1851 in the United States

::Linn Boyd (D-Kentucky) (starting December 1) - Congress: [31st](31st-united-states-congress) (until March 4), [32nd](32nd-united-states-congress) (starting March 4) #### State governments ::data[format=table] | Governors and lieutenant governors | |---| | | :: ## Events ### January–March - January 1 – HBCU, University of the District of Columbia is established, the 2nd HBCU in America. - January 15 – Christian Female College, later Columbia College, receives its charter from the Missouri General Assembly. - 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. - January 28 – The Illinois General Assembly grants a charter to create Northwestern University. ### April–June - April 9 – San Luis, the oldest permanent settlement in the state of Colorado, is founded by settlers from Taos, New Mexico. - April 28 – Santa Clara College is chartered in Santa Clara, California. - May–August – The Great Flood of 1851 causes extensive damage in the Midwest; the town of Des Moines is virtually destroyed. - May 6 – John Gorrie of Apalachicola, Florida is granted Patent [No. 8080 for a machine to make ice](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8080). - May 15 – Alpha Delta Pi sorority, the first secret society for women, is founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. - May 29 – Sojourner Truth delivers the first version of her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, at the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. ### July–September - July 10 – The University of the Pacific is chartered as California Wesleyan College in Santa Clara, California. - August 1 – Virginia closes its Reform Constitutional Convention deciding that all white men have the right to vote. - August 3 – The filibustering Lopez Expedition departs New Orleans for Cuba. - August 22 – The yacht *America* of the New York Yacht Club wins the first America's Cup race, off the coast of England. - September 15 – Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. - September 18 – *The New York Times* is founded. ### October–December - October 15 – The City of Winona, Minnesota is founded. - November 13 – The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what later becomes 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 being first published on October 18 in London by Richard Bentley, in 3 volumes as *The Whale*. - December 29 – The first YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts. ### Undated - Western Union is founded as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company. - House sparrows first released in the U.S., in Brooklyn. - Stephen Foster's minstrel song "Old Folks at Home" is first published. - Hope College is established in Holland, Michigan, as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants. ### Ongoing - California Gold Rush (1848–1855) ## Births - January 17 – A. B. Frost, illustrator (died [1928](1928)) - January 19 – David Starr Jordan, ichthyologist, educator, eugenicist and peace activist (died [1924](1931-in-the-united-states)) - January 24 – Marcus A. Smith, U.S. Senator from Arizona from 1912 to 1921 (died [1924](1924-in-the-united-states)) - February 2 – Ella Giles Ruddy, author and essayist (died [1917](1917-in-the-united-states)) - February 9 – Nora Trueblood Gause, humanitarian (died [1955](1955-in-the-united-states)) - February 13 – Joseph B. Murdock, U.S. Navy admiral and New Hampshire politician (died [1931](1931-in-the-united-states)) - March 14 – John Sebastian Little, politician, congressman (died [1916](1916-in-the-united-states)) - March 19 – William Henry Stark, business leader (died [1936](1936-in-the-united-states)) - March 26 – John Eisenmann, Cleveland architect (died 1924) - April 13 - Robert Abbe, surgeon (died 1928) - Helen M. Winslow, editor, author and publisher (died [1938](1938-in-the-united-states)) - May 14 – Anna Laurens Dawes, author and suffragist (died 1938) - May 15 – Lillian Resler Keister Harford, church organizer and editor (died [1935](1935-in-the-united-states)) - May 21 – Moses E. Clapp, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1901 to 1917 (died [1929](1929-in-the-united-states)) - May 29 – Fred Dubois, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1891 to 1897 and from 1901 to 1907 (died [1930](1930-in-the-united-states)) - June 24 – Stuyvesant Fish, entrepreneur (died [1923](1923-in-the-united-states)) - August 12 – Frank O. Briggs, U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1907 to 1913 (died [1913](1913-in-the-united-states)) - August 14 – Doc Holliday, born John H. Holliday, gunfighter, gambler and dentist (died [1887](1887-in-the-united-states)) - September 7 – David King Udall, politician (died 1938) - September 13 – Walter Reed, army physician, bacteriologist (died [1902](1902-in-the-united-states)) - September 21 – Fanny Searls (died [1939](1938-in-the-united-states)), doctor and botanist. - October 5 – Thomas Pollock Anshutz, painter and educator (died [1912](1912-in-the-united-states)) - October 13 – Charles Sprague Pearce, painter (died [1914](1914-in-the-united-states)) - October 20 – George Gandy, entrepreneur (died [1946](1946-in-the-united-states)) - November 16 - Minnie Hauk, operatic soprano (died [1929](1929-in-the-united-states)) - William Elbridge Sewell, naval officer and Governor of Guam (died [1904](1904-in-the-united-states)) - December 9 – Thomas H. Paynter, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1907 to 1913 (died [1921](1921-in-the-united-states)) - December 10 – Melvil Dewey, born Melville Dewey, librarian (died [1931](1931-in-the-united-states)) - December 30 – Asa Griggs Candler, businessman and politician (died 1929) - Albery Allson Whitman, African American poet (died [1901](1901-in-the-united-states)) ## Deaths - January 17 – Thomas Lincoln, farmer and father of President of the United States Abraham Lincoln (born [1778](1778-in-the-united-states)) - January 27 – John James Audubon, naturalist and illustrator (born 1785 in Saint-Domingue) - January 31 – David Spangler Kaufman, Congressman from Texas (born [1813](1813-in-the-united-states)) - February 3 – Benjamin Williams Crowninshield, Congressman from Massachusetts, secretary of U.S. Navy (born [1772](1772)) - March 11 – George McDuffie, 55th Governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1846 (born [1790](1790-in-the-united-states)) - May 3 – Thomas Hickman Williams, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1838 to 1839 (born [1801](1801-in-the-united-states)) - May 22 – Mordecai Manuel Noah, Jewish playwright, diplomat, journalist and utopian (born [1785](1785-in-the-united-states)) - June 21 – Martin Chester Deming, American businessman and politician (b. [1789](1789)) - July 6 – Thomas Davenport, electrical engineer (born [1802](1802-in-the-united-states)) - August 24 – James McDowell, politician (born [1795](1795-in-the-united-states)) - September 10 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, minister, educator, co-founder of the first permanent school for the deaf in North America (born [1787](1787-in-the-united-states)) - September 11 – Sylvester Graham, nutritionist and inventor (born [1794](1794-in-the-united-states)) - September 14 – James Fenimore Cooper, historical novelist (born [1789](1789-in-the-united-states)) - September 24 – Lucius Lyon, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1843 to 1845 (born [1800](1800-in-the-united-states)) - November – Willis Buell, politician and portrait painter (born [1790](1790-in-the-united-states)) ## References ## References 1. (1 January 2014). ["Immunologists and Virologists"](https://books.google.com/books?id=H1tmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA86). *Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC*. 2. Tiehm, Arnold. (1985). "Fanny Searls (1851-1939)". *Brittonia*. 3. Wiley, Edgar J.. (1917). ["Catalogue of Officers and Students of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, 1800-1915"](https://books.google.com/books?id=TapBAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22martin+chester+deming%22&pg=PA22). *[[Middlebury College]]*. ::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1851_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/1851_in_the_United_States?action=history). ::