| January 1 | Britain takes Mosquito Coast from Nicaragua |
| January 8 | Austrian soldiers kill 10 students, Pavia |
| January 9 | 1st commercial bank in San Francisco established |
| January 9 | People's uprising in Palermo Sicily |
| January 24 | James Marshall finds gold in Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California |
| January 28 | King of Naples grants his subjects a constitution |
| January 29 | Sicily accepts new Constitution (choose parliament/freedom of press) |
| February 2 | 1st ship load of Chinese arrive in San Francisco |
| February 2 | Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican War; U.S. acquires Texas California, New Mexico and Arizona for $15 million |
| February 12 | Ballet "Faust" premieres, Milan |
| February 14 | James K. Polk became 1st President photographed in office by Matthew Brady |
| February 15 | Sarah Roberts barred from white school in Boston |
| February 17 | Toscane gets liberal Constitution |
| February 24 | King Louis-Philippe abdicates, 2nd French republic declared |
| February 26 | 2nd French Republic proclaimed |
| February 26 | Marx and Engels publish "Communist Manifesto" |
| February 29 | Neufchatel declares independence of Switzerland |
| March 4 | Sardinia-Piemonte gets new Constitution |
| March 7 | In Hawaii, Great Mahele (division of lands) signed |
| March 12 | 2nd republic established in France |
| March 20 | King Louis I of Bayern abdicates to marry dancer Lola Montez |
| March 24 | State of siege proclaimed in Amsterdam |
| March 27 | John Parker Paynard originates medicated adhesive plaster |
| March 29 | Niagara Falls stops flowing for 30 hours due to an ice jam |
| April 3 | Thomas Douglas becomes 1st San Francisco public teacher |
| April 6 | Jews of Prussia granted equality |
| April 8 | 1st battle at Gioto: Sardinia-Piemonte beats Austrians |
| April 8 | Battle at Xaquixaguana, Peru: Pedro de la Gasca beats Gonzalo Pizarro |
| April 11 | Hungary becomes constitutional monarchy under king Ferdinand of Austria |
| April 28 | Free last slaves in French colonies |
| May 6 | Otto Tank ends slavery in Suriname colony |
| May 7 | Prussians stop insurrection in Varsovia |
| May 17 | Premier earl Schimmelpenninck resigns |
| May 19 | 1st department store opens |
| May 19 | Mexico gives Texas to U.S., ending the war |
| May 29 | Battle at Curtazone: Austrians beat Sardinia-Piemonte |
| May 29 | Wisconsin becomes 30th state |
| May 30 | 2nd battle at Gioto: Sardinia-Piemonte beats Austrians |
| May 30 | Mexico ratifies treaty giving U.S.; New Mexico, California and parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado in return for $15 million |
| May 30 | William G. Young patents ice cream freezer |
| June 5 | Statue of prince Willem the Silent unveiled |
| June 10 | 1st telegraph link between New York City and Chicago |
| June 10 | Battle at Vicenza: Austrians beat Sardinia-Piemonte |
| June 19 | Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott open 1st women's rights convention |
| June 22 | Barnburners (anti-slavery) party nominates Martin Van Buren for president |
| June 23 | Antoine Joseph Sax patents Saxophone |
| June 23 | Bloody insurrection of workers in Paris |
| June 26 | 1st pure food law enacted in U.S. |
| July 3 | Slaves freed in Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) |
| July 6 | Mexican-American War ended with the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo |
| July 11 | Edmund Hickly gets 1st known 10 wicket innings (Kent vs. England) |
| July 11 | London's Waterloo Station opens |
| July 19 | 1st U.S. women's rights convention (Seneca Falls New York) |
| July 19 | German Parliament demands Dutch province of Limburg |
| July 23 | Battle of Custoza-Italian War of Independence, starts |
| July 25 | 1st battle at Custozza: Austrians under Radetzky beat Italian |
| July 26 | 1st Woman's Rights Convention, Senecca Falls, New York |
| August 9 | Austria and Sardinia sign cease fire |
| August 9 | Barnburners (anti-slavery) party merges with Free Soil Party nominateing Martin Van Buren for president |
| August 14 | Oregon Territory created |
| August 15 | M Waldo Hanchett patents dental chair |
| September 6 | National Black Convention meets (Cleveland) |
| September 14 | Alexander Stewart opens 1st U.S. department store |
| September 16 | Slavery abolished in all French territories |
| September 18 | Baseball rules 1st baseman can tag base for out instead of runner |
| September 19 | Hyperion, moon of Saturn, discovered by Bond (U.S.) and Lassell (England) |
| October 16 | 1st U.S. homeopathic medical college opens in Pennsylvania |
| November 1 | 1st U.S. woman's medical school opens (Boston) |
| November 3 | Johan Thorbeckes revises Great Force |
| November 7 | General Zachary Taylor elected as president of US |
| November 9 | Post office at Clay and Pike opens |
| November 21 | Alfred de Musset's "Andre del Sarto," premieres in Paris |
| November 21 | Cincinnati Turngemeinde founded |
| November 23 | Female Medical Educational Society forms in Boston |
| December 2 | Franz Josef I becomes emperor of Austria and King of Hungary |
| December 5 | President Polk triggers Gold Rush of '49, confirms California gold discovery |
| December 25 | New Haven Railroad opens |
| December 26 | 1st gold seekers arrive in Panama en route to SF |
| December 26 | William and Ellen Craft escape from slavery in Georgia |
| December 29 | Gas lights 1st installed at White House (Polk's administration) |
BrainyHistory
