First Attempt to Assassinate the President
Jan 30 Richard Lawrence misfires at President Andrew Jackson in Washington, D.C. in 1st attempted assassination of a US President
- Feb 20 Concepcion, Chile, destroyed by earthquake; 5,000 die
- Feb 24 Siwinowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Sun) is 1st Indian language monthly magazine
- Feb 28 Dr Elias L"nnrot publishes Finnish poem "Kalevala"
- Mar 3 Congress authorizes a US mint at New Orleans, Louisiana; coins identified with mint mark 'O'
- Mar 4 HMS Beagle moves into Bay of Concepcion (Chile)
Historical Epic Burnt
Mar 6 Volume One of Thomas Carlyle's famous work "The French Revolution: A History" is accidentally burnt by a maid using it as fire starter before its publication. Carlyle re-writes it.
PM Lord Melbourne
Apr 18 William Lamb (Lord Melbourne) becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after Robert Peel resigns out of frustration
Grand Polonaise Brillante
Apr 26 Frédéric Chopin's "Grand Polonaise Brillante" premieres in Paris
- May 5 King Leopold I of Belgium opens Brussels-Mechelen railway
New York Herald
May 6 James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald (price 1 cent)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
May 8 First installment of Hans Christian Andersen "Fairy Tales" published by C. A. Reitzel in Copenhagen, Denmark
Darwin Visits Panuncillo Coal Mines
May 12 Charles Darwin visits Alexander Caldcleugh’s copper mines at Panuncillo in northern Chile and is impressed by the extraordinary feats of labor performed by the workers
P.T. Barnum Circus
Jun 2 P. T. Barnum & his circus begin 1st tour of US
Liberty Bell
Jul 8 Liberty Bell cracks (again)
Screw Propeller
Jul 13 Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson files for a patent for his screw propeller design
Smolny Cathedral Consecrated
Jul 22 Smolny Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia is consecrated, originally commissioned by Elizabeth of Russia
- Jul 25 Ibrahim Pasha's army attacks Jewish settlers of Hebron Palestine
- Jul 26 1st sugar cane plantation started in Hawaii
- Jul 29 1st sugar plantation in Hawaii established
- Aug 10 Mob of whites & oxen pulled black school to a swamp out of Canaan NH
- Aug 11 George B Airy begins 46-year reign as England's Astronomer Royal
- Aug 17 Solymon Merrick of Springfield, Massachusetts patents the first wrench
- Aug 18 Last Pottawatomie Indians leave Chicago
Great Moon Hoax
Aug 25 New York Sun publishes Moon hoax story about John Herschel
- Aug 30 City of Melbourne, Australia, is founded
- Sep 15 HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin on board reaches the Galapagos Islands
- Sep 17 Charles Darwins lands on Chatham in Galapagos archipelago
- Sep 20 Farroupilha's Revolution begins in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
- Sep 23 HMS Beagle sails to Charles Island in Galapagos archipelago
- Sep 26 Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" premieres at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (now Italy)
- Oct 2 Battle of Gonzales fought between Texan settlers and Mexican forces. First engagement of the Texas revolution
- Oct 3 Staedtler Company founded by J.S. Staedtler in Nuremberg, Germany
- Oct 9 The Royal College, Colombo, established with the name Hillstreet Academy in Sri Lanka
- Oct 20 HMS Beagle leaves Galapagos Archipelago to sail to Tahiti
- Oct 28 Battle of Concepción: rebels led by James Bowie and James Fannin defeat Mexican troops at Mission Concepción, 2 miles (3.2 km) south of what is now San Antonio, Texas
- Nov 15 Charles Darwin reaches Tahiti on board HMS Beagle, the location where he would formulate his ideas later written in The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs
- Nov 16 "Extracts from Letters to Henslow", a collection of letters written by Charles Darwin during his voyage on the Beagle, is read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society and later published as a pamphlet
- Nov 19 A ship carrying 500 armed Maori from Ngati Tama and Ngati Mutunga arrives on the Chatham Islands; those Moriori (indigenous people of the Chatham Islands) that are not killed are enslaved
- Nov 23 Henry Burden patents horseshoe manufacturing machine (Troy, NY)
- Nov 24 Texas Rangers, mounted police force authorized by Texas Provisional Government
- Nov 26 HMS Beagle leaves Tahiti for New Zealand
- Dec 3 First US mutual fire insurance company issues first policy (Rhode Island)
- Dec 5 - 10th: Assault on Mexican-held San Antonio by Texan rebels
- Dec 7 Bavarian Ludwig railway opens - first German steam railway
- Dec 16 Fire consumes over 600 buildings in NYC
- Dec 19 HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin aboard arrives in New Zealand
- Dec 21 HMS Beagle sails into Bay of Islands, New Zealand
- Dec 28 Second Seminole War between United States and Native Americans begins with the Dade Massacre in Sumter County, Florida; Senminole fighters kill nearly all 110 of US Army troops under Major Francis Langhorne Dade [1] [2]
Trail of Tears
Dec 29 Treaty of New Echota is signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies