Explore 785 historical events from 1850–1859.
Ellen Amanda Hayes was an American mathematician and astronomer. She was a controversial figure, both for being a female college professor and for embracing many radical causes.
Ellen Hayes, American mathematician and astronomer (died 1930)
Ferdinand Foch was a French general, Marshal of France and a member of the Académie Française and Académie des Sciences. He distinguished himself as Supreme Allied Commander on the…
Ferdinand Foch, French field marshal (died 1929)
George Ulyett was an English cricketer, noted particularly for his very aggressive batsmanship. A well-liked man, Ulyett was popularly known as "Happy Jack", once musing memorably …
George Ulyett, English cricketer and footballer (died 1898)
Mordecai Manuel Noah was an American sheriff, playwright, diplomat, journalist, and utopian. He was born in a family of mixed Ashkenazi and Portuguese Sephardic ancestry and was th…
Mordecai Manuel Noah, American journalist and diplomat (born 1755)
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a French scientist, artist and photographer recognized for his invention of the eponymous daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as …
Louis Daguerre, French photographer and physicist, invented the daguerreotype (born 1787)
Anne-Marie Javouhey, SJC was a French nun who founded the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny. She is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church. She is known as the Liberator of the Slav…
Anne-Marie Javouhey, French nun, founder of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny (born 1779)
Juan Felipe Ibarra was an Argentine soldier and politician. He was one of the caudillos who dominated the Argentine interior during the formation of the national state, and ruled…
Juan Felipe Ibarra, Argentinian general and politician (born 1787)
Matooskie, also known as Anne "Nancy" McKenzie, was a First Nations woman of the Chipewyan (Dënesųłı̨né) nation in Canada. The daughter of Scottish-Canadian fur trader Roderick Mac…
Matooskie, First Nations woman
William Joseph Behr, German publicist and writer.
William Joseph Behr, German publicist and academic (born 1775)
Lorenz Oken was a German naturalist, botanist, biologist, and ornithologist. He became a professor of natural history at the University of Jena and from 1833 at the newly founded U…
Lorenz Oken, German botanist, biologist, and ornithologist (born 1779)
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was an American educator. Along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell, he co-founded the first permanent institution for the education of the deaf in North…
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, American minister and educator (born 1787)
Sylvester Graham was an American Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer. He was known for his emphasis on vegetarianism, the temperance movement, and eating whole-grain bread. …
Sylvester Graham, American minister and dietary reformer, namesake of the graham cracker (born 1794)
Émilie Tavernier Gamelin was a Canadian Catholic social worker and religious sister best known as the founder of the Sisters of Providence of Montreal. In 2001, she was beatified b…
Émilie Gamelin, Canadian nun, founded the Sisters of Providence (born 1800)
Marie-Thérèse was the eldest child of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France, and their only child to reach adulthood. In 1799, she married her cousin Louis Antoine, D…
Marie Thérèse of France (born 1778)
James Fenimore Cooper was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th…
James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist, short story writer, and historian (born 1789)
Manuel de Godoy y Álvarez de Faria Ríos, 1st Prince of the Peace was First Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Spain from 1792 to 1797 and from 1801 to 1808. He was one of the cen…
Manuel Godoy, Spanish general and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (born 1767)
The Congress of the Republic of Colombia is the name given to Colombia's bicameral national legislature.
The Congress of Colombia passed a law abolishing slavery in the country, to take effect at the beginning of the new year
Sojourner Truth was an American abolitionist and activist for African-American civil rights, women's rights, and alcohol temperance. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New …
Sojourner Truth (pictured) delivered her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at the Woman's Rights Convention in Akron
America was a 19th-century racing yacht and first winner of the America's Cup international sailing trophy.
The yacht America won the race for the Cup of One Hundred Sovereigns (trophy pictured), later renamed the America's…
The Christiana Resistance, also known as Christiana incident, or Christiana riot, was the successful armed resistance by free Blacks and escaped slaves to a raid led by a federal m…
In a fight near Christiana, Pennsylvania, a group of escaped slaves and free Blacks led by William Parker fought off a…
William Lassell was an English merchant and astronomer. He is remembered for his improvements to the reflecting telescope and his ensuing discoveries of four planetary satellites.
William Lassell found Umbriel and Ariel, the third and fourth Uranian moons to be discovered.
The New York Times (NYT) is a newspaper based in Manhattan, New York City. The New York Times covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces and re…
The New York Times, the largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, was founded.
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed for Indian Ocean trade, initially …
The British East India Company inaugurated the Horsburgh Lighthouse on the rocky outcrop of Pedra Branca, Singapore,…
The Arana–Southern Treaty or Convention of Settlement, formally known as the Convention for the perfect restoration of friendly relations between the Argentine Confederation and He…
The Arana–Southern Treaty is ratified, ending "the existing differences" between Great Britain and Argentina