1849

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1849 (MDCCCXLIX) was a common year starting on Monday (dominical letter G) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday (dominical letter B) of the Julian calendar, the 1849th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 849th year of the 2nd millennium, the 49th year of the 19th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1840s decade. As of the start of 1849, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1918.

Events

January–March

• January 1 – France issues Ceres, the nation's first postage stamp.
• January 5 – The Austrian army led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, enters in the Hungarian capitals, Buda and Pest. The Hungarian government and parliament flees to Debrecen.
• January 8 – Romanian armed groups massacre 600 unarmed Hungarian civilians at Nagyenyed.^[1]
• January 13 – Second Anglo-Sikh War – British forces retreat from the Battle of Tooele.
• January 21
  • General elections are held in the Papal States.
  • The Hungarian army in Transylvania led by Josef Bem is defeated by the Austrians led by Anton Puchner at the battle of Nagyszeben.
• 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 27 – The Fayetteville and Western Plank Road Company is incorporated to build a plank road from Fayetteville to Bethania, North Carolina.^[2]
• January 31 – A Russian army of 10 000 soldiers enters Transylvania, in order to help the Austrians to defeat the Hungarian forces led by Josef Bem.
• February 1 – Abolition of the Corn Laws by the United Kingdom's Importation Act 1846 comes fully into effect.
• February 4 – The Austrian army led by Anton Puchner defeats the Hungarians led by general Josef Bem in the battle of Vízakna.
• February 5 – The Hungarian revolutionary army led by Richard Guyon break through the pass of Branyiszkó, defeating the Austrian defenders.
• February 8 – The new Roman Republic is proclaimed.
• February 9 – Josef Bem's Hungarian army defeats Anton Puchner in the battle of Piski.
• February 14 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
• February 21 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Gujrat – British East India Company forces defeat those of the Sikh Empire in Punjab.
• February 27 – The main Hungarian and Austrian armies meet in the Battle of Kápolna. The Austrians win the battle.
• 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 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
  • The United States Department of the Interior is established, incorporating the Census Office, General Land Office, Office of Indian Affairs and Patent and Trademark Office.
  • Minnesota becomes a United States territory.
  • The United States Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of gold coins.
• March 4
  • (Sunday) Zachary Taylor becomes President of the United States, but refuses to be sworn into office on a Sabbath. Urban legend holds that David Rice Atchison, President pro tempore of the United States Senate is President de jure for a single day.
  • The Habsburg emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria promulgates at Olomouc the March Constitution of Austria which abolished the April Laws promulgated by the Hungarian Batthyány-govern, and degraded Hungary to a simple Austrian province.
• March 5
  • The Hungarians led by János Damjanich and Károly Vécsey defeat the Austrians at Szolnok.
  • President Zachary Taylor is sworn in.
• March 11 – The Hungarian army of Transylvania under general Josef Bem defeats the Russian-Austrian army at Nagyszeben, capturing the city which is headquarters of the Austrian general Anton Puchner. The most part of Transylvania is liberated from the Austrian rule. The Austrian and the Russian troops flee to Wallachia.
• March 28 – Four Christians are ordered burnt alive in Antananarivo, Madagascar, by Queen Ranavalona I, and 14 others are executed.
• March 30 – Second Anglo-Sikh War ends with the United Kingdom annexing the Punjab.

April–June

• April 1
  • After 10 days, the insurrection in Brescia is ended by Austrian troops.
  • The Hungarian Revolutionary Army under the leadership of Arthur Görgey starts the victorious Spring Campaign, which leads to the liberation of much of Hungary from the Austrian forces.
• April 2 – German revolutions of 1848–49 end in failure as King Frederick William IV of Prussia refuses to accept the offer of the Frankfurt National Assembly to be crowned as German emperor.
  • In the Battle of Hatvan the Hungarian revolutionary army under the command of András Gáspár defeat the Austrians led by general Franz Schlik.
• April 4 – Hungarians under the generals György Klapka and János Damjanich defeat the Austrian-Croatian army led by Franz Schlik and Josip Jelačić at the Battle of Tápióbicske.
• April 6 – The main Hungarian forces led by Arthur Görgey defeat at the Battle of Isaszeg the main imperial forces led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, forcing them to retreat towards West.
• April 10 – The Hungarians led by János Damjanich defeat at Vác the Austrians led by Christian Götz, who dies after the battle due to his injuries.
• April 12 – Because of his series of defeats suffered from the Hungarian army, Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz is released from the supreme command of the Austrian forces in Hungary and replaced by Ludwig von Welden.
• April 14 – The Hungarian revolutionary parliament declares in Debrecen independence from the Habsburg Empire.
• April 19 – The Hungarian revolutionary army led by György Klapka and János Damjanich defeat at Nagysalló the Austrian army led by Lt. Gen. Ludwig von Wohlgemuth.
• April 21
  • Great Famine (Ireland): 96 inmates of the overcrowded Ballinrobe Union Workhouse have died over the course of the preceding week from illness and other famine-related conditions, a record high.
  • The Austrian government asks Russian help against the Hungarian Revolution. The tsar Nicholas I of Russia, agrees to send troops against Hungary.
• April 22 – The first Kennedy arrived in America.
• April 25 – James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, the Governor General of Canada, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
• April 26 – Battle of Komárom. The Hungarian forces relieve the city and castle with the same name from a long Austrian siege. The Austrian imperial forces and their Croatian, Romanian and Serbian allies are chased out from Hungary or near the borders of the country.
• April 27 – Giuseppe Garibaldi enters Rome to defend it from the French troops of General Charles Oudinot.
• May – The Second Carlist War ends in Spain.
• May 2 – A new independent Hungarian government, led by Bertalan Szemere, is formed. The head of state of Hungary becomes Lajos Kossuth as governor president.
• May 3
  • The May Uprising in Dresden, last of the German revolutions of 1848–49, begins. Richard Wagner is among the participants.
  • The Mississippi River levee at Sauvé's Crevasse breaks, flooding much of New Orleans.
• May 9 – The May Uprising in Dresden is suppressed by the Kingdom of Saxony.
• May 10 – The Astor Place Riot takes place in Manhattan over a dispute between two Shakespearean actors. Over 20 people are killed.
• May 15 – Troops of the Kingdom 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.
• May 21 – The Hungarian army led by Arthur Görgey capture the Castle of Buda, liberating the Hungarian capital city completely. The leader of the defending Austrian forces, general Heinrich Hentzi dies because of his injuries. The Hungarian govern moves back from Debrecen to Budapest.
• May 30 – Julius Jacob von Haynau replaces Ludwig von Welden in the leadership of the Austrian forces in Hungary, because of the failure of the latter to stop the advance of the Hungarian forces.
• June 5
  • Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy.
  • The first Russian troops led by Lieutenant General Fyodor Sergeyevich Panyutin, who come in the aid of the Habsburgs, cross the Hungarian border at Pozsony, in order to crush the Hungarian revolution.
• June 6 – Fort Worth, Texas, is founded.
• June 17 – The main Russian forces led by Ivan Paskevich cross the Hungarian border, and together with the Austrian troops led by Julius Jacob von Haynau start the final attack against the Hungarian Revolution. Now the Hungarian revolutionary troops, numbering 173 000 soldiers, which even before the Russian attack were in inferiority regarding their numbers, and the quality of their weapons and war industry, faced a force of 370 000 Austro-Russian forces,^[3] and other tens of thousands of Croatian, Serbian and Romanian insurgents, who served the Habsburg imperial interests.
• June 20 – Russian troops under the command of Alexander von Lüders break in Transylvania and together with the Austrian forces start to operate against the Hungarian troops led by Józef Bem.
• June 21 – The Russo-Austrian army led by Julius Jacob von Haynau defeats the Hungarians under the command of Arthur Görgey at Pered.
• June 28 – The Austrian army led by Julius Jacob von Haynau defeats the Hungarians led by Ernő Poeltenberg at Győr. The Hungarian army is forced to retreat towards Budapest.

July–September

• July 2 – The Hungarian army led by Arthur Görgey repulses the combined attack of the Austrian and Russian troops led by Julius Jacob von Haynau at the Second Battle of Komárom. During the battle Görgey suffers a heavy head injury, which prevents him from taking advantage of this success.
• July 3 – French troops occupy Rome; the Roman Republic surrenders.
• July 6 – Battle of Fredericia: the Danish Army beats the Prussian army at Fredericia, Jutland, thereby putting an end to the Prussian/Danish War until 1864.
• July 11 – The Hungarian army led by Arthur Görgey is defeated by the Austrians led by Julius Jacob von Haynau at the Third Battle of Komárom.
• July 14
  • Because of the imminent Austrian attack, the Hungarian government moves from Budapest to Szeged.
  • Hungarian troops led by Richard Guyon, defeat the Croatian-Austrian army led by Josip Jelačić at Kishegyes, securing southern Hungary for the revolutionary government.
• July 17 – Undecided battle at Vác between Hungarians led by Arthur Görgey and the Russians led by Ivan Paskevich. The Russians are unsuccessful in destroying the Hungarian army, which retreats towards east.
• July 23 – The French scientist Hippolyte Fizeau measures the speed of light with an instrument placed on the Earth.
• July 28 – The Hungarian government led by Bertalan Szemere promulgates the Nationality Law which gave important rights to the nationalities of Hungary, like the right to use their mother tongue in school, church, army, court and administration. The Romanians are declared nation and not minority in Transylvania. The Jews receive equality thanks to the Emancipation Decree.^[4]
• July 31 – The Russian troops in Transylvania led by Alexander von Lüders crush the Hungarian forces under the lead of Józef Bem in the Battle of Segesvár. The Hungarian poet and revolutionary Sándor Petőfi is killed in the battle by the Russians.
• August 2 – The Russian main forces under Ivan Paskevich defeat the Hungarian army under József Nagysándor at Debrecen.
• August 3 – The Hungarian defenders of Komárom led by György Klapka destroy the besieging Austrian forces, liberating Győr and Székesfehérvár. But this victory comes too late to change the course of the military events in the eastern part of the country, where the Hungarian forces are about to crumble under the heavy Austro-Russian pressure.
• August 5 – The Austrian forces under the lead of Julius Jacob von Haynau defeat the Hungarian main forces under Henryk Dembiński in the Battle of Szőreg.
• August 9 – The main Russo-Austrian forces led by Julius Jacob von Haynau win a decisive victory against the Hungarians led by Józef Bem in the Battle of Temesvár.
• August 11 – Lajos Kossuth and the Hungarian Government of Bertalan Szemere resign and give all powers to the hands of Arthur Görgey. After this Kossuth, the ministries and many military officers leave Hungary and ask asylum in Turkey.
• August 13 – The main Hungarian army under the lead of Arthur Görgey capitulate before the Russian troops led by Theodor von Rüdiger at Világos. The end of the Hungarian Revolution.
• August 28 – Venice (the Republic of San Marco) surrenders to Austrian troops after a 4-month siege.
• September 1 – The first segment of the Pennsylvania Railroad, from Lewistown to Harrisburg, opens for service.

October–December

• October 4 – Komárom, the last bastion of the Hungarian Revolution surrenders to the Austrian forces.
• October 6
  • The 13 Martyrs of Arad are executed after the Hungarian War of Independence, in repression by the Austrian authorities led by Julius Jacob von Haynau. These martyrs were the generals of the Hungarian revolutionary army, who did not flee from Hungary after the suppression of the Hungarian revolution by the Russo-Austrian forces.
  • Lajos Batthyány, the first Hungarian prime minister is executed by Austria in Pest.
• November – Austin College receives a charter in Huntsville, Texas.
• November 13 – The Constitution of California is ratified in a general election.
• November 16 – A Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoyevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group, the Petrashevsky Circle. Facing a firing squad on December 23 the group members are reprieved at the last moment and exiled to the katorga prison camps in Siberia.

Date unknown

• The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the North Carolina Railroad to complete a rail line from Goldsboro through Raleigh and Salisbury to Charlotte.^[5]
• Seven of the "best known" opium clippers go missing: Sylph, Coquette, Kelpie, Greyhound, Don Juan, Mischief, and Anna Eliza.^[6]

Births

January–June

Oscar Hertwig

Bernhard von Bülow

• January 8 – Stepan Makarov, Russian admiral (d. 1904)
• January 9 – John Hartley, English tennis player, double winner of Wimbledon (d. 1935)
• January 14 – James Moore, winner of the first ever cycle race (d. 1935)
• January 18
  • Aleksander Świętochowski, Polish writer of the Positivist period (d. 1938)
  • Edmund Barton, first Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1920)
• January 22 – August Strindberg, Swedish author, playwright, and painter (d. 1912)
• February 13 – Lord Randolph Churchill, British statesman (d. 1895)
• February 18 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (d. 1906)
• February 19 – Giovanni Passannante, Italian anarchist (d. 1910)
• February 22 – Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, Russian mathematician (d. 1915)
• February 28 – Joseph von Mering, German physician (d. 1908)
• March 2 – Robert Means Thompson, American naval officer (d. 1930)
• March 6 – Georg Luger, Austrian firearm designer (d. 1924)
• March 7 – Luther Burbank, American biologist and botanist (d. 1926)
• March 19 – Alfred von Tirpitz, German admiral (d. 1930)
• March 24 – Franz S. Exner, Austrian physicist (d. 1926)
• April 6 – John William Waterhouse, Italian-born artist (d. 1917)
• April 17 – William R. Day, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1923)
• April 20 – Nikolai Nebogatov, Russian admiral (d. 1922)
• April 21 – Oscar Hertwig, German zoologist (d. 1922)
• April 24 – Joseph Gallieni, French general (d. 1916)
• April 28 – Augusto Aubry, Italian admiral and politician (d. 1912)
• May 1 – Kamimura Hikonojō, Japanese admiral (d. 1916)
• May 3
  • Bertha Benz, German automotive pioneer (d. 1944)
  • Bernhard von Bülow, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)
• May 9 – Theodor Leutwein, German colonial administrator (d. 1921)
• May 19 – John Hubbard, American admiral (d. 1932)
• May 22
  • Louis Perrier, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1913)
  • Aston Webb, British architect (d. 1930)
• May 25 – Louise Hammarström, Swedish chemist (d. 1917)
• June 9 – Michael Ancher, Danish painter (d. 1927)

July–December

• July 4 – Fernand de Langle de Cary, French general (d. 1927)
• July 22 – Emma Lazarus, American poet (d. 1887)
• July 29
  • Max Nordau, Austrian author, philosopher, and Zionist leader (d. 1923)
  • Edward Theodore Compton, English-German painter and mountain climber (d. 1921)
• August 28 – Benjamin Godard, French composer (d. 1895)
• September 3 – Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (d. 1909)
• September 11 – Edmund Poë, British admiral (d. 1921)
• September 14 – Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Russian researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1936)
• September 18 – Martha Place, American murderer, first woman executed in the electric chair (d. 1899)
• September 21 – Maurice Barrymore, British-American stage actor and playwright, (d. 1905)
• October 26 – Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, German mathematician (d. 1917)
• October 28 – Oskar Enkvist, Russian admiral (d. 1912)
• November 24 – Frances Hodgson Burnett, English-American playwright and author (d. 1924)
• November 29 – John Ambrose Fleming, English electrical engineer and inventor (d. 1945)
• December 4 – Crazy Horse, Chief of the Oglala Sioux (d. 1877)
• December 5 – Eduard Seler, Prussian scholar and Mesoamericanist (d. 1922)
• December 6 – August von Mackensen, German field marshal (d. 1945)
• December 12 – William Kissam Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (d. 1920)
• December 20 – Raymond P. Rodgers, American admiral (d. 1925)
• December 25 – Nogi Maresuke, Japanese general (d. 1912)

Date unknown

• Aleksandr Loran, Russian inventor (d. 1911)
• Emma Curtis Hopkins, American writer (d. 1929)
• Muhammad Abduh, Islamic reformer (d. 1905)
• Pavlos Karolidis, Greek historian (d. 1930)
• Ellen Eglin, American inventor.

Deaths

January–June

• January 18 – Panoutsos Notaras, Greek politician (b. 1752)
• January 30 – Jonathan Alder, American settler (b. 1773)
• February 8 – France Prešeren, Slovenian poet (b. 1800)
• February 28 – Regina von Siebold, German physician and obstetrician (b. 1771)
• March 14 – King Willem II of the Netherlands (b. 1792)
• March 15 – Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti, Italian Cardinal and linguist (b. 1774)
• March 18 – Antonin Moine, French sculptor (b. 1796)
• March 20 – James Justinian Morier, British diplomat and author (b. 1780)
• March 24 – Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner, German chemist (b. 1780)
• April 11 – Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentine statesman and priest (b. 1777)
• May 11
  • Juliette Récamier, French socialite (b. 1777)
  • Otto Nicolai, German Composer and Conductor (b. 1810)
• May 22 – Maria Edgeworth, Irish novelist (b. 1767)
• May 25 – Benjamin D'Urban, British general and colonial administrator (b. 1777)
• May 28 – Anne Brontë, English author (b. 1820)
• June 10 – Thomas Robert Bugeaud, Marshal of France and duke of Isly (b. 1784)
• June 15 – James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States (b. 1795)

July–December

Edgar Allan Poe

Frédéric Chopin

• July 12 – Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States (b. 1768)
• July 28 – King Charles Albert of Sardinia (b. 1798)
• July 31 – Sándor Petőfi, Hungarian poet (b. 1823)
• August 2 – Muhammad Ali of Egypt (b. 1769)
• September 4 – Friedrich Laun, German novelist (b. 1770)
• September 25 – Johann Strauss, Senior, Austrian composer (b. 1804)
• October 6 – Lajos Batthyány, Hungarian statesman, executed (b. 1807)
• October 7 – Edgar Allan Poe, American writer (b. 1809)
• October 17 – Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French musician and composer (b. 1810)
• October 22 – William Miller, American Baptist preacher (b. 1782)
• December 2 – Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen of William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1792)

References