1850 in the United States

::Millard Fillmore (W-New York) (starting July 9) - Vice President: ::Millard Fillmore (W-New York) (until July 9) ::*vacant* (starting July 9) - Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland) - Speaker of the House of Representatives: Howell Cobb (D-Georgia) - Congress: [31st](31st-united-states-congress) #### State governments ::data[format=table] | Governors and lieutenant governors | |---| | | :: ## Demographics *Main article: [1850 United States census](1850-united-states-census)* ## Events ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Community.31886708_page_2_This_printing_of_the_Fugitive_Slave_Bill_was_sponsored_by_anti-slavery_groups_as_a_protest_against_the_new_law_that_required_local_and_state_authorities_to_assist_slave_owners_in_retrieving_slaves_01.jpg" caption="This printing of the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]] was sponsored by anti-slavery groups as a protest against the new law that required local and state authorities to assist slave owners in retrieving slaves"] :: ### January–March - January – Sacramento floods. - January 29 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to Congress. - January 31 – The University of Rochester is chartered in Rochester, New York; it admits its first students in November - c. January–February – The Liberty Head double eagle first issued for commerce. - February 8–17 – Battle at Fort Utah: The Nauvoo Legion kills Timpanogos hostile to the Mormon settlement at Fort Utah on the orders of Brigham Young. - February 28 – The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City. - March 7 – United States Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech, in which he endorses the Compromise of 1850, in order to prevent a possible civil war. - March 16 – Nathaniel Hawthorne's historical novel *The Scarlet Letter* is published in Boston, Massachusetts. - March 19 – American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo. ### April–June - April 4 – Los Angeles is incorporated as a city in California. - April 15 – San Francisco is incorporated as a city in California. - April 19 – 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. - May 7 – The brigantine is loaned to the United States Navy. - May 23 – The puts to sea from New York City to search for Franklin's lost expedition in the Arctic. - June – *Harper's Magazine* published as a new monthly in New York City. - June 1 – The [1850 United States census](1850-united-states-census) shows that 11.2% of the population classed as "Negro" are of mixed race. - June 3 – Traditional date of Kansas City, Missouri's founding: it is incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri as the "Town of Kansas". ### July–September ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Millard_Fillmore_by_George_PA_Healy,_1857.jpg" caption="Taylor"] :: - July 1 – St. Mary's Institute (the future University of Dayton) admits its first pupils in Dayton, Ohio. - July 9 – President Zachary Taylor dies in office; Vice President Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th president of the United States the next day. - July 14 – John Gorrie makes the first public demonstration of his ice-making machine, in Apalachicola, Florida. - September 9 - California is admitted to the Union as the 31st state (*see* History of California and An Act for the Admission of the State of California). - Utah Territory is established. - New Mexico Territory is organized by order of the U.S. Congress. - September 18 – The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 is passed by the U.S. Congress, requiring Northerners to capture runaway slaves. ### October–December - October 19 – Phi Kappa Sigma International Fraternity founded at the University of Pennsylvania. - October 28 – Delegate Edward Ralph May delivers a speech on behalf of African American suffrage to the Indiana Constitutional Convention. - December 16 – Steamer *South America* burns on the Mississippi River in Louisiana; 27 killed including 13 U.S. Army recruits from Newport Barracks in Kentucky ### Undated - The American system of watch manufacturing starts in Roxbury, Massachusetts, with the Waltham Watch Company. - Mayer Lehman arrives from Germany to join his siblings in Lehman Brothers merchant business in Montgomery, Alabama. - Allan Pinkerton forms the North-Western Police Agency, later the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, in Chicago. - Astronomer Maria Mitchell becomes the first woman member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. - The temperance organization, International Organisation of Good Templars, is established in Utica, New York, as the order of the Knights of Jericho. - One of the original segments of the historic Pacific Highway in Washington (state) in Clark and Cowlitz counties is established. ### Ongoing - California gold rush (1848–1855) ## Births - January 1 – John Barclay Armstrong, Texas Ranger lieutenant and a U.S. Marshal (died [1913](1913-in-the-united-states)) - January 10 – John Wellborn Root, Chicago architect (died [1891](1891-in-the-united-states)) - January 18 – Seth Low, educator (died [1916](1916-in-the-united-states)) - January 24 – Mary Noailles Murfree, novelist (died [1922](1922-in-the-united-states)) - January 27 – Samuel Gompers, labor union leader (died [1924](1924-in-the-united-states)) - January 28 – Edward Merritt Hughes, U.S. Navy officer (died [1903](1903-in-the-united-states)) - February 1 – Emma Churchman Hewitt, author and journalist (died [1921](1921-in-the-united-states)) - February 2 – Cassius Aurelius Boone, Mayor of Orlando and businessman (died [1917](1917-in-the-united-states)) - February 6 – Elizabeth Williams Champney, author (died [1922](1992-in-the-united-states)) - February 8 - Kate Chopin, writer (died [1904](1904-in-the-united-states)) - Charles Rockwell Lanman, Sanskrit scholar (died [1941](1941-in-the-united-states)) - February 15 – Albert B. Cummins, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1908 to 1926 (died [1926](1926-in-the-united-states)) - February 27 - Henry E. Huntington, railroad pioneer and art collector (died [1927](1927-in-the-united-states)) - Laura E. Richards, author (died [1943](1943-in-the-united-states)) - March 9 – Daniel B. Towner, hymn composer (died [1919](1919-in-the-united-states)) - March 26 – Edward Bellamy, Utopian novelist and socialist (died [1898](1898-in-the-united-states)) - March 31 – Charles Doolittle Walcott, invertebrate paleontologist (died 1927) - April 3 – Zina P. Young Card, Mormon leader and women's rights activist (died [1931](1931-in-the-united-states)) - April 8 – John Peters, baseball player (died [1924](1924-in-the-united-states)) - April 10 – Mary Emilie Holmes, geologist and educator (died [1906](1906-in-the-united-states)) - April 11 - Rosetta Luce Gilchrist, physician and author (died [1921](1921-in-the-united-states)) - Isidor Rayner, U.S. senator from Maryland from 1905 to 1912 (died [1912](1912-in-the-united-states)) - April 18 – Joseph Labadie, labor organizer (died [1933](1933-in-the-united-states)) - April 20 – Daniel Chester French, sculptor (died [1931](1931-in-the-united-states)) - April 30 - Ruth Alice Armstrong, temperance activist (died [1901](1901-in-the-united-states)) - Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller, novelist (died [1937](1937-in-the-united-states)) - May 8 – Ross Barnes, baseball player and manager (died [1915](1915-in-the-united-states)) - May 12 – Henry Cabot Lodge, statesman (died [1924](1924-in-the-united-states)) - May 14 – Alva Adams, 3-time Governor of Colorado (died [1922](1922-in-the-united-states)) - June 3 – Albert M. Todd, businessman and politician (died 1931) - June 5 – Pat Garrett, bartender and sheriff (died [1908](1908-in-the-united-states)) - June 15 – Charles Hazelius Sternberg, paleontologist (died 1943) - June 18 - Cyrus H. K. Curtis, magazine publisher (died [1933](1933-in-the-united-states)) - Alice Moore McComas, author, editor, lecturer and reformer (died [1919](1919-in-the-united-states)) - June 21 – Daniel Carter Beard, Scouting pioneer (died [1941](1941-in-the-united-states)) - July 2 – Robert Ridgway, ornithologist (died [1929](1929-in-the-united-states)) - July 7 – William E. Mason, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1897 to 1903 (died [1921](1921-in-the-united-states)) - July 8 – Charles Rockwell Lanman, Sanskrit scholar (died 1941) - July 11 – Annie Armstrong, Baptist leader (died [1938](1938-in-the-united-states)) - July 12 – Newell Sanders, businessman and politician (died 1938) - July 18 – Rose Hartwick Thorpe, poet (died [1939](1939-in-the-united-states)) - July 20 – John G. Shedd, businessman (died [1926](1926)) - July 25 – Lydia J. Newcomb Comings, educator (died [1946](1946-in-the-united-states)) - July 28 – William Whittingham Lyman, vintner (died 1921) - July 31 – Robert Love Taylor, Tennessee congressman (died 1912) - August 28 – Charles H. Aldrich, Solicitor General of the U.S. (died 1929) - September 2 – Eugene Field, poet and essayist (died [1895](1895-in-the-united-states)) - September 6 – Marion Howard Brazier, journalist (died [1935](1935-in-the-united-states)) - October 1 - David R. Francis, politician (died [1927](1927-in-the-united-states)) - Thomas Vincent Welch, politician (died [1903](1903-in-the-united-states)) - October 14 – Newton E. Mason, rear admiral (died [1945](1945-in-the-united-states)) - October 30 – John Patton, Jr., U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1894 to 1895 (died [1907](1907-in-the-united-states)) - November 5 – Ella Wheeler Wilcox, poet (died 1919) - November 18 – John S. Armstrong, real estate developer (died 1908) - December 9 – Emma Abbott, operatic soprano (died 1891) - December 21 – William Wallace Lincoln, third son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln (died [1862](1862-in-the-united-states)) - December 23 – Louise Reed Stowell, scientist and author (died [1932](1932-in-the-united-states)) - December 25 – Florence Griswold, art curator (died [1937](1937-in-the-united-states)) ## Deaths ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Zachary_Taylor_restored_and_cropped.jpg" caption="[[Zachary Taylor"] :: - February 1 – Edward Baker Lincoln, second son of Abraham Lincoln (born [1846](1846-in-the-united-states)) - March 3 – Oliver Cowdery, religious leader (born [1806](1806-in-the-united-states)) - March 21 – Miguel Pedrorena, early settler of San Diego, California (born c. [1808](1808-in-the-united-states)) - March 28 – Gerard Brandon, fourth and sixth governor of Mississippi from 1825 to 1826 and from 1826 to 1832 (born [1788](1788-in-the-united-states)) - March 31 – John C. Calhoun, seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832 (born [1782](1782-in-the-united-states)) - April 12 – Adoniram Judson, Congregationalist and later Baptist missionary (born [1788](1788-in-the-united-states)) - April 24 – John Norvell, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1837 to 1841 (born [1789](1789-in-the-united-states)) - May 16 – William Hendricks, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1825 to 1837 (born [1782](1782-in-the-united-states)) - July 9 – Zachary Taylor, 12th president of the United States from 1849 to 1850 (born [1784](1784-in-the-united-states)) - July 19 – Margaret Fuller, journalist, literary critic and women's rights advocate, presumed drowned (born [1810](1810-in-the-united-states)) - November 19 – Richard Mentor Johnson, ninth vice president of the United States from 1837 to 1841, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1819 to 1829 (born [1780](1780-in-the-united-states)) ## References ## References 1. (1973). ["Sacramento; an illustrated history: 1839 to 1874, from Sutter's Fort to Capital City"](https://archive.org/details/sacramentoillust00seve). 2. ["University of Rochester History: Chapter 3, The Year of Decisions: 1850"](https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2309). *rbscp.lib.rochester.edu*. 3. Burke, James. (1978). ["Connections"](https://archive.org/details/connections00burk_351). *Macmillan*. 4. (1850-12-19). ["Steamer South America Burnt—Great Loss of Life!"](https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-orleans-crescent-steamer-south-a/164545114/). *The New Orleans Crescent*. 5. (1850-12-28). ["Burning of the Steamer South America on the Mississippi"](https://www.newspapers.com/article/public-ledger-burning-of-the-steamer-sou/164542622/). *Public Ledger*. 6. ["The Historic Pacific Highway from Vancouver to Castle Rock"](http://www.pacific-hwy.net/vancouver.htm). *pacific-hwy.net*. 7. (1915). ["Herringshaw's American Blue-book of Biography: Prominent Americans of ... An Accurate Biographical Record of Prominent Citizens in All Walks of Life ..."](https://books.google.com/books?id=8yVRAQAAMAAJ). *American Publishers' Association*. 8. (October 22, 1998). ["Kate Chopin's Private Papers"](https://books.google.com/books?id=rmKHY82gFJ8C&pg=PA1). *Indiana University Press*. 9. Howard Quint, ''The Forging of American Socialism: Origins of the Modern Movement: The Impact of Socialism on American Thought and Action, 1886–1901.'' Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1953; p. 74. 10. (2006). "The West Virginia Encyclopedia". *West Virginia Humanities Council*. 11. (1922). ["Cyrus H. K. Curtis, The Man: Musician, Editor, Publisher and Capitalist"](https://www.nytimes.com/1922/10/22/archives/cyrus-hk-curtis-the-man-musician-editor-publisher-and-capitalist.html). *The New York Times*. 12. Leonard, John W.. (1914). ["Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915"](https://archive.org/details/womanswhoswhoam00leongoog). *American commonwealth Company*. 13. Marquis, Albert Nelson. (1915). ["Who's who in New England: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men and Women of the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut"](https://books.google.com/books?id=5jk1AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1033). *A.N. Marquis & Company*. ::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1850_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/1850_in_the_United_States?action=history). ::