Events
- January 23 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her MD by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor
- January 31 - Corn Laws abolished in the United Kingdom
- 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 left New York Harbor on October 6, 1848, rounded Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrived at San Francisco, California after the 4 month 21 day journey
- March 3 - End of Term for President of the United States James Knox Polk.
- March 3 - Minnesota becomes a United States territory
- March 3 - The United States Department of the Interior is established
- March 3 - The United States Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of gold coins
- March 4 - Zachary Taylor refuses to be sworn in office on a Sabbath (Sunday). Concequently the office of President of the United States of America is vacant for a single day. Urban legend instead helds that David Rice Atchison, President pro tempore of the United States Senate was President for a single day.
- March 5 - Zachary Taylor becomes the 12th President of the United States of America.
- March 29 - The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab
- April 2 - The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states end and fail.
- April 13 – Hungary declares independence – Austria crushes the rebellion with Russian aid
- April 25 - The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
- May 3 - The May Uprising in Dresden begins - the last of the German revolutions of 1848.
- June 5 - Denmark becomes constitutional monarchy
- November 16 - A Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group, but his execution is canceled at the last minute
Births
- January 18 - Edmund Barton, first Prime Minister of Australia († 1920)
- January 22 - August Strindberg, Swedish author, playwright and painter
- February 18 - Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author
- February 22 - Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, mathematician
- March 2 - Robert Means Thompson, naval officer († 1930)
- March 7 - Luther Burbank, biologist, botanist
- March 19 - Alfred von Tirpitz, German soldier († 1930)
- July 29 - Max Nordau, author, philosopher and Zionist leader († 1923)
- December 4 - Crazy Horse, Chief of the Oglala Sioux
- December 12 – William Kissam Vanderbilt, railway magnate (+ 1920)
- Emma Abbott, American opera singer
- John William Waterhouse, artist
Deaths
af:1849
bg:1849
ca:1849
da:1849
de:1849
es:1849
eo:1849
fr:1849
it:1849
nl:1849
no:1849
pl:1849
ro:1849
sl:1849
fi:1849
sv:1849
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