"The Liberator"
Jan 1 William Lloyd Garrison publishes 1st issue of abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator" in Boston; publication continued until the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865
Darwin Takes Cambridge Exam
Jan 22 Charles Darwin takes his Bachelors of Art exam at Christ's College, Cambridge, coming tenth out of 171 candidates
- Feb 5 Jan van Speyk blows up his gunboat in Antwerp to avoid capture by the Belgian, killing about 30
- Feb 7 Belgium adopts its Constitution
- Feb 14 Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay
- Feb 19 1st practical US coal-burning locomotive makes 1st trial run in Pennsylvania
- Feb 20 Polish revolutionaries defeat Russians in battle of Growchow
Reform Act
Mar 1 Lord John Russell introduces the Reform Bill in the British House of Commons on the government's behalf to revamp the electoral system of England and Wales and increase the franchise
- Mar 2 John Frazee becomes 1st US sculptor to receive a federal commission
Edgar Allan Poe Court-Martialed
Mar 6 Edgar Allan Poe court-martialed and dismissed from West Point military academy for gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders [1]
- Mar 6 Vincenzo Bellini's opera "La Sonnambula" premieres at Teatro Carcano in Milan, Italy
- Mar 10 The French Foreign Legion is established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria
- Mar 19 1st US bank robbery, the City Bank in New York robbed of $245,000
- Mar 29 Great Bosnian uprising: Bosniak rebel against Turkey.
- Mar 31 Mainzer Rijnvaart Convention ends
- Mar 31 Quebec & Montreal incorporated
Lewis Chess Pieces
Apr 11 The 12th century Lewis chess pieces are exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, shortly after their rediscovery in a sand bank on the Scottish Isle of Lewis
- Apr 14 Soldiers marching on a bridge in Manchester, England, cause it to collapse.
- Jun 1 British explorer James Clark Ross discovers the magnetic North Pole on the west coast of Boothia peninsula [1]
- Jun 4 National Congress selects Leopold von Saksen-Coburg as King of Belgium
- Jun 6 2nd US national black convention (Philadelphia)
- Jul 1 Admiral James C Ross reaches magnetic North Pole
- Jul 4 "America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)", with lyric by Samuel Francis Smith, has 1st public performance at Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts
- Jul 21 Belgium gains independence from Netherlands, Leopold I made king
- Aug 1 London Bridge across the Thames opens to traffic
- Aug 2 Ten day campaign begins, Dutch army occupies Belgium
- Aug 8 Battle of Hasselt - Dutch army drives out Belgians
- Aug 9 1st US steam engine train run (Albany to Schenectady, NY)
- Aug 10 Hurricane hits Barbados; about 1,500 die
- Aug 12 Dutch troops conquer Leuven
- Aug 12 Netherlands & Belgium sign peace treaty
Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion
Aug 21 Former slave Nat Turner leads uprising against slavery
- Aug 24 Naturalist John Henslow writes to Charles Darwin to offer him a place aboard the Admiralty surveying vessel HMS Beagle on a voyage to chart the South American coast [1]
1st Electric Transformer
Aug 29 Michael Faraday demonstrates 1st electric transformer
- Sep 8 William IV is crowned King of Great Britain, then aged 64 the oldest person to assume the British throne
- Sep 15 The locomotive "John Bull" operates for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad
- Sep 26 Robert Montgomery Bird's play "The Gladiator" premieres in NYC
- Oct 9 Ioannis Kapodistrias, first Head of State of modern Greece, assassinated in Nafplion
Piano Concerto No. 1
Oct 17 Felix Mendelssohn's 1st Piano concert in G, premieres in Munich, Germany, with the composer as soloist
Faraday, the Blacksmith's Boy Who Changed the World
Oct 28 Michael Faraday demonstrates his dynamo invention, an electrical generator
- Nov 7 State of Gran Colombia disbands
- Nov 17 Ecuador and Venezuela separated from Greater Colombia
- Nov 21 Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera "Robert le diable" (Robert the Devil) premieres at the Paris Opéra
- Dec 1 Erie Canal closes for entire month due to cold weather
- Dec 5 Former US President John Q Adams takes his seat as a member of House of Representatives
- Dec 10 "Spirit of the Times" begins publishing in New York City, the premier sports journal of the 19th century
- Dec 25 Louisiana & Arkansas are first states to observe Christmas as holiday
- Dec 26 Vincenzo Bellini's opera "Norma" premieres in Milan
HMS Beagle Departs
Dec 27 HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin on board departs England for a survey of South America, a voyage Darwin later said "determined my whole career"
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies