1849

Events

January–March

• January 1 – France begins issue of the Ceres series, the nation's first postage stamps.
• January 5 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Austrian army, led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, enters in the Hungarian capitals, Buda and Pest. The Hungarian government and parliament flee to Debrecen.
• January 8 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Romanian armed groups massacre 600 unarmed Hungarian civilians, at Nagyenyed.
• January 13
• * Second Anglo-Sikh War – Battle of Tooele: British forces retreat from the Sikhs.
• * The Colony of Vancouver Island is established.
• January 21
• * General elections are held in the Papal States.
• * Hungarian Revolution of 1848: At Nagyszeben – The Hungarian army in Transylvania, led by Josef Bem, is defeated by the Austrians, led by Anton Puchner.
• January 23 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor.
• January 27
• * The Fayetteville and Western Plank Road Company is incorporated, to build a plank road from Fayetteville to Bethania, North Carolina.
• * The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the North Carolina Railroad, to complete a rail line from Goldsboro through Raleigh, and Salisbury to Charlotte.
• February 1 – The abolition of the Corn Laws by the United Kingdom's Importation Act 1846 comes fully into effect.
• February 4 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Battle of Vízakna – The Austrian army, led by Anton Puchner, defeats the Hungarians, led by general Josef Bem.
• February 5 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian revolutionary army, led by Richard Guyon, breaks through the pass of Branyiszkó, defeating the Austrian defenders.
• February 8 – The short-lived Roman Republic is proclaimed.
• February 9 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Battle of Piski – Josef Bem's Hungarian army defeats Anton Puchner.
• February 14 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
• February 21 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Gujrat – Forces of the British East India Company defeat those of the Sikh Empire in Punjab.
• February 27 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Battle of Kápolna – The Austrians defeat the Hungarians.
• February 28 – Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins, with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay. The California leaves New York Harbor on October 6, 1848, rounds Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrives at San Francisco after the 4-month, 21-day journey.
• March 3
• * The United States Department of the Interior is established, incorporating the Census Office, United States General Land Office, Office of Indian Affairs and Patent and Trademark Office.
• * Minnesota becomes a United States territory.
• * The United States Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of two additional denominations of gold coins, the gold dollar and the double eagle.
• March 4 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Habsburg emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria promulgates at Olomouc the March Constitution of Austria, which abolishes the April Laws promulgated by the Hungarian Batthyány-govern, and degrades Hungary to a simple Austrian province.
• March 5 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Second Battle of Szolnok – The Hungarians led by János Damjanich and Károly Vécsey defeat the Austrians.
• March 11 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian army of Transylvania, under general Josef Bem, defeats the Russian-Austrian army at Second Battle of Nagyszeben, capturing the city which is the headquarters of Austrian general Anton Puchner. Most of Transylvania is liberated from the Austrian rule. The Austrian and the Russian troops flee to Wallachia.
• March 23 – First Italian War of Independence: Battle of Novara – The Kingdom of Sardinia suffers a huge defeat after a two day battle, and King Charles Albert of Sardinia abdicates.
• March 28
• * Four Christians are ordered to be burnt alive in Antananarivo, Madagascar, by Queen Ranavalona I; 14 others are executed.
• * The Frankfurt National Assembly adopts the Frankfurt Constitution, providing for a constitutional monarchy for Germany under a hereditary emperor and with a two-chamber parliament.
• March 29
• *The Second Anglo-Sikh War ends, with the United Kingdom annexing the Punjab.
• *Maharaja Duleep Singh is exiled to England.
• March – The Frankfurt Parliament completes its drafting of a liberal constitution, and elects Frederick William IV emperor of the new German national state.

  April–June

• April 1
• * After 10 days, the insurrection in Brescia is ended by Austrian troops.
• * Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian Revolutionary Army, under the leadership of Arthur Görgey, starts the victorious Spring Campaign, which leads to the liberation of much of Hungary from the Austrian forces.
• April 2
• * The German revolutions of 1848–49 end in failure, as King Frederick William IV of Prussia refuses to accept the offer of the Frankfurt National Assembly, to be crowned as German emperor.
• * Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Hatvan: The Hungarian revolutionary army, under the command of András Gáspár, defeats the Austrians, led by general Franz Schlik.
• April 4 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Tápióbicske: Hungarian forces, under the generals György Klapka and János Damjanich, defeat the Austrian-Croatian army, led by Franz Schlik and Josip Jelačić.
• April 6 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Isaszeg: The main Hungarian forces, led by Arthur Görgey, defeat the main imperial forces, led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, forcing them to retreat westward.
• April 10 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Vác: The Hungarians, led by János Damjanich, defeat the Austrians, led by Christian Götz, who dies after the battle due to his injuries.
• April 12
• * Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Because of his series of defeats suffered from the Hungarian army, Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz is released from the supreme command of the Austrian forces in Hungary, and replaced by Ludwig von Welden.
• * Astronomer Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid 10 Hygiea.
• April 14 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian revolutionary parliament in Debrecen declares independence from the Habsburg Empire.
• April 19 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Nagysalló: The Hungarian revolutionary army, led by György Klapka and János Damjanich, defeat the Austrian army, led by Lt. Gen. Ludwig von Wohlgemuth.
• April 21
• * Great Famine : 96 inmates of the overcrowded Ballinrobe Union Workhouse died over the course of the preceding week from illness and other famine-related conditions, a record high.
• * The Austrian government asks Russian help against the Hungarian Revolution. Tsar Nicholas I of Russia agrees to send troops against Hungary.
• April 22 – The first Kennedy arrives in America.
• April 25 – James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, the Governor General of Canada, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
• April 26 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Komárom: Hungarian forces relieve the city and castle with the same name from a long Austrian siege. The Austrian imperial forces and their Croatian, Romanian and Serbian allies are chased out from Hungary, or near the borders of the country.
• April 27 – Giuseppe Garibaldi enters Rome, to defend it from the French troops of General Charles Oudinot.
• May – The Second Carlist War ends in Spain.
• May 2 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: A new independent Hungarian government, led by Bertalan Szemere, is formed. The head of state of Hungary becomes Lajos Kossuth, as governor president.
• May 3
• * The May Uprising in Dresden, last of the German revolutions of 1848–49, begins. Richard Wagner is among the participants.
• * The Mississippi River levee at Sauvé's Crevasse breaks, flooding much of New Orleans.
• May 9 – The May Uprising in Dresden is suppressed by the Kingdom of Saxony.
• May 10 – The Astor Place Riot takes place in Manhattan, over a dispute between two Shakespearean actors; over 20 people are killed when troops fire on the rioters.
• May 15 – Troops of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies take Palermo, and crush the republican government of Sicily.
• May 17 – The St. Louis Fire starts when a steamboat catches fire and nearly burns down the entire city.
• May 21 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian army, led by Arthur Görgey, captures the Castle of Buda, liberating the Hungarian capital city completely. The leader of the defending Austrian forces, General Heinrich Hentzi, dies because of his injuries. The Hungarian government moves back from Debrecen to Budapest.
• May 30 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Julius Jacob von Haynau replaces Ludwig von Welden as leader of the Austrian forces in Hungary, because of the failure of the latter to stop the advance of the Hungarian forces.
• June 5
• * Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy.
• * Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The first Russian troops, led by Lieutenant General Fyodor Sergeyevich Panyutin, who come in the aid of the Habsburgs, cross the Hungarian border at Pozsony, in order to crush the Hungarian revolution.
• June 6 – The settlement of Fort Worth, Texas, is founded.
• June 17 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The main Russian forces, led by Ivan Paskevich, cross the Hungarian border, and together with the Austrian troops, led by Julius Jacob von Haynau, start the final attack against the Hungarian Revolution. Now the Hungarian revolutionary troops, numbering 173,000 soldiers, which even before the Russian attack were in inferiority regarding their numbers, and the quality of their weapons and war industry, face a force of 370,000 Austro-Russian forces, and other tens of thousands of Croatian, Serbian and Romanian insurgents, who serve the Habsburg imperial interests.
• June 18 – The Stuttgart Rump Parliament, made up of the remaining 154 mostly democratic and republican deputies of the Frankfurt National Assembly who moved there in early June, is dissolved by Württemberg military. Most of the liberal and conservative deputies of the National Assembly had already laid down their mandates in May under pressure of the Austrian and Prussian governments.
• June 20 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Russian troops, under the command of Alexander von Lüders, break in Transylvania, and, together with the Austrian forces, start to operate against the Hungarian troops, led by Józef Bem.
• June 21 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Russo-Austrian army, led by Julius Jacob von Haynau, defeats the Hungarians under the command of Arthur Görgey in the Battle of Pered.
• June 28 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Austrian army, led by Julius Jacob von Haynau, defeats the Hungarians, led by Ernő Poeltenberg, in the Battle of Győr. The Hungarian army is forced to retreat towards Budapest.