Historic Publication
Jan 15 Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky's first novel "Poor Folk" is published in the St Petersburg Collection almanac
"The Daily News"
Jan 21 1st edition of Charles Dickens' newspaper "The Daily News"
- Jan 23 Tunisia becomes the first Arab nation to outlaw slavery in decree issued by Ahmed I Bey [1]
- Jan 28 Battle of Allwal, British beat Sikhs in Punjab
- Jan 31 After the Milwaukee Bridge War, Juneautown and Kilbourntown unified as the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Feb 1 Theophile Gautier publishes "Hashish Club" about his initiation
- Feb 4 Mormons leave Nauvoo, Illinois, for settlement in the west
- Feb 5 "Oregon Spectator" is 1st newspaper to be published on the West Coast
- Feb 10 Beginning of Mormon march to western US
- Feb 10 British defeat Sikhs in battle of Sobraon, India
- Feb 16 Battle of Sobraon ends 1st Sikh War in India
- Feb 19 Texas state government formally installed in Austin
- Feb 20 British occupy Sikh citadel of Lahore
- Feb 21 1st US woman telegrapher is Sarah G. Bagley of Lowell, Massachusetts
- Feb 23 Polish revolutionaries march on Kraków, but are defeated
- Mar 13 Friedrich Hebbel's play "Maria Magdalena" premieres in Königsberg
Historic Expedition
Mar 25 German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt arrives in Sydney to a hero's welcome after completing his exploration of Australia's Northern Territory
- Apr 25 Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War
- May 1 Ida Pfeiffer (48) begins trip around world
- May 3 Mexican Army begins the Siege of Fort Texas near Brownsville, Texas, during the Mexican–American War
- May 4 US state Michigan ends death penalty
- May 8 1st major battle of Mexican War fought at Palo Alto, Texas
- May 9 Battle of Resaca de la Palma-US sends Mexico back to Rio Grande
- May 13 US declares war on Mexico, 2 months after fighting begins
- May 18 US troops attack Rio Grande occupying Matamoros
- May 21 1st steamship arrives in Hawaii
- Jun 5 Telegraph line opens between Philadelphia and Baltimore
- Jun 8 Battle at Gwanga: British troops beat Bantu
- Jun 10 Robert Thomson obtains an English patent on a rubber tyre
- Jun 14 Belgian Liberal Party forms
- Jun 14 California (Bear Flag) Republic proclaimed in Sonoma, declaring independence from Mexico
- Jun 15 Oregon Treaty signed, setting US-British boundary at 49°N
- Jun 24 Residency tax on Jews of Hungary abolished
- Jul 9 Captain John B. Montgomery claims Yerba Buena (San Francisco) for US
- Jul 9 The territory of the District of Columbia south of the Potomac River (39 mi² or about 100 km²) is returned to Virginia through an Act of Congress
- Jul 21 Mormons found 1st English settlement in California (San Joaquin Valley)
- Aug 5 Oregon territory divided between US & Britain at 49th parallel
- Aug 10 US Act of Congress passes establishing the Smithsonian Institution, now world's largest museum and research complex
Event of Interest
Aug 14 Henry David Thoreau jailed for refusing to pay taxes
- Aug 14 The Cape Girardeau meteorite, a 2.3 kg chondrite-type meteorite strikes near the town of Cape Girardeau in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.
- Aug 17 Commodore Robert F Stockton, US Navy, annexes California
- Aug 18 General Stephen W Kearney's US forces capture Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Aug 26 W. A. Bartlett appointed 1st US mayor of Yerba Buena (San Francisco)
Historic Invention
Sep 10 Elias Howe takes out a US patent for a lockstitch sewing machine
- Sep 15 Jung Bahadur Rana grabs power in Nepal
Event of Interest
Sep 18 Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning exchange their last letters before they move to Italy
- Sep 23 Johann Gottfried Galle & Heinrich d'Arrest find Neptune
- Sep 25 US troops under General Zachery Taylor occupy Monterey, Mexico, during Mexican–American War
- Sep 30 Anesthetic ether is used for the 1st time, by American dentist Dr William Morton who extracts a tooth
- Oct 10 Alexis de Tocqueville writes about "Algerian problem"
- Oct 10 Neptune's moon Triton discovered by William Lassell
- Oct 15 American Dr William Thomas Green Morton's 1st public use of ether
- Oct 16 Dentist William T Morton demonstrates effectiveness of ether
- Oct 28 Pioneers suffer blizzard in Sierra Nevada; 42 die
- Oct 31 Donner party, unable to cross the Donner Pass, construct a winter camp
- Nov 4 American inventor Benjamin Palmer from Meredith, New Hampshire, patents the artificial leg
- Dec 5 C F Schoenbein obtains patent for cellulose nitrate explosive
- Dec 28 Iowa becomes 29th state of the United States of America