1849 encyclopedia topics

Events of 1849

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

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 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 3

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.
130,000 Russian troops pour into Hungary and subdue the country after bitter fighting.

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 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.