Editing 1847 (section)

== Events ==

=== January–March ===
* [[January 4]] – [[Samuel Colt]] sells his first [[revolver]] pistol to the U.S. government.
* [[January 13]] – The [[Treaty of Cahuenga]] ends fighting in the [[Mexican–American War]] in [[California]].
* [[January 16]] – [[John C. Frémont]] is appointed Governor of the new [[California]] Territory.
* [[January 17]] – [[St. Anthony Hall]] fraternity is founded at [[Columbia University]], New York City.
* [[January 30]] – [[Yerba Buena, California]], is renamed [[San Francisco]].
* [[February 5]] – A rescue effort, called the First Relief, leaves Johnson's Ranch to save the ill-fated [[Donner Party]] of California-bound migrants who became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada earlier this winter. Some have resorted to survival by cannibalism.
* [[February 22]] – [[Mexican–American War]]: [[Battle of Buena Vista]] – 5,000 American troops under General [[Zachary Taylor]] use their superiority in [[artillery]] to drive off 15,000 Mexican troops under [[Antonio López de Santa Anna]], defeating the Mexicans the next day.
* [[February 25]] – [[State University of Iowa]] is founded in [[Iowa City, Iowa]].
* [[March 1]]
** The state of [[Michigan]] formally abolishes the [[death penalty]].
** [[Faustin Soulouque]] is elected President of [[Haiti]].
* [[March 4]] – The [[30th United States Congress]] is sworn into office.
* [[March 9]] – [[Mexican–American War]]: United States forces under General [[Winfield Scott]] invade Mexico near [[Veracruz (city)|Veracruz]].
* [[March 14]] – [[Verdi]]'s opera ''[[Macbeth (Verdi)|Macbeth]]'' premieres at the [[Teatro della Pergola]], in [[Florence]], Italy.
* [[March 29]] – [[Mexican–American War]]: United States forces under General [[Winfield Scott]] take [[Veracruz (city)|Veracruz]] after a [[siege]].
* [[March]] – The first known publication of the classic joke "[[Why did the chicken cross the road?]]" occurs in ''[[The Knickerbocker|The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine]]''.<ref>''The Knickerbocker, or The New York Monthly'', March 1847, p. 283.</ref>


=== April–June ===
* [[April 5]] – The world's first municipally-funded civic public [[park]], [[Birkenhead Park]] in [[Birkenhead]] on [[Merseyside]], England, is opened.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wirral.gov.uk/LGCL/100006/200073/670/content_0001110.html |title=The History of Birkenhead Park |access-date=2007-09-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080626164507/http://www.wirral.gov.uk/LGCL/100006/200073/670/content_0001110.html |archive-date=June 26, 2008 }}</ref>
* [[April 15]] – [[The Lawrence School, Sanawar]] is established in India.
* [[April 16]] – [[New Zealand Wars]]: A minor [[Māori people|Māori]] chief is accidentally shot by a junior [[British Army]] officer in [[Whanganui]] on [[New Zealand]]'s [[North Island]], triggering the [[Wanganui Campaign]] (which continues until [[July 23]]).
* [[April 25]] – The {{ship||Exmouth|1818 brig|2}}, carrying Irish emigrants from [[Derry]] bound for [[Quebec]], is wrecked off [[Islay]], with only three survivors from more than 250 on board.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Exmouth - a terrible tragedy on Islay|url=http://www.islayinfo.com/exmouth-islay-tragedy.html|work=Isle of Islay|year=2011|access-date=2012-07-13}}</ref>
* [[May 7]] – In [[Philadelphia]], the [[American Medical Association]] (AMA) is founded.
* [[May 8]]
** The [[1847 Nagano earthquake|Nagano earthquake]] leaves more than 8,600 people dead in [[Japan]].
** Bahrain's ruler, Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, signs a treaty with the British to prevent and combat the slave trade in the Arabian Gulf.
* [[May 31]] – Second [[Treaties of Erzurum|Treaty of Erzurum]]: the [[Ottoman Empire]] cedes [[Abadan Island]] to the [[Qajar dynasty|Persian Empire]].
* [[May]] – The [[Architectural Association School of Architecture]] is founded in London.
* [[June 1]] – The first congress of the [[Communist League]] is held in London.
* [[June 9]] – [[Radley College]], an [[English public school]], is founded near Oxford as a High Anglican institution.<ref>{{cite book|title=The History of Radley College 1847-1947|first=A. K.|last=Boyd|location=Oxford|publisher=Blackwell|year=1948|url=https://radleyarchives.co.uk/browse/histories-of-radley-college/the-history-of-radley-college-1847-1947-by-a-k-boyd-oxford-blackwell-1948|access-date=2020-11-14}}</ref>
* [[June 26]] – The first passenger railway wholly within modern-day Denmark opens, from [[Copenhagen]] to [[Roskilde]].<ref>{{Marshall-GuinnessRail}}{{page needed|date=October 2016}}</ref>
* [[June]] – E. H. Booth & Co. Ltd, which becomes the northern England supermarket chain [[Booths]], is founded when tea dealer Edwin Henry Booth, 19, opens a shop called "The China House" in [[Blackpool]].

=== July–September ===
* [[July 1]] – The United States issues its first [[postage stamp]]s.
[[File:Entering the Great Salt Lake Valley by C.C.A. Christensen.png|250px|thumb|[[July 24]]: Mormons expelled from Illinois arrive at the Great Salt Lake in what is now Utah.]]
* [[July 24]] – After 17 months of travel, [[Brigham Young]] leads 148 [[Mormon pioneers]] into [[Salt Lake Valley]], resulting in the establishment of [[Salt Lake City]].
* [[July 26]] – The nation of [[Liberia]], founded as a haven for freed African-American slaves, becomes independent.
* [[July 29]] – The [[Cumberland School of Law]] is founded at [[Cumberland University]], in [[Lebanon, Tennessee]]. At the end of this year, only 15 law schools exist in the United States.
* [[August 12]] – [[Mexican–American War]]: U.S. troops of General [[Winfield Scott]] begin to advance along the [[aqueduct (water supply)|aqueduct]] around Lakes [[Lake Chalco|Chalco]] and [[Lake Xochimilco|Xochimilco]] in Mexico.
* [[August 20]] – [[Mexican–American War]] – [[Battle of Churubusco]]: U.S. troops defeat Mexican forces.
* [[August]] – [[Yale Corporation]] establishes the first graduate school in the United States, as ''Department of Philosophy and the Arts'' (renamed ''Graduate School of Arts and Sciences'' in [[1892]]).
* [[September 14]] – [[Mexican–American War]]: U.S. general [[Winfield Scott]] [[Battle for Mexico City|enters Mexico City]], marking the end of organized Mexican resistance.
* [[September 30]] – The [[Vegetarian Society]] is formed in the United Kingdom (it remains the oldest in the world).

=== October–December ===
* [[October 12]] – German inventors and industrialists [[Werner von Siemens]] and [[Johann Georg Halske]] found [[Siemens & Halske]] to develop the [[electrical telegraph]].
* [[October 19]] – [[Charlotte Brontë]] publishes ''[[Jane Eyre]]'' under the pen name of Currer Bell in England.
* [[October 31]] – [[Theta Delta Chi]] is founded as a social [[Fraternities and sororities|fraternity]] at [[Union College]], [[Schenectady, New York]].
* [[October]] – The last [[volcanic eruption]] of [[Mount Guntur]] in [[West Java]] occurs.
* [[November 3]]–[[November 29|29]] – [[Sonderbund War]]: In Switzerland, General [[Guillaume-Henri Dufour]]'s Federal Army defeats the ''Sonderbund'' (an alliance of seven [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Cantons of Switzerland|cantons]]) in a civil war, with a total of only 86 deaths.
* [[November 4]]–[[November 8|8]] – [[James Young Simpson]] discovers the [[anesthetic]] properties of [[chloroform]] and first uses it, successfully, on a patient, in an [[obstetric]] case in [[Edinburgh]].<ref>First communicated to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, November 10, and published in a pamphlet, ''Notice of a New Anæsthetic Agent'', in Edinburgh, November 12.</ref>
* [[November 10]] – The first brew of [[Carlsberg Group|Carlsberg]] [[beer]] is finished in [[Copenhagen]].
* [[November 17]] – The Battle of Um Swayya Spring takes place near a spring in Qatar, after a Bahraini force under Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Deputy Ruler of Bahrain defeats the Al Binali tribe. The chief of the Al Binali, Isa bin Tureef, is slain in battle with over 70 fatalities from his side.
* [[December 14]] – [[Emily Brontë]] and [[Anne Brontë]] publish ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'' and ''[[Agnes Grey]]'', respectively, in a 3-volume set under the pen names of Ellis Bell and Acton Bell in England.
* [[December 20]] – British [[Royal Navy]] steam [[frigate]] {{HMS|Avenger|1845}} is wrecked on the [[Sorelle Rocks]] in the [[Mediterranean Sea]] with the loss of 246 lives and only eight survivors.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gilly|first=William Octavius Shakespeare|title=Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy between 1793 and 1849|publisher=John W. Parker|year=1850|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pDsIAAAAQAAJ}}</ref>
* [[December 21]] – [[Emir Abdelkader]] surrenders to the French in Algeria.

=== Date unknown ===
* The [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] continues in Ireland.
* The [[North Carolina General Assembly]] incorporates the railroad town of [[Goldsboro, North Carolina|Goldsborough]], and the [[Wayne County, North Carolina|Wayne]] county seat is moved to the new town.
* [[Welfare in Sweden]] takes its first step with the introduction of the ''[[1847 års fattigvårdförordning]]''.
* [[Cartier (jeweler)|Cartier]], a [[Luxury goods|luxury brand]] in [[France]], is founded.