1849

Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

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

Years: 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 - 1849 - 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854

• 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 - 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 29 - The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab

• Denmark becomes constitutional monarchy
• Joseph Fry makes the first chocolate bar
• Zachary Taylor succeeds James Knox Polk as President of the United States of America (with David Rice Atchison serving for a single day between the two as Taylor refused to be sworn in on the Sabbath)

Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy

• 1849 in literature:
  • David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

Births

• January 22 - August Strindberg, Swedish author, playwright and painter.
• 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)
• December 4 - Crazy Horse, later Chief of the Oglala Sioux.
• John William Waterhouse, Artist

Deaths

• March 14- Willem II, king of the Netherlands (1840-1849)
• May 28 - Anne Bronte, author
• September 25 - Johann Strauss I, Austrian composer
• October 7 - Edgar Allan Poe, writer