1848

1848 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar).

Years: 1845 1846 1847 - 1848 - 1849 1850 1851

Decades: 1810s 1820s 1830s - 1840s - 1850s 1860s 1870s

Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century 1848 in art 1848 in literature 1848 in science 1848 in music 1848 in sports List of state leaders in 1848 List of religious leaders in 1848

Events

Note: the Revolution of 1848, widespread but failed struggles for more liberal governments, from Brazil to Hungary, has its own entry.

• January 24 - California gold rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, near Sacramento
• January 26 - Henry David Thoreau addresses the Concord Lyceum with "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in Relation to Government" (which later came to be known as Civil Disobedience).
• February 2 - Mexican-American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the war.
• February 2 - California Gold Rush: The first ship with Chinese emigrants seeking fortune in California's gold country arrive in San Francisco.
• February 21 - Karl Marx publishes The Communist Manifesto.
• February 24 - Abdication of Le Roi-Citoyen (citizen king) Louis Philippe, King of the French and the proclamation of the Second Republic.
• March 7 - The Great Mahele (land division) is signed in Hawaii.
• March 10 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican-American War.
• March 15 - Revolution breaks out in Pest. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.
• March 20 - King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates
• March 29 - An upstream ice jam stops almost all water flow over Niagara Falls for 30 hours
• May 15 - Radicals invade the France Chamber of deputies
• May 19 - Mexican-American War: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - Mexico ratifies the treaty thus ending the war and ceding Texas, California and most of Arizona and New Mexico to the United States for $15 million dollars.
• May 29 - Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state.
• July 19 - Women's rights: The two day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York and the "Bloomers" are introduced at the feminist convention.
• July 29 - Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt - In Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put-down by a government police force.
• August 19 - California Gold Rush: The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States, that there is a gold rush in California (although the rush started in January)
• August 28 – Mathieu Luis, first black member joins the French parliament as a representative of Guadaloupe
• November 1 - In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with Boston University School of Medicine), opens.
• November 3 - Greatly revised Dutch constitution proclaimed
• November 7 - U.S. presidential election, 1848: Zachary Taylor is elected president in the first US presidential election held in every state on the same day.
• December 2 - Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria, abdicates in favor of his nephew, Franz Josef I.
• December 10 - Prince Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte elected first president of the French Second Republic.
• December 20 - President Bonaparte takes his Oath of Office in front of the French National Assembly.

• Cholera epidemic in New York kills 5000
• Associated Press founded in New York
• Queen College for women founded in London
• Wave of republican and democratic uprisings throughout Europe, mostly unsuccessful (see Revolution of 1848).
• Women hold Seneca Falls Convention in New York.
• Boston Public Library is founded by an act of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts
• First railway in Spain is opened, with line Barcelona to Mataró (circa 40 km).
• Illinois and Michigan Canal is completed.
• Independent Republic of Yucatan joins Mexico in exchange for Mexican help in suppressing revolt by Maya Indians.
• Serfdom is abolished in Austro-Hungarian Empire.
• John Bird Sumner becomes archbishop of Canterbury.
• British, Dutch, and German governments lay claim to New Guinea.
• Admiral Nevelskoi explores Strait of Tartary.
• Dunedin, New Zealand is founded by Scots settlers.
• University of Ottawa is founded.
• University of Mississippi is founded.
• University of Wisconsin, Madison is founded.
• Geneva College in Pennsylvania is founded.
• Holmes County, Florida is created.
• Elizabeth Gaskell publishes Mary Barton anonymously.
• Henrik Ibsen publishes first play Catilina.
• Ivar Aasen publishes Grammar of the Norwegian Dialects.
• Robert Schumann composes opera Genoveva.
• Richard Wagner begins writing libretto that will become Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung).

Ongoing events

• Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

Births

• January 19 - John F. Stairs, businessman, statesman (+ 1904)
• February 5 - Joris-Karl Huysmans, author (+ 1907)
• February 5 - Belle Starr, outlaw (+ 1889)
• February 8 - Joel Chandler Harris, American journalist, author (+ 1908)
• February 16 - Octave Mirbeau French art critic, novelist (+ 1917)
• February 18 - Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (+ 1933)
• February 24 - Andrew Inglis Clark, Tasmanian politician (+ 1907)
• February 24 - Grant Allen, author (+ 1899)
• February 25 - Edward Harriman, railroad entrepreneur
• February 27 - Hubert Parry, English composer (+ 1918)
• March 10 - Albert Fraenkel, physician (+ 1916)
• March 18 - Princess Louise, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
• March 19 - Wyatt Earp, policeman, gunfighter (+ 1929)
• March 31 - Viscount William Astor, British financier and statesman (+ 1919)
• May 23 - Otto Lilienthal, engineer (+ 1896)
• June 7 - Paul Gauguin, French artist
• July 6 - Gabor Baross, Hungarian statesman (+ 1892).
• July 15 - Vilfredo Pareto, economist (+ 1923).
• July 22 - Winfield Scott Stratton, American miner (+ 1902)
• July 25 - George Robert Aberigh-Mackay, Anglo-Indian writer (+ 1881)
• July 25 - Arthur James Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom(+ 1930)
• November 13 - Albert I of Monaco
• November 29 - John Ambrose Fleming, English electrical engineer, inventor of Fleming valve (+ 1945)

Deaths

• January 19 - Isaac D'Israeli, English author, father of Benjamin Disraeli
• February 23 - John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States.
• March 29 - John Jacob Astor, American businessman
• June 27 - Denis Auguste Affre, archbishop of Paris
• August 7 - Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist
• August 12 - George Stephenson, locomotive pioneer
• November 23 - Sir John Barrow, English statesman
• November 24 - Lord Melbourne, British Prime Minister
• December 19 - Emily Brontë, author
• Edward Baines, British newspaperman, politician
• Gaetano Donizetti, Italian opera composer