops.
April 2 - The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states end and fail.
April 14 - Hungary declares independence from Austria.
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 Rome to defend it from the French troops of General Oudinot.
May- The Second Carlist War ends in Spain.
May 3
- The May Uprising in Dresden (the last of the German revolutions of 1848) begins.
- The Mississippi River levee at Sauvé's Crevasse breaks, flooding 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 starts when a steamboat catches fire and nearly burns down the entire city.
June 5 - Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy.
June 6
- Fort Worth, Texas is founded.

July - September

July 3 - French troops occupy Rome; the Roman Republic surrenders.
July 6 - The Danish Army beats the Prussian army at Fredericia, Jutland, thereby putting an end to the Prussian/Danish War until 1864.
August 8 - Austria crushes the Hungarian rebellion with Russian aid.
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 - December

October 6 - The 13 Martyrs of Arad are executed after the Hungarian War of Independence.
November - Austin College receives a 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 cancelled at the last minute.

Ongoing Events

Births

1849 in other calendars Gregorian calendar 1849
MDCCCXLIX
Ab urbe condita 2602
Armenian calendar 1298
ԹՎ ՌՄՂԸ
Bahá'í calendar 5 – 6
Berber calendar 2799
Buddhist calendar 2393
Burmese calendar 1211
Byzantine calendar 7357 – 7358
Chinese calendar 戊申年十二月初七日
(4485/4545-12-7)

— to —

己酉年十一月十八日
(4486/4546-11-18)
Coptic calendar 1565 – 1566
Ethiopian calendar 1841 – 1842
Hebrew calendar 5609 – 5610
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat 1904 – 1905
- Shaka Samvat 1771 – 1772
- Kali Yuga 4950 – 4951
Holocene calendar 11849
Iranian calendar 1227 – 1228
Islamic calendar 1265 – 1266
Japanese calendar Kaei 2
(嘉永2年)
Korean calendar 4182
Thai solar calendar 2392

v • d • e

January - June

January 9 - John Hartley, English tennis player, double winner of Wimbledon (d. 1935)
January 14 - James Moore, winner of the first ever cycle race (d. 1935)
January 18
- Edmund Barton, first Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1920)
- Aleksander Świętochowski, Polish writer of the Positivist period (d. 1938)
January 22 - August Strindberg, Swedish author, playwright, and painter (d. 1912)
February 13 - Lord Randolph Churchill, British statesman (d. 1895)
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)
May 16 - Jalaleddin Ali Mir Abolfazl Angha, 39th Oveyssi Sufi master (d. 1914)
May 22 - Louis Perrier, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1913)
June 9 - Michael Peter Ancher, Danish painter (d. 1927)