| January 2 | Wagner's opera "Der Fliegende Hollander" premieres, Dresden |
| January 4 | Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Don Pasquale," premieres in Paris |
| January 4 | Royal Academy (Technical Hague court) Delft opens |
| February 2 | U.S. and British settlers in Oregon Country choose government committee |
| February 11 | Opera "I Lombardi," premieres in Milan |
| March 3 | Congress appropriates $30,000 "to test the practicability of establishing a system of electro-magnetic telegraphs" by the US |
| March 7 | 1st Catholic governor in U.S., Edward Kavanagh of Maine, takes office |
| March 14 | Boston conducts its 1st town meeting (Faneuil Hall) |
| March 21 | Preacher William Miller of Mass predicts the world will end today |
| May 4 | Great Britain annexes Natal |
| May 18 | United Free Church of Scotland forms |
| May 22 | 1st wagon train, 1000+ depart Independence Missouri for Oregon |
| June 1 | It snows in Buffalo and Rochester New York and Cleveland Ohio |
| June 1 | Sojourner Truth leaves New York to begin her career as antislavery activist |
| June 24 | Vincenzo Soliva decrees no Jew can live outside of ghetto in Italy |
| June 26 | Hong Kong proclaimed a British Crown Colony |
| July 2 | An alligator falls from sky during a Charleston South Carolina thunderstorm |
| July 5 | Committee of 9 appointed to establish civil government in Oregon Country |
| July 12 | Mormon leader Joseph Smith say God OKs polygamy |
| August 8 | Natal (in South Africa) is made a British colony |
| August 15 | National black convention meets (Buffalo New York) |
| August 15 | Tivoli Park in Copenhagen opens |
| August 26 | Charles Thurber patents a typewriter |
| August 30 | 1st blacks participation in national political convention (Liberty Party) |
| August 31 | Liberty Party nominates James Birneyas presidential candidate |
| October 13 | B'nai B'rith founded (NY) |
| October 14 | British arrest Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell for conspiracy |
| October 20 | 1st Chinese immigrant arrives in Suriname |
| November 13 | Mount Rainier in Washington State erupts |
| November 27 | Opera "Bohemian Girl" is produced (London) |
| December 1 | 1st chartered mutual life insurance company opens |
| December 4 | Manila paper (made from sails, canvas and rope) patented, Mass |
| December 4 | Robert Schumann's "Das Paradies und die Peri," premieres in Leipzig |
| December 6 | Amsterdam-Utrecht railway opens |
| December 13 | "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens published, 6,000 copies sold |
| December 19 | Charles Dickens publishes "A Christmas Carol," in England |
| December 25 | 1st theatre matinee (Olympic Theatre, New York City) |
BrainyHistory
