Editing 1850 (section)

== Events ==

=== January&ndash;March ===
* [[January 29]] &ndash; [[Henry Clay]] introduces the [[Compromise of 1850]] to the [[United States Congress]].
* [[January 31]] &ndash; The [[University of Rochester]] is founded in [[Rochester, New York]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2309|title=University of Rochester History: Chapter 3, The Year of Decisions: 1850|work=rbscp.lib.rochester.edu}}</ref>
* [[January]] – [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] [[Floods in California|floods]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sacramento; an illustrated history: 1839 to 1874, from Sutter's Fort to Capital City|url=https://archive.org/details/sacramentoillust00seve|website=Archive.org|year=1973}}</ref>
* [[February 28]] &ndash; The [[University of Utah]] opens in [[Salt Lake City]].
* [[March 5]] &ndash; The [[Britannia Bridge]] opens over the [[Menai Strait]] in Wales.
* [[March 7]] &ndash; [[United States Senate|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]] &ndash; [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s historical novel ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' is published in [[Boston]], Massachusetts.
* [[March 19]] &ndash; [[American Express]] is founded by [[Henry Wells]] and [[William Fargo]].
* [[March 31]] &ndash; The [[paddle steamer]] {{RMS|Royal Adelaide|1838|6}}, bound from [[Cork (city)|Cork]] to London, is wrecked in the [[English Channel]] with the loss of all 250 on board.

=== April&ndash;June ===
* [[April 4]] &ndash; [[Los Angeles]] is incorporated as a city in California.
* [[April 15]]
** [[San Francisco]] is incorporated as a city in California.
** [[Angers Bridge]] collapses in France killing around 226 of the soldiers crossing it at the time.
* [[April 19]] &ndash; The [[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]].
* [[April]]
** [[Pope Pius IX]] returns from exile to Rome.
** [[Stephen Foster]]'s parlor ballad "[[Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway]]" is published in the United States.
* [[May 15]] &ndash; The [[Bloody Island Massacre]] takes place at Clear Lake in northern California.
* [[May 23]] &ndash; The {{USS|Advance|1847|6}} puts to sea from New York to search for [[Franklin's lost expedition]] in the Arctic.
* [[May 25]] &ndash; The [[hippopotamus]] [[Obaysch]] arrives at [[London Zoo]] from [[Egypt]], the first seen in Europe since Roman times.
* [[June 1]] 
** The [[Convict era of Western Australia|transportation of British convicts to Western Australia]] begins, as the transportation of British convicts to other parts of Australia is phased out, when the ship ''Scindian'' arrives in [[Fremantle]], with 75 male prisoners.
** The [[postage stamp]] issues of Austria begin with a series of [[imperforate]] typographed stamps, featuring the coat of arms.
** The [[1850 United States census]] shows that 11.2% of the population classed as "Negro" are of mixed race.
* [[June 3]] &ndash; [[Kansas City, Missouri]], is incorporated by [[Jackson County, Missouri]], as the ''Town of Kansas'' (traditional date of its founding).

=== July&ndash;September ===
* [[July]] &ndash; [[Taiping Rebellion]]: [[Hong Xiuquan]] orders the general mobilisation of rebel forces in [[China]].
* [[July 1]] &ndash; St. Mary School for Boys (the future [[University of Dayton]]) opens its doors in [[Dayton, Ohio]].
* [[July 2]] &ndash; Former twice-served British Prime Minister Sir [[Robert Peel]] dies following a fall from his horse at [[Constitution Hill, London]].
* [[July 9]]
**[[Báb|Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad]], known as the [[Báb]], is executed by a firing squad in Tabriz, Persia, for claiming to be a prophet.
** Vice President [[Millard Fillmore]] becomes the 13th president of the United States upon the death of President [[Zachary Taylor]], aged 65.
* [[July 17]] – [[Vega]] became the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed.<ref name=barger_white2000>{{cite book | display-authors=1 | last1=Barger | first1=M. Susan | last2=White | first2=William B. | date=2000 |orig-date=1991 | title=The Daguerreotype: Nineteenth-Century Technology and Modern Science | publisher=JHU Press | page=88 | isbn=978-0-8018-6458-2 }}</ref>
* [[August 28]] &ndash; [[Richard Wagner]]'s [[Romanticism|romantic]] [[opera]] ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'' (including the [[Bridal Chorus]]) premieres under the direction of [[Franz Liszt]], in [[Weimar]].
* [[September 4]] &ndash; The [[Eusébio de Queirós Law]] is passed in the [[Brazilian Empire]] to abolish the international slave trade.
* [[September 9]]
** [[California]] is admitted as the 31st [[U.S. state]].
** The [[New Mexico Territory]] is organized by order of the [[United States Congress]].
* [[September 12]] – A [[1850 Xichang earthquake|7.9 earthquake]] shakes the Chinese province of [[Sichuan]] killing more than 20,000 people.
* [[September 13]] &ndash; [[Piz Bernina]], the highest summit of the eastern Alps, is first ascended.
* [[September 18]] 
** The [[Fugitive Slave Law]] is passed by the [[United States Congress]]. 
** [[Harriet Tubman]] becomes an official conductor of the [[Underground Railroad]].
* [[September 29]] &ndash; Papal bull ''[[Universalis Ecclesiae]]'': The [[Catholic Church in England and Wales|Catholic]] hierarchy is re-established in [[England and Wales]], by [[Pope Pius IX]] and future [[Pope Pius X]].

=== October&ndash;December ===
* [[October 1]] &ndash; The [[University of Sydney]] (the oldest in Australia) is founded.
* [[October 19]] &ndash; The [[Phi Kappa Sigma]] international fraternity is founded, at the [[University of Pennsylvania]].
* [[October 28]] &ndash; Delegate [[Edward Ralph May]] delivers a speech on behalf of African-American suffrage, to the [[Indiana]] Constitutional Convention.
* [[November]]
** [[Taiping Rebellion]]: The first clashes of the Taiping Rebellion occur, between the [[Qing dynasty|Imperialist]] militia and the Heavenly Army.
** Undergraduates at [[Exeter College, Oxford]] arrange a "foot grind" (a cross-country steeplechase), the first organised university athletic event.<ref>{{cite book|first=Montague|last=Shearman|title=Athletics and Football|url=https://archive.org/details/athleticsandfoo00sheagoog|location=London|publisher=Longman|year=1887}}</ref>
* [[November 29]] &ndash; The treaty known as the [[Punctation of Olmütz]] is signed in [[Olomouc]]. It means diplomatic capitulation of [[Prussia]] to the [[Austrian Empire]], which takes over the leadership of the [[German Confederation]].
* [[December 16]] &ndash; Members of the [[Canterbury Association]], the first settlers bound for [[Christchurch]], arrive from England at the port of [[Lyttelton, New Zealand]], aboard the ''[[Charlotte Jane]]'' and ''[[Randolph (ship)|Randolph]]''.

=== Date unknown ===
* [[Dost Mohammad Barakzai]], emir of Afghanistan, captures [[Balkh]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11748/|title=Persia, Arabia, etc.|website=[[World Digital Library]]|date=1852|access-date=2013-07-27}}</ref>
* The first portion of the [[Oudh Bequest]] is transferred from [[Oudh State]] in the [[British Raj]] to the [[Shia Islam]] holy cities of [[Najaf]] and [[Karbala]], in [[Persia]].
* The [[American system of watch manufacturing]] is started in [[Roxbury, Massachusetts]], by the [[Waltham Watch Company]].
* [[Bingley Hall]], the world's first purpose-built exhibition hall, opens in [[Birmingham]], England.
* [[Allan Pinkerton]] forms the North-Western Police Agency, later the [[Pinkerton National Detective Agency]], in the United States.
* The temperance organisation, [[International Organisation of Good Templars]], is established in [[Utica, New York]], as the order of the Knights of Jericho.
* [[Mayer Lehman]] arrives from Germany to join his siblings in [[Lehman Brothers]] dry-goods business (predecessor of the bank) in [[Montgomery, Alabama]].
* One of the original segments of the historic [[Pacific Highway (United States)]] in [[Washington (state)]] in [[Clark County, Washington|Clark]] and [[Cowlitz County, Washington|Cowlitz]] counties is established.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pacific-hwy.net/vancouver.htm|title=The Historic Pacific Highway from Vancouver to Castle Rock|work=pacific-hwy.net}}</ref>
* German physicist [[Rudolf Clausius]] publishes his paper on the mechanical theory of heat ("On the Moving Force of Heat") which first states the basic ideas of the [[second law of thermodynamics]].
* The city of [[Manchester]], England, reaches 400,000 inhabitants.
* From this year until [[1880]], 144,000 [[Indian people|East Indian]] laborers go to [[Trinidad]] and 39,000 to [[Jamaica]].
* Ongoing &ndash; [[Great Famine (Ireland)]] subsides.<ref>{{cite book|first=David|last=Ross|year=2002|title=Ireland: History of a Nation|edition=New|location=New Lanark|publisher=Geddes & Grosset|isbn=1842051644|page=[https://archive.org/details/irelandhistoryof0000ross/page/313 313]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/irelandhistoryof0000ross}}</ref>