1849 in the United States

::Zachary Taylor (W-Kentucky) (starting March 4) - Vice President: ::George M. Dallas (D-Pennsylvania) (until March 4) ::Millard Fillmore (W-New York) (starting March 4) - Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland) - Speaker of the House of Representatives: ::Robert Charles Winthrop (W-Massachusetts) (until March 4) ::Howell Cobb (D-Georgia) (starting December 22) - Congress: [30th](30th-united-states-congress) (until March 4), [31st](31st-united-states-congress) (starting March 4) #### State governments ::data[format=table] | Governors and lieutenant governors | |---| | | :: ## Events ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Zachary_Taylor_2.jpg" caption="March 4: [[Zachary Taylor]] becomes the 12th U.S. president"] :: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Millard_Fillmore_crop.jpg" caption="[[Millard Fillmore]] becomes the 12th U.S. vice president"] :: - 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 14 – James Knox Polk becomes the first sitting president of the United States to have his photograph taken, in New York City. - February 28 – Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the 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, California after a 4-month-21-day journey. - March 3 - Minnesota Territory is established. - The United States Department of the Interior is established. - The U.S. Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of gold coins. - March 4 – Zachary Taylor becomes the 12th president of the United States, and Millard Fillmore becomes the 12th vice president, but both refuse to be sworn in office on a Sabbath (Sunday). Urban legend holds that David Rice Atchison, President pro tempore of the United States Senate is President *de jure* for a single day. - March 5 – President Zachary Taylor and Vice President Millard Fillmore are sworn into office. - May 3 – The Mississippi River levee at Sauvé's Crevasse breaks, flooding much of New Orleans, Louisiana. - May 10 – Astor Place Riot occurs in Manhattan. - May 22 – Future President Abraham Lincoln receives a patent, for a device designed to lift boats over river obstructions. - June 6 – Fort Worth, Texas is founded. - August 6 – Henry W. Collier is [elected](1849-alabama-gubernatorial-election) the 14th governor of Alabama. - September 1 – The first segment of the Pennsylvania Railroad, from Lewistown, Pennsylvania to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, opens for service. - September 17 – Harriet Tubman emancipates herself. - November – Austin College receives a charter in Huntsville. - November 13 – The Constitution of California is ratified by the electorate. - December 4 – President Zachary Taylor delivers his State of the Union Address, advocating for California and New Mexico to be admitted as free states. - Undated – Pfizer is founded by cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as a manufacturer of fine chemicals. ### Continuing - California Gold Rush (January 24, 1848–1855) ## Births - January 12 – Murphy J. Foster, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1901 to 1913 (died [1921](1921-in-the-united-states)) - January 29 – Newton C. Blanchard, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1894 to 1897 (died [1922](1922-in-the-united-states)) - March 2 – Robert Means Thompson, naval officer (died [1930](1930-in-the-united-states)) - March 7 – Luther Burbank, biologist (died [1926](1926-in-the-united-states)) - March 10 – Mary Evelyn Hitchcock, author and explorer (died [1920](1920-in-the-united-states)) - March 17 – Cornelia Clapp, marine biologist (died [1934](1934-in-the-united-states)) - April 3 – Walter Guion, U.S. Senator from Louisiana in 1918 (died [1927](1927-in-the-united-states)) - April 17 – William R. Day, politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died [1923](1923-in-the-united-states)) - April 19 – John Uri Lloyd, pharmacist and science fiction author (died [1936](1936-in-the-united-states)) - April 30 – Jennie Tuttle Hobart, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Garret Hobart (died [1941](1941-in-the-united-states)) - May 19 – John Hubbard, admiral (died [1932](1932-in-the-united-states)) - June 30 – William Joseph Deboe, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1897 to 1903 (died 1927) - July 22 – Emma Lazarus, poet (died [1887](1887-in-the-united-states)) - August 9 – John P. Young, managing editor of the *San Francisco Chronicle* (died [1921](1921-in-the-united-states)) - August 12 – Abbott Handerson Thayer, painter, naturalist and teacher (died 1921) - August 23 – William Stanley West, U.S. Senator from Georgia in 1914 (died [1914](1914-in-the-united-states)) - September 3 – Sarah Orne Jewett, Maine fiction writer (died [1909](1909-in-the-united-states)) - September 18 – Martha Place, murderer (first woman executed in the electric chair, [1899](1899-in-the-united-states)) - October 3 – Jeannette Leonard Gilder, author and editor (died [1916](1916-in-the-united-states)) - October 7 – James Whitcomb Riley, dialect poet (died [1916](1916-in-the-united-states)) - November 19 – Grace Denio Litchfield, poet and novelist (died [1944](1944-in-the-united-states)) - December 6 - Jennie Anderson Froiseth, women's rights campaigner (died [1930](1930-in-the-united-states)) - Charles S. Thomas, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1913 to 1921 (died [1934](1934-in-the-united-states)) - December 12 – William Kissam Vanderbilt, railroad magnate (died [1920](1920-in-the-united-states)) - December 16 – Mary Hartwell Catherwood, author and poet (died [1902](1902-in-literature))* December 19 – Henry Clay Frick, industrialist and art collector (died [1919](1919-in-the-united-states)) - December 20 - John W. Kern, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1911 to 1917 (died [1917](1917-in-the-united-states)) - Raymond P. Rodgers, admiral (died [1925](1925-in-the-united-states)) - Ellen Eglin, inventor - Emma Curtis Hopkins, spiritual writer (died 1925) ## Deaths ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/James_Knox_Polk_by_GPA_Healy,_1858_(cropped).jpg" caption="[[James K. Polk"] :: - January 30 – Jonathan Alder, settler (born [1773](1773)) - March 17 – Ann Gerry, Second Lady of the United States from 1813 to 1814 as wife of Elbridge Gerry (born [1763](1763)) - July 12 – Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States from 1809 to 1817 as wife of James Madison (born [1768](1768)) - June 15 – James K. Polk, 11th president of the United States from 1845 to 1849 (born [1795](1795-in-the-united-states)) - July 30 – Jacob Perkins, inventor, mechanical engineer, and physicist (born [1766](1766)) - August 23 – Edward Hicks, folk painter and Quaker preacher (born [1780](1780-in-the-united-states)) - October 7 – Edgar Allan Poe, author, poet, editor and literary critic (born [1809](1809-in-the-united-states)) - October 22 – William Miller, Baptist preacher, leader of the Second Advent Movement (born [1782](1782-in-the-united-states)) - Robert Cary Long, Jr., architect working in Baltimore (born [1810](1810-in-the-united-states)) ## References ## References 1. (2006). ["Plank Roads Chartered in North Carolina"](http://www.historync.org/plankroadslist.htm). *North Carolina Business History*. 2. (2006). ["Railroads — prior to the Civil War"](http://www.historync.org/railroads.htm). *North Carolina Business History*. 3. Reynolds, Moira Davison. (2004). "American Women Scientists: 23 Inspiring Biographies, 1900-2000". *McFarland*. 4. (1971). "Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary". *Harvard University Press*. 5. Robert, Price. (1971). "Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary". ::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1849_in_the_United_States) and is available under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the [article history page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1849_in_the_United_States?action=history). ::