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Queen Victoria marries her first cousin Albert February 10 wearing only items of British manufacture. Three months her junior (she is now 20), her husband is a son of the duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and a nephew of the king of the Belgians, Leopold I, but unlike most royals the new prince consort has liberal views, quickly learns English, will develop an enthusiasm for British technology, and will rule as king in all but name until his untimely death in 1861. Former British lord lieutenant (viceroy) of Ireland John J. Pratt, 1st marquess of Camden, dies near Sevenoaks, Kent, October 8 at age 81.
Prussia's Friedrich Wilhelm III dies at Berlin June 7 at age 69 after a reign of more than 42 years in which his timidity has hastened the decline of Prussian prestige. He is succeeded by his 44-year-old son, who will reign until 1861 as Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
Spanish insurgent leader Ramón Cabrera is driven with 10,000 of his men across the border into France, and Spanish commander in chief Baldomero Espartero returns to Madrid (see 1839). Now 46, Espartero is appointed prime minister and selects a cabinet whose members support his ideas for reform; Maria Christina resigns her regency in October rather than accept his progressive ideas (see 1841).
Willem I of the Netherlands abdicates October 7 at age 68 after a 26-year reign in order to marry the Roman Catholic Belgian countess d'Oultremont, who is unpopular with the Dutch. Willem's 47-year-old son succeeds to power and will reign until 1849 as Willem II.
The Ottoman boy sultan Abdul Mejid I signs an official edict (firman) February 3 appointing the viceroy Muhammad Ali hereditary governor of Egypt (see 1839). The Treaty of London July 15 joins Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia (but not France) against Muhammad Ali; the Allies offer the viceroy hereditary rule of Egypt and lifetime possession of Syria on condition that he give up northern Syria, Mecca, Medina, and Crete and that he return the Ottoman fleet. He rejects the offer, the British induce the sultan to depose the viceroy, Paris panics at news of the treaty, the minister of foreign affairs Louis Adolphe Thiers urges support of Muhammad Ali, and French newspapers echo his views.
British gunboats commanded by Sir Robert Stopford bombard Beirut September 9, and the British land troops under the command of Sir Charles Napier. Napoleonic general Jacques Macdonald, duc de Tarente, dies at Courcelles September 25 at age 84. Beirut falls to Admiral Napier October 10, France's Louis Philippe decides not to support Mohammed Ali, Thiers resigns October 20, Acre falls to the British November 3, and Napier concludes the Convention of Alexandria November 27. Muhammad Ali agrees to return the Ottoman fleet and give up all claims to Syria and Cilicia (Adana) in return for hereditary rule of Egypt. All Egyptian forces will be out of Syria and Cilicia before spring.
Britain declares war on China in June (see 1839). The Chinese emperor has ordered a halt to the import of opium, and although it is difficult to enforce, the British have called the order a violation of free trade and demanded restitution for the opium that was destroyed last year. The lobby organized last year by opium trader William Jardine has gained support from Foreign Minister Henry Palmerston, Parliament passes a war resolution by a slim five-vote margin, but a prominent member who will later become prime minister says, "They gave you notice to abandon your contraband and trade. When they found you would not do so, they had the right to drive you from their coast. Justice, in my opinion, is with them, and while they, the Pagans [the semi-civilized barbarians] have it on their side, we—the enlightened and civilized Christians—are pursuing objectives that vary both with justice and religion. A war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with permanent disgrace, I do not know and have not heard of." An armada of 16 warships and four armed steamers arrives off the Chinese coast with 3,000 tons of coal, 4,000 troops, 16,000 gallons of rum (for the men), and 540 artillery pieces; British ships bombard an island at the entrance to Hanchow Bay July 5 and land troops that occupy the island of Zhoushan in the Opium War that will continue until 1842.
Maori natives in New Zealand cede sovereignty (but not land) to Britain in the Treaty of Waitangi, but settlers will take Maori land and Maoris will retaliate with attacks on the settlements (see 1843).
The Union Act passed by Parliament July 23 unites Upper and Lower Canada, includes various administrative reforms, but avoids the issue of government responsibility in Canada. Parliament acts in response to last year's report by John Lambton, 1st earl of Durham, who dies at Cowes on the Isle of Wight July 28 at age 48. The new act is designed in part to keep the French a minority in Canada and to prevent U.S. annexation (see British North American Act, 1867).
Rafael Carrera makes himself dictator of Guatemala, beginning a regime that will continue until 1865 and dominate much of Central America (see 1838). Carrera's Conservative-backed rebel army defeats the forces of United Provinces of Central America President Francisco Morazán at Guatemala City in March and he goes into exile (see 1842; El Salvador, 1841).
Former New Granada president Francisco de Santander dies at Bogotá May 6 at age 48, having served as a senator since his presidency ended in 1837. His death produces a 2-year civil war.
Paraguay's dictator José Gaspar de Francia dies at his native Asunción September 20 at age 74 after a 24-year rule (see 1841).
William Henry Harrison wins election to the U.S. presidency as Whigs sing, "Oh have you heard how Old Maine went?/ She went hell-bent for Governor Kent,/ And Tippecanoe and Tyler too." The hero of the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe receives 234 electoral votes to Martin Van Buren's 60 (but see 1841).
Johnstown, New York, lawyer's daughter Elizabeth Cady, 24, is married in May to Henry Brewster Stanton, 34, a prominent abolitionist, despite her family's vehement opposition to abolitionists, who are considered fanatics. (Wendell Philips and his wife, Ann, have been influential in converting Stanton to the abolitionist cause.) The word obey is omitted from the wedding ceremony at the bride's insistence.
The American Anti-Slavery Society holds its annual meeting, but abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips are called "Aunt Nancy Men" and hermaphrodites for their support of women's rights, and the antislavery movement has split into two factions in the past year largely because of Garrison's advocacy of women's rights, including their right to participate in the antislavery movement. More conservative members walk out of the meeting, saying that Garrison's insistence on women's equality muddies the issue of slavery by raising an "extraneous novelty."
The World's Anti-Slavery Convention opens at London. Lucretia C. Mott is among the seven women in the U.S. delegation, but the British reject the women's credentials and refuse to seat them on the convention floor. A British clergyman says that including women would subject the convention to ridicule (decorum and social usage as much as any biblical injunction have in this century dictated that women remain silent in public meetings, although Quaker women like Lucretia Mott have always resisted this dictate and spoken out). William Lloyd Garrison arrives a few days later and joins the women in the curtained gallery at one end of the hall, saying that a meeting that begins by barring representatives of half the human race makes mockery of its claim to be a "world's" convention (see 1839; first Women's Rights Convention, 1848).
The slave ship Amistad arrives at a Connecticut port in August with a man known as Cinque and 52 other Africans in command (see 1839). Spain demands extradition (but see 1841).
The Frontier Regiment under the command of Colonel Edward Burleson in the Republic of Texas defeats Comanche warriors at Plum Creek (see 1839). Burleson will be elected vice president of the republic next year.
Navigator Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d'Urville sights the Adélie coast of South Australia in January and names it for his wife (see 1837). He has sailed across the Pacific to the Fiji and Palau islands, New Guinea, and Borneo before returning to the Antarctic in hopes of discovering the magnetic pole in an unexplored region between 160° and 120° South (see Ross, 1841).
Congress establishes a 10-hour workday March 31 for employees engaged in federally-funded public works.
Chinese authorities tighten their blockade of opium imports in June (see 1839). Russell & Co. head Robert Bennet Forbes returns to Boston, having made up all the losses he sustained in the panic of 1837 and come out with what he calls a "handsome profit." Russell partner Augustine Heard, now 55, starts a firm under his own name in partnership with fellow Russell partner Joseph Coolidge and will return to Guangzhou (Canton) next year and remain until 1844 (seeFrolic, 1850); Russell & Co. is reorganized (see 1849).
Salem, Massachusetts-born Brooklyn, New York, merchant Abiel Abbot Low, 29, returns from a 7-year sojourn at Guangzhou (Canton), where he went to work as a clerk for the mercantile firm Russell & Co., was admitted as a partner 3 years ago, and has profited handsomely in a joint venture with a Chinese merchant. One of 12 children, Low moved from Salem to Brooklyn with his father, Seth, at age 18 and worked for his father in the latter's business of importing drugs and Indian ware. He determines to build fast clipper ships that will dominate the China trade, and the firm A. A. Low & Brothers will soon gain prominence in the import of China tea and Japanese silk (seeHouqua, 1844).
"Property is theft" ("la propriété, c'est le vol"), writes French socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, 31, in his treatise "What Is Property?" ("Quest ce-que la propriété?").
Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley, MP, speaks out in the House of Commons August 4, to urge more protection for child workers (see 1833): "The future hopes of a country must, under God, be laid to the character and condition of its children; however right it may be to attempt, it is almost fruitless to expect, the reformation of its adults; as the sapling has been bent, so will it grow. The first step towards a cure is factory legislation. My grand object is to bring these children within the reach of education" (see 1847).
The United States has nearly 20 millionaires (see 1892; John Law, 1719).
The wooden sidewheeler Britannia leaves Liverpool July 1, reaches Halifax in 12 days, 10 hours, and arrives at Boston on the first voyage of the government-subsidized Royal Mail Steam Packet Company that was established last year by Nova Scotia-born shipper Samuel Cunard, 43, in association with George and James Burns of Glasgow and David M'Iver of Liverpool. Cunard will introduce iron steamers in 1855 and in 1862 will replace paddle wheels with screw propellers to break the Black Ball line's dominance of transatlantic packet trade and New York's monopoly in the trade (see 1848; Brunel, 1843; Collins, 1850).
The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O Line) incorporated by Royal Charter December 31 has been awarded the contract for carrying mail to the outposts of Britain's empire (see 1841; communications, 1837).
More than 200 steamboats ply the Mississippi, double the number in the mid-1820s. New Orleans is the fourth largest city in America and will overtake New York in the next 10 years in volume of shipping as more than half the nation's exports move out of its port.
U.S. canals cover 3,300 miles.
Patents issued July 10 and August 3 to Spencer, Massachusetts-born inventor William Howe, 37, cover his design for a railroad-bridge truss that improves on one invented 10 years ago by Colonel Stephen H. Long, which was the first to incorporate a rectangular frame. The Boston & Albany Railroad commissioned Howe 2 years ago to construct a bridge at Warren, Massachusetts; his design employs wooden diagonals and vertical iron ties in single or double systems, and he uses the patented truss to strengthen a bridge that he helps his carpenter brother-in-law Amasa Stone, 21, build for the Western Railroad across the Connecticut River at Springfield, Massachusetts. It is the first bridge to span the Connecticut, it wins widespread acclaim, Stone's contracting firm Boody, Stone & Co. will acquire patent rights to the Howe truss, and it will earn a fortune by licensing the patent to other builders of bridges and roofs (see 1846).
U.S. operating railways cover 2,816 miles, versus 1,331 in the United Kingdom, fewer than 300 miles in France.
More than 300 U.S. railroad companies are in operation; tracks vary in gauge from six feet to four feet eight-and-a-half inches (see B&O, 1828).
From New York to Boston is an overnight steamer trip or a 6-hour train journey and costs $7. From New York to Philadelphia by train and ferry takes 6½ hours, down from 3 days in 1817, but the journey takes longer when the Delaware River freezes over, halting train-ferry service and forcing passengers to walk across the ice.
"On the Production of Heat by Voltaic Electricity" by English physicist James P. (Prescot) Joule, 22, describes efforts to measure electric current by exact quantitative data (see Volta, 1800). Joule's paper announces the law that the rate at which heat is produced in any part of an electric circuit is measured by the product of the square of the current and the resistance of that part of the circuit. He will also formulate the first law of thermodynamics—the conservation of energy law that states that energy can be converted from one form to another but cannot be destroyed. A unit of energy will be named the joule (see Clausius, 1850; Thomson, 1851).
Geneva-born Russian chemist Germain (Henri) Hess, 38, at the University of St. Petersburg pioneers thermochemistry with his announcement that the amount of heat involved in producing one chemical from another is always the same, regardless of how many steps are taken to obtain the end result (see Gibbs, 1876).
Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin makes no reference to the idea that struck its author 2 years ago when he read the 1798 Malthus Essay on Population (see 1831; Maupertuis, 1741). Darwin realized that living creatures in nature must compete with each other for sustenance and that nature kills off those that cannot compete, but he will not commit the notion to paper, even in pencil, for another 2 years (see 1858).
Études sur les glaciers by naturalist Louis Agassiz shows that glaciers move and thereby give evidence of an Ice Age.
Czech physiologist Johannes (Evangelista) Purkinje, 53, at Breslau proposes that the word protoplasm be applied to the formative material of young animal embryos (see von Mohl, 1838). Purkinje has discovered nerve cells in the brain and nerve fibers in the heart but is better known among his Bohemian countrymen as a nationalist, poet, and the translator of Goethe and Schiller (see Schultze, 1861).
Handbuch der Physiologie der Menschen by German physiologist Johannes (Peter) Müller, 39, revives ideas that go back to Aristotle and includes a reaffirmation of spontaneous generation (see Needham, 1748). But Müller does introduce some sound new ideas about nervous energy, reflex movements, gland structures, the embryonic development of sex organs, and other matters.
Mathematician Siméon-Denis Poisson dies at Sceaux April 25 at age 58.
A new worldwide cholera epidemic begins. It will kill millions in the next 22 years (see 1830; London, 1849).
German anatomist and histologist Friedrich (Gustav Jakob) Henle, 31, at Göttingen publishes a theory that infectious diseases are caused by living microscopic organisms (see Bassi, 1835; Davaine, 1849). Henle will discover the tubules in the kidney that will bear his name.
London surgeon Samuel Armstrong Lane performs the first successful transfusion of whole blood to treat hemophilia (see 1818). Transfusion pioneer James Blundell, now 50, has invented two special pieces of apparatus that enable Lane to transfer blood from donor to patient with a minimum of physical interference, but transfusion remains experimental and problematic (see Lister, 1867).
The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery established in Maryland is the first regular U.S. dental school. The American Society of Dental Surgeons is organized. The American Journal of Dental Science begins publication.
The world's first adhesive postage stamps go on sale in Britain May 1 for use beginning May 6 (see Hill, 1837). The Penny Blacks bearing the head of Queen Victoria have been printed by U.S. inventor Jacob Perkins, who in 1819 developed a process and the necessary equipment for printing bank notes and has established a factory in England for printing securities. Some 64 million of the new stamps will be printed, and twice as many letters are posted this year as in 1839, but British postal revenues fall drastically and will not regain their 1839 level until 1875 (see United States, 1847; perforating machine, 1854).
The Melbourne Herald has its beginnings in the Port Philip Herald that begins publication January 3 in Little Collins Street under the direction of George Cavanagh. Initially distributed free, it soon sells for sixpence, will appear three times per week starting next year and outsell its three rivals, publish daily starting in 1849, become an evening paper in 1869, and grow to be the largest-circulation paper in Australasia.
Nonfiction: History of the United States (third volume) by Worcester-born Boston historian George Bancroft, 39, whose first and second volumes appeared in 1834 and 1837. Bancroft was appointed collector of the port of Boston 4 years ago. His work establishes him as the country's leading historian, and he will continue it for seven more volumes while serving also as a diplomat and, briefly, cabinet member; The Basis of Morality (er die Grundlage der Moral) by Arthur Schopenhauer, who espouses atheism but admires Buddhism and Christianity for their asceticism and their abolition of the will.
Fiction: Two Years Before the Mast by Boston novelist Richard Henry Dana Jr., 25, who sailed on a 150-day voyage aboard the brig Pilgrim around Cape Horn to California in 1834, returned aboard the ship Alert in 1836, and has had his book published anonymously. Dana writes of California, "In the hands of an enterprising people, what a country this might be"; The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper, who has received wide criticism for his 1838 novels Homeward Bound and Home as Found and for his 1838 nonfiction work The American Democrat. Cooper has won most of the libel suits brought against him and has helped establish effective rules of libel in U.S. courts; Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque by Edgar Allan Poe; A Hero of Our Time (Geroi Nashevo Vremeni) by Mikhail Lermontov; Charles O'Malley by Charles Lever.
Novelist Fanny Burney dies at London January 6 at age 87; novelist-playwright Karl Leberecht Immermann at Düsseldorf August 25 at age 44, leaving his epic Tristan und Isolde incomplete.
Poetry: The Novice (Mtsyri) by Mikhail Lermontov, who is banished to the Caucasus once again after a duel with the son of the French ambassador; "Sordello" by Robert Browning.
Painting: Flight into Egypt by J. B. C. Corot; Entrance of the Crusaders into Constantinople by Eugène Delacroix; Christ au Jardin des Oliviers by Théodore Chassériau. Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich dies at Dresden May 7 at age 65.
Astronomer F. W. Herschel discovers the solvent power of sodium hyposulfite (hypo) on silver salts and uses the word negative to describe the reverse image obtained last year by Fox Talbot (see daguerreotype, 1839). Told that gallic acid would increase the sensitivity of his prepared paper, Talbot continues to experiment and from September 21 to 23 discovers that the acid can be used to develop a latent image on paper as well as it did on metal. He soon obtains a patent on what he calls a calotype (later to be called talbotype process involving use of silver iodide with sodium thiosulfate employed to fix the image, which is actually a reverse image, or "negative." Talbot has pioneered the true photographic development process by waxing or oiling paper on the side opposite to the image, thus obtaining true copies (positives) of any negative by contact printing on another piece of sensitized paper, but although his process is less cumbersome than that of Louis Daguerre his calotypes require a camera exposure of 1 hour to produce a 6½ x 8½-inch negative and require specially constructed paper to make prints (see Archer, 1851).
Theater: The Shoemaker and the King (El Zapatero y el Rey), part I, by Spanish playwright José Zorilla y Moral, 22, 3/14 at Madrid's Teatro El Principe; Judith by German playwright (Christian) Friedrich Hebbel, 27, 7/6 at Berlin's Hoftheater; The Glass of Water, or Causes and Effects (Le Verre d'Eau, ou les Effets et les Causes) by Eugène Scribe 11/17 at the Théâtre Française, Paris; Money by Edward Bulwer 12/8 at London's Haymarket Theatre.
Opera: The Daughter of the Regiment (La Figlia del Reggimento) 2/11 at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, is presented under the title La Fille du Régiment with music by Gaetano Donizetti; English soprano Sophie Anne Thillon (née Hunt), 21, makes her Opéra-Comique debut at Paris 8/11 in the title role of Grisar's opera Lady Melvi; The Favorite (La Favorita) 12/2 at the Paris Grand Opéra, with tenor Gilbert Duprez, music by Donizetti.
Violinist-composer Niccolo Paganini dies of throat cancer at Nice May 27 at age 57.
Popular songs: "The Two Grenadiers" ("Die Grenadiere") by Robert Schumann, lyrics by Heinrich Heine; "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" by English composer Joseph P. Knight, 28, lyrics by Emma Willard, who retired 2 years ago from her Emma Willard School.
The polka is introduced to the United States by Viennese ballet dancer Fanny Eissler, 30, who introduced the dance to the Paris stage 6 years ago and now begins a U.S. tour that will add to her fortune.
The deadliest tornado thus far in U.S. history strikes Natchez, Mississippi, May 7, killing 317 people.
France sends a naval vessel into Arcachon Bay to guard its oysters from draggers and rakers (see 1759; Coste, 1853).
Oyster canning begins at Baltimore using bivalves from Chesapeake Bay.
Manufacture of the McCormick reaper begins with improvements added by McCormick to his original 1831 machine (see 1834; 1847).
A U.S. farmer requires 233 man-hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat using a primitive plow and harvesting cradle, down from 300 hours in 1831.
Grapefruit trees are introduced into Florida Territory by Don Philippe, a Spanish nobleman (see Lunan, 1814).
Puerto Rican sugar prices fall to 5¢/pound, down from 20¢ in 1815, as Caribbean cane production outstrips demand (see 1848).
The first important U.S. breeding herd of quick-fattening Hereford cattle is established with stock imported from Britain by Erasmus Corning and William H. Sotham at Albany, New York. (see 1817).
Showman P. T. Barnum imports the first Dutch belted cows to be seen in the United States; he exhibits them as curiosities.
Vermont and New Hampshire have some 2 million sheep, and their farmers are engaged in a profitable wool-producing industry (see clothing makers, 1862).
Swiss chemist Charles J. Choss demonstrates the need of calcium for proper bone development (see Humphry Davy, 1808; vitamin D, 1922).
Supporters of U.S. President-elect Harrison boast that their candidate eats raw beef without salt while the "elegant" Van Buren squanders the people's money raising raspberries, strawberries, celery, and cauliflower for the White House table.
Carling Brewing and Malting Co. is founded by London, Ontario, brewer Thomas Carling (see Labatt, 1847).
Afternoon tea is introduced by Anna, wife of the 7th duke of Bedford (see 1839). British breakfasts are large, lunches sketchy, and dinner not served until 8 o'clock, so people are hungry by late afternoon; the tea interval will become a lasting tradition, but the English still drink more coffee than tea (see 1850; 1869).
Durgin-Park's Market Dining Room opens upstairs in a warehouse in Boston's North Market Street, near the Faneuil and Quincy markets, where the restaurant will continue for more than 159 years (date approximate; Durgin-Park's will not be listed in the Boston Directory until 1874). Its surly waitresses serve chowder, broiled lobster, tripe, venison, bear steak, fried cod tongues, New England boiled dinner, Indian pudding, apple pandowdy, pies, and other specialities at communal tables that seat 10 or 15 patrons each (market men in white coats and straw hats sit side by side with the other patrons).
Antoine's restaurant has its beginnings in the Pension Alciatore founded by French-born chef Antoine Alciatore, 27, in St. Louis Street in the French quarter of New Orleans.
Ireland's population reaches 9 million, up from 1.5 million in 1760—a 600 percent increase in 80 years made possible almost entirely by consumption of potatoes (production of bread grains would support at best only 5 million, partly because worldwide shortages of grain keep prices at levels that few Irishmen can afford) (see agriculture, 1641; 1842).
Some 207,000 Irish and 76,000 English emigrants leave for the United States.
New York is a city of more than 312,000, up from fewer than 124,000 in 1820; the U.S. population remains 90 percent rural, and most of Manhattan Island is still farmland.
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