1851

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century – 19th century – 20th century
Decades:	1820s  1830s  1840s  – 1850s –   1860s   1870s   1880s
Years:	1848 1849 1850 – 1851 – 1852 1853 1854

1851 in topic:

Humanities

Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Literature – Music

By country

Australia – Canada – France – Germany – Mexico – Philippines – South Africa – US – UK

Other topics

Rail Transport – Science – Sports

Lists of leaders

Colonial Governors – State leaders

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1851 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1851 MDCCCLI
Ab urbe condita	2604
Armenian calendar	1300 ԹՎ ՌՅ
Assyrian calendar	6601
Bahá'í calendar	7–8
Bengali calendar	1258
Berber calendar	2801
British Regnal year	14 Vict. 1 – 15 Vict. 1
Buddhist calendar	2395
Burmese calendar	1213
Byzantine calendar	7359–7360
Chinese calendar	庚戌年十一月廿九日 (4487/4547-11-29) — to — 辛亥年十一月初十日 (4488/4548-11-10)
Coptic calendar	1567–1568
Ethiopian calendar	1843–1844
Hebrew calendar	5611–5612
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1907–1908
- Shaka Samvat	1773–1774
- Kali Yuga	4952–4953
Holocene calendar	11851
Igbo calendar
- Ǹrí Ìgbò	851–852
Iranian calendar	1229–1230
Islamic calendar	1267–1268
Japanese calendar	Kaei 4 (嘉永4年)
Juche calendar	N/A (before 1912)
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 12 days
Korean calendar	4184
Minguo calendar	61 before ROC 民前61年
Thai solar calendar	2394

1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar).

Events

January–March

• January 11 – Taiping Rebellion: Hong Xiuquan officially begins the Taiping Rebellion.
• January 15 – Christian Female College, now Columbia College, receives its charter from the Missouri General Assembly.
• January 23 – The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in the Oregon Territory is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.
• January 28 – Northwestern University is founded.
• February 12 – Edward Hargraves claims to have found gold in Australia.
• February 15 – In Boston, Massachusetts, members of the anti-slavery Boston Vigilance Committee rescue fugitive slave Shadrach Minkins from a courtroom following his arrest by US marshals.
• March 1 – Victor Hugo uses the phrase United States of Europe in a speech to the French National Assembly.
• March 11 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto is first performed at La Fenice in Venice.
• March 27 – The first white men reportedly see Yosemite Valley.
• March 30 – A population census is taken in the United Kingdom.

April–June

• April 9 – San Luis, the oldest permanent settlement in the state of Colorado, is founded by settlers from Taos, New Mexico.
• April 20 – Ramón Castilla loses power in Peru.
• April 21 – John Stuart Mill marries Harriet Taylor.
• April 28 – Santa Clara College is chartered in Santa Clara, California.
• May 1 – The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London is opened by Queen Victoria (it runs until October 18).
• May 15
  • Alpha Delta Pi Sorority, the first secret society for women, is founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.
  • Mongkut (Rama IV) is crowned King of Siam at the Grand Palace in Bangkok.
• Mid-May to mid-July – The Great Flood of 1851: extensive flooding across Midwest U.S., town of Des Moines virtually washed away, many rainfall records hold for 160 years.

• June 21 The immortal game, a famous chess game, is played.

July–September

• July 1
  • The Colony of Victoria separates from New South Wales.
  • Serial poisoner Hélène Jégado is arrested in Rennes, France.
• July 10 – The University of the Pacific is chartered as California Wesleyan College in Santa Clara, California.
• July 29 – Annibale de Gasparis, in Naples, Italy discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
• August 1 – Virginia closes its Reform Constitutional Convention deciding that all white men have the right to vote.
• August 22 – The yacht America wins the first America's Cup race.
• September 15 – Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• September 18 – The New York Times is founded.
• September 30 – The Fregatten Eugenies (or the Frigate Eugenie) leaves from Karlskrona, Sweden to begin its voyage as the first Swedish Royal Navy vessel to circumnavigate the world.

October–December

• October – The Reuters news service is founded.
• October 15 – The City of Winona, Minnesota is founded.
• October 18 – The Great Exhibition in London is closed.
• October 24 – Ariel and Umbriel, moons of Uranus, are discovered by William Lassell.
• November 13
  • The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what later becomes Seattle, Washington.
  • First protected submarine telegraph cable laid, across the English Channel.
• November 14 – Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick; or The Whale is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York, after being first published on October 18 in London by Richard Bentley, in 3 volumes as The Whale.
• December 2 – In what amounts to a coup, Louis Napoleon, president of France, dissolves the French National Assembly and declares a new constitution to extend his term. A year later he declares himself as Emperor Napoleon III, ending the Second Republic.
• December 6 – The trial of Hélène Jégado begins; she is eventually sentenced to death and executed by guillotine.
• December 9 – The first YMCA (1844) in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
• December 24 – The Library of Congress burns.
• December 26– December 27 – A Royal Navy warship bombards Lagos Island; Oba Kosoko is wounded and flees to Epe.

Date unknown

• St. Paul's College, Hong Kong is founded.
• Western Union is founded.
• The population of Britain reaches 21 million. 6.3 million live in cities of 20,000 or more in England and Wales and cities of 20,000 or more account for 35% of the total English population.

Births

January–June

• January 17 – A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)
• January 19 – Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)
• February 8 – Kate Chopin, American writer (d. 1904)
• February 13 – Joseph B. Murdock, United States Navy admiral and New Hampshire politician (d. 1931)
• March 14 – John Sebastian Little, American politician and congressman (d. 1916)
• March 18 – Julien Dupré, Fench artist (d. 1910)
• March 19 – William Henry Stark, business leader (d. 1936)
• March 27 – Vincent d'Indy, French composer and teacher (d. 1931)
• March 28 – Bernardino Machado, Portuguese President (d. 1944)
• April 13 – Robert Abbe, American surgeon (d. 1928)
• April 17 – Madre Teresa Nuzzo, foundress of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart (d. 1923)
• April 20 – Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (d. 1875)
• April 21 – Charles Barrois, French geologist (d. 1939)
• May 5 – Matthew Kapelewski, Polish-American poet and novelist (d. 1883)
• May 6 – Aristide Bruant, French cabaret singer and comedian (d. 1925)
• May 20 – Emil Berliner, telephone and recording pioneer (d. 1929)
• May 21 – Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1925)
• June 13 – Anton Haus, Austro-Hungarian admiral (d. 1917)
• June 21 – Frederick Green (footballer), English Footballer (d. 1928)

July–December

• June 16 – Georg Jellinek, German legal philosopher (d. 1911)
• July 8 – Arthur Evans, British archaeologist (d. 1941)
• July 15 – Eduardo Gutiérrez, Argentinian author (d. 1889)
• July 20 – Arnold Pick, Czechoslovakian neurologist and psychiatrist (d. 1924)
• July 24 – Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (d. 1935)
• August 14 – Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter (d. 1887)
• September 7 – David King Udall, American politician (d. 1938)
• September 14 – H.E. Beunke, Dutch writer (d. 1925)
• September 16 – Eduard Reuss, German composer and music biographer (d. 1911)
• September 29 – Hardwicke Rawnsley, English clergyman, poet, writer of hymns and conservationist (d. 1920)
• October 2 – Ferdinand Foch, French commander of Allied forces in World War I (d. 1929)
• October 20 – George Gandy, American entrepreneur (d. 1946)
• November 10 – Richard Armstedt, German historian (d. 1931)
• November 16 – William Elbridge Sewell, American naval officer and Governor of Guam (d. 1904)
• December 10 – Melvil Dewey, American librarian, inventor of Dewey Decimal Classification (d. 1931)
• December 20 – Dora Montefiore, English suffragist and socialist (d. 1933)
• December 30 – Asa Griggs Candler, American businessman and politician (d. 1929)

Date unknown

• John Robert Sitlington Sterrett, American classical scholar and archeologist (d. 1914)

Deaths

January–June

• January 10 – Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian field marshal (b. 1775)
• January 19 – Esteban Echeverría, Argentine poet and writer (b. 1805)
• January 23 – Archibald Primrose, Lord Dalmeny, Scottish politician (b. 1809)
• January 27 – John James Audubon, French-American naturalist and illustrator (b. 1785)
• January 31 – David Spangler Kaufman, Congressman from Texas (b. 1813)
• February 1 – Mary Shelley, English author (b. 1797)
• February 3 – Benjamin Williams Crowninshield, Congressman from Massachusetts secretary of U.S. Navy (b. 1772)
• February 18 – Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)
• February 23 – Joanna Baillie, Scottish poetess and dramatist (b. 1762)
• February 28 – Guillaume Dode de la Brunerie, Marshal of France (b. 1775)
• March 9 – Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish scientist (b. 1777)
• May 13 – Princess Augusta of Bavaria, Duchess of Leuchtenberg (b. 1788)
• May 22 – Mordecai Manuel Noah, American writer, journalist (b. 1785)

July–December

• July 10 – Louis Daguerre, French artist and chemist (b. 1787)
• July 17 – Roger Sheaffe, British General
• August 8 – James Shudi Broadwood, piano manufacturer (b. 1772)
• August 24 – James McDowell, American politician (b. 1795)
• September 10 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, American educator (b. 1787)
• September 11 – Sylvester Graham, American nutritionist and inventor (b. 1794)
• September 14 – James Fenimore Cooper, American writer (b. 1789)
• October 4 – Manuel de Godoy, Spanish statesman (b. 1767)
• October 19 – Marie Thérèse Charlotte (b. 1778)
• November 26 – Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult, French marshal and politician (b. 1769)
• December 19 – Joseph Mallord William Turner, English artist (b. 1775)

Date unknown

• John Brown Russwurm, American abolitionist (b. 1799)