1851

'1851' ('MDCCCLI') was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Monday
^[1]
of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar).

Contents

Events of 1851

January - March

April - June

July - September

October - December

Undated

Ongoing events

Births

January - June

July - December

Deaths

January - June

July - December

Notes

Events of 1851

January - March

★ January 11 - Taiping Rebellion: Hong Xiuquan officially begins the Taiping Rebellion.

★ 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.

★ 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 - First reported case of white men seeing Yosemite Valley.

★ March 30 - A population census is taken in the United Kingdom.

April - June

★ 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, founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.

★
★ Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.

July - September

★ July - The immortal game, a famous chess game, is played.

★ July 1

★
★ Colony of Victoria separates from New South Wales.

★
★
★ Serial poisoner Helene Jegado is arrested in Rennes, France

★ July 10 - 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 5 - Mount Pelee erupts and kills 30 people.

★ 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) left from Karlskrona, Sweden to begin its voyage as the first Swedish Royal Navy vessel to circumnavigate the world.

October - December

★ October - Reuters news service founded.

★ October 18 - The Great Exhibition in London is closed.

★ October 24 - Ariel and Umbriel, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Lassell.

★ November 13 - The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what will become Seattle, Washington.

★ November 14 - Herman Melville's novel ''Moby-Dick; or The Whale'' is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York - after it was first published, on October 18 in London by Richard Bentley, in 3 volumes as ''The Whale''.

★ December 2 - Louis Napoleon, president of France, dissolves French National Assembly and declares a new constitution to extend his term. Later he declares himself as an emperor Napoleon III. End of the Second Republic.

★ December 6 - Trial of Helene Jegado 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 26-27 - Royal Navy warship bombards Lagos island; Oba Kosoko is wounded and flees to Epe.

★ December 29 - The first Boston YMCA opens (in Massachusetts).

Undated

★ Florida State University is founded.

★ Gold discovered in Australia by Edward Hargraves

★ Northwestern University is founded.

★ St. Paul's College, Hong Kong is founded.

★ Macy's department store founded by R.H. Macy.

★ A powerful explosion on the sun caused copper wires to burn off in some countries.

Ongoing events

★ Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864)

Births

January - June

★ January 17 - A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)

★ January 19 - Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)

★ January 21 - Reinhard Hetze, Argentinian religious pioneer (d. 1939)

★ February 8 - Kate Chopin, American writer (d. 1904)

★ 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 20 - Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (d. 1875)

★ April 21 - Charles Barrois, French geologist (d. 1939)

★ 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)

July - December

★ June 16 - Georg Jellinek, German legal philosopher(d. 1911)

★ 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)

★ October 2 - Ferdinand Foch, French commander of allied forces in World War I (d. 1929)

★ December 20 - Dora Montefiore, English suffragist and socialist (d. 1933)

★ December 30 - Asa Griggs Candler, American businessman and politician (d. 1929)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

January - June

★ January 10 - Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian field marshal (b. 1775)

★ 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 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)

July - December

★ 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, Abolitionist (b. 1799)
: ''See also .''

Notes

1.
"Calendar in year 1851 (Russia)" (Julian calendar, starting Tuesday), webpage:
Julian-1851
(Russia used the Julian calendar until 1919).