Timeline 1850-1854
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1850 Jan 6, Franz
Xaver Scharwenka, German pianist and composer (Mataswintha), was born.
(MC, 1/6/02)
1850 Jan 27, Samuel Gompers
(d.1924) was born in London. Gompers, labor leader and first president
of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), apprenticed as a cigar maker
in, London. At the age of 13, Gompers arrived in America, joined the
Cigarmakers' Union in 1864 and became the union's president in 1877. In
1881 Gompers was among the founders of the Federation of Organized
Trades and Labor Unions of the U.S. and Canada, which was reorganized
as the American Federation of Labor in 1886. He served as president of
the AFL every year from its inception (except 1895) until his death. As
the acknowledged leader of America‘s labor movement, Gompers stressed
practical demands of hours and wages and opposed theorists and radicals.
(HN, 1/27/99)(HNQ, 2/24/00)
1850 Jan 29, Lawrence Hargrave,
inventor of the box kite, was born.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1850 Jan 29, Ebenezer Howard,
pioneer of garden cities, was born in London.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1850 Jan 29, Henry Clay introduced
in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission
of California into the Union as a free state.
(AP, 1/29/98)
1850 Jan 29, Luigi Sabatelli
(b.1772), Italian artist, died in Milan.
(www.artnet.com/library/07/0748/T074823.asp)
c1850 Jan 30, Charles Steingraff
(50), a bachelor farmhand, was hanged in Ohio for the murder of a deaf
and blind, 12-year-old girl. An estimated 25,000 spectators watched the
execution.
(ON, 10/02, p.3)
1850 Feb 12, Washington's original
Farewell Address manuscript sold for $2,300.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1850 Feb 18, The California state
legislature created the original 18 counties including the city of San
Francisco.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB
p.41)(www.sfgov.org/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8091)
1850 Feb 27, Henry Edwards
Huntington, US railroad exec, was born.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1850 Mar 7, Tomas Masaryk, Pres.
of Czech (1918-35), was born to a Slovak father and Czech-German mother
in the small town of Hodonin in South Moravia, very close to what is
now the border with Slovakia.
(http://archiv.radio.cz/english/czechs/5-1-00.html)
1850 Mar 7, In a three-hour speech
to the U.S. Senate, Daniel Webster endorsed the Compromise of 1850 as a
means of preserving the Union.
(AP, 3/7/98)
1850 Mar 9, Alexandre Luigini,
composer, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1850 Mar 11, Woman's Medical
College of Pennsylvania opened as the 1st female medical school. [see
1848, Oct 12, 1850]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1850 Mar 16, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
"The Scarlet Letter" was first published.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1850 Mar 18, Henry Wells &
William Fargo formed American Express in Buffalo. [see Mar 18, 1852]
(HN, 3/18/98)(MC, 3/18/02)
1850 Mar 26, Edward Bellamy
(d.1898), writer, was born. His work included the utopian novel
"Looking Backward, 2000-1887," which forecast what America might look
like if people worked together for the common good.
(WSJ, 12/10/99, p.W17)(HN, 3/26/01)
1850 Mar 27, The party of Dr.
Thadeus Hildreth found a 22-pound gold nugget in Tuolemne County, Ca.
The place was initially named Hildreth’s Diggings, then changed to New
Camp, then American Camp and finally Columbia. The population soon
swelled to 15,000.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 3/19/00, p.T6)(CVG, Vol
16, p.1)
1850 Mar 29, Ireland's SS Royal
Adelaide sank in storm and 200 people died.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1850 Mar 31, The US population hit
23,191,876, with the Black population at 3,638,808 (15.7%).
(MC, 3/31/02)
1850 Mar 31, John Calhoun
(b.1782), US vice-president (1825-1832), died while a senator from
South Carolina. He was elected vice president under two presidents,
John Quincy Adams in 1824 and Andrew Jackson in 1828.
(WUD, 1994 p.210)(HNQ, 8/19/99)(MC, 3/31/02)
1850 Apr 1, The San Francisco
County government was established.
(www.sfgov.org/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8091)
1850 Apr 4, The city of Los
Angeles was incorporated.
(AP, 4/4/97)
1850 Apr 8, William Henry Welch,
US pathologist (founded John Hopkins), was born.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1850 Apr 15, The city of San
Francisco was incorporated.
(AP,
4/15/97)(www.sfgov.org/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8091)
1850 Apr 16, Thomas Sidney
Gilchrist, British metallurgist and inventor, was born.
(HN, 4/16/01)
1850 Apr 16, Marie [Gresholtz]
Tussaud (89), Swiss-born maker of wax figures, died.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1850 Apr 20, Daniel Chester French
(d.1931), sculptor of the Concord Minuteman, was born at Exeter, New
Hampshire. He had his estate in Stockbridge, Mass. His work also
included the Lincoln Memorial. His Chesterwood estate became a museum
with an annual 6-month summer season. [Ph. 413-298-3579]
(HN, 4/20/98)(WSJ, 5/4/99, p.A20)
1850 Apr 23, William Wordsworth
(b.1770), English poet, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth)
1850 Apr 24, Louis Alexandre
Piccinni (70), composer, died.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1850 Apr, During the debate on the
Compromise of 1850, Senator Henry Foote, a unionist and supporter of
the compromise, drew a pistol on Senator Thomas Hart Benton, an
opponent of the deal. Other senators intervened before Foote could fire.
(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A6)
1850 Apr, The side-wheel steamship
General Anthony Wayne sank in 50 feet of water in lake Erie about
eight miles north of Vermilion, Ohio. 38 of the 93 passengers and crew
on board died. The wreckage was discovered in 2007.
(AP, 6/21/07)
1850 May 10, Thomas Johnstone
Lipton, yachtsman, tea magnate (Lipton Tea), was born in Glasgow.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1850 May 16, Johannes von
Mikulica-Radecki, Polish surgical pioneer, was born.
(HN, 5/16/01)
1850 May 18, Oliver Heaviside,
physicist who predicted existence of ionosphere, was born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1850 Jun 4, A self deodorizing
fertilizer was patented in England.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1850 Jun 11, Cardinal Franzoni
told Rev. Joseph Sadoc Alemany, a Dominican missionary who had worked
in the Midwest frontier, that he was appointed the new bishop of
Monterey, Ca.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)
1850 Jun 16, Pope Pius IX
persuaded Rev. Joseph Sadoc Alemany to return to the US and to go to
California.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)
1850 Summer, James Strang
announced that he was divinely directed to become a king arranged for
his coronation at St. James on Big Beaver Island in Lake Michigan.
(Smith., Aug. 1995, p.86)
1850 Jun 27, Lafcadio Hearn
(d.1904), Irish-American journalist, author, was born in Greece.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn)
1850 Jun 27, Ivan Vazov, poet,
novelist, playwright (Under the Yoke), was born in Bulgaria.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1850 Jul 2, Prussia agreed to pull
out of Schleswig and Holstein, Germany.
(HN, 7/2/98)
1850 Jul 2, Sir Robert Peel
(b.1788), former British prime minister (1834-35 and 1841-46), died. He
founded the Conservative Party and the London Police Force whose
officers were called "bobbies." In 2007 Douglas Hurd authored “Robert
Peel: A Biography.”
(HN, 2/5/99)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.93)
1850 Jul 4, President Zachary
Taylor stood hatless in the sun for hours listening to long-winded
speeches. He returned to the White House and attempted to cool off by
eating cherries, cucumbers and drinking iced milk. Severe stomach
cramps followed and it is likely that Taylor's own physicians
inadvertently killed him with a whole series of debilitating
treatments. [see Jul 9]
(HN, 7/11/99)
1850 Jul 9, Zachary Taylor
(b.1784), the 12th president of the United States, died of cholera at
the age of 65 after serving only 16 months. He was succeeded by Millard
Fillmore. Taylor was a Southerner, a slaveholder and the hero of the
Mexican War in 1848 when he was nominated by the Whig Party as a
candidate for president of the United States. He was an inoffensive
candidate in the anxious years leading up to the Civil War because he
had never taken a position on a political issue or even cast a vote in
his life. During his 16 months as president, Congress addressed the
explosive issue of slavery's expansion to the west with the Compromise
of 1850, but Taylor himself never had the opportunity to act on this
issue.
(WUD,1994,p.1679)(SFC, 9/26/96, p.E10)(AP,
7/9/97)(HN, 7/9/98)(HN, 7/11/99)
1850 Jul 9, Bb, Bahi prophet, was
executed in Tabriz, Iran.
(MC, 7/9/02)
1850 Jul 10, Millard Fillmore
(Whig) was sworn in as the 13th president following the death of
Zachary Taylor.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A25) (AP,
7/10/97)(HN, 7/10/98)
1850 Jul 14, The 1st public
demonstration of ice made by refrigeration took place. James Harrison
of Australia designed an ice-making machine. It was an improvement on
one invented by Jacob Perkins in 1834.
(MC, 7/14/02)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1850 Jul 15, Mother Francis Xavier
Cabrini, the first American canonized saint, was born.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1850 Jul 17, Statesman Daniel
Webster said: "I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall
die an American."
(HNQ, 2/15/02)
1850 Jul 17, Astronomer William
Cranch Bond and photographer John Adams Whipple focused on Vega and
produced the 1st photograph of a star.
(NH, 7/00, p.16)
1850 Jul 20, John Graves Shedd,
president of Marshall Field and Company, was born. He was the first
Chicago merchant to give his employees a half-day off on Saturdays.
(HN, 7/20/98)
1850 Jul 25, Gold was discovered
in the Rogue River in Oregon, extending the quest for gold up the
Pacific coast.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1850 Jul 25, The clipper ship
Frolic, enroute from Hong Kong to SF, wrecked on a reef at the north
edge of what is now California’s Preserve off Point Cabrillo Light
Station. It had run opium from India to China to trade for silver and
merchandise. The crew escaped in small boats and though all trade goods
were lost the area became recognized as ideal for a redwood sawmill.
(SSFC, 2/11/07,
p.G10)(www.pointcabrillo.org/frolic-history.htm)(WSJ, 12/15/07, p.W10)
1850 Jul 26, The final design for
London’s Great Council Exhibition, the first-ever World’s Fair, was
officially approved. The structure of the glass and iron
building, designed by Joseph Paxton, was essentially completed by
Jan 1, 1851. The Exhibition opened May 1.
(WSJ, 1/26/98, p.A16)(ON, 7/04, p.12)
1850 Aug 5, Guy de Maupassant,
short story writer and author of "The Necklace," was born.
(HN, 8/5/98)
1850 Aug 17, Jose Francisco de San
Martin (b.1778), Argentine-born South American revolutionary hero, died
in France. In 2009 John Lynch authored “San Martin: Argentine Soldier,
American Hero.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn)(Econ,
4/25/09, p.87)
1850 Aug 18, Honore de Balzac
(b.1799), French novelist, died at age 51.
(WUD, 1994, p.115)(MC, 8/18/02)
1850 Aug 22, Nikolaus Lenau (48)
(pseudonym of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch), Hungarian-born poet and writer,
died in Austria.
(MC, 8/22/02)(Internet)
1850 Aug 23, The 1st national
women's rights convention convened in Worcester, Mass.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1850 Aug 26, Charles Richet,
French physiologist (anaphylaxis-Nobel 1913), was born.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1850 Aug 28, Richard Wagner's
opera "Lohengrin'' was premiered at Weimar, Germany, under the
direction of Franz Liszt.
(WSJ, 3/16/98, p.A20)(RTH, 8/28/99)
1850 Sep 2, Eugene Field, author,
poet and journalist, was born. His work included "Little Boy Blue."
(HN, 9/2/00)(MC, 9/2/01)
1850 Sep 9, California was
admitted as the 31st state of the US.
(INV, 7/95, p.12)(SFC, 6/13/96, p.A17)(SFC, 1/25/97,
p.A17)(AP, 9/9/97)
1850 Sep 9, Territories of New
Mexico and Utah were created.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1850 Sep 11, Jenny Lind, the
"Swedish Nightingale," gave her first concert in the United
States, at Castle Garden in New York.
(AP, 9/11/00)
1850 Sep 18, The US Congress
passed the second Fugitive Slave Bill into law (the first was enacted
in 1793) as part of Compromise of 1850. It allowed slave owners to
reclaim slaves who had escaped to other states. The Fugitive Slave Act
of 1850 set fines up to $1,000 for facilitating a slave’s flight. The
act authorized federal commissioners to receive a $10 fee if they
decided for a slaveholder, but only a $5 fee for deciding for a
fugitive.
(AP, 9/18/97)(HN, 9/18/98)(WSJ, 1/30/03, p.D8)(AH,
10/02, p.53)
1850 Sep 20, The slave trade in
Washington, D.C., was abolished as a provision of Henry Clay’s
Compromise of 1850. Because each state had its own slavery code when
the District of Columbia was founded in 1800, Washington had adopted
Maryland’s laws. Although the 1850 legislation made the slave trade
illegal, slavery itself was still legal. Nevertheless, Washington
became a haven for free blacks. By 1860, free blacks outnumbered slaves
almost four-to-one. President Abraham Lincoln put an end to
Washington’s slavery altogether in 1862, freeing about 2,989 African
Americans who were then slaves according to the slavery code.
(HNPD, 9/20/98)(HN, 9/20/98)
1850 Sep 22, An earthquake in
Sichuan, China, killed some 300,000 people.
(www.geohaz.org/member/news/signif.htm)
1850 Sep 28, Flogging was
abolished as a form of punishment in the U.S. Navy.
(AP, 9/28/97)
1850 Sep 29, Pres. Millard
Fillmore named Mormon leader Brigham Young as the first governor of the
Utah Territory.
(HN, 9/29/98)(SFC, 10/23/02, p.H4)
1850 Oct 3, The Univ. of Mich.
Medical School received its first students.
(MT, Fall/99, p.3)
1850 Oct 12, The 1st women's
medical school, the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, opened.
[see 1848, Mar 11, 1850]
(MC, 10/12/01)
1850 Oct 19, Annie Smith Peck
(d.1935), one of the world’s renowned mountain climbers, was born in
Providence, Rhode Island.
(www.ric.edu/rpotter/smithpeck.html)
1850 Nov 6, The San Francisco Bay
Yerba Buena and Angel islands were reserved for military use.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1850 Nov 9, Lewis Lewin, German
toxicologist and father of psycho-pharmacology, was born.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1850 Nov 13, Robert Lewis
Stevenson (d.1894), novelist, was born in Scotland. His books included:
"Treasure Island" and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." In
1996 R.C. Terry edited and published “Robert Louis Stevenson:
Interviews and Recollections."
(Smith., 8/95, p.54)(SFC, 9/1/96, Par. p.12)(HN,
11/13/98)
1850 Nov 19, Lord Tennyson became
the British poet laureate.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1850 Dec 24, Frederic Bastiat
(b.1801), French free-market economist, died in Rome of tuberculosis.
(WSJ, 7/5/01,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Bastiat)
1850 Dec 28, Rangoon, Burma, was
destroyed by fire.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1850 Gustave Courbet (1819-1877),
French artist, painted "Burial at Ornans."
(WSJ, 11/28/06, p.D8)
1850 Benson J. Lossing, journalist
and engraver, published his 2-volume "Pictorial Field Book of the
Revolution."
(AH, 10/01, HT p.23)
1850 Donald Grant Mitchell wrote
his best-selling novel "Reveries of a Bachelor," under the pen name Ik
Marvel.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.30)
1850 Bayard Taylor authored "El
Dorado," a reporter’s account of the California gold rush. In 2001 it
was reprinted as "Eldorado: Adventures in the Path of Empire."
(SSFC, 2/4/01, BR p.5)
1850 Books prior to this year were
printed on alkaline paper and tended to survive. Books printed after
this date were on acidic paper and began to crumble with age.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, Z1 p.8)
1850 Ivan Turgenev, Russian
writer, produced his greatest play: "A Month in the Country."
(WSJ, 4/26/95, p.A-14)
1850 A building census in Norfolk,
Virginia indicated that there were 10,000 18th and early 19th century
structures. Of these only a handful survive.
(Hem. 1/95, p. 69)
1850 Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884)
partnered with Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in forming the
North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton Agency. "We
never sleep" was their motto. The company’s emblem—a wide open
eye—inspired the term "private eye. In 1999 the agency was sold to a
Swedish company, Securitas AB.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/aug25.html)(HNQ,
8/7/98)(SFC, 2/23/99, p.C4)
1850 US President Millard Fillmore
issued an executive order that designated the southern point of the
Marin Headlands a military reservation later called Lime Point Military
Reservation. Fillmore also reserved Alcatraz Island for military use.
(The Park, Summer 1995)(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.B4)(OAH,
2/05, p.A1)
1850 Pres. Fillmore signed and
enforced the Fugitive Slave Act that authorized the return of slaves
seeking sanctuary back to their masters.
(SFC, 2/10/97, p.A1)
1850 Senator Henry Clay of
Kentucky introduced the 8 provisions of the Great Compromise Bill. The
provisions of the Great Compromise bill were reduced to 5 and passed
one by one. They were in sum: 1) the admission of California as a free
state; 2) slavery in the territories of Utah and New Mexico would be
resolved by popular sovereignty; 3) slavery would be ended in the
District of Columbia; 4) the federal government would assume a $10
million debt by Texas; 5) the federal government would be responsible
for the return of runaway slaves. New York Sen. W.F. Seward stated:
"The unity of our empire hangs on the decision of this day."
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A25)
1850 The US Supreme Court opined
that an invention had to be something more than the work of a
skilled mechanic to qualify for a patent.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.78)
1850 Laws in California were
passed that allowed the enslavement of Indians.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1850 California passed anti-sodomy
legislation in its “crime against nature” law.
(SSFC, 5/11/08, Books p.4)
1850 Ygnacio, the grandson of Dona
Juana Sanchez de Pacheco, built the first homestead in the Walnut Creek
area of northern California.
(SFC, 7/17/06, p.B5)
1850 Col. John Geary, the first
mayor of San Francisco, donated land for a square to be held in
perpetuity for park use. It later became Union Square. He owned the
surrounding property and looked to increase its value.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W27)(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1850 Nevada City, Ca., was named.
(SFC, 4/14/96, T-3)
1850 Ferry commuting began on the
SF Bay.
(SFC, 4/21/97, p.A11)
1850 Suisun City, Calif. was
founded. Suisun means "West Wind" in the language of the Patwan Indians
who lived in this area.
(Hem., Nov.’95, p.91,95)
1850 Residents of the northern
California town of Rough and Ready rebelled against taxes and began a
secession movement from the US. It last just 3 months in part
because nearby saloonkeepers refused to sell liquor to the “foreigners.”
(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.E8)
1850 The Arapaho Indians issued a
$5 bill.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.8)
1850 The Mormons applied
unsuccessfully for Utah statehood. Debates with the federal government
ensued over political issues and polygamy.
(NW, 9/10/01, p.48)
1850 Erasmus Corning founded the
New York Central Railroad. He later built a banking network along its
route that nurtured the growth of new communities.
(WSJ, 5/8/95, p.A-14)
1850 Marshall Field (16) started
working a dry goods clerk in Pittsfield, Mass. In 1855 he moved to
Chicago. In 1947 John Tebbel authored "The Marshall Fields: A Study in
Wealth." In 2002 Axel Madsen authored "The Marshall Fields: The
Evolution of an American Business Dynasty."
(WSJ, 10/9/02, p.D8)
1850 The Willard family acquired a
4-story hotel in Washington DC and turned it into the 100-room Willard
Hotel at 1401 Pennsylvania Ave. In 1901 it was replaced by an opulent
389-room Beaux-Arts building. In 1968 it was closed and scheduled for
demolition. In 1986 it re-opened following a $73 million restoration.
(SFC, 1/5/06, p.E4)
1850 Directors of the Brooklyn
released 8 pair of sparrows imported from England. They did not thrive
and director Nicolas Pike acquired 50 more pair and released them in
Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery 1853.
(AH, 6/02, p.39)
1850 Woodsmen marched west from
New York clearing forests of white pine, yellow birch, hemlock, maple,
and oak.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.51)
1850 Heinrich Schliemann, German
businessman, moved to California and made a fortune in banking.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.45)
1850 In California Gregorio
Briones, a soldier of the Spanish and then Mexican army, claimed title
to 13,320 acres of west Marin land.
(SFC, 5/26/97, p.A10)
1850 Cincinnati, the largest
meat-packing center in the United States at that time, earned the name
Porkopolis.
(HNQ, 10/15/00)
1850 Brigham Young was appointed
governor of the Utah territory.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)
1850 The Ansonia Clock Co. was
founded in Derby, Conn., by Anson G. Phelps. After 2 fires and
reorganizations the company moved to NY in 1880.
(SFC, 12/15/98, Z1 p.6)
1850 James Folger (18), a native
of Massachusetts, began roasting beans in SF. Folger’s Coffee
established itself on the Barbary Coast and was the first major coffee
company in SF. Jim Folger eventually traveled to the gold country to
sell coffee to miners.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A1)(SFC,
6/5/08, p.C2)
1850 George Jones of London built
a hexagonal ended instrument using a diatonic German concertina
fingering system to which he added another row of accidental notes
making the instrument chromatic. It became known as the Anglo-chromatic
or Anglo system concertina.
(BAAC, 8/96, p.6)
1850 Baking Powder was
invented.
(SFC, 1/11/97, p.B7)
1850 The US census showed a black
population of 3,639,000 people of whom 90% were born in America. The
mulatto count was 406,000.
(SFC, 5/3/96, p.A-25)
1850 An estimated 50,000 Irish
prostitutes worked in New York City.
(WSJ, 3/17/97, p.A18)
1850 The population of Chicago
approached 30,000.
(Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)
1850 Only 2% of the American
population lived past 65.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.40)
1850 Sally Thomas (b.1787),
quasi-slave, died. She had grown up as a Virginia slave and was
relocated to Tennessee. She had 3 mixed-race sons by 2 white men, one a
Virginian plantation owner, the other John Catron, became a member of
the US Supreme Court. In 2005 John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger
authored “In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old
South.”
(SSFC, 8/28/05, p.C2)
1850 Expeditions to the Arctic
found evidence of the Franklin Expedition. Three graves dug into the
permafrost were discovered in 1850, their headstones dated 1846. A
written record was found in 1859, indicating that Franklin died on June
11, 1847, and that Erebus and Terror were abandoned in April 1848. The
crews’ deaths have been attributed to either scurvy or lead poisoning
originating from the solder on food tins. Both ships and the remains of
most of the 129 crewmen have never been found.
(HNQ, 6/11/98)
1850 Rabbits were introduced to
Australia about this time and soon became pests.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.16)
1850 The Granny Smith apple
originated about this time in Australia. According to Morgan and
Richards The Book of Apples: A Mrs. Smith, born in England in 1800,
emigrated to Australia in 1838. In 1860s she found some seedlings
growing in a creek where she had tipped out some apples brought back
from Sydney. Tree was propagated and later family increased their
orchards and marketed fruit in Sydney.
(www.newint.org/issue212/simply.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/32lr8c)
1850 England established its 1st
public libraries.
(Econ, 5/1/04, p.59)
1850 French priest Jean-Baptiste
Lamy was dispatched by Rome to bring order and discipline to the New
Mexican territory.
(WSJ, 9/13/06, p.D10)
1850 A mob in Athens burned down
the home of a British citizen. In response Viscount Palmerston,
Britain’s foreign secretary, called for a blockade of Greece.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.56)
c1850 A Mongolian national
consciousness emerged in the mid-19th century.
(www.gobiexpeditions.com)
1850 On the Orkney mainland Skara
Brae was rediscovered by William Watt, the laird of Skaill, after a
fierce storm stripped the grass from a high sand dune.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T3)
1850 Panama’s city of Colon was
founded as the isthmus of Panama became a route for the California gold
rush.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.47)
1850 In Vienna F. Walther
re-arranged the reeds of a 3-row diatonic accordion to play a 46 note
chromatic scale and created the chromatic button accordion.
(BAAC, 8/96, p.6)
1850-1853 Millard Fillmore is the 13th President of
the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1850-1854 Of the 1200 murders in San Francisco in
this period, only one results in a legal execution.
(SFC, 11/15/95, p.B-1)
1850-1859 The Lehigh Valley town of Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, became an iron-making center in the 1850s thanks to
discoveries of coal and iron ore nearby.
(WSJ, 10/8/08, p.A15)
1850s In Cincinnati abolitionist
Nicholas Longworth hired Robert Scott Duncanson to paint 8 large murals
in his home. The murals were covered by wallpaper by 1869 and not
uncovered until 1931. The house and a large art collection were given
to the city by Charles and Anna Taft around 1928.
(WSJ, 8/8/00, p.A20)
1850s In New York City the
African-American community of Seneca Village was razed to make way for
Central Park. The village had 264 frame houses, 3 churches, 2
cemeteries and a school.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.62)
1850s The US Navy established its
repair facility on Mare Island.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
1850s In California John C.
Fremont occupied Fremont’s Ranch in Bear Valley, north of Mariposa, a
Mexican land-grant of 44,000 acres. He later became the state’s first
US Senator and the first Republican candidate for president. He also
became a Civil War general and a governor of the Arizona territory. In
2000 David Roberts authored "A Newer World: Kit Carson, John C.
Fremont, and the Claiming of the American West.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T6)(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A20)(SFC,
6/5/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/10/00, p.A24)
c1850s Mormon settlers began
moving to Lana’i, Hawaii, with the idea of establishing a "City of
Joseph" under their leader William Gibson. Gibson placed title to all
the community land under his own name and even under threat of
excommunication refused to give up the deed. Gibson registered the land
under his own name and refused to hand the deeds over to the Mormon
Church. He went on to become a friend, advisor and cabinet minister to
King Kalakaua.
(SFEM, 10/13/96, p.24)(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.T10)
1850s The political organization
called the American Party, which flourished in the 1850s, is better
known as the Know-Nothing Party. Originally a clandestine organization,
members were instructed to say that they "know nothing" when asked
about the party, hence the name. Primarily, the party was
anti-immigrant and stood in opposition to whatever political power
immigrant groups happened to have in Northern cities. In 1854 the
American Party won significant elections in seven state governments.
The party’s national platform in 1856 included anti-Catholic and
anti-alien planks.
(HNQ, 8/27/98)
1850s John Augustus of Boston
persuaded the courts to release young offenders into his custody
instead of sending them to prison. This was the start of the practice
of probation.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, Z1p.2)
1850s Elizabeth Ware Packard led
successful struggles in 13 states to obtain due process of law for
women, who previously could be committed to mental institutions simply
on the word of their husbands.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.A22)
1850s Publishers switched to
cheaper paper based on wood pulp instead of rags and linen. The new
material contained an acid residue to ate the wood fibers and destroyed
books in as little as 30 years.
(WSJ, 7/10/97, p.A6)
1850s English inventor Alexander
Parkes is credited with being the first to make plastic in the 1850s.
Parkes’ plastic was a cellulosic made by treating a mixture of cotton
and nitric acid with camphor. In the United States, John and Isaiah
Hyatt developed a similar plastic in 1869 as a substitute for ivory in
the manufacture of billiard balls, which they called celluloid. The
first completely synthetic plastic, Bakelite, was invented in 1907 and
produced in 1909 by Dr. Leo H. Baekeland. Parkes mixed chloroform and
castor oil to make the first plastic which he called Parkesine.
(HNQ, 5/8/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)
c1850s Staffordshire potters in
England made many different Shakespeare figurines.
(SFC, 9/4/96, z1 p.5)
1850-1854 About this time English adopted the form
filibuster, from Spanish filibustero. It was applied to certain
adventurers who committed unsanctioned activities in the West Indies
and Central America. [See William Walker Sep 12, 1860]
(www.wordsources.info/words-mod-filibuster.html)
1850-1870 A major wave of Italians immigrated to
California. The majority came from Liguria and Tuscany. A 2nd wave
began in 1880.
(SSFC, 7/10/05, p.D5)
1850-1891 Sophia Kovalevsky, mathematician. In 1983
her biography by Don H. Kennedy was published: "Little Sparrow: A
Portrait of Sophia Kovalevsky."
(NH, 6/96, p.20)
1850-1900 The Hawaii of this period is described in
the 1997 novel "A Map of Paradise" by Linda Ching Sledge.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.3)
1850-1910 This period is covered in the book Railroad
Crossing: Californians and the Railroad 1850-1910 by William Deverall.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)
1850-1910 Margaret Collier Graham, American writer:
"People need joy quite as much as clothing. Some of them need it far
more."
(AP, 6/16/99)
1850-1919 Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American poet: "The
only folks who give us pain are those we love the best."
(AP, 6/5/98)
1850-1925 Emma Carleton, American journalist:
"Reputation is a bubble which a man bursts when he tries to blow it for
himself."
(AP, 6/4/97)
1850-1930 In 2005 Richard J. Orsi authored “Sunset
Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the
American West.”
(SSFC, 5/8/05, p.B1)
1850-1933 Augustine Birrell, English author and
statesman: "History is a pageant and not a philosopher."
(AP, 9/10/97)
1850-1956 The Empire Mine in Grass Valley, Ca.,
produced over 5.8 million ounces of gold. It had 365 miles of tunnels
and was later turned into a 784-acre state park.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T7)
1850-1990 The world human population tripled in this
period.
(NOHY, 3/1990, p.52)
1851 Jan 6, Leon Foucault
(d.1868), French scientist, watched a pendulum swing and shift its
plane of motion. This he realized was due to the rotation of the Earth.
In 2003 Amir D. Aczel authored "Pendulum: Leon Foucault and the Triumph
of Science."
(WSJ, 8/28/03, p.D18)
1851 Jan 25, Sojourner Truth
addressed the 1st Black Women's Rights Convention in Akron. [see May
28, 1851]
(MC, 1/25/02)
1851 Jan 27, John James Audubon
(b.1785), wildlife painter and conservationist (Audubon Society), died.
He was buried in NYC. In 2004 Duff Hart-Davis authored "Audubon's
Elephant," an account of his 12 year sojourn to Europe to oversee the
production of "Birds of America." In 2004 William Souder authored
“Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of the Birds of
America.” In 2004 Richard Rhodes authored “John James Audubon: The
Making of an American.”
(WSJ, 3/26/04, p.W6)(SSFC, 6/20/04, p.M6)(SSFC,
10/17/04, p.M6)(AH, 10/04, p.75)
1851 Jan 28, Northwestern
University, near Chicago, was chartered.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1851 Jan 31, Gail Borden announced
the invention of evaporated milk.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1851 Feb 1, Mary Wollstonecraft
Shelley (53), novelist (Frankenstein), died.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1851 Feb 6, Robert Schumann's 3rd
Symphony "Rhenish," premiered in Dusseldorf.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1851 Feb 8, Kate (Katherine
O'Flaherty ) Chopin (d.1904), American novelist, short story writer,
was born. Her work included "The Awakening." She wrote tales of love
and passion that presented women testing the boundaries of social
convention. "There are some people who leave impressions not so lasting
as the imprint of an oar upon the water."
(AP, 3/11/99)(SFEC, 11/14/99, BR p.5)(HN,
2/8/01)
1851 Feb 15, Black abolitionists
invaded a Boston courtroom to rescue a fugitive slave.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1851 Mar 3, Congress authorized
the smallest US silver coin, a 3¢ piece. The trine obverse side
depicted a shield over a six-pointed star.
(SC, 3/3/02)(WSJ, 12/12/03, p.W15)
1851 Mar 21, Yosemite Valley was
discovered (by non-natives) in California. The 58 men of the Mariposa
Battalion under Major James D. Savage were the first whites to enter
Yosemite Valley. Their first view of the valley was from the plateau
later named Mount Beatitude. They expelled Chief Tenaya and his band of
Ahwahneechee Indians. Dr. Bunnell, a physician in the battalion, named
the valley Yosemite to honor the local Indians. He did not realize that
the word "yohemeti" meant "some of them are killers" and was an insult
against the valley people.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Z1 p.4)(SFEC,12/28/97, Z1 p.1)(MC,
3/21/02)
1851 Mar 21, Emperor Tu Duc
ordered that Christian priests be put to death.
(HN, 3/21/99)
1851 Mar 27,
Paul-Marie-Theodore-Vincent d'Indy, composer (Symphonie Cevenole), was
born in Paris.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1851 Apr 12, Emil Liebling,
composer, was born.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1851 Apr 14, Morgan Earp was born
in Marian County, IA.
(MesWP)
1851 Apr. 23, The first Canadian
postage stamp was issued.
(CFA, ‘96, p.44)
1851 May 1, The Great Council
Exhibition, the first-ever World’s Fair, opened in London’s Hyde Park.
Some 6 million people came to see the new glass and iron Crystal
Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton (1823-1865). Paxton used roof
ventilators and underground air-cooling chambers to regulate indoor
temperature.
(WSJ, 1/26/98, p.A16)(ON, 7/04, p.12)(Econ, 12/4/04,
TQ p.17)
1851 May 4, The Sydney Ducks set
fire to a store on San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square. Most of the
dwellings on Telegraph Hill were destroyed. The heart SF was destroyed
and some 2000 buildings burned down. This led to the formation of the
secret Committee of Vigilance, which hung several criminals and drove
others out of the city. Remnants from Hoff's store, built on a wharf
over the bay, were found in 1986 during excavations for the Embarcadero
West 33-story high-rise.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A18)
1851 May 4, The 1840-ship General
Harrison burned to the water line. It was salvaged for parts, buried
and not seen again until 2001 when construction at Battery and Clay
revealed its remains. The whaling ship Niantic, already converted to a
waterfront hotel, burned and sank into the bay. In 1977 new
construction uncovered the Niantic’s burned remains.
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A11)(SFC, 2/4/05, p.E16)
1851 May 6, Dr. John Gorrie
patented a "refrigeration machine."
(MC, 5/6/02)
1851 May 6, Linus Yale patented
his Yale lock.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1851 May 12, A treaty was signed
on the south bank of the Kaweah River, the site of John Wood's grave.
Woods was killed by Yokut Indians. The California Tule River War ended.
(HN, 4/28/00)(WW, 6/99)(HN, 5/12/01)
1851 May 18, The
Amsterdam-Nieuwediep telegraph connection linked.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1851 May 20, Emile Berliner,
inventor of the flat phonograph record, was born in Germany.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1851 May 20, Rose Hawthorne
Lathrop, US nun, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, was born.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1851 May 25, Jose Justo de Urquiza
of Argentina led a rebellion against his former ally, the absolute
ruler Juan Manuel de Rosas.
(HN, 5/25/99)
1851 May 28, Freed slave and
abolitionist Sojourner Truth attended a national women's convention in
Akron, Ohio, where the female delegates were heckled by men in the
audience who claimed that men were superior to women. Frances Gage,
president of the convention, recorded Sojourner Truth's words that day.
"Dat man ober dar say dat women needs to be helped into carriages and
lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber
helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs me any best
place! And ain't I a woman! Look at me! Look at my arm! I have
ploughed, and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head
me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a
man--when I could get it--and bear de lash as well! And ain't I a
woman? I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen 'em mos' all sold into
slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus
heard me! And ain't I a woman?" Sojourner Truth's words, according to
Gage, "turned the sneers and jeers of an excited crowd into notes of
respect and admiration."
(SFC, 3/30/97, Z1 p.6)(HN, 7/13/99)(MC, 5/28/02)
1851 May 29, Leon Bourgeois,
French premier (1895-96, Nobel 1920), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1851 Jun 2, Maine became the first
state to enact a law prohibiting alcohol. By the Civil War 13 Northern
states had bans on alcohol sales. In 1998 Thomas R. Pegram authored
"Battling Demon Rum," a history of anti-alcohol movements in the US.
(AP, 6/2/97)(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A28)
1851 Jun 5, Harriet Beecher Stow
published the first installment of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in The National
Era.
(HN, 6/5/99)
1851 Jun 15, Jacob Fussell,
Baltimore dairyman, set up the 1st ice-cream factory.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1851 Jun 21, Daniel Carter Beard,
organized the first [US] boy scout troop, was born.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1851 Jul 8, Sir Arthur John Evans,
English archaeologist who excavated Knossos, Crete, was born.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1851 Jul 10, Louis-Jacques-Mand
Daguerre, French painter (daguerreotype), died.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1851 Jul 23, Sioux Indians and US
signed the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1851 Jul 28, A total solar eclipse
was captured on a daguerreotype photograph.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1851 Aug 3, Lady Isabella Caroline
Somerset, temperance leader, was born.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1851 Aug 12, Isaac Singer was
granted a patent on his sewing machine.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1851 Aug 13, John Lincoln Clem
(d.1937), Drummer (last survivor of Union Volunteers), was born.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1851 Aug 14, Doc Holliday was born
in Griffin, GA.
(MesWP)
1851 Aug 22, The Schooner America
outraced the Aurora in the Solent, a stretch of sea separating the Isle
of Wight from England proper, to win a trophy that became known as the
America’s Cup. For 132 years the New York Yacht Club defeated all
challengers to retain the prestigious America’s Cup, the record for the
longest winning streak in sports history. The Liberty lost it to the
Australia II in 1983.
(AP, 8/22/97)(SFEC, 10/1/00, p.T4)(SSFC, 4/15/07,
p.G4)
1851 Sep 11, Edward Gorsuch, a
wealthy slave owner from Maryland, confronted William Parker and
accused him of harboring 4 runaway slaves near the abolitionist town,
Christiana, Pennsylvania. This was one year after the second fugitive
slave law (first law was on February 12, 1793) was passed by Congress,
requiring the return of all escaped slaves to their owners in the
South. Gorsuch was killed during the skirmish and Parker was forced to
flee to Canada.
(AH, 10/02, p.49)
1851 Sep 13, Walter Reed (d.1902),
U.S. Army doctor, was born in Gloucester County, Va. In 1900 he went to
Cuba and verified that yellow fever was caused by a mosquito.
(HN, 9/13/98)(WSJ, 10/22/99, p.B1)(AP, 9/13/02)
1851 Sep 14, James Fenimore Cooper
(b.1789), writer, died at Cooperstown, NY.
(www.online-literature.com)
1851 Sep 18, The first edition of
The New York Times was published as the New-York Daily Times. It was
founded by Henry J. Raymond, Republican Speaker of the NY State
Assembly, and banker George Jones as a conservative counterpoint to
Horace Greeley's Tribune.
(AP, 9/18/97)(SFEM, 1/16/00,
p.17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times)
1851 Oct 2, Ferdinand Foch, French
Allied commander in WW I, was born.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1851 Oct 19,
Marie-Therese-Charlotte (72), daughter of Louis XVI and
Marie-Antoinette died.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1851 Nov 2, Louis Napoleon
staged a coup and took power in France as Napoleon III of the Second
Empire.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)(DoW, 1999, p182)
1851 Nov 6, Charles Henry Dow,
American financial journalist, was born. He (with Edward D. Jones)
inaugurated the 'Dow-Jones' averages.
(HN, 11/6/99)
1851 Nov
11, Alvan Clark of Cambridge, Massachusetts, patented a telescope.
Clark, a portrait painter interested in astronomy, had made several
small lenses and mirrors as a hobby. The fact that he could detect the
small residual errors in one of the best lenses Europe could offer
convinced him that he could make them as well. After he gained a
reputation in Europe the American orders started to come in. The Alvin
Clark Company became one of the foremost producers of some of the
largest lenses for telescopes in the 1800's.
(www.todayinsci.com/)
1851 Nov 13, The London-to-Paris
telegraph opened.
(HN, 11/13/98)
1851 Nov 14, Herman Melville’s
novel "Moby Dick" was published in the US. The 1st publication was in
London on October 18.
(AP,
11/14/97)(www.mobylives.com/Happy_Birthday_Moby.html)
1851 Dec 4, Pres. Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte forces crushed a coup d'etat in France.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1851 Dec 10, Melvil Dewey, creator
of the Dewey Decimal System, was born.
(HN, 12/10/98)
1851 Dec 11, In Philadelphia 37
men, on trial in federal court for defying the Fugitive Slave Law, were
deemed not guilty by a jury with 15 minutes of deliberation.
(AH, 10/02, p.54)
1851 Dec 19, Joseph Mallord
William Turner, English painter and printmaker, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._W._Turner)
1851 Dec 24, Fire devastated the
Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying about 35,000
volumes.
(AP, 12/24/97)
1851 Dec 29, The first American
Young Men’s Christian Assn. was organized, in Boston.
(AP, 12/29/97)
1851 Dec 30, Asa Griggs Candler,
developer of Coca-Cola, was born.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1851 Thomas Wilmer Dewing
(d.1938), American artist, was born.
(SFC, 4/11/01, p.E1)
1851 Cabanel created his painting
"The Death of Moses."
(WSJ, 9/9/03, p.D6)
1851 Matthew Coates Wyatt created
his dog sculpture of the Earl of Dudley’s Newfoundland Bashaw. It was a
star exhibit at the British Great Exhibition.
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A19)
1851 Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze
(b.1816) painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware." It was later
acquired by the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art.
(SFC, 9/30/97, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/9/99, p.W16)
1851 John Everett Millais began to
paint his work "Ophelia," completed in 1852.
(WSJ, 2/19/97, p.A15)
1851 Eugene Scribe, French
playwright, wrote "When Ladies Battle" (Bataille de Dames) with Ernest
Legouve. Scribe is known for writing the "well made play." The setting
is Lyon, France in Oct. 1817.
(WSJ, 1/2/96, p. A-7)
1851 A lighthouse was built at
Point Loma near San Diego, Ca.
(AAM, 3/96, p.46)
1851 Mormon pioneers founded San
Bernadino in southern California.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)
1851 Henry Casebolt (1816-1892) of
Virginia came to California and established himself as a builder and
inventor in San Francisco.
(www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/casebolt.htm)
1851 Books Inc. first opened as an
independent bookseller in San Francisco.
(Hem., Nov.’95, p.134)
1851 The New-York Times was
founded by Henry J. Raymond, Republican Speaker of the NY State
Assembly, and banker George Jones as a conservative counterpoint to
Horace Greeley's Tribune.
(SFEM, 1/16/00, p.17)
1851 La Vielle Russie was opened
in Manhattan by the family of Peter Schaffer and featured Russian
antiquities.
(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.20)
1851 John Kiehl opened an
apothecary at Third Ave. and 13th Street in Manhattan to sell potions,
lotions and remedies such as to cure baldness and enhance virility. He
also sold a get-rich essence called Money Drawing Oil. In 1999 the firm
did some $40 million in business with just freebies and word of mouth
advertising.
(F, 10/7/96, p.76)(WSJ, 12/29/99, p.B1)
1851 President Fillmore sent the
USS Michigan, the Navy’s first iron-hulled warship, to Beaver Island to
arrest James Strang. Strang was put on trial in Detroit and was
declared innocent of all charges. Strang then effectively detached his
kingdom from the US but maintained voting rights.
(Smith., Aug. 1995, p.88)
1851 The Fort Laramie Treaty was
signed between the US government and the Sioux Indians. The Sioux
pledged not to harass the wagon trains traveling the Oregon Trail in
exchange for a $50,000 annuity. The treaty did not last long. Some
12,000 American Indians gathered at Fort Laramie for a peace council
with the US. The government agreed that 12 million acres of the Mandan,
Hidatsa and Arikara Indians would remain free of settlement (eastern
Montana, northeastern Wyoming and western North Dakota). In 1949
Congress authorized a forced relocation to build the Garrison Dam in
North Dakota. In 1986 Martin Cross won a settlement of $149.2 million
for the unjust taking of reservation land. In 2004 Paul VanDevelder
authored “Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial that
Forged a Nation.”
(HT, 3/97, p.43)(SSFC, 8/29/04, p.M5)
1851 California Governor Peter
Burnett said that unless the Indians were sent east of the Sierras, "a
war of extermination would continue to be waged until the Indian race
should become extinct."
(HN, 4/29/00)(WW, 6/99)
1851 In Minnesota Chief Shakopee
and the Dakota Indians were pressured into selling 24 million acres for
pennies an acre. Food and money from the federal government was to be
distributed to the Indians as part of the treaty.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A1,6)
1851 Amory Houghton, a Boston
entrepreneur, bought an interest in a predecessor of Union Glass in
Somerville. The operation became Corning Inc. and by 2000 transformed
itself into a major player in the fiber optic business.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.G7)
1851 Andrew Jackson Pope and
Frederic Talbot of Maine built their 1st sawmill on Puget Sound, Wa.
Pope & Talbot were soon shipping lumber around the world.
(Ind, 6/7/03, p.5A)
1851 Western Union was founded as
the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Co.
(SFC, 2/2/06, p.A13)
1851 Simon Lazarus, a rabbinical
scholar from Germany, opened a dry-goods store in Columbus, Ohio. The
operation grew to become F&R Lazarus, after the names of his sons,
who in 1929 created the Federated Dept. Store chain. The downtown
Columbus store closed in 2004.
(WSJ, 5/19/07,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Lazarus)
1851 Dr. John Gorrie (1803-1855)
patented an ice-making machine to cool hospital rooms.
(www.bookrags.com/sciences/sciencehistory/refrigeration-woi.html)
1851 Photography had a major
breakthrough with the development of a new emulsion called collodion,
which caused photosensitive salts to adhere to a sheet of glass.
(Smith., 5/95, p.75)
1851 Fewer than 100,000 Indians
remained in California.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1851 The Beckwourth Trail,
discovered by James P. Beckwourth (1798-1866), an African American
explorer, opened to pioneers. It is the lowest pass (5,221 ft) over the
Sierras. Beckwourth was a freed slave and mountain man.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.T9)
1851 Rawlinson unlocked the
Persian cuneiform script. The key to unlocking these scripts was found
in the names of great rulers.
(RFH-MDHP, p.193)
1851 Australia’s first gold rush
began.
(SFEC, 9/10/00, p.T9)
1851 Francisco Guerrero, Mexican
official in Alta California, was struck in the back of the head by a
slingshot and died. His murder was believed to have kept him from
testifying in a murder trial.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1851 By this year more than half
the population of Great Britain was living in towns, and country-house
owners found it increasingly hard to dominate politics or protect their
own positions.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p.689)
1851 Big Ben, the tower clock of
the House of Parliament in London, was designed by Edmund Beckett
Denison. He was assisted by clockmaker Edward John Dent and Sir George
Airy, the royal astronomer. Originally the name "Big Ben" referred only
to the clock’s huge bell.
(SFC, 9/30/98, Z1 p.3)
1851 Victor Hugo sought refuge on
the Channel island of Guernsey where he wrote "Les Miserables" and
other works.
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)
1851 Paul Julius Reuter
(1816-1899), a German-born immigrant, began transmitting stock-market
quotes between London and Paris over the new Dover-Calais submarine
telegraph cable.
(http://about.reuters.com/home/aboutus/history/informationandinnovation.aspx)
1851 The Chateau
Pichon-Longueville was built in the Bordeaux region of France.
(USAT, 5/9/03, p.2D)
1851 Mt. Pelee volcano on the
French Island of Martinique erupted. It left the city of St. Pierre
unscathed.
(NH, 10/02, p.76)
1851 Rama IV (d.1868) began his
rule over Siam and played off European powers against each other.
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.76)
1851-1920 Mrs. Humphrey Ward, an erudite
anti-suffragist, wrote novels on major issues of her day.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A14)
1851-1962 In California the Benicia Arsenal was
active. It was the 1st ordnance supply depot in the West.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A14)
1851-1873 The US minted a 3-cent piece called a trine.
(SFC, 4/8/00, p.B4)
1852 Jan 3, The 1st Chinese arrive
in Hawaii.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1852 Jan 6, Louis Braille (43)
died of tuberculosis in France. He had been blinded by an accident
during childhood and spent years developing a system to read by touch.
In 1997 Russell Freedman wrote "Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis
Braille."
(SFEC, 7/6/97, BR p.10)(ON, 10/04, p.9)(
http://www.brailler.com/braillehx.htm)
1852 Jan 17, At the Sand River
Convention, the British recognized the independence of the Transvaal
Board.
(HN, 1/17/99)
1852 Feb 2, Alexandre Dumas Jr.’s
"Le Dame aux Camelias," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1852 Feb 11, The 1st British
public female toilet opened at Bedford Street in London.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1852 Feb 16, Charles Taze Russell
(d.1916) was born. He founded the International Bible Students
Association. In the 1870’s Russell abandoned the Adventist movement and
formed his own, which was later named Jehovah’s Witnesses.
(HN, 2/16/02)
1852 Feb 17, The Imperial Museum,
the 5th and last building of what became known as the New Hermitage,
opened to the public (Feb 2 OS) in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was
commissioned by Nicholas I and designed by Leo van Klenze of Germany.
(www.photofora.com/eugene/centralsquares/newhermitage.htm)(MT,
Winter/03, p.13)
1852 Feb 21, Nikolai Gogol
(b.1809), Russian novelist and playwright, died (OS) [see Mar 4].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)
1852 Feb 26, Dr. John Harvey
Kellogg (d.1943) was born. He was 24 years old when he became staff
physician at the Battle Creek Sanitarium--a position he held for 62
years. Dr. Kellogg, a respected abdominal surgeon, ran "the San" as a
health institute where the wealthy could rejuvenate themselves with
Kellogg's offbeat cures. Illness was caused, Kellogg believed, by poor
eating habits that left poisons in the intestinal tract. Among
Kellogg's solutions to the dietary dilemma were "fletcherizing," or
chewing food hundreds of times before swallowing, and a vegetarian diet
high in bran. It was the bowels, however, that received Kellogg's
undivided attention. Patients at the San were subjected to regimens of
"cleansing enemas" that cured "ulcers, diabetes, schizophrenia,
acne...and premature old age." In 1895, Kellogg's search for the
perfect food led to the development of breakfast food flakes made of
wheat called Granose. Will Keith Kellogg, John's brother, improved on
the Granose idea and founded the W.K. Kellogg Company.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/9840/kellogg.html
(HNPD, 2/26/99)
1852 Feb 26, The British frigate
Birkenhead sank off South Africa and 458 died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1852 Mar 4, Lady (Isabella
Augusta) Gregory, Irish playwright, was born. She helped found the
Abbey Theatre.
(HN, 3/4/01)
1852 Mar 4, Nikolai Gogol, Russian
writer (b.1809), died (NS) [see Feb 21].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol)
1852 Mar 13, A familiar symbol of
the United States, Uncle Sam, made his debut as a cartoon character in
the New York Lantern.
(AP, 3/13/97)
1852 Mar 18, Henry C. Wells
founded Wells, Fargo & Co. with William C. Fargo in San Francisco
as a Western equivalent to their east coast American Express. It
evolved into Wells Fargo Bank, headquartered in San Francisco and now
one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. In 2002 Philip L.
Fradkin authored "Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the American West" for
the company’s 150th anniversary. [see Mar 18, 1850]
(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)(HNQ,
11/20/98)(SFC, 2/6/02, p.D1)
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.B1,4)
1852 Mar 20, Harriet Beecher
Stowe's (1811-1896) "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was first published in book
form after being serialized. It based on the theme that slavery is
incompatible with Christianity.
(SFC, 3/30/97, Z1. p.6)(HN, 3/20/98)(AP, 3/20/08)
1852 Mar 29, Ohio made it illegal
for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a day.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1852 Apr 1, Edward Austin Abbey,
US, painter (Quest of the Holy Grail), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1852 Apr 12, [Carl L] Ferdinand
von Lindemann, German mathematician, was born.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1852 Apr 13, Frank W. Woolworth
(d.1919), founder of the retail chain of 5&10 cent stores, was born
on a farm near Watertown New York.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.B2)(HN, 4/13/98)
1852 Apr 23, Edwin Markham, US
poet and 1st winner of Amer Acad of Poets Award in 1937, ("Man with a
Hoe"), was born.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1852 Apr 29, The first edition of
Peter Mark Roget’s Thesaurus was published. Roget (1779-1869) was a
London physician of French-Swiss ancestry who began to collect and
organize English words to improve his public speaking.
(HN, 4/29/98)(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.B1)
1852 Apr 30, A strong tornado hit
New Harmony, Indiana, killing 16 people.
(SFC, 4/30/09, p.D8)
1852 Apr 30, Anton Rubinstein’s
opera "Dmitri Donskoi," premiered in St Petersburg.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1852 May 1, Calamity [Martha] Jane
[Burke], frontier adventurer, Indian fighter, was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1852 May 18, Massachusetts ruled
that all school-age children must attend school.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1852 May 25, Louis Franchet
d'Espèrey [Desperate Frankey], French marshal (WWI), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1852 May 29, Jindrich z Albestu
Kaan, composer, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1852 Jun 21, Friedrich Frobel
(b.1782), founder of the Play and Activity Institute (1837) in Germany,
died. In 1840 he created the word kindergarten to describe the
institute.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm_August_Froebel)
1852 Jun 25, Antoni Gaudi
(d.1926), Spanish modernist architect (Sagrada Familia, Barcelona), was
born.
(MC, 6/25/02)(SFEM, 10/8/00, p.61)
1852 Jun 26, Tzu Hsi (17), aka
Orchid or Lady Yehonala, married Ch'ing Emperor Hsien Feng. She had
competed to become one of his 7 official wives or 3,000 concubines.
(SSFC, 2/1/04, p.M6)
1852 Jun 29, Statesman Henry Clay
(75) of Kentucky died. He was a master politician in the era preceding
the Civil War. Born in 1777, Clay was a lawyer by trade. He began his
lengthy political career in the Kentucky legislature and made three
unsuccessful bids as the Whig Party's presidential candidate. By the
time of his death, Clay had served his country as secretary of state
under John Quincy Adams, U.S. Senator and Speaker of the House of
Representatives. Clay was the chief architect of the Compromise of
1850, a contribution that earned him the nickname "The Great
Compromiser."
(HNPD, 6/29/99)(MC, 6/29/02)
1852 Jul 4, Frederick Douglass
delivered the keynote speech for the Independence Day celebration in
Rochester, NY. In 2006 James A. Colaiaco authored Frederick Douglass
and the Fourth of July.”
(WSJ, 7/1/06, p.P6)
1852 Jul 5, Johann Baptist Weigl
(69), composer, died.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1852 Jul 12, Dr. John Hudson
Wayman camped at the City of Rocks in Idaho and called it “one of the
finest places of its kind in the world.” US Congress named the area a
national reserve in 1988.
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.E2)
1852 Jul 27, George Foster
Peabody, philanthropist and namesake of the Peabody awards for
excellence in broadcasting, was born.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1852 Aug 3, In the 1st
intercollegiate rowing race, Harvard beats Yale by 4 lengths.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1852 Sep 14, Augustus Pugin
(b.1812), English Gothic architect and designer, died. He had just this
year helped oversee the completion of the new Palace of Westminster and
sketched a design for the clock tower shortly before his death. In 2007
Rosemary Hill authored “God’s Architect: Pugin and the Building of
Romantic Britain.
(Econ, 8/11/07,
p.74)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Pugin)(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.W14)
1852 Aug 20, The steamer
"Atlantic" collided on Lake Erie with the fishing boat Ogdensburg, and
sank. An estimated 150-250 people were drowned.
(MC, 8/20/02)(Internet)
1852 Sep 3, Anti Jewish riots
broke out in Stockholm.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1852 Sep 14, Arthur Wellesley
(b.1769), General and Duke of Wellington, died at 83.
(http://en.wikipedia.org)
1852 Sep 14, Augustus Welby
Northmore Pugin (b.1812), English artist and architect, died.
(www.visitcumbria.com/awnpugin.htm)
1852 Sep 23, William Stewart
Halsted, was born. He established the 1st US surgical school.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1852 Sep 24, Henri Giffard, a
French engineer, flew over Paris in the 1st dirigible flight.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/AVgifford.htm)
1852 Sep 27, "Uncle Tom's Cabin,"
premiered in Troy, NY.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1852 Sep 30, Charles Villiers
Stanford, Irish organist and composer, was born.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1852 Oct 24, Daniel Webster (70),
lawyer, speaker and senator from Massachusetts, died. In 1997 Robert V.
Remini wrote his biography: "Daniel Webster."
(WSJ, 9/30/97, p.A20)(MC, 10/24/01)
1852 Nov 2, Franklin Pierce was
elected US president over Gen’l. Winfield Scott, who ran as a Whig. In
1852, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution giving Scott the pay and
rank of a lieutenant general. Scott, not Ulysses S. Grant, was the
first to hold this rank since George Washington. William R. King was
elected vice-president.
(SFC, 10/22/96, p.E8)(http://tinyurl.com/8ku7j)
1852 Nov 10, Dr. Gideon Mantell
(b.1790), obstetrician and English fossil hunter, died from an overdose
of opium.
(ON, 7/06,
p.4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Mantell)
1852 Nov 21, Duke Univ., founded
in 1838 as Union Institute in NC, was chartered as Normal College.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1852 Nov 27, Ada Lovelace
(b.1815), Lord Byron’s daughter and the inventor of computer language,
was bled to death by physicians at age 36. She had helped Charles
Babbage develop his "Analytical Engine," that performed mathematical
calculations through the use of punched cards. Her last years were
spent in a netherworld of addiction, gambling and adultery and she died
of cancer. In 2001 Benjamin Wooley authored her biography: "The Bride
of Science."
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.D7)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.E1)(WSJ,
1/19/00, p.W9)
1852 Dec 2, Louis Napoleon, the
little nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, established the Second Empire in
France (1852-1870) and called himself Napoleon III. He married the
Spanish beauty Eugenie and ran a semi-liberal autocracy for 18 years.
(WUD, 1994, p.950)(WSJ, 3/14/95, p.A16)(MC, 12/2/01)
1852 Dec 24, The race between the
B&O railroad and the C&O Canal to reach the Ohio River, that
began in 1828, ended with the railroad victorious.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.T6)
1852 Dec 29, Emma Snodgrass was
arrested in Boston for wearing pants.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1852 Dec 30, Future U.S. president
Rutherford B. Hayes married Lucy Ware Webb in Cincinnati.
(AP, 12/30/02)
1852 Dec 31, The richest year of
the gold rush ended, with $81.3 million in gold produced.
(HN, 12/31/98)
1852 Eugene Delacroix painted
"Desdemona Cursed by Her Father."
(WSJ, 9/24/98, p.A16)
1852 A lighthouse was built on
Alcatraz island in the San Francisco Bay.
(SFC, 2/22/07, p.A13)
1852 The first piano accordion
appeared in Paris.
(BAAC, 8/96, p.6)
1852 Seattle, USA, began as a
sawmill.
(WSJ, 9/19/95, p.A-1)
1852 The Mission of the Holy
Rosary in the town of Truchas was built. It is the youngest and
simplest of the 6 adobe missions scattered along the western shoulder
of the Sangre de Cristo mountains between Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.T-5)
1852 John Neumann, Catholic
missionary, became the bishop of Philadelphia. he was later made a
saint.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A18)
1852 The Mormons conceded for the
first time that they practiced polygamy, or "plural marriage."
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)
1852 Maria Vernet Worth, a
Parisian shop clerk, became the 1st professional model when her husband
found that he sold more dresses when she helped.
(SFEC, 2/6/00, Z1 p.2)
1852 The US Senate rejected
treaties with 18 California tribes that included some of the Yosemite
band.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Z1 p.4)
1852 The Hopi people of northern
Arizona arranged for a diplomatic packet to reach Pres. Fillmore via a
delegation of 5 prominent men from the Tewas of Tesuque Pueblo in New
Mexico, who sought legal protection from Anglo and Hispanic settlers.
(NH, 11/1/04, p.26)
1852 John Kennedy invented dog
tags and tried without success to sell them to the Union Army, but
numerous soldiers bought them individually.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.E3)
1852 James Strang, king of Big
Beaver Island, announced and won election as a state representative in
Michigan.
(Smith., Aug. 1995, p.88)
1852 Meriden Britannia Co. of
Meriden, Connecticut, began operating as a silver plate maker. In 1898
it joined other silver companies to form the Int’l. Silver Co.
(SFC, 10/22/08, p.G3)
1852 Smith & Wesson founded
its business in Springfield, Mass. Horace Smith, a toolmaker, and
Daniel Wesson, a former apprenticed gunsmith, combined their skills to
produce a revolutionary handgun.
(WSJ, 9/12/97, p.A20)(SSFC, 1/28/07, p.F3)
1852 Tennessee Coal, Iron and
Railroad Co. was formed as Sewanee Mining Co.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, R45)
1852 The first Holstein cow was
shipped to North America on a Dutch ship whose sailors requested milk.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)
1852 The California legislature
convened in Vallejo.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1852 The state passed a fugitive
slave law that allowed slave masters to reside indefinitely despite the
state’s prohibition on slavery.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A15,18)
1852 Heinrich Schliemann, German
businessman, moved from California to Russia and made another fortune
selling indigo and potassium nitrate to the Russian army.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.46)
1852 White Sulphur Springs in St.
Helena opened as the 1st spa in California.
(SSFC, 7/20/03, p.C5)
1852 The Vallecito Stage Station
was built on the San Diego-San Antonio line called the "jackass route."
(SSFC, 11/17/02, p.C1)
1852 The San Francisco Gas Co. was
founded by 3 brothers. In 1905 it merged with California electric Light
to form PG&E.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A5)
1852 In San Francisco
half-brothers George and Samuel Shreve opened Shreve & Co., their
1st jewelry near what later became Union Square. It remained a retail
store until 1881 when George (d.1893) opened a jewelry-making factory.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F3)(SFC, 9/19/07, p.G6)
1852 Sam Brannan, San Francisco
newspaperman, arrived in Calistoga, Ca. and began plans for a health
spa to rival the famed Saratoga Hot Springs in New York State. [see
1848]
(Article on Calistoga by Sybil McCabe, 7/95)
1852 Moses Dinkelspiel opened his
Dinkelspiel Store in Vallecito, Calaveras County.
(SFC, 11/17/98, p.B2)
1852 Almaden Vineyards was begun
by Etienne Thee, an émigré from France, who settled near
Los Gatos, Ca.
(SFC, 1/24/08, p.C3)
1852 Miners found caves in Amador
County, Ca., near Volcano. They were named the Black Chasm caves.
(SSFC, 4/8/01, p.T5)
1852 Capt. Charles Melville
Scammon, a whaler, discovered the spawning area of the Pacific grey
whales in the lagoons of Magdalena Bay off the Baha coast.
(SFEM, 5/7/00, p.9)
1852 There was heavy flooding on
the Red River in North Dakota and Manitoba.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A11)
1852 Mr. Formwalt, the first mayor
of Atlanta, Georgia, was stabbed to death by a ruffian.
(WSJ, 4/9/96, p.A-1)
1852 More than 20,000 Chinese
immigrants arrived to the US. They were fleeing floods, droughts,
famines and revolutions and some 20,000 went to California. A foreign
miner's tax was enacted in California and enforced largely against the
Chinese. Other states passed similar taxes. The number of Chinese in
California reached 25,000, about one-tenth of the non-Indian population.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)(SFEC, 2/6/00, Rp.10)(SFEC,
9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1852 In England the Victoria and
Albert Museum was founded by Henry Cole as the South Kensington Museum
and later named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It was the
first museum to collect and exhibit photography. Charles Thurston
Thompson was the first "superintendent of photography."
(WSJ, 11/4/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 3/24/98, p.A20)
1852 Lady Charlotte Guest took
over the helm of Dowlais Iron Co. in Wales after her husband died. [see
1759]
(SFC, 3/16/04, p.A1)
1852 In Dublin John Henry Newman
delivered a series of lectures that were meant to establish the
principles of the new Catholic University of which he was the first
rector. The collected work was published in 1996 by Yale Univ. Press as
"The Idea of a University. "
(WSJ, 9/16/96, p.A14)
1852 France established its penal
colony at Devil’s Island, French Guiana. It was one of 3 islands called
the Iles du Salut (Islands of Salvation). Some 70,000 convicts were
sent there until 1946. The penal colony operated until 1951.
(SSFC, 12/15/02,
p.L5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Guiana)
1852 A new lighthouse was built at
the tip of Grand Turk island, at the bottom of the Bahamas chain, as
the area thrived from the salt trade.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.G6)
1852 In Iran Mirza Hoseyn 'Ali
Nuri (Baha' Ullah, b.1817), founder of the Baha’i Faith, became aware
of his mission as a messenger of God while in the notorious Teheran
prison known as the Black Pit for involvement in the unsuccessful
attempt in 1852 on the life the shah of Persia, Naser od-Din. Released
and exiled to Baghdad in 1853, Baha’ Allah revived the Babi faith that
had sprung from Shi’ah Islam in the 1840s. He went on to found the
Baha’i movement that subsequently spread throughout the world.
(HNQ, 4/6/99)(HN, 11/12/00)
1852 In Poland Ignacy Lukasiewicz,
a druggist, found oil seeping from the ground and in an attempt to make
vodka distilled it to produce the first kerosene.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.2)
1852 James Young (1811-1883),
Scottish chemist, took out a US patent for the production of paraffin
oil by distillation of coal. Both the US and UK patents were
subsequently upheld in both countries in a series of lawsuits and other
producers were obliged to pay him royalties.
(WSJ, 12/6/08,
p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Young)
1852-1853 Charles Dickens (1812-1870) authored his
novel Bleak House in 20 monthly installments. It castigated the
insufferable delays of the legal process in Britain. In the novel he
describes a fictional court case, Jarndyce v Jarndyce, which concerns
the fate of a large inheritance. It has dragged on for many generations
prior to the action of the novel, so that, by the time it is resolved
late in the narrative, legal costs have devoured nearly the entire
estate. The case is thus a byword for an interminable legal proceeding.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarndyce_and_Jarndyce)(WSJ, 2/24/07,
p.P10)
1852-1853 Leo Tolstoy served as a young artillery
officer in Chechnya. He wrote his short story "The Raid" in 1853 based
on his experiences there.
(WSJ, 5/10/00, p.A1)
1852-1870 In France Napoleon III, Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte I, served as emperor.
(WUD, 1994, p.950)
1852-1892 The Salt Lake Temple on Temple Square in
Salt lake City was constructed over this period.
(THM, 4/27/97, p.N2)
1852-1911 Edwin Austin Abbey, American illustrator
and muralist.
(AHD, 1971, p.2)
1852-1929 James Brander Matthews, American author
and educator: "A highbrow is a person educated beyond his intelligence."
(AP, 4/8/97)
1852-1932 Grace King, American author: "Patience!
Patience! Patience is the invention of dullards and sluggards. In a
well-regulated world there should be no need of such a thing as
patience."
(AP, 6/1/97)
1852-1933 Henry van Dyke, American clergyman: "Self
is the only prison that can ever bind the soul."
(AP, 11/26/97)
1852-1935 Paul Bourget, French author: "We had better
live as we think, otherwise we shall end up by thinking as we have
lived."
(AP, 2/11/00)
1853 Jan 8, 1st US bronze
equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson was unveiled in Wash. DC. [see Mar
8]
(MC, 1/8/02)
1853 Jan 16, Andre Michelin,
French industrialist and tire manufacturer (Michelin), was born.
(MC, 1/16/02)
1853 Jan 19, Giuseppi Verdi's
opera "Il Trovatore" premiered in Rome.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1853 Jan 19, Napoleon III married
Eugenie de Montijo.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1853 Jan 28, Cuban revolutionary
Jose Marti was born in Havana.
(AP, 1/28/98)
1853 Mar 2, The Territory of
Washington was organized after separating from Oregon Territory.
(HN, 3/2/99)(SC, 3/2/02)
1853 Mar 3, A transcontinental
railroad survey was authorized by Congress.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1853 Mar 3, US Assay Office in NYC
was authorized.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1853 Mar 4, Pope Pius IX recovered
Catholic hierarchy in Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1853 Mar 4, William Rufus de Vane
King (D) was sworn in as 13th US Vice President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1853 Mar 5, Arthur W. Foote,
organist, composer (Suite for Strings in E), was born in Salem, Mass.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1853 Mar 5, Howard Pyle, writer
and illustrator (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood), was born.
(HN, 3/5/01)
1853 Mar 6, Giuseppe Verdi's
Opera, "La Traviata," premiered in Venice.
(AP, 3/6/98)(MC, 3/6/02)
1853 Mar 8, The first bronze
statue of Andrew Jackson was unveiled in Washington, D.C. [see Jan 8]
(HN, 3/8/98)
1853 Mar 30, Vincent Van Gogh
(d.1890), Dutch artist, was born in Zundert, Neth. His work included
"The Drawbridge and Sunflowers in a Vase," and "Harvest in Prevance,"
which was done both in oil and as a watercolor. The watercolor sold in
1997 for $14.7 mil. He produced an estimated 900 paintings and 1200
drawings but sold virtually none of them. In 1997 it was reported that
more than 100 of his paintings and drawings might be fakes. 300 of his
canvasses were painted in the last 15 months of his life.
(AAP,1964)(WUD,1994, p.606)(SFC, 6/26/97,
p.A21)(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A8)(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.8)(HN, 3/30/98)(MC, 3/30/02)
1853 Apr 1, Cincinnati, Ohio,
established a fire department made up of paid city employees.
(AP, 4/1/07)
1853 Apr 2, Lucie de la Tour du
Pin (83), born as Henriette-Lucie Dillon and former lady-in-waiting to
Marie Antoinette, died Paris. Her memoir, “Journal of a Woman of Fifty
Years,” was not published until 1906. In 2009 Caroline Moorhead
authored “Dancing to the Precipice: Lucie de la Tour du Pin and the
French Revolution.”
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.91)(http://tinyurl.com/co3xor)
1853 Apr 7, Dr. John Snow
administered chloroform to Queen Victoria at the birth of her 8th
child, Prince Leopold.
(ON, 5/05, p.9)
1853 Apr 14, Harriet Tubman began
her Underground Railroad, helping slaves to escape.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1853 Apr 15, Johann Leopold Fuchs
(67), composer, died.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1853 Apr 16, India's 1st steam
locomotive pulled 14 cars and 400 people 34 km. from Bombay to Thane.
(NG, 5/95, p.140)(Econ, 12/6/03, p.61)
1853 Apr 18, The first train in
Asia began running (Bombay to Tanna, 36 km).
(HN, 4/18/98)(MC, 4/18/02)
1853 May 6, The 1st major US rail
disaster killed 46 at Norwalk, Connecticut.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1853 May 11, Baron Nathaniel de
Rothschild of England purchased Chateau Mouton in Bordeaux, France, for
1,125,000 gold francs.
(www.pageaday.com)
1853 May 14, Gail Borden applied
for a patent for condensed milk.
(HN, 5/14/98)
1853 May 26, John Wesley Hardin
was born in Bonham, Texas. The 19th-century Western outlaw John Wesley
Hardin was named after John Wesley, who began the Methodist movement in
1738.
(HNQ, 4/1/00)
1853 Jun 6, The ship Carrier
Pigeon, a merchant sailing vessel, struck a reef off of Whale Point
(later Pigeon Point) on its way from Boston to SF. The wreck helped
prompt the erection of the Pigeon Point lighthouse in San Mateo Ct.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T3)(SFEC,11/16/97, p.B8)(Ind,
8/10/02, 5A)
1853 Jun 29, Napoleon III met with
Georges-Eugene Haussmann to outline plans for the “strategic
beautification” of Paris and assigned him to modernize the city. For
the next 17 years Haussman, as prefect of the Seine, transformed Paris.
He is responsible for the tree lined grand boulevards, the Bois de
Boulogne, several railroad stations, the aqueducts, and a tourist
friendly sewer system. Haussmann employed one Parisian in five and
financed his projects using private capital raised with bonds. The
project forced some 200,000 residents from their homes. He used
surpluses in his operational budget to cover deficits in his capital
budgets. The debts paralyzed the city until the Gaullist era.
(WSJ, 1/17/1995, p.A-16)(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T9)(WSJ,
12/9/98, p.A20)(ON, 9/06, p.9)
1853 Jul 4, Moses A. Gunst,
millionaire cigar retailer and SF police commissioner, was born in NY
and raised in Atlanta.
(Ind, 3/2/02, 5A)
1853 Jul 5, Cecil John Rhodes
(d.1902), politician, diamond merchant, was born in South Africa. He
discovered a vast lode of diamonds at Kimberley and founded the De
Beers Mining Co. He ran for Cape parliament in 1881 and was prime
minister of the Cape Colony from 1890-1896. He founded Rhodesia (later
Zimbabwe) for mineral speculation and endowed the Rhodes scholarships
upon his death with £3 million.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(MC, 7/5/02)
1853 Jul 8, An expedition led by
Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo Bay, Uraga, Japan, on a mission
to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese. Perry sailed
his flagship USS Susquehanna into Edo Bay. He soon forced Japan to open
its ports with his big gunboats, the steam-powered “Black Ships.”
(AP, 7/8/97)(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.2)(ON, 11/04, p.9)
1853 Jul 14, Pres. Franklin Pierce
opened the 1st industrial exposition in NY. Some 4,000 exhibitors
gathered for a trade show at the New York Crystal Palace (later Bryant
Park).
(WSJ, 9/14/00, p.A24)(MC, 7/14/02)
1853 Jul 14, Commodore Matthew
Perry met with Prince Toda and Prince Ido at ceremony at Kurihama,
Japan, and presented a letter from former Pres. Fillmore to Emperor
Osahito requesting trade relations. Fillmore's term of office had
already expired by the time the letter was delivered.
(ON, 11/04, p.12)(AP, 7/14/07)
1853 Jul 25, David Belasco, actor,
playwright and producer, was born.
(HN, 7/25/02)
1853 Jul 29, Pope Pius IX
established the archdiocese of San Francisco, Ca.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)
1853 Aug 21, Henry Wellcome
(d.1936) was born in Wisconsin. In 1880 Henry went to London to join
Silas Burroughs and set up a successful pharmaceutical firm called
Burroughs, Wellcome & Co.
(www.swan.ac.uk/egypt/infosheet/Wellcome.htm)
1853 Aug 24, The 1st potato chips
were prepared by Chef George Crum at Saratoga Springs, NY.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1853 Sep 14, The Allies landed at
Eupatoria on the west coast of Crimea.
(HN, 9/14/98)
1853 Sep 20, The Allies defeated
the Russians at the battle of Alma on the Crimean Peninsula.
(HN, 9/20/98)
1853 Sep 30, Johannes Brahms met
Robert and Clara Schumann. In this year Brahms composed his Sonata in C
major and his famous Liebestreu. In this year Brahms also meets Joseph
Joachim, Konzertmeister of the King of Hanover, while traveling with
the Hungarian violinist, Eduard Remenyi.
(BLW, Geiringer, 1963 ed., p.36)
1853 Oct 1, Robert Schuyler, the
president and general transfer agent of the New York & New Haven
Railroad Company, began issuing, shares of stock beyond the capital
limited by its charter.
(http://tinyurl.com/dbok8a)(http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/US/111/111.US.156.html)
1853 Oct 2, Austrian law forbade
Jews from owning land.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1853 Oct 13, Lillie Langtry
(d.1929), British actress, was born. "The sentimentalist ages far more
quickly than the person who loves his work and enjoys new challenges."
She started the California Guenoc and Langtry Estate wineries.
(AP, 7/27/98)(HN, 10/13/00)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.C8)
1853 Oct 26, R.H. Kern, American
artist, was killed by Indians in Utah.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.F9)
1853 Oct 29, Pierre Joseph
Guillaume Zimmermann (68), composer, died.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1853 Oct 30, Pietro Raimondi (66),
Italian composer (Potifar, Giacobbe), died.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1853 Oct, Henry Bessemer
(1813-1898), English mechanical engineer, invented a new type of
artillery shell. He presented it to the War Department for use in the
Crimean War, but they were not interested. He then offered it to
France’s Napoleon III, who agreed to test the shells. The larger shells
demanded a new type of cannon made of stronger metal, which led to his
experiments in making iron.
(ON, 9/06, p.4)
1853 Nov 9, Stanford White,
architect, was born. His designs include Madison Square Garden and
Washington Arch.
(HN, 11/9/00)
1853 Nov 24, William Masterson
(Bat Masterson), journalist, gambler, frontier lawman, was born in
Henryville, Quebec. He died at his desk as a NYC sports reporter. [see
Nov 24, 1856]
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.E3)(MC, 11/24/01)
1853 Nov 28, Olympia was
established as capital of the Washington Territory.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1853 Dec 23, Maria Teresa Carreno,
composer, was born.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1853 Dec 30, The United States
bought some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as
the Gadsden Purchase. It included parts of Arizona and New Mexico
(29,640 sq. miles) south of the Gila River. The purchase was ratified
by Congress on April 25, 1854.
(AWAM, Dec. 94, p.31)(HFA, ‘96, p.28)(AHD,
p.537)(AP, 12/30/97)
1853 Jean Ingres painted his
portrait: "Princesse Albert de Broglie."
(WSJ, 5/28/99, p.W12)
1853 Rembrandt Peale painted a
portrait of Martha Washington based on a 1795 portrait done by his
father, Charles Vincent Peale.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, DB p.35)
1853 Solomon Northrup and Henry W.
Derbu authored "Twelve Years a Slave, Narrative of Solomon Northrup, a
Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington in 1841, and Rescued in
1853 from a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River in Louisiana."
(ON, 11/99, p.7)
1853 Elizabeth Schermerhorn James,
the aunt of Edith Wharton, built the Wyndclyffe mansion in Rhinebeck,
NY.
(WSJ, 9/29/03, p.A1)
1853 The California state prison
at San Quentin was completed. It was built to house 50 inmates. An
associated housing development on the prison grounds was included.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)(SSFCM, 8/19/01, p.11)(SFCM,
4/4/04, p.8)
1853 In California a Morse
telegraph was station was erected on the SF hill now known as Telegraph
Hill.
(HT, 5/97, p.12)
1853 Charles Loring Brace founded
the Children’s Aid Society. Its goal was to build character.
(WSJ, 2/120/00, p.A24)
1853 Silas Coombs, lumberman from
Maine, moved to the Mendocino coast of California and lived at what is
now the Little River Inn.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T9)
1853 In Boston Sarah Parker Remond
was thrown out of a theater for refusing to be seated in an area
reserved for blacks. She fell and filed suit and was awarded monetary
compensation. The theater was later desegregated.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, BR p.5)
1853 Heinrich Steinweg founded his
piano dynasty three years after arriving to the US from Germany. His
story is told in "The Steinway Saga: An American Dynasty" by D.W.
Fostle. He later designed a piano with a heavier internal mechanism
that needed to be balanced by fatter keys and thus set the standard
48-inch wide keyboard.
(WSJ, 6/2/95, p.A-9)(WSJ, 11/4/97, p.A1)
c1853 Senator William Gwin, a
leader of pro-slavery interests in California, proposed to divide
California to create a pro-slavery southern half. He was opposed by
David C. Broderick.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1853 The US government fortified
the 22-acre island of Alcatraz to protect SF from attack.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W38)
1853 Elias Howe settled law suits
with 7 rivals of Singer Sewing Company. Singer settled with Howe in
1854.
(ON, 11/00, p.9)
1853 James Strang, king of Big
Beaver Island, declared that his female subjects should dress in loose,
knee-length smocks worn over modest pantaloons similar to those
popularized by Amelia Bloomer, an earlier new York feminist.
(Smith., Aug. 1995, p.90)
1853 Levi Strauss and Co. got its
start peddling tough pants to California gold miners. The first pair
sold for $13.50 a dozen. Strauss acquired the idea and patent from
Jacob Davis, who first produced canvas pants with rivets for miners.
(SFC, 1/23/96, p.C4)(SFC, 1/9/99, p.D3)(CHA, 1/2001)
1853 The New Haven Clock Co. was
founded. It made inexpensive brass movements until it bought a clock
manufacturing company in 1856. In 1946 it changed its name to the New
haven Clock and Watch Co., and went out of business in 1959.
(SFC, 3/19/97, z1 p.3)
1853 The hypodermic needle was
invented for morphine injection. It was believed that addiction would
be prevented if the digestive system was bypassed.
(SFEC, 11/10/96, zone 1 p.2)
1853 Charles Frederic Gerhardt
first synthesized acetylsalicylic acid, but he failed to understand its
molecular structure and its potential importance to humanity.
(www.chemheritage.org)
1853 The low pressure steam engine
was developed and reduced the low frequency noise of the
single-cylinder steam engines on riverboats, which could be heard for
miles.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, Z1 p.2)
1852 Elisha Graves Otis invented a
safety elevator in Yonkers, NY. Otis invented the safety elevator to
brake the car to a halt if the supporting cable broke. Otis Steam
Elevator Works made its 1st sale in 1854 to P.T. Barnum for display at
the New York’s World Fair. In 1889 (the same year Eiffel built his
Tower) the elevator met electricity. United Technologies acquired Otis
in 1976. In 2001 Jason Goodwin authored "Otis, Giving Rise to the
Modern City."
(HT, 5/97, p.23)(HNQ, 4/21/01)(WSJ, 10/9/01,
p.A20)(ON, 5/05, p.12)
1853 John C. Fremont began his 5th
expedition west, his 2nd into the Colorado Mountains, and traveled
across Kansas, southern Colorado and Utah in search of a railroad route
over the Central Rockies. The group reached Mormon settlements in Utah.
Fremont brought along photographer Solomon Nunes Carvalho, who took
hundreds of daguerreotypes. Many of the images were lost in an 1881 NYC
warehouse fire. In 1994 Robert Shlaer set out to recreate the images
and in 2000 published "Sights Once Seen: Daguerreotyping Fremont’s Last
Expedition Through the Rockies."
(SFEC, 7/9/00, BR p.12)(ON, 12/06, p.7)
1853 Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910),
Mosul-born Assyrian, and Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894), British
archeologist, uncovered ancient Assyrian tablets at Nineveh (Iraq).
Layard published his paper on Assyrian-Egyptian Cross-Dating. By using
seal-impressions of rulers occurring on the same piece of clay, Layard
was able to assign a date to the Assyrian dynasty because the Egyptian
ruler’s reign was firmly dated.
(RFH-MDHP, 1969, p.59)(ON, 11/07,
p.4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormuzd_Rassam)
1853 In California the steam
freighter Tennessee was wrecked off the Marin headlands in heavy fog.
Everyone escaped safely. Tennessee Point and Tennessee Cove were named
after the freighter. The event spurred Congress to fund a lighthouse at
Point Bonita.
(WSJ, 9/17/96, p.A12)(G, Winter 96/97, p.3)(SSFC,
11/4/01, p.T5)
1853 In SF the Laurel Hill
Cemetery was established. Residents were moved to Colma in 1939-1940
and the site was used for housing.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.G6)
1853 A smallpox epidemic hit
Hawaii and 5-6000 people died.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
1853 William Beaumont (67), a US
Army assistant surgeon and author of "Experiments and Observations on
the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion" (1833), died. [see
1822]
(ON, 1/02, p.6)
1853 Chief Tenaya of the Yosemite
Ahwahneechee was killed by a Paiute chief near Mono Lake.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Z1 p.4)
1853 The Croatian lighthouse Sveti
Ivan Na Pucini was built on the northern Adriatic Sea.
(SSFC, 6/20/04, p.D9)
1853 French wines were first
ranked at the order of Napoleon. The top grades were selected on the
basis of price, not taste.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T4)
1853 German physicist Heinrich
Magnus (1802-1870) first described the phenomenon, which came to be
called the Magnus effect, whereby a spinning object flying in a fluid
creates a whirlpool of fluid around itself, and experiences a force
perpendicular to the line of motion and away from the direction of
spin. According to author James Gleick (b.1954) Isaac Newton described
it and correctly theorized the cause 180 years earlier, after observing
tennis players in his Cambridge college.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect)
1853 Vilmos Zsolnay founded a
pottery in Pecs, Hungary, that became renowned for its colored tile.
The Zsolnay factory used a 5-tower mark from about 1878, which
symbolized the 5 medieval churches in Pecs.
(SFC, 8/31/05, p.G3)
1853 In Mexico Benito Juarez,
patriot and reformer, was locked up for 11 days in the dungeon of the
fortress of San Juan de Ulua in Veracruz.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.T12)
1853 The island of New Caledonia
was made a French possession. It served as a penal colony for four
decades after 1864. Agitation for independence during the 1980s and
early 1990s has dissipated.
(www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nc.html)
1853 In the Ottoman Empire the
Sultan moved from Topkapi to Dolmabahce Palace in Constantinople.
(Sky, 4/97, p.58)
1853-1857 Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the US,
acquired land from Mexico and supported the nation’s 1st trade
agreement with Japan. Jefferson Davis served as his secretary of war.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)(WSJ, 2/11/03, p.A10)
1853-1857 The 1st perforated postage stamps were made
under the administration of Pres. Franklin Pierce.
(WSJ, 2/11/03, p.A10)
1853-1864 The Taiping army Of Hong Xiuquan took the
city of Nanjing as its heavenly capital in the Taiping Rebellion. He
claimed to be Jesus' brother and ruled there until 1864. Imperial
troops crushed his movement and tens of millions
died.
(WSJ, 1/5/96, p.A-8)(WSJ, 4/26/99, p.A6)
1853-1890 Theo Van Gogh, the younger brother of
Vincent Van Gogh. Theo's widow, Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger, inherited the
paintings of Vincent that had been in Theo's hands.
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.B2)
1853-1902 John Twachtman, American impressionist
painter. He was born in Cincinnati, lived and painted in Munich and
Paris, and founded an informal art school in Cos Cob, Conn.
(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.A44)
1853-1927 Hudson Maxim, brother of Hiram, invented
high quality smokeless powders used in cannon projectiles and torpedoes.
(V.D.-H.K.p.268)
1853-1927 Joao Capistrano de Abreu, Brazilian
historian. He later wrote "Chapters of Brazil Colonial History,
1500-1800," first published in 1907. The Oxford Library of Latin
America published a new edition in 1998.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)
1854 Jan 5, The steamship San
Francisco wrecked and 300 died.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1854 Jan 13, Anthony Foss patented
an accordion. [see 1850, 1852]
(MC, 1/13/02)
1854 Jan 18, Thomas A. Watson,
inventor and assistant Alexander Bell (Telephone), was born.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1854 Feb 6, Composer Robert
Schumann was saved from a depression-induced suicide attempt of walking
into the Rhine.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1854 Feb 11, Major streets were
lit by coal gas for 1st time.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1854 Feb 11, Commodore Matthew
Perry pulled into Edo Bay, Japan, 12 months early with 9 warships to
begin talks for a treaty.
(ON, 11/04, p.12)
1854 Feb 16, Franz Liszt's
symphony "Orpheus," premiered.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1854 Feb 17, Friedrich A. Krupp,
German arms manufacturer, was born.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1854 Feb 23, Great Britain
officially recognized the independence of the Orange Free State.
(HN, 2/23/99)
1854 Feb 27, Composer Robert
Schumann was saved from a suicide attempt in Rhine.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1854 Feb 28, Some 50 slavery
opponents met in Ripon, Wis., to call for creation of a new political
group, which became the Republican Party. [see Mar 20, Jul 6]
(AP, 2/28/00)
1854 Mar 1, The SS City of
Glasgow, a steamship of the Inman Line, left Liverpool harbor with 480
passengers and was never seen again.
(SC, 3/1/02)(WSJ, 7/1/03, p.D8)
1854 Mar 7, Charles Miller
patented the 1st US sewing machine to stitch buttonholes.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1854 Mar 8, US Commodore Matthew
C. Perry landed at Yokohama on his 2nd trip to Japan. Within a month,
he concluded a treaty with the Japanese. In 2003 Christopher Benfey
authored "The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics and
the Opening of Old Japan."
(AP, 3/8/98)(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.M6)
1854 Mar 14, Thomas Riley
Marshall, 28th U.S. Vice President (Woodrow Wilson), was born.
(HN, 3/14/98)
1854 Mar 15, Emil von Behring,
first recipient of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1901, was born.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1854 Mar 20, The Republican Party
was founded when former members of the Whig political party met to
establish a new political party that would oppose the spread of slavery
into the western territories. [see Feb 28, Jul 6]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1854 Mar 28, During the Crimean
War, Britain and France declared war on Russia.
(AP, 3/28/97)
1854 Mar 31, Sir Dugald Clerk,
inventor of the two-stroke motorcycle engine, was born.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1854 Mar 31, Chief Shogun Iyesada,
following negotiations with Commodore Perry, approved the Treaty of
Kanagawa on behalf of Emperor Osahito. This forced Japan to open its
ports to foreign trade.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(ON, 11/04, p.12)
1854 Mar, A stone, donated by Pope
Pius IX, was stolen from the Washington Monument. Members of the
Know-Nothing Party were suspected.
(ON, 3/00, p.9)
1854 Apr 3, The SF Mint opened at
608 Commercial St. It issued $4 million in gold coins this year. An
Indian princess appeared on gold dollars.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A12)(SSFC, 1/28/03, p.E1)(WSJ,
12/12/03, p.W15)(SFC, 4/2/04, p.F3)
1854 Apr 15, The immigrant steamer
ship "Powchattan" (Powhattan) struck Brigantine Shoals and sank off
Long Beach, NY. Over 300 people died.
(www.maritimeheritage.org/PassLists/js051854.html)
1854 Apr 16, Franz Liszt's
"Mazeppa," premiered.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1854 Apr 16, San Salvador was
destroyed by an earthquake.
(HN, 4/16/98)
1854 Apr 25, Congress ratifies the
Gadsden Purchase. [see 1853, Gadsden]
(HFA, ‘96, p.28)
1854 Apr 29, Henri Poincare
(1912), French mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, was born. He
investigated the idea of space and led to the notion that space is too
complex for mathematics. Rather space is an assumption, and it can be
described and controlled only so far as we assume it. In other words
there is no such thing as space. Instead, there are as many spaces as
there are people... for every person can assume an indefinite number of
different spaces.
(V.D.-H.K.p.272)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9)
1854 May 3, William Beale (70),
composer, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1854 May 5, English pirate
Plumridge robbed along pro-English Finnish coast.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1854 May 24, Louis Mountbatten,
admiral (WW I), was born.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1854 May 30, The Kansas-Nebraska
Act, designed by Sen. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, was passed by the
US Congress. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and
Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery
within their borders. The governor of the Kansas Territory was James
William Denver. Pres. Pierce kept appointing proslavery governors. The
Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened the
north to slavery. This period of Kansas history was incorporated into
the 1998 novel "The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton,"
by Jane Smiley.
(AP, 5/30/97)(WSJ, 2/11/03,
p.A10)(www.historyplace.com/lincoln/kansas.htm)(ON, 4/08, p.1)
1854 May 30, Vermont native
Elisha Graves Otis (1811-1861) unveiled his invention, the safety
elevator at the New York World's Fair. Audiences gasped as Otis, riding
on the hoist's platform, dramatically ordered the lifting rope cut.
Instead of falling, the car locked safely into the elevator shaft.
Prior to the 1850s there was no existing market for passenger elevators
because there was no safety mechanism in the event of a cable break. In
1852 Otis was a master mechanic working at a bedstead factory in
Yonkers, N.Y., when he built a hoisting machine with two sets of metal
teeth at the car's sides. If the lifting rope broke, the teeth would
lock into place, preventing the car from falling. Otis never realized
the potential of his invention. His sons built the Otis Elevator
Company, enabling the skylines of cities throughout the world to be
transformed with skyscrapers.
(HNPD, 5/30/99)(ON, 5/05, p.12)
1854 Jun 10, The U.S. Naval
Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, held its first graduation.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1854 Jun 17, The Red Turban revolt
broke out in Guangdong, .
(HN, 6/17/98)
1854 Jun 18, E.W. Scripps (d.1926)
was born in Rushville, Ill. He founded the Scripps-Howard newspaper
chain and the UP wire service.
(www.eh.net/bookreviews/library/0184.shtml)
1854 Jun 21, The first Victoria
Cross was awarded to Charles Lucas, an Irishman and mate aboard the HMS
Hecla for conspicuous gallantry at Bomarsrund in the Baltic. The medal
was made from metal from a cannon captured at Sebastopol.
(Camelot, 6/21/99)
1854 Jul 1, The Singer Sewing
Company settled a sewing machine patent suit with Elias Howe and paid
him $15,000.
(ON, 11/00, p.9)
1854 Jul 6, The Republican Party
was officially organized in Jackson, Michigan. The Republican Party was
formed in Ripon, Wisconsin, by a group of anti-slavery politicians at
the Little White Schoolhouse. [see Feb 28, Mar 20]
(Hem., 7/96, p.28)(HN, 7/6/98)
1854 Jul 12, George Eastman
(d.1932), inventor of the Kodak camera, was born in Waterville, N.Y.
(AP, 7/12/99)
1854 Jul 13, US forces shelled and
burned San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1854 Aug 8, Smith and Wesson
patented metal bullet cartridges.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1854 Aug 9, Henry David Thoreau
published "Walden," in which he described his experiences while living
near Walden Pond on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.44)(AP, 8/9/97)
1854 Aug 16, Duncan Phyfe (86),
NYC furniture maker, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1854 Aug 29, Daniel Halladay
patented a self-governing windmill.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1854 Sep 27, The first great
disaster involving an ocean liner in the Atlantic occurred when the
steamship Arctic sank off the coast of Newfoundland with 300 people
aboard. It had collided in heavy fog with the French ship Vesta.
(AP, 9/27/97)(Arch, 7/02, p.7)(Arch, 9/02, p.6)
1854 Aug 30, John Fremont issued a
proclamation freeing the slaves of Missouri rebels.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1854 Sep 1, Engelbert Humperdinck,
German opera composer (Hansel & Gretel), was born.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1854 Sep 14, Allied armies,
including those of Britain & France, landed in Crimea.
(MC, 9/14/01)
1854 Sep 19, Henry Meyer patented
a sleeping rail car.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1854 Oct 3, William Crawford
Gorgas (d.1920), US Surgeon-Gen, was born. He helped cure yellow fever.
He served as the chief sanitary officer of the Panama Canal (1904-1913).
(WUD, 1994 p.610)(MC, 10/3/01)
1854 Oct 4, Abraham Lincoln made
his 1st political speech at Illinois State Fair.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1854 Oct 16, Abraham Lincoln
delivered a speech in Peoria, Ill., part of a series against
legislation proposed by Sen. Stephen Douglas that would allow settlers
to decide the status of slavery in Kansas and Nebraska. In 2008 Lewis
E. Lehrman authored “Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point.”
(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.W9)
1854 Oct 16, Oscar Wilde (born as
Fingal O'Flahertie Wills, d.1900), dramatist, poet, novelist and
critic, was born in Dublin. His work included "The Picture of Dorian
Gray." "Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it."
[see 1856-1900]
(HN, 10/16/98)(AP, 2/16/99)
1854 Oct 17, James Simpson, a
Baltimore inventor, received a patent for a multi-walled ice pitcher.
(SFC, 12/30/98, Z1 p.2)
1854 Oct 20, Arthur Rimbaud
(d.1891), French poet (Illuminations), was born in Charlesville.
(HN, 10/20/00)(MC, 10/20/01)(SFC, 2/12/02, p.D3)
1854 Oct 25, During the Crimean
War, a brigade of British light infantry was destroyed by Russian
artillery as they charged down a narrow corridor in full view of the
Russians. The Crimean War is largely remembered for the Charge of the
Light Brigade, a hopeless but gallant British cavalry charge against a
heavily defended Russian force. The battle began when the Russians
attacked the British-French supply depot at Balaclava, some eight miles
from Sevastopol, on the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula. Taken by surprise,
the British counterattacked but failed to follow up. Through a staff
error, Gen. Lord Cardigan's Light Brigade of 673 horsemen was ordered
to charge the Russian position through a mile-long valley and prevent
them from carrying away some captured cannon. The Light Brigade
advanced up the valley, taking casualties all the way, and reached the
guns. But once there, they could not hold their position and were
forced to retreat. Of the 673 men who took part in the senseless
charge, only 195 were present at roll call that night. The Charge of
the Light Brigade ended the battle, but Balaclava remained in the hands
of the British-French Allies. The event was described in a poem by
Tennyson. French General Bosquet remarked "It is magnificent, but it is
not war."
(AP, 10/25/97)(HNPD, 10/25/98)(HN, 10/25/98)(MC,
10/25/01)
1854 Oct 26, Charles William Post,
food manufacturer, was born. He created "Grape Nuts" and "Post
Toasties." [see Oct 26, 1855]
(HN, 10/26/00)
1854 Nov 4, The first lighthouse
on the West Coast was built at Alcatraz Island.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.7)(MC, 11/4/01)
1854 Nov 4, Florence Nightingale
(d.1910) and 38 nurses arrived at the Barrack Hospital in Scutari
following the outbreak of the Crimean War. She was appointed to oversee
female nurses to be dispatched to military hospitals in Turkey to help
with increasing casualties. She had been trained as a nurse--against
the belief that nursing was not a suitable profession for women--before
serving as Superintendent of the Establishment for Gentlewomen during
Illness in London in 1853. At Scutari, soldiers appreciated her
kindness and devotion as a nurse. Among other things, she later became
known for her ideas about hospital reform and for creating reading
rooms in hospitals. In 1907, she was the first woman to be awarded the
Order of Merit. She died at the age of 90, at home in London. In 1951
Cecil Woodham-Smith authored "Florence Nightingale."
(HNPD, 11/4/98)(HN, 11/4/98)(ON, SC, p.12)
1854 Nov 5, The British and French
defeated the Russians at Inkerman, Crimea.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1854 Nov 6, John Philip Sousa,
"The March Master," American bandmaster, composer and the king of
American march music, was born in Washington, D.C. He later wrote 5
novels. Among his 140 marches are "Stars and Stripes Forever" and
"Semper Fidelis."
(AP, 11/6/97)(SFEC, 2/8/98, Z1 p.8)(HN, 11/6/00)
1854 Nov 9, Franz Liszt's
"Fest-Long," premiered.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1854 Nov 13, George Whitfield
Chadwick, composer, was born in Lowell Mass.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1854 Nov 13, "New Era" sank off
New Jersey coast with loss of 300.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1854 Nov, A wooden boat called
Mystery set sail from Cornwall, bound for Australia with seven
Cornishmen hoping to escape their lives of poverty and dig for gold
Down Under, a trip that eventually took 116 days.
(AFP, 10/21/08)
1854 Dec 8, Pope Pius IX
proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. In an encyclical he
stated that: "The Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her
conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God…
Preserved immune from all stain of original sin. Ineffabilis Deus."
(AP, 12/8/97)(PTA, 1980, p.510)(WSJ, 6/3/99, p.A27)
1854 Dec 9, Alfred, Lord
Tennyson’s poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," was published in
England.
(AP, 12/9/97)
1854 Dec 26, Wood pulp paper was
1st exhibited in Buffalo.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1854 Gustave Courbet painted "The
Meeting [Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!]." It depicted a meeting with his
patron, art collector Alfred Bruyas (1821-1877).
(SFC, 1/22/05, p.E1)
1854 Eugene Delacroix painted
"Arabs Stalking a Lion."
(WSJ, 9/24/98, p.A16)
1854 Franz Xaver Winterhalter
painted a portrait of Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III.
(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.D8)
1854 A lighthouse, the first on
the West Coast, was completed on Alcatraz.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W38)
1854 The National Hotel was built
in Nevada City, Ca. In 2006 it was California’s oldest continuously
operating hotel.
(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.F9)
1854 The Detroit Observatory, the
second oldest building of the Univ. of Michigan was initiated by Henry
P. Tappan, first pres. of the U of M.
(LSA, Spring 1995, p.39)
1854 Dr. George W. L. Bickley, a
Virginian who had moved to Ohio, organized the first "castle," or local
branch, of the Knights of the Golden Circle in Cincinnati and soon took
the order to the South, where it was enthusiastically received. Its
principal object was to provide a force to colonize the northern part
of Mexico and thus extend proslavery interests, and the Knights became
especially active in Texas. The Knights of the Golden Circle was a
secret society organized in the 1850s in the American Midwest that
promoted the extension of slavery. During the American Civil War the
society sympathized with the Confederacy, encouraged desertion in the
Union Army, resisted enlistment and interfered with the draft. At its
peak there were some 200,000 members. It changed its name to the Order
of American Knights in 1863 and in 1864 to the Sons of Liberty.
Northern authorities arrested many members in 1864 and sentenced to
death three of its leaders. The death sentences were later suspended,
the leaders ordered released in 1866 by the Supreme Court.
http://www.dev.infoplease.com/ce5/CE028675.html
(HNQ, 8/2/99)
1854 Lola Montez, international
performer famed for her “Spider Dance,” retired to Grass Valley, Ca.,
and taught her neighbor, Lotta Crabtree, how to sing and dance.
(CVG, Vol 16, p.11)
1854 The Royal and Ancient Club of
the Old Course at St. Andrews was established. It oversaw the rules of
the game of golf which was played as early as ~1473.
(SFC, 6/25/95, p.T-9)
1854 US Congress passed a
resolution that declared: The great and conservative element in our
system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine
truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
(WSJ, 6/26/01, p.A23)
1854 The New England Emigrant Aid
Society was created to colonize Kansas with Northern abolitionists. The
Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society, founded by Eli Thayer of Worcester,
Massachusetts, promoted the settlement of anti-slavery groups in
Kansas, with the ultimate objective of making it a free state. Adhering
to the cause of "popular sovereignty," the organization-which was
reincorporated in February, 1855 as the New England Emigrant Aid
Company-founded the town of Lawrence and other Free State communities.
Active into 1857, it helped settle some 2,000 people in Kansas.
(WSJ, 3/27/98, p.W10)(HNQ, 10/5/99)
1854 The California Legislature
defined a public grave-yard as a place where the bodies of six or more
persons are buried.
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.CA1)
1854 Yosemite Valley was granted
to California as a public trust.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Z1 p.4)
1854 Ulysses S. Grant was
stationed at Fort Humboldt in northern California.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T5)
1854 The US Navy bought Mare
Island near Vallejo for $83,491. Commander David Glasgow Farragut
arrived to transform the island into a productive shipyard. He later
became the Navy’s first admiral.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A15)(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.C5)
1854 The Mariposa County
courthouse was built. The county initially covered a third of the
state. The Mariposa Gazette began operations. In 2003 Mariposa County
ranked 53rd among the state's 58 counties in terms of population and
income.
(SFC, 5/29/03, p.A14)(SSFC, 7/1/07, p.W8)
1854 The Union Democrat newspaper
of Sonora, Ca., began publishing.
(SFC, 1/3/98, p.A19)
1854 A newspaper began publishing
in Eureka, Ca. By 2006 Times-Standard operated with a paid circulation
of 20,000 and was managed by Dean Singleton of the Denver-based
MediaNews Group.
(SFCM, 8/13/06, p.10)
1854 Seth Shaw built his family
home in Ferndale, Ca. The town later became a California historic
landmark and the Shaw House an Inn listed on the National Register of
Historic Places.
(SSFC, 6/10/07, p.G8)
1854 In SF the city’s original
International Hotel was built on Jackson Street.
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.B1)
1854 St. Paul, Minn., was founded.
(USAT, 3/5/04, p.9A)
1854 Washington State became a US
territory.
(HT, 3/97, p.8)
1854 In Keshena Falls, Wisconsin,
the Menomonee (people of the wild rice) Chiefs Oshkosh and Keshena met
with federal Indian agents and agreed to retain only 275,000 acres from
their original 9 ½ million acres. As part of the settlement the
chiefs and their followers were promised eternal government protection.
In 1954 Congress voted to withdraw that support.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.235)
1854 The Bradley & Hubbard
Manufacturing Co. was founded in Meriden, Conn. The company made
clocks, tables, frames, irons, chandeliers and other metal objects.
Their lamps are prized by collectors.
(SFC, 8/6/97, Z1 p.6)
1854 Stephen Hedges of NYC
patented his convertible chair, a half round table hinged to a half
round chair.
(SFC, 7/8/98, Z1 p.3)
1854 Bernard Riemann conjectured
that the universe as a whole might be non-Euclidean in nature, curving
into a "hypersphere".
(WSJ, 2/17/95, p.A-10)
1854 Archeologist G.B. de Rossi,
while excavating the Christian catacombs in Rome discovered a
marble-pillared chamber filled with rubble and fragments of
inscriptions suggesting the burial of several early Popes.
(ITV, 1/96, p.60)
1854 White settlers in Del Norte
County, Ca., ambushed and killed 30 Tolowa Indians at the Etculet
village on Lake Earl.
(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.B1)
1854 Elisabeth of Bavaria (16)
married the Habsburg Emp. Franz Josef II (23).
(WSJ, 12/8/97, p.A13)
1854 Daniel Florence O’Leary (53),
Irish-born personal secretary to Simon Bolivar, died in Bogota. After
Bolivar’s death (1830) O’Leary served in a diplomatic capacity for the
Venezuelan and British governments in Bogota. In 1879 his memoirs were
published by his son.
(ON, 3/05, p.2)
1854 In England the Crystal
Palace, a glass and steel structure built for the Great Exhibition of
1851 was moved to the park at Sydenham, south London. The grounds at
the suggestion of Prince Albert were landscaped with statues of extinct
animals by the sculptor Water-house Hawkins.
(T.E.-J.B. p.20)
1854 Charles Wheatstone, British
cryptologist, invented cipher to be used by diplomats, but a government
official worried that it was too complicated. In 2006 Stephen Pincock
authored “Codebreaker” a tale of codes and ciphers as well as their
creators and crackers.
(WSJ, 10/7/06, p.P12)
1854 Phillip Morris began making
cigarettes in London.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.E3)
1854 Cholera broke out in London
again. Dr. John Snow traced it to cesspool near a public water pump on
Broad Street.
(ON, 5/05, p.9)
1854 Robert Swinhoe (1836-1877),
English naturalist, became the British council in Amoy (later Xiamen,
China). Over the next 2 decades he collected and counted some 650
Chinese species of birds. In 1860 He became the first British
representative on Formosa (later Taiwan).
(Econ, 12/20/08,
p.67)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Swinhoe)
1854 The first lighthouse on
Fastnet rock off of southwest Ireland was completed. Work on a
replacement began in 1896. In 2004 James Morrissey authored “A History
of the Fastnet Lighthouse.”
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.100)
1854 Italian anatomist Fillipo
Pacini discovered the cholera bacillus, but did not prove that it
caused cholera. His work remained obscure and was not translated to
English.
(ON, 5/05, p.10)
1854 Florence Nightingale
(1820-1910) nursed wounded soldiers at Scutari Hospital in Turkey
during the Crimean War.
(HNQ, 4/29/01)
1854 Alfred Russel Wallace began
his historic study of Malay flora and fauna in and around Bukit Timah
hill in Singapore.
(NH, 4/1/04, p.56)
1854 In northern Russia Solovki
monks fought off a British naval siege.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.83)
1854 Richard Owen, founder of
London’s Natural History Museum discovered fossils in South Africa of a
plant-eating prosauropod named Massospondylus (bulky vertebrae). Owen
is the man who coined the term dinosaur.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.A2)
c1854-1856 George Robinson Fardon (1807-1886),
British photographer, took pictures of SF for his "San Francisco Album
1854-1856," believed to be the first camera survey of an American city.
(SFC, 6/19/99, p.B3)
1854-1857 David Kerr charted more than 100 sq. miles
of the San Francisco Bay Area marshland for the US Coast Survey, the
first federal mapping agency.
(SFC, 10/25/96, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/2uwjs3)
1854-1860 The six golden years of French photographer
Felix Nadar, representing the best of his portrait photography.
(Smith., 5/95, p.72)
1854-1923 Bourke Cockran, American politician and
orator: "You simply cannot hang a millionaire in America."
(AP, 11/18/97)
1854-1928 Leos Janacek, Czech composer. His work
included the opera "Makropulos" (1926), The Dostoevsky based "From the
House of the Dead" and "Katya Kabanova."
(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A-7)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A8)(WUD, 1994,
p.763)(SFC, 1/27/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 6/03/97, p.A20)
1854-1932 George Eastman, American inventor,
industrialist, and philanthropist.
(AHD, 1971, p.411)
1854-1937 Frances Brundage, artist and illustrator.
She did paintings of Victorian children and illustrated over 240 books
along with calendars, postcards, cloth dolls and prints.
(SFC, 8/4/99, Z1 p.5)
Go to 1855-1859