1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850
Austrian troops sent by the new emperor Franz Josef occupy Buda and Pest January 5 to suppress the revolution that began last year. The Hungarian Diet meeting at Debreczen proclaims a republic April 13 and elects Lajos Kossuth "responsible governor-president" (dictator), Kossuth issues a declaration of independence April 19, saying, "The house of Hapsburg-Lorraine, perjured in the sight of God and man, has forfeited the Hungarian throne." Russia's foreign minister Karl Robert Vasilyevich, Graf Nesselrode, restrained Czar Nicholas I from interfering in the French revolution of 1830 and in last year's Hungarian uprising, but he now suggests that St. Petersburg offer its help. Franz Josef accepts the offer, Russian troops under the command of Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich, now 66, invade Hungary June 17, and they hand the Hungarians a decisive defeat August 9 at the Battle of Temesóvár. Kossuth flees to Constantinople August 11, his successor surrenders to Paskevich at Világos August 13, and the victors take bloody reprisals. Nine generals are hanged, four shot.
Russia and Austria demand extradition of the Hungarian refugees, including Kossuth. Constantinople has imprisoned Kossuth and refuses to extradite him, the sultan appeals to Britain for aid, Lord Palmerston promises support, French and British naval forces make a show of force at Besika Bay, but a British squadron that has entered the Dardanelles November 1 to escape bad weather withdraws in response to a Russian protest (see 1853; Crimean War, 1854).
Romans proclaim a republic February 9 with executive power vested in a triumvirate composed of Giuseppe Mazzini and two others (see 1848). Poet-anthem writer Goffredo Mameli has sent Mazzini the summons, "Roma! Republica! Venite!" ("Rome! Republic! Come!") and joined the patriot army of Giuseppe Garibaldi, now 42, who was forced to flee in 1834 for agitating against Austrian rule and lived in Uruguay from 1836 until last year. Marshal Nicolas Oudinot, 58, leads an army of 86,000 French, Spanish, Austrian, Neapolitan, and Tuscan troops against Garibaldi's red-shirted army of 4,700. Garibaldi inflicts heavy losses on the advancing enemy April 30 but he is wounded, as is Goffredo Mameli. Garibaldi launches a costly attack on the French lines June 3 and is forced to evacuate Rome in early July. Mameli is wounded again and dies at Rome July 6 at age 21, the city is returned to Pius IX, Garibaldi narrowly escapes capture in August, and he makes his way to the United States. He will become a naturalized U.S. citizen but return to Italy in 1854 (see 1857).
Sardinia's Charles Albert denounces last year's armistice with Austria under pressure from radical forces, but he fails to find support among the smaller Italian states; a 70,000-man Austrian army commanded by the aged Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky crushes a larger but poorly trained Piedmontese army March 23 in the (second) Battle of Novara 28 miles west of Milan, repeating last year's victory at Custozza, a treaty signed August 9 obliges Piedmont to pay Austria an indemnity of 65 million francs, Charles Albert abdicates, and he is succeeded by his 29-year-old son, who will reign until 1861 as Victor Emmanuel II (see 1861).
Willem II of the Netherlands dies March 17 at age 56 after a 9-year reign. His 32-year-old son will reign until 1890 as Willem III.
Dresden and Baden have revolutions in the spring. Baden lawyers Friedrich (Karl Franz) Hecker, now 37, and Gustav von Struve, now 43, have demanded the elimination of monarchies (see 1848); they have attracted supporters who include von Struve's wife, Amélie Disar, but Hessian troops help Baden authorities suppress the radicals and both Hecker and von Struve flee to Switzerland, whence they will make their way to America. The German Palatinate has a republican uprising in the wake of last year's revolution; Prussian troops help Bavaria's Maximilian II suppress the rebellion, many of whose leaders go into exile, but Maximilian refuses to ally his kingdom with Prussia, makes Ludwig von der Pfordten his chief minister, and adopts a pro-Austrian position.
Portugal's moderate Saldanha government is ousted after 3 years and António da Costa Cabral resumes power, imposing repressive measures that will continue until his overthrow in 1851.
Former governor general of India George Eden, Earl of Auckland, dies at The Grange, near Alresford, Hampshire, January 1 at age 64. British troops commanded by Irish-born General Hugh Gough, Viscount Gough, defeat Sikh forces at Chillianwalla January 13 and administer a decisive defeat at Gujerat February 21 (see 1846), they force the Sikhs to surrender at Rawalpindi, and the British raj annexes the Punjab by treaty (see 1850).
Former French governor general of Algeria Marshal Thomas (-Robert) Bugeaud, marquis de la Piconnerie, duc d'Isly, dies at Paris June 10 at age 64.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules January 3 in the case of Luther v. Borden that it is up to the president and Congress, not the high court, to decide which of Rhode Island's two governments is legitimate (see Dorr's Rebellion, 1842). Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's opinion states that Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution gives the executive and legislative branches of the federal government the power to guarantee republican government in the states and to recognize lawful state governments, but Taney goes on to say that the existing state authority (which opposes Dorr's government in northwestern Rhode Island) is legally empowered to use martial law for the suppression of a violent insurrection.
Outgoing U.S. president James K. Polk leaves the White House for Nashville, Tennessee, March 4 and dies there June 15 at age 53, exhausted by overwork, having extended the borders of the United States to the Pacific and added vast amounts of territory to the republic.
Texas pioneer Haden (or Hayden) Edwards dies at Nacogdoches August 14 at age 78, having engaged in land dealings since his return from Louisiana a few years ago.
New Granada's president Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera leaves office after a 4-year term in which he has obtained the enactment of some reforms. He is succeeded by General José Hilario Lopez, who heads the radical wing of the Liberal Party and will implement further reforms (see human rights, 1850).
Social reformer Henry Hetherington dies of cholera at London August 23 at age 57 and 2,000 people turn out for his burial at Kensal Green cemetery.
Maryland slave Harriet Tubman, 29, escapes to the North and begins a career as "conductor" on the Underground Railway that started sometime before 1838. Tubman will make 19 trips back to the South to free upward of 300 slaves, including her aged parents, whom she will bring North in 1857; she will be injured in New Jersey when a railroad conductor pulls her out of her seat and throws her in the baggage car, but although a $40,000 bounty will be offered for her capture, it will never be collected.
The Mississippi Convention issues a call to all slave-holding states October 1, urging them to send delegates to Nashville to form a united front against what John C. Calhoun calls Northern aggression (see 1850).
California's Native American population falls to 150,000, down from 350,000 in 1769, as a result of disease and mistreatment. The state's governor and legislature want to wipe out the Indians, offer bounties for their removal, and finance militias to assist in their removal: by 1870 only 30,000 will remain, and only 1 percent of the state's population will be Native American.
News of last year's gold discovery at Sutter's Mill brings a rush of 7,000 "Forty-Niners" to California, whose non-Indian population reaches 100,000 by midyear and will jump in the next 7 years from fewer than 20,000 to nearly 300,000 as the gold fields yield $450 million in precious metal.
Mormons en route to the California gold fields discover placer gold in a stream flowing into the Carson River near what later will be the village of Dayton, Nevada. Others will go upstream into what later will be the Virginia Range (see Comstock Lode, 1859).
Huntington & Hopkins supplies California Gold Rush prospectors with clothing, food, and equipment. Oneonta, N.Y.-born storekeeper Collis P. (Potter) Huntington, 28, has given up prospecting after 1 day and joined forces with Mark Hopkins, 36, who has founded the New England Trading and Mining Co. and come around Cape Horn to Sacramento with 26 men (each has put up $500 to capitalize the venture) and a year's supply of stores and equipment. Huntington & Hopkins will open a hardware store at Sacramento in 1854 (see transportation [Central Pacific], 1861).
British textile manufacturer and child labor opponent John Fielden dies at his country estate in Kent May 29 at age 65.
Parliament repeals Britain's Navigation Acts June 26, ending restrictions on foreign shipping. U.S. clipper ships are permitted to bring cargoes of China tea to British ports (see 1850). Many Canadians seek annexation to the United States as economic depression grips their country following repeal of the Navigation Acts.
Russell & Co. head Robert Bennet Forbes goes back to Guangzhou (Canton), having become a major shipowner (see 1840). Now 44, he resumes the company's opium trade and will serve as U.S. and French vice-consul at Guangzhou until 1851.
U.S. commodity prices leap as a result of the California gold discoveries. Workers strike for higher wages in order to live, but wage hikes do not keep pace with rises in the cost of living.
Former secretary of the treasury, diplomat, and National Bank of New York president Albert Gallatin dies at the Astoria, Long Island, home of his daughter Frances Stevens August 12 at age 88 (he is buried in Trinity Church Yard).
France's finance minister Louis-Antoine Garnier-Pagès loses a bid for election to the Legislative Assembly, having alienated voters by pushing through a surcharge on direct taxation and enacting other stringent fiscal measures in the face of a desperate financial situation.
Britain reduces duties on food imports to nominal levels under the law passed in 1846.
Harrods has its beginnings in a London grocery shop at 8 Brompton Road that has been run by Philip Henry Burden. Tea wholesaler Henry Charles Harrod, 49, of Eastcheap takes over the enterprise that will grow to become one of the world's largest department stores (see 1861).
The first successful power dam across the Connecticut River is completed at Holyoke, Massachusetts.
A patent issued March 10 to Easton, New York-born Providence, Rhode Island, inventor George H. (Henry) Corliss, 31, covers his design for a reciprocating steam engine with rotary valves for admitting steam to an engine cylinder and exhausting the steam, with a governor system of levers to regulate the valves (see London Great Exhibition, 1851).
The first gold seekers from the East arrive at San Francisco February 29 aboard the S.S. California, a vessel in the service of the new Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Equipped to accommodate 60 saloon passengers and 150 in steerage, the sidewheeler left New York October 6, stopped at Rio de Janeiro, rounded Cape Horn, stopped at Valparaiso, Callao, and Paita, picked up 70 California-bound Peruvians at Callao, found 1,500 eager would-be passengers when she arrived at Panama in mid-January, left Panama February 1 with 350 passengers, and has proceeded north via Acapulco, San Blas, Mazatlan, San Diego, and Monterey. By year's end 363 schooners have dropped anchor in San Francisco Bay with passengers eager to profit from the Gold Rush.
More than 3,000 ships from 150 foreign ports arrive in New York Harbor, up from about 1,000 in 1835; they carry half of all America's imports and depart with nearly one third of her exports as the city becomes more than ever the leading U.S. center of commerce. By next year there will be 60 docks, piers, slips, and wharves on the East River below 14th Street and at least 50 on the Hudson. Ship tonnages going through the port will rise by another 60 percent in the next 10 years.
Brooklyn merchant-shipowner A. A. Low moves his headquarters to Manhattan, occupying offices at Burling Slip (see commerce, 1844). One of his clipper ships will beat the British competition in the race to London next year, and by the time he retires in 1887 Low will have built up a considerable fortune.
Some 50,000 Forty-Niners pass through St. Joseph, Missouri, whose location at the northern and western terminus of Mississippi and Missouri River steamboat transport makes the town of 3,000 a supply center for Gold Rushers preparing to walk the 2,000 miles to California.
Railroad construction begins across the Isthmus of Panama to facilitate passage to California (see 1848). John Lloyd Stephens of the Pacific Railroad & Panama Steamship Company has handled negotiations with New Granada officials at Bogotá, and he will soon succeed Thomas W. Ludlow as the company's president (see 1850).
The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad reaches Chicago; locomotive number 1, the Pioneer, steams into town in April to begin Chicago's career as America's leading transportation hub. Ten railroad lines will be serving the city by 1869.
The Pennsylvania Railroad incorporated by an act of that state's legislature April 13 aims to construct a 249-mile line between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. The road was chartered 3 years ago, its directors establish the town of Altoona as a base for building tracks over the Alleghenies, its first section opens September 1 with a 61-mile stretch between Harrisburg and Lewistown, trains generally run at about 10 miles per hour, horses are used at times to help the trains up hills, but the Pennsy will grow through acquisition and construction to have some 10,000 miles of track (see 1851).
The B&O Railroad bridge completed across the Ohio River at Wheeling will remain for a few years the world's longest clear-span bridge. Charles Ellet Jr. has designed the 1,010-foot span, its deck hangs from 12 iron cables, it will collapse in a windstorm in 1854, and when it is reconstructed in 1859 it will be reinforced with cast-iron joint fittings and wrought-iron tension rods.
Budapest's Chain Bridge spans the Danube to link the cities of Buda and Pest that will not become one city until 1873.
The Britannia Bridge completed across the Menai Strait in northern Wales carries London-Holyhead trains between Bangor and the Isle of Anglesey. The British Admiralty has barred the use of an arch design because it would prevent passage of sailing ships, William Fairbairn has carried out a series of metalurgical tests, and engineer Robert Stephenson has used the test results to design a pair of completely enclosed iron tubes with rectangular sections, floating them into position, lifting them by capstan and hydraulic power, and supporting the span's center with a pier built on Britannia Rock. Built in less than 4 years, the bridge will be modernized after a fire in 1970 and survive into the 21st century.
The Royal Albert Bridge opened by Prince Albert May 2 has been designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, whose ailing father is taken across on a flatcar to view the accomplishment (it embodies some new technology and many had predicted that it would fail). Built for the broad-gauge Cornwall Railway, the iron bridge 100 feet above tide water will remain in use into the 21st century, crossing the Tamar River at Saltash near Plymouth in Devon to connect Falmouth in Cornwall with the rest of England by means of a 2,200-foot structure that includes two spans of 455 feet each.
Engineer-tunnel builder Sir Marc Isambard Brunel dies at London December 12 at age 80 as his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel, now 43, continues to work at a feverish pace on his various bridges, tunnels, and rail lines.
The minié ball invented by French Army colonel Claude Etienne Minié, 45, is a conically-shaped bullet with a point that expands upon impact, tearing large holes through flesh and organ tissue, shattering bones, and making muskets primitive by comparison. Fired from a Minié rifle, it has an effective range of 400 yards and is lethal, if less controllable, for more than twice that distance (see needle gun, 1848).
A U.S. patent on the world's first repeating rifle is granted to inventor Walter Hunt's partner George Arrowsmith and machinist Lewis Jennings, who have improved on the "Rocket Ball and Volition Repeater" that Hunt has put into production (see Colt revolver, 1846; Henry rifle, 1860).
Inventor Jacob Perkins dies at London July 30 at age 83, having obtained 21 U.S. and 19 British patents. He devised the first successful nail-cutting machine, advanced the art of platemaking for bank notes, obtained the first U.S. patent for a refrigerating machine using sulphuric ether in a closed cycle, and printed 64 million British postage stamps.
French physicist Armand H. L. Fizeau, 30, establishes the speed of light at approximately 186,300 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second.
Trigonometry and Double Algebra by London mathematician-logician Augustus De Morgan suggests the idea of what later will be called quarternions. He takes complex numbers (numbers involving a term with a factor of the square roots of minus one) and gives a geometric interpretation of their properties. Now 43, De Morgan will contribute to mathematical symbolism by suggesting the use of the oblique stroke (solidus) for printing factions, but his greatest contribution will be to investigate thoroughly and express mathematically the laws laid down by William of Ockham in the 14th century.
The first woman M.D. in America graduates at the head of her class at Geneva Medical College at Geneva, New York, January 29. The school's faculty opposed Elizabeth Blackwell's admission, the issue was put up to the students, they voted to admit her, and she has finished the course in 2 years. Now 27, the English-born Blackwell was ostracized by other students. She will play an important role in U.S. medicine, but while women physicians will be prominent in some European countries, they will remain an insignificant minority in U.S. medicine for more than a century (see New York Infirmary, 1857).
Paris physician-microbiologist Casimir J. (Joseph) Davaine, 38, observes microorganisms in the blood of patients suffering certain diseases (see Henle, 1840). His finding is a milestone in the history of bacteriology (see Pasteur, 1861).
A cholera epidemic at London wins support for the Health of Towns Association and its Great Sanitary Movement (see 1842; 1848; water purification, 1829). London clergyman Henry Moule, 48, works indefatigably to aid cholera victims; he will invent a dry-earth system of sewage disposal (see Snow, 1853).
A cholera epidemic spread by Gold Rush emigrants crossing the Texas Panhandle wipes out the leadership of the Comanche tribe, but the Comanche continue to resist white settlement of their lands (see 1875).
A cholera epidemic takes about 5,000 lives at New York as crowding and lack of good sanitation encourage spread of the disease (see 1831; 1854). Drinking water from contaminated wells is responsible for many if not most of the cases, but Manhattan still has a shortage of pure water (see environment, 1842).
Adventist Church founder William Miller dies at Low Hampton, New York, December 20 at age 67.
Queen's College opens at London, providing the first opportunity for British women to receive university-level education in the classics, mathematics, and sport.
Mount Holyoke College founder Mary M. Lyon dies at South Hadley, Massachusetts, March 5 at age 52.
The College of the City of New York (CCNY) has its beginnings in the Free Academy that opens on Lexington Avenue at 23rd Street (the CCNY name will be used beginning in 1866). The tuition-free institution of higher learning will become City University of New York (CUNY) in 1961, having enabled thousands of poor immigrants to attain high positions in their work (see 1976).
The St. Paul Pioneer Press has its beginnings in Minnesota Territory, where the Minnesota Pioneer begins publication. It will merge with the St. Paul Press in 1861.
The Des Moines Register has its beginnings in the Iowa Star, published in July from a log cabin near the junction of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers.
Printer and publisher Henry Hetherington dies of cholera at London August 24 at age 57.
Eberhard Faber pencils have their beginnings as German-born pencil manufacturer John Eberhard Faber, 26, sets up a New York office at 133 William Street to import and market pencils from his family's Bavarian factory, established by his great-grandfather, Kasper Faber, in 1761 (see 1861).
Nonfiction: "Resistance to Civil Government" by philosopher Henry David Thoreau describes the author's overnight imprisonment in 1846 for refusing to pay a poll tax to support the Mexican War that violated his antislavery views. Every citizen has a duty to oppose bad government by acts of passive resistance such as not paying taxes, states Thoreau. He calls the state essentially a malevolent institution and a threat to the individual, and declares, "that government is best which governs least." The essay will be reissued under the title "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" (see Gandhi, 1914); A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Thoreau; The California and Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman, who has lost his eyesight but has embarked on the career of historian (see exploration, 1847); History of Spanish Literature (three volumes) by George Ticknor, who lived in Europe from 1835 to 1838 and has spent 10 years on his study; "Nemesis of Faith" by Oxford deacon James Anthony Froude, 31, who breaks with the Oxford Movement, becomes a skeptic, goes to London, and marries.
Fiction: Shirley by Charlotte Brontë, who describes the Luddite attack on William Cartwright's mill in 1812.
Maria Edgeworth dies at Edgeworthstown, Ireland, May 22 at age 82.
Poetry: Ambarvalia by Arthur Clough; "The Bells" and "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe; "The Ballad of the Tempest, or the Captain's Daughter," by Boston publisher James T. (Thomas) Fields, 32, of Ticknor, Reed & Fields, whose poem will be published in the McGuffey Readers (see 1836; 1837): " 'We are lost!' the captain shouted,/ As he staggered down the stairs./ But his little daughter whispered,/ As she took his icy hand,/ 'Isn't God upon the ocean,/ Just the same as on the land?'"
Edgar Allan Poe is found unconscious in a Baltimore street and taken to a hospital, where he dies October 7 at age 40 after a final spree.
Painting: Rienzi by English pre-Raphaelite painter (William) Holman Hunt, 22; Isabella by John Everett Millais, who last year joined with Dante Gabriel Rosetti and Holman Hunt to form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; After Dinner at Ornans by French naturalist painter (Jean Desiré) Gustave Courbet, 30; Jewish Women on a Balcony by Théodore Chassériau; Plowing with Oxen by French animal painter Rosa Bonheur, 27; Kindred Spirits by New York painter Asher Durand, now 53, who has joined with Thomas Cole in founding the Hudson River (or American) school of landscape painting. Japanese ukiyoe painter Katsushika Hokusai dies at Edo May 10 age 89 after an eccentric life. He has changed his name 33 times, giving the old name each time to a student; Constance Charpentier dies at Paris August 3 at age 82; Edward Hicks at Newton, Pa., August 23 at age 69.
Theater: English actor William C. Macready, now 56, plays Macbeth at New York's Astor Place Opera House May 10; partisans of actor Edwin Forrest, now 43, gather outside, possibly at the instigation of Forrest, who was mistreated at London in 1845. The mob proceeds to wreck the theater, the police are unable to disperse the rioters, the state militia is called in, Macready barely escapes with his life, and the Astor Place riot ends with 22 dead, 36 injured. Edward Z. C. "Ned Buntline" Judson is convicted of having led the riot and sentenced to a year in prison (see 1844; 1854); Herod and Marianne (Herodes und Marianne) by Friedrich Hebbel 4/19 at Vienna's Burgtheater; Genoveva by Hebbel 5/13 at Prague; The Ruby (Der Rubin) by Hebbel 11/21 at Vienna's Burgtheater.
Opera: The Merry Wives of Windsor (Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor) 3/9 at Berlin's Hofoper, with music by Otto Nicolai, libretto from the 1600 Shakespeare comedy; Le Prophète 4/6 at the Paris Grand Opéra, with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer; Luisa Miller 12/8 at the Teatro San Carlos, Naples, with music by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto from Schiller's 1784 play Kabale und Liebe.
Ballet: The Devil's Violin (Le Violon du diable) 1/19 at the Théâtre de l'Opéra, Paris, with Arthur Saint-Léon (who also plays the violin), choreography by Saint-Léon, music by Cesare Pugni.
First performances: Tusso: Lament and Triumph symphonic poem No. 2 by Franz Liszt 8/28 at Weimar's Grand Ducal Playhouse.
Composer-conductor Otto Nicolai dies at Berlin May 11 at age 38; composer-pianist Frédéric Chopin of tuberculosis at Paris October 17 at age 39.
Waltz king Johann Strauss the elder dies of scarlet fever at his native Vienna September 25 at age 45. His son and namesake, 23, broke with his father nearly 5 years ago and began conducting his own orchestra at Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing, delighted Vienna last year with his "Explosions Polka" and "Festival Quadrille," takes over his father's orchestra October 11, and pursues a career that will overshadow that of the elder Strauss.
Popular songs: "Frölicher Landmann" ("Happy Farmer") by Robert Schumann; "Santa Lucia" by Neapolitan songwriter Teodoro Cottrau, 22; "Nelly Was a Lady" by Stephen C. Foster; "Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" by U.S. songwriter George N. Allen, lyrics from an 1839 poem ("The Ocean Burial") by E. H. Chapin.
Hymn: "It Came upon the Midnight Clear" by U.S. composer Richard Storrs Wills, 30, lyrics by Unitarian clergyman-poet Edward H. Sears.
An illegal bareknuckle prizefight on Poole's Island outside Baltimore February 7 pits New York saloonkeeper James "Yankee" Sullivan, now 37, against New York butcher Tim Hyer for a $10,000 prize (see 1841). Wrestling is permitted, and although Hyer outweighs Sullivan by 24 pounds and is three inches taller, Sullivan is favored (bettors across the country have wagered an estimated $300,000 on the match), but Hyer is 6 years younger, has a longer reach, lands punches at will, and the bloody fight ends in the 16th round after just 17 minutes. Hyer will hold the heavyweight title until he retires in 1851 (see 1851).
A safety pin patented April 10 by New York sewing machine inventor Walter Hunt will gain wide popularity, but Hunt, now 53, needs $15 to discharge a debt and sells rights to patent No. 6,281 for $400 (see 1832; paper collar, 1854).
The bowler hat (derby) is introduced by London felt-hat makers Thomas Bowler, Ltd., of Southward Bridge Road, who made the hat to fill an order placed by the 172-year old firm James Lock Company of St. James for their customer William Coke of Holkham, Norfolk, who wants protection from low overhanging branches while out shooting. His hard shellacked derby headgear will become popular with foxhunters and businessmen.
Boston physician and real-estate speculator George Parkman, 60, leaves his Beacon Hill house at 9 Walnut Street November 29 and is not seen again. A $3,000 reward is offered for information as to his whereabouts, the city's newly-organized police force picks up an Irishman who has tried to pay a bridge toll with a $20 bill (where would an Irishman get $20?), Harvard Medical College janitor Ephraim Littlefield gets suspicious when chemistry professor John W. (White) Webster gives him money to buy a Thanksgiving turkey for his family (Webster has never given him anything before in Littlefield's 7 years with the school), but when police search the building they find nothing. Littlefield conducts his own search December 4, using a trapdoor in the basement to enter a crawl space and then breaking into a sealed-off privy vault where he finds a dismembered human pelvis, right thigh, and lower left leg. Police are called in and now discover more body parts—notably what is purported to be Parkman's distinctive jawbone—secreted in various parts of the medical college. Webster is charged with first-degree murder, the state saying that Parkman visited Webster November 29 and dunned him for repayment of a long-standing loan, Webster had no way of paying, a fight ensued, Parkman was knocked out, and Webster allegedly dismembered his body (see 1850).
The first modular prefabricated cast iron and glass "curtain wall" buildings are erected in New York at the corner of Washington and Murray Streets by former watchmaker and inventor James Bogardus, 49, who has designed them on commission from local merchant Edgar H. Laing. The columns and spandrels that make up their façades are simply bolted together, with the bolt heads covered by cast iron rosettes and other decorative ornaments. Bogardus will obtain a patent next year to cover his revolutionary invention, and prefabricated buildings will soon go up all over Manhattan and at Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, and other cities as well (see department store, 1862).
Reinforced concrete containing iron bars is patented by French inventor Joseph Monier, 26. It will permit construction of taller buildings, bigger dams, and other structures not heretofore possible, but no reinforced concrete building of more than two stories will be erected for 54 years (see Cincinnati, 1903; Otis, 1852).
Moscow's Kremlin Palace is completed after 11 years of construction.
A U.S. Department of the Interior that will eventually serve as custodian for the nation's natural resources is created March 5 by act of Congress; former secretary of the treasury Thomas Ewing, 59, takes office as secretary of the interior in President Taylor's new administration. The U.S. Patent Office established in 1790 is transferred from the State Department to Interior, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs established in 1834 in the War Department is also moved to Interior, which for years will serve merely as general housekeeper for the government.
Toronto has a disastrous fire April 7 that destroys some 15 acres of the city's downtown area, including St. James' Cathedral, the St. Lawrence Market, and scores of offices, stores, and warehouses. London-born architect Frederick Cumberland, 28, designs many of the buildings that will go up to make Toronto bigger than ever.
Henry David Thoreau laments what dam builders are doing to the shad, a fish "formerly abundant here and taken in weirs by the Indians, who taught this method to the whites by whom they were used as food and as manure" (see Tisquantum, 1621). The shad are disappearing, says Thoreau, as "the dam, and afterward the canal at Billerica and the factories at Lowell, put an end to their migrations hitherward" (see 1858).
Gorton's of Gloucester has its beginnings in the Gloucester, Massachusetts, firm John Pew & Son founded by local fish packer Pew, 42 (see Gorton, 1868).
Thousands of U.S. farmers buy $100 McCormick reapers after being deserted by workers gone to California for the Gold Rush (see 1848). McCormick has stocked warehouses throughout the upper Mississippi Valley to meet the demand; guaranteeing his reapers, he lets farmers buy them on an installment plan geared to harvest conditions, never sues a farmer for payment, but pays his factory workers small wages for long hours of labor (see 1850).
Canada's Massey-Harris farm equipment company has its beginnings in a foundry and factory started by Ontario farmer Daniel Massey, 41, to make implements for his neighbors. His son Hart (Almerin) Massey will take over the plant at Bond Head on Lake Ontario in 1855. It will be renamed Massey Manufacturing Co. in 1870 (see 1890).
Basque shepherds from Argentina and Uruguay flock to California in quest of gold. Many will later become sheepherders on the western range.
Henderson Lewelling takes his first crop of Oregon apples to San Francisco and sells all 100 of them at $5 apiece to prospectors hungry for fresh fruit (see 1847).
British authorities in the west of Ireland evict 16,500 families from their land, up from 9,500 last year. They will evict 20,000 families next year and 13,000 in 1851, making vast tracts available for landlords to raise cattle and sheep instead of having it used for small, inefficient potato patches (see Irish Land League, 1879).
Some 10,000 California gold-seekers will die of scurvy in the next few years. More thousands will avoid scurvy by eating winter purslane (Montia perfoliata), an herb that will be called miner's lettuce.
Gail Borden invents a "meat biscuit" to provide a portable food for friends leaving in July for California (see 1848). He will invest 6 years and $60,000 into developing and promoting the "meat biscuit," made of concentrated meat extract baked with flour (see 1851).
Fully 1 percent of the entire U.S. population will move to California in the next 5 years as young men seek their fortunes in the gold fields.
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