| January 1 | Lincoln University, a black college, chartered (Oxford, Penn) |
| January 5 | Steamship San Francisco wrecked - 300 die |
| January 9 | Astor Library opens in New York City |
| January 13 | Anthony Foss patents accordion |
| January 18 | Filibuster William Walker proclaims Republic of Sonora in NW Mexico |
| January 25 | Aleksandr Ostrovsky's "Bednost ne Porok," premieres in Moscow |
| January 30 | 1st election in Washington Territory; 1,682 votes cast |
| January 31 | Dutch KNMI established (Royal Meteorological Institute) |
| February 2 | Pope Pius IX encyclical "On persecution of Armenians" |
| February 4 | Alvan Bovay proposes name "Republican Party," Ripon, Wisc |
| February 6 | Composer R Schumann is saved from suicide attempt into the Rhine |
| February 11 | Major streets lit by coal gas for 1st time |
| February 16 | Franz Liszts symphony "Orpheus," premieres |
| February 17 | British recognize independence of Orange Free State (South Africa) |
| February 22 | 1st meeting of Republican Party in Michigan |
| February 23 | Great Britain and Orange Free state sign Convention of Bloemfontein |
| February 27 | Composer Robert Schumann saved from suicide attempt in Rhine |
| February 28 | Republican Party formally organized at Ripon, Wisconsin |
| March 1 | SS City of Glasgow leaves Liverpool harbor and is never seen again |
| March 7 | Charles Miller patents 1st U.S. sewing machine to stitch buttonholes |
| March 8 | U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry's 2nd trip to Japan |
| March 17 | 1st park land purchased by a U.S. city, Worcester, Massachusetts |
| March 28 | During the Crimean War, Britain and France declare war on Russia |
| March 31 | Treaty of Kanagawa: Commodore Perry forces Japan to opens ports to U.S. |
| April 16 | Franz Liszt's "Mazeppa," premieres |
| April 16 | San Salvador destroyed by earthquake |
| April 16 | Steamer "Long Beach" sinks off Long Beach NY, 311 die |
| April 24 | Austria's Franz Joseph I marries Elisabeth A E "Sissi" |
| May 1 | Amsterdam begins transferring drinking water out of the dunes |
| May 5 | English pirate Plumridge robs along pro-English Finnish coast |
| May 24 | Anthony Burns, slave, arrested by U.S. Deputy marshals in Boston |
| May 24 | Lincoln University, Penn, 1st Black college in U.S. forms by Prebyts |
| May 27 | Marine Telegraph from Ft. Point to San Francisco completed |
| May 30 | Territories of Kansas and Nebraska created |
| June 10 | Georg F B Reiman proposes that space is curved |
| June 23 | Antwerp-Roosendaal railway goes into use |
| June 29 | Gadsden Purchase (parts of Az, NM) from Mexico for $10 million |
| June 29 | Netherlands allows corporal punishment |
| July 6 | 1st Republican state convention in Ripon, Wisconsin |
| July 13 | U.S. forces shell and burn San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua |
| August 6 | Congress passes Confiscation Act |
| August 8 | Smith and Wesson patents metal bullet cartridges |
| August 9 | Henry David Thoreau publishes "Walden" |
| August 24 | National emigration convention meets in Cleveland |
| August 29 | Self-governing windmill patented (Daniel Halladay) |
| August 30 | John Fremont issues proclamation freeing slaves of Missouri rebels |
| September 4 | English/French assault on Petropavlovsk Kamchatka |
| September 8 | With a 3-2 count, Phillies Richie Ashburn fouls next 14, then walks |
| September 14 | Allied armies, including those of Britain and France, land in Crimea |
| September 19 | Henry Meyer patents sleeping rail car |
| September 20 | Battle at Alma Krim: 1,000 British soldiers died |
| September 20 | British and French defeat Russians at Alma, in Crimea |
| September 27 | Steamship "Arctic" sinks with 300 people on board |
| October 4 | Abraham Lincoln made his 1st political speech at Illinois State Fair |
| October 10 | U.S. Assay Office in New York City, New York opens |
| October 12 | Lincoln University founded as Ashmun Institute |
| October 23 | The Times give precise British positions in Krim |
| October 25 | Charge of Light Brigade (Battle of Balaklava, Crimean War), 409 die |
| October 25 | Prince Menshikov of Krim occupies British base at Balaclava |
| November 2 | Cobblestone paving of Washington St. between Dupont and Kearny starts |
| November 4 | Lighthouse forms on Alcatraz Island |
| November 5 | Crimean War: British and French defeat Russian force of 50,000 |
| November 9 | Franz Liszt's "Fest-Long," premieres |
| November 13 | "New Era" sinks off New Jersey coast with loss of 300 |
| November 28 | Dutch army stops Chinese uprising in Borneo |
| December 5 | Aaron Allen of Boston patents folding theater chair |
| December 8 | Pope Pius IX proclaims Immaculate Conception, makes Mary, free of Original Sin |
| December 9 | Lord Tennyson's poem, "Charge of the Light Brigade," published |
| December 15 | 1st street-cleaning machine in U.S. 1st used in Philadelphia |
| December 19 | Allen Wilson of Connecticut patents sewing machine to sew curving seams |
| December 26 | Wood-pulp paper 1st exhibited, Buffalo |
| December 30 | Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co, 1st in U.S., incorporated in New York City |
