1850 Archives | HISTORY

Timeline

1850

Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.

Mar16

Arts & Entertainment

“The Scarlet Letter” is published

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story of adultery and betrayal in colonial America, The Scarlet Letter, is published.

Jul09

U.S. Presidents

President Zachary Taylor dies unexpectedly

On July 9, 1850, after only 16 months in office, President Zachary Taylor dies after a brief illness. The exact cause of his death is still disputed by some historians.

Jul10

U.S. Presidents

Millard Fillmore sworn in as 13th U.S. president

On July 10, 1850, Vice President Millard Fillmore is sworn in as the 13th president of the United States. President Zachary Taylor had died the day before, five days after falling ill with a severe intestinal ailment on the Fourth of July.

Lithographic portrait of Millard Fillmore (1800 - 1874), the thirteenth president of the United States, mid nineteenth century. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

Getty Images / PhotoQuest / Contributor

Sep01

Arts & Entertainment

P.T. Barnum brings European opera star Jenny Lind to New York

On September 1, 1859, Jenny Lind, the greatest opera performer in the world, arrives from Europe to the United States for a triumphant national tour that set astonishing box-office records and fanned the flames of a widespread opera craze in 1850s America. She was invited to tour America by circus impresario P.T. Barnum.

Jenny Lind, PT Barnum's 'Swedish Nightingale', c1850 (1955). Regarded as one of the finest soprano opera singers of the 19th century, Lind (1820-1887) was invited to the United States by Barnum in 1850. Between 1850 and 1852 she gave 93 concerts in the US, earning Barnum $500,000 and herself $250,000, most of which she donated to charity. A print from Mathew Brady Historian with a Camera by James D Horan, Bonanza Books, New York, 1955. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Print Collector/Getty Images

Sep09

19th Century

California becomes the 31st state in record time

Though it had only been a part of the United States for less than two years, California becomes the 31st state in the union (without ever even having been a territory) on September 9, 1850.

Oct23

Women’s History

The first National Women’s Rights Convention begins

Suffragist organizers hold the first-ever National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts on October 23, 1850.

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