| January 8 | Dr. John A Veatch discovers borax, Tuscan Springs, California |
| January 23 | Steamer Pacific lost |
| January 25 | Battle of Seattle; skirmish between settlers and Indians |
| January 29 | Victoria Cross established to acknowledge bravery |
| February 18 | American (Know-Nothing) Party abolishes secrecy |
| February 19 | Tin-type camera patented by Hamilton Smith, Gambier, Ohio |
| February 20 | John Rutledge, Liverpool - New York steamer, hits iceberg; many die |
| February 22 | 1st national meeting of Republican Party in Pittsburgh |
| February 29 | Hostilities in Russo-Turkish War cease |
| March 5 | Covent Garden Opera House destroyed in a fire |
| March 5 | Georgia becomes 1st state to regulate railroads |
| March 25 | A. E. Burnside patents Burnside carbine |
| March 26 | NSW's 1st 1st-class game, vs. Victoria at Melbourne NSW won |
| March 30 | Russia signs Peace of Paris, ending the Crimean War |
| April 3 | Gunpowder in church explodes killing 4,000 in Rhodos |
| April 11 | Battle of Rivas; Costa Rica beats Wm Walker's invading Nicaraguans |
| April 18 | Russian Republic Chancellor Earl von Nesselrode resigns |
| April 29 | Peace between England and Russia |
| May 7 | Argentine and Brazilian sign a navigation pact |
| May 15 | 2nd San Francisco Vigilance Committee organized |
| May 19 | Senator Charles Sumner, Massachusetts, spoke out against slavery |
| May 21 | Lawrence Kansas captured, sacked by pro-slavery forces |
| May 22 | Violence in Senate, South Carolina Representative Brooks used a cane on Massachusetts Senator Sumner |
| May 24 | Pottawatomie Massacre took place in Kansas |
| May 27 | Doctor William Palmer found guilty of poisoning |
| June 3 | Cullen Whipple patents screw machine |
| June 8 | Pitcairn Islanders arrive on Norfolk Island |
| June 17 | Republican Party opens its 1st national convention in Philadelphia |
| July 15 | Natal forms as a British colony separate from Cape Colony |
| July 16 | Statue of Laurens Jansz Coster unveiled in Haarlem |
| August 10 | Hurricane washes away 2-300 revelers at Last Island, Louisiana |
| August 12 | Anthony Fass patents accordion |
| August 20 | Wilberforce University forms in Ohio |
| September 14 | Battle of San Jacinto, Nicaragua defeats invaders |
| October 7 | Cyrus Chambers, Jr. patents folding machine that folds book and newspapers |
| October 8 | Chinese police board British vessel Arrow, arrest 12 Chinese crewmen on suspicion of piracy and lower British flag, begins 2nd Anglo-Chinese War |
| October 19 | James Kelly and Jack Smith fight bareknuckle for 6h15m in Melbourne |
| October 20 | Arnhem-Oberhausen railway in Netherlands opens |
| October 24 | Constitution of South Australia adopted |
| November 4 | James Buchanan elected U.S. president |
| November 16 | Amsterdam post office at Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal opens |
