1844

Decades: 1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s - 1840s - 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s

Years: 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 - 1844 - 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849

• First ever international Cricket match played in New York City between Canada and the United States.
• January 15 - University of Notre Dame receives its charter from Indiana.
• February 27 - The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.
• July 3 - The last pair of Great Auks is killed.
• May 23 - Persian Prophet The Báb announces His revelation, founding Bábism
• May 24 - First electrical telegram sent by Samuel Morse from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., saying "What hath God wrought?".
• November - James K. Polk defeats Henry Clay in the U.S. presidential election
• Swedish chemistry professor Gustaf Erik Pasch[?] invents the safety match[?]

Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy

• 1844 in literature:
  • Barry Lyndon - William Makepeace Thackeray

Births

• February 17 - Montgomery Ward[?], department store founder
• February 20 - Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist
• February 20 - Joshua Slocum, seaman and adventurer (+ 1909)
• February 21 - Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer
• March 18 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composer (+ 1908)
• March 30 - Paul Verlaine, lyric poet (+ 1896)
• May 17 - Julius Wellhausen, German biblical scholar (+ 1918)
• May 19 - Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (+ 1818)
• May 21 - Henri Rousseau[?], artist (+ 1910)
• May 22 - Mary Cassatt, artist
• May 23 - `Abdu'l-Bahá, Persian religious leader
• July 11 - King Peter I of Serbia[?]
• August 6 - Prince Alfred of the United Kingdom[?], later Duke of Edinburgh and Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, second son of Queen Victoria
• October 15 - Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher
• October 22 - Louis Riel, controversial Canadian figure
• October 22 - Sarah Bernhardt, French actress
• November 2 - Mehmed V, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (+ 1918)
• November 23 - Karl Benz,German automotive pioneer
• December 1 - Alexandra of Denmark, later Queen Consort of Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Deaths

• Charles Nodier[?], French writer
• July 27 - John Dalton, English chemist and physicist
• June 27 - Joseph Smith, American religious leader