Editing 1846 (section)

== Events ==

=== January–March ===
* [[January 5]] – The [[United States House of Representatives]] votes to stop sharing the [[Oregon Country]] with the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]].
* [[January 13]] – The [[Milan–Venice railway]]'s {{convert|3.2|km|mi|abbr=on}} bridge, over the [[Venetian Lagoon]] between [[Mestre]] and [[Venice]] in Italy, opens,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?id=s0007311|title=Venice Railroad Bridge|work=[[Structurae]]|access-date=2012-02-22}}</ref> the world's longest since [[1151]].
* [[January 23]] – [[Ahmad I ibn Mustafa]], Bey of Tunis, declares the legal abolition of [[slavery in Tunisia]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Montana|first=Ismael Musah|year=2024|title=Ahmad Bey's 1846 Istiftāʾ: its Dual Legislative Framework and Religio-Political Context|journal=Law and History Review|volume=42|pages=31–48|language=en|doi=10.1017/S0738248023000573|issn=0738-2480|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* [[February 4]] – Led by [[Brigham Young]], many [[Mormons]] in the U.S. begin their migration west from [[Nauvoo, Illinois]], to the [[Great Salt Lake]] in what becomes [[Utah]].
* [[February 10]] – [[First Anglo-Sikh war]]: [[Battle of Sobraon]] – British forces in India defeat the Sikhs.<ref name=CBH>{{cite book|last1=Palmer|first1=Alan|last2=Palmer |first2=Veronica|year=1992|title=The Chronology of British History|publisher=Century Ltd|location=London|pages=268–269|isbn=0-7126-5616-2}}</ref>
* [[February 18]] – The [[Galician Peasant Uprising of 1846]] begins in Austria.
* [[February 19]] – [[Texas annexation]]: United States president [[James K. Polk]]'s annexation of the [[Republic of Texas]] is finalized by Texas president [[Anson Jones]] in a formal ceremony of transfer of sovereignty. The newly formed [[Texas]] [[state government]] is officially installed in [[Austin, Texas|Austin]].
* [[February 20]]–[[March 3]] – [[Kraków uprising]]: [[Resistance in partitioned Poland (1795–1918)|Polish nationalists]] stage an uprising in the [[Free City of Kraków]]; it is suppressed by forces of the [[Austrian Empire]], supported by peasants.
* [[February 22]] – The [[Liberty Bell]] in Philadelphia is cracked while being rung for George Washington's birthday.
* [[March 9]] – The [[First Anglo-Sikh war]] ends with the signing of the [[Treaty of Lahore]].<ref name="Pocket On This Day">{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-14-102715-0|year=2006}}</ref> [[Kashmir]] is ceded to the [[British East India Company]], and the [[Koh-i-Noor]] diamond is surrendered to [[Queen Victoria]].
* [[March 10]] – Prince Osahito, fourth son of deceased [[Emperor Ninkō]] of Japan, becomes [[Emperor Kōmei]].

=== April–June ===
* [[April 25]] – [[Mexican–American War]]: Open conflict begins, over the disputed border of [[Texas]].
* [[May]] – The [[Associated Press]] is founded in New York.
* [[May 8]] – [[Mexican–American War]] – [[Battle of Palo Alto]]: [[Zachary Taylor]] defeats a Mexican force north of the [[Rio Grande]] at [[Palo Alto, Texas]] in the first major battle of the war.
* [[May 11]] – The [[University at Buffalo]] is founded by future United States Vice President and President, [[Millard Fillmore]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://library.buffalo.edu/archives/ubhistory/presidents.html|title=Chancellors and Presidents of the University|access-date=2016-12-06|publisher=University of Buffalo, The State University of New York|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610165345/http://library.buffalo.edu/archives/ubhistory/presidents.html|archive-date=June 10, 2016|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
* [[May 13]] – [[Mexican–American War]]: The United States declares war on Mexico.
* [[May 15]] – Under the leadership of [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Robert Peel]], the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom]] votes to repeal the [[Corn Laws]] by passing an Importation Bill, replacing the old [[Colonialism|colonial]] mercantile trade system with [[free trade]]<ref name="Icons">{{cite web|url=http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1840-1860|title=Icons, a portrait of England 1840–1860|access-date=2007-09-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817165102/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1840-1860 |archive-date=August 17, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> in response to the [[Great Famine (Ireland)]]. On June 25 the [[Duke of Wellington]] persuades the [[House of Lords]] to pass the Act, which will take full effect from February [[1849]]. Peel, however, is forced to resign.
* [[May 16]] – The [[Revolution of Maria da Fonte]] begins in Portugal. It will be by royalist troops on [[February 22]], [[1847]].
* [[June 10]] – [[Mexican–American War]]: The [[California Republic]] declares independence from Mexico.
* [[June 14]] – [[Bear Flag Revolt]]: American settlers in [[Sonoma, California]], start a rebellion against Mexico and proclaim the [[California Republic]].
* [[June 15]]
** The [[Oregon Treaty]] establishes the [[49th parallel north|49th parallel]] as the border between the United States and Canada, from the [[Rocky Mountains]] to the [[Strait of Juan de Fuca]].
** [[Launceston Church Grammar School]] opens for the first time in [[Tasmania]].
* [[June 16]] – [[Pope Pius IX]] succeeds [[Pope Gregory XVI]] as the 255th [[pope]]. He will reign for 31½ years (the longest definitely confirmed).
* [[June 28]] – The [[saxophone]] is [[patent]]ed by [[Adolphe Sax]].<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Hugh|last=Hart|title=June 28, 1846: Parisian Inventor Patents Saxophone|url=https://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/06/0628saxophone-patent|magazine=Wired|date=2010-06-28|access-date=2011-12-07}}</ref>

=== July–September ===
* [[July 7]] – [[Mexican–American War]]: [[Battle of Monterey]] – Acting on instructions from Washington, D.C., [[Commodore (USN)|Commodore]] [[John Drake Sloat]] orders his troops to occupy [[Monterey, California|Monterey]] and [[Yerba Buena, California|Yerba Buena]], thus beginning the United States annexation of [[California]].
* [[August 22]] – The [[Second Federal Republic of Mexico]] is established.
* [[August 28]] – The [[New Zealand Constitution Act 1846]] is passed by the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]] with the intention of granting self-government to the British [[Colony of New Zealand|colony]]. Governor [[George Grey]] suspends implementation of the majority of the Act, with the exception of the creation of [[New Ulster Province|New Ulster]] and [[New Munster Province]]s, and it is superseded by the [[New Zealand Constitution Act 1852]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Paul |last=Moon|title=New Zealand Birth Certificates – 50 of New Zealand's Founding Documents|author-link=Paul Moon|year=2010|publisher=AUT Media |isbn=9780958299718}}</ref>
* August – Canadian physician and geologist [[Abraham Pineo Gesner]] demonstrates a process to refine a liquid fuel, which he calls [[kerosene]], from [[coal]], [[bitumen]] or [[oil shale]].
* [[September 3]] – [[Electric Telegraph Company]] founded in Britain.
* [[September 7]] – The portion of the [[District of Columbia]] in the United States that was ceded by [[Virginia]] in [[1790]] is [[District of Columbia retrocession#Virginia retrocession|re-ceded to Virginia]].
* [[September 10]] – [[Elias Howe]] is awarded the first United States patent for a [[sewing machine]], using a [[lockstitch]] design.<ref>{{US patent|4750}}</ref>
* [[September 12]] – Poets [[Elizabeth Barrett]] and [[Robert Browning]] marry privately in London, departing a week later for the continent.
* [[September 14]] – [[Jang Bahadur]] and his brothers massacre about 40 members of the Nepalese palace court.
* [[September 19]] – [[Our Lady of La Salette]], a [[Marian apparition]], is said to have been seen by two children at [[La Salette-Fallavaux]] in France.
* [[September 23]] – [[Discovery of Neptune]]: The planet is observed for the first time by German astronomers [[Johann Gottfried Galle]] and [[Heinrich Louis d'Arrest]], as predicted by British astronomer [[John Couch Adams]] and French astronomer [[Urbain Le Verrier]].
* [[September]] – The [[Second Carlist War]] (or the War of the Matiners or Madrugadores) begins in Spain.

=== October–December ===
* [[October 1]]
** [[Christ College, Tasmania]], opens with the hope that it will develop along the lines of an [[Oxbridge]] college, and provide the basis for university education in Tasmania. By the 21st century it will be the oldest tertiary institution in Australia.
** [[Triton (moon)|Triton]], [[Neptune|Neptune's]] largest moon, is discovered by [[William Lassell]] 17 days after the discovery of [[Neptune]].
* [[October 16]] – At [[Massachusetts General Hospital]], Dr. [[William T. G. Morton]], a dentist, gives the first successful public demonstration of [[diethyl ether|ether]] [[anesthesia]].<ref>Lilian R. Furst, ''Medical Progress and Social Reality: A Reader in Nineteenth-Century Medicine and Literature'' (SUNY Press, 2000) p16</ref>
* [[November 4]] – The [[Donner Party]], a wagon train of 87 settlers traveling to California, is stranded in the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] mountains by the first of several snowstorms. By the time a relief party reaches the starving settlers three months later, only 48 survivors are left, many of whom have survived by cannibalism.<ref>George R. Stewart, ''Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party'' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013) pp366-367</ref>
* [[November 9]] – [[Pope Pius IX]] issues the [[encyclical]] ''[[Qui pluribus]]'', in response to the growing trend of agnosticism among intellectuals in Europe.<ref>Gerald A. McCool, ''Nineteenth-century Scholasticism: The Search for a Unitary Method'' (Fordham University Press, 1989) p129</ref>
* [[November 17]] &ndash; [[Carl Zeiss AG|Carl Zeiss]], a major worldwide [[optoelectronics]] and [[Digital camera|digital camera brand]], is founded in [[Thuringia]], Germany.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.zeiss.com/corporate/int/about-zeiss/history.html|title=Zeiss History|publisher=Zeiss|accessdate=2022-11-10}}</ref>  
* [[December 22]] – The [[Guild]] system in Sweden is abolished by the ''[[Fabriks och Handtwerksordning]]'' and ''[[Handelsordningen]]'', and trade and handicrafts permits are granted to every male and female applicant of legal majority.<ref>Du Rietz, Anita, Kvinnors entreprenörskap: under 400 år, 1. uppl., Dialogos, Stockholm, 2013, s 270</ref>
* [[December 24]] – [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Great Britain]] acquires [[Crown Colony of Labuan|Labuan]] from the [[Sultanate of Brunei]].
* [[December 28]] – [[Iowa]] is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.

=== Date unknown ===
* [[1846–1860 cholera pandemic]] breaks out in south Asia; in the United Kingdom, Parliament passes ''The Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act''.
* The [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] continues in Ireland. The first deaths from hunger take place early in the year<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas|last=Keneally|author-link=Thomas Keneally|year=1999|title=The Great Shame|location=London|publisher=Vintage|page=110}}</ref> and ''[[Phytophthora infestans]]'' almost totally destroys the summer potato crop.
* Fort Wayne Female College is founded in Indiana as a Methodist institution; it will later be renamed [[Taylor University]].
* The first higher school of academic learning for women in Denmark, ''[[Den højere Dannelsesanstalt for Damer]]'', is founded in Copenhagen.