1850
| File:Decade.png ( 1850s: ) 1850 link | |
|---|---|
.jpg) US President Zachary Taylor dies a few months after his inauguration, most probably poisoned with arsenic by pro-slavery Southerners. | |
| year 1850 |
Events
- January 29 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the United States Congress.
- April 19 – The Clayton–Bulwer Treaty is signed by the United States and Great Britain, allowing both countries to share Nicaragua, and not claim complete control over the proposed Nicaragua Canal.
- June 1 – The transportation of British convicts to Western Australia begins, as the transportation of British convicts to other parts of Australia is phased out, when the ship Scindian arrives in Fremantle, with 75 male prisoners.
- June 1 – The 1850 United States Census shows that 11.2% of the population classed as "Negro" are of mixed race.
- July – Taiping Rebellion: Hong Xiuquan orders the general mobilisation of rebel forces in China.
- July 9 – Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad, known as the Báb, is executed by a firing squad in Tabriz, Persia, for claiming to be a prophet.
- July 9 – Vice President Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th President of the United States upon the death of President Zachary Taylor, aged 65.
- July 10 – Inauguration of Millard Fillmore: U.S. President Fillmore is sworn in.
- September 4 – The Eusébio de Queirós Law is passed in the Brazilian Empire to abolish the international slave trade.
- September 18 – The Fugitive Slave Law is passed by the United States Congress.
- September 18 – Harriet Tubman becomes an official conductor of the Underground Railroad.
- November &ndash Taiping Rebellion: The first clashes of the Taiping Rebellion occur, between the Imperialist militia and the Heavenly Army.
- November 29 – The treaty known as the Punctation of Olmütz is signed in Olomouc. It means diplomatic capitulation of Prussia to the Austrian Empire, which takes over the leadership of the German Confederation.
Date unknown
- Allan Pinkerton forms the North-Western Police Agency, later the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, in the United States.
- Mayer Lehman arrives from Germany to join his siblings in Lehman Brothers dry-goods business (predecessor of the bank) in Montgomery, Alabama.
- The city of Manchester, England reaches 400,000 inhabitants.
- From this year until 1880, 144,000 East Indian laborers go to Trinidad and 39,000 to Jamaica.
- Ongoing – Great Famine (Ireland) subsides.<ref>