|-
| align="center" colspan=2 | Years: 1847 1848 1849 - 1850 - 1851 1852 1853
|-
| align="center" colspan=2 | 1830s 1840s - 1850s ''' - 1860s 1870s 1880s
|-
| align="center" | - 19th Century ''' - 20th Century
|}
1850 was a Common Year Starting On Tuesday (see link for calendar).
Events
- January 4 - The first American Ice-skating club is formed ( Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ).
- January 29 - Henry Clay introduces the Compromise Of 1850 to the U.S. Congress
- February 28 - University Of Utah opens in Salt Lake City , Utah
- March 7 - 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 19 - American Express is founded by Henry Wells & William Fargo .
- April 4 - Los Angeles, California is incorporated as a city.
- June 3 - The traditional date of Kansas City, Missouri 's founding. This is the date on which it was incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri as the "City of Kansas".
- July 9 - President Zachary Taylor dies while in office and Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th President Of The United States (he is inaugurated the next day).
- July 9 - The Báb , founder of the Bábí Faith , is executed by firing squad in Tabriz , Persia
- August 28 - Richard Wagner's opera '' Lohengrin '' premieres
- September 9 - California is admitted as the 31st U.S. State .
- September 9 - New Mexico Territory is organized by order of the U.S. Congress
- November 29 - The treaty called Punctation Of Olmütz was signed in Olomouc . It meant diplomatic capitulation of Prussia to Austrian Empire , which took over the leadership of German Confederation .
- December 16 - The first four sailing ships arrived at the Port of Lyttelton ( New Zealand ), with 792 emigrants or ''Canterbury Pilgrims'' as they called themselves. On this day they founded an exclusive theocratic Utopia , which they called Christchurch .
- December - Christian mystic Hong Xiuquan begins the Taiping Rebellion .
Unknown Date
Births
January - April
- January 4 - Frederick York Powell , English historian and scholar (d. 1904 )
- January 6 - Eduard Bernstein , German social democratic theoretician and politician (d. 1932 )
- January 6 - Xaver Scharwenka , Polish-German composer (d. 1924 )
- January 10 - John Wellborn Root , U.S. architect (d. 1891 )
- January 11 - Philipp Von Ferrary , Italian stamp collector (d. 1917 )
- January 14 - Pierre Loti , French sailor and writer (d. 1923 )
- January 15 - Mihai Eminescu , Romanian romantic poet (d. 1889 )
- January 15 - Leonard Darwin , son of the British naturalist Charles Darwin (d. 1943 )
- January 15 - Sofia Kovalevskaya , Russian mathematician (d. 1891 )
- January 17 - Aleksandr Taneyev , Russian composer (d. 1918 )
- January 18 - Seth Low , American educator (d. 1916 )
- January 19 - Augustine Birrell , English author and politician (d. 1933 )
- January 24 - Mary Noailles Murfree , American novelist (d. 1922 )
- January 27 - Edward Smith , Captain of the Titanic (d. 1912 )
- January 27 - Samuel Gompers , U.S. labor union leader (d. 1924 )
- January 28 - Edward Merritt Hughes , U.S. Navy officer (d. 1903 )
- February 12 - William Morris Davis , U.S. geographer (d. 1934 )
- February 14 - Kiyoura Keigo , Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1942 )
- February 15 - Albert B. Cummins , U.S. political figure (d. 1926 )
- February 17 - Alf Morgans , Premier of Western Australia (d. 1933 )
- February 23 - César Ritz , Swiss hotelier (d. 1918 )
- February 27 - Henry Huntington , U.S. railroad pioneer and art collector (d. 1927 )
- March 7 - Tomáš Masaryk , President of Czechoslovakia (d. 1937 )
- March 7 - Champ Clark , U.S. politician (d. 1921 )
- March 7 - Éphrem-A. Brisebois , Canadian police officer (d. 1890 )
- March 13 - Hugh John Macdonald , premier of Manitoba (d. 1929 )
- March 26 - Edward Bellamy , U.S. author (d. 1898 )
- March 31 - Charles Doolittle Walcott , U.S. invertebrate paleontologist (d. 1927 )
- April 11 - Isidor Rayner , U.S. senator (d. 1912 )
- April 12 - Nikolai Golitsyn , Prime Minister of Russia (d. 1925 )
- April 13 - Arthur Matthew Weld Downing , British astronomer (d. 1917 )
- April 15 - William Thomas Pipes , Nova Scotia politician (d. 1909 )
- April 15 - Edmund Peck , Canadian missionary (d. 1924 )
- April 16 - Paul Von Breitenbach , German railway planner (d. 1930 )
- April 18 - Joseph Labadie , U.S. labor organizer (d. 1933 )
- April 20 - Daniel Chester French , U.S. sculptor (d. 1931 )
- April 26 - Harry Bates , British sculptor (d. 1899 )
- April 26 - James Drake , Australian politician (d. 1915 )
- April 27 - Hans Hartwig Von Beseler , German soldier (d. 1921 )
- April 29 - George Murdoch , first mayor of Calgary (d. 1910 )
May - December
- May 1 - Prince Arthur Of The United Kingdom (d. 1942 )
- May 7 - Anton Seidl , Hungarian conductor (d. 1898 )
- May 8 - Ross Barnes , U.S. baseball player (d. 1915 )
- May 10 - Thomas Lipton , Scottish merchant and yachtsman (d. 1931 )
- May 12 - Henry Cabot Lodge , U.S. statesman (d. 1924 )
- May 12 - Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway , Scottish Liberal politician and jurist (d. 1934 )
- May 12 - Frederick Holder , premier of South Australia (d. 1909 )
- May 14 - Alva Adams , Governor of Colorado (d. 1922 )
- May 18 - Oliver Heaviside , British engineer (d. 1925 )
- May 21 - Giuseppe Mercalli , Italian volcanologist (d. 1914 )
- May 27 - Thomas Neill Cream , serial killer (d. 1892 )
- May 28 - Frederic William Maitland , English jurist and historian (d. 1906 )
- May 30 - Frederick Dent Grant , U.S. soldier and statesman (d. 1912 )
- June 2 - Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent , British businessman (d. 1931 )
- June 3 - Albert M. Todd , American businessman and politician (d. 1931 )
- June 5 - Pat Garrett , American bartender and sheriff (d. 1908 )
- June 6 - Karl Ferdinand Braun , German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1918 )
- June 12 - Roberto Ivens , Portuguese explorer of Africa (d. 1898 )
- June 22 - Ignaz Goldziher , Jewish Hungarian orientalist (d. 1921 )
- June 24 - Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener , British field marshal and statesman (d. 1916 )
- June 27 - Ivan Vazov , Bulgarian poet (d. 1921 )
- June 27 - Lafcadio Hearn , Greco-Japanese author (d. 1904 )
- June 27 - Jørgen Pedersen Gram , Danish mathematician (d. 1916 )
- July 2 - Robert Ridgway , U.S. ornithologist (d. 1929 )
- July 8 - Charles Rockwell Lanman , U.S. Sanskrit scholar (d. 1941 )
- July 12 - Newell Sanders , U.S. businessman and politician (d. 1938 )
- July 12 - Otto Schoetensack , German anthropologist (d. 1912 )
- July 15 - Mother Cabrini , U.S. saint (d. 1917 )
- July 20 - John G. Shedd , U.S. businessman (d. 1926 )
- July 28 - William Whittingham Lyman , U.S. vintner (d. 1921 )
- July 31 - Robert Love Taylor , Tennessee congressman (d. 1912 )
- July 31 - Robert Planquette , French composer of stage musicals (d. 1903 )
- August 5 - Guy De Maupassant , French writer (d. 1893 )
- August 6 - Henri Chantavoine , French writer (d. 1918 )
- August 14 - W. W. Rouse Ball , British mathematician (d. 1925 )
- August 26 - Charles Robert Richet , French physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1935 )
- August 27 - Silas Alexander Ramsay , mayor of Calgary (d. 1942 )
- August 30 - Cal McVey , U.S. baseball player (d. 1926 )
- September 2 - Woldemar Voigt , German physicist (d. 1919 )
- September 2 - Eugene Field , U.S. writer (d. 1895 )
- September 2 - Albert Spalding , U.S. baseball player and businessman (d. 1915 )
- September 2 - Alfred Pringsheim , German mathematician (d. 1941 )
- September 8 - Paul Gerson Unna , German dermatologist (d. 1929 )
- September 9 - Jane Ellen Harrison , British classical scholar and feminist (d. 1928 )
- September 28 - Charles William Dorsett , U.S. prohibitionist (d. 1936 )
- October 1 - David R. Francis , Governor of Missouri (d. 1927 )
- October 18 - Pablo Iglesias , Spanish socialist politician (d. 1925 )
- October 18 - Basil Hall Chamberlain , British Japanologist (d. 1935 )
- October 22 - Charles Kingston , Premier of South Australia (d. 1908 )
- October 30 - John Patton, Jr. , U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan (d. 1907 )
- November 5 - Ella Wheeler Wilcox , U.S. author and poet (d. 1919 )
- November 12 - Mikhail Chigorin , Russian chess player (d. 1908 )
- November 13 - Robert Louis Stevenson , Scottish writer (d. 1894 )
- November 13 - Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet , British politician (d. 1922 )
- November 16 - Federico Errázuriz Echaurren , Chilean political figure (d. 1901 )
- November 22 - Georg Dehio , German historian of art (d. 1932 )
- November 28 - Robert Koehler , German-born painter and art teacher (d. 1917 )
- November 30 - Cayetano Coll Y Toste , Puerto Rican historian and writer (d. 1930 )
- December 8 - Robert E. Pattison , governor of Pennsylvania (d. 1904 )
- December 9 - Emma Abbott , U.S. opera singer (d. 1891 )
- December 11 - Mary Victoria Hamilton , Scottish-German-French great-grandmother of Prince Rainier III of Monaco (d. 1922 )
- December 12 - Martin F. Ansel , Governor of South Carolina (d. 1945 )
- December 21 - Zdeněk Fibich , Czech composer (d. 1900 )
- December 24 - Brandon Thomas , British actor and playwright (d. 1914 )
- December 25 - Florence Griswold , U.S. art curator (d. 1937 )
- December 28 - Francesco Tamagno , Italian operatic tenor (d. 1905 )
Unknown Date
A - H
- Abdul Rahman Bin Faisal , Saudi ruler (d. 1928 )
- Abraham Fischer , Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony in South Africa (d. 1913 )
- Alexandre Luigini , French conductor and composer (d. 1906 )
- Alfred Gabriel Nathorst , Swedish Arctic explorer and geologist (d. 1921 )
- Alfred Maudslay , British colonial diplomat (d. 1931 )
- Andria Dadiani , Prince of Samegrelo (d. 1910 )
- Bernhard Baron , Jewish cigarette-manufacturer and philanthropist (d. 1929 )
- Artur Władysław Potocki , Polish nobleman (d. 1890 )
- Bernardo Reyes , Mexican general (d. 1913 )
- Charles Braithwaite , Manitoba politician and agrarian leader (d. 1910 )
- Charles Hazelius Sternberg , U.S. fossil collector and amateur paleontologist (d. 1943 )
- Cuthbert A. Brereton , British civil engineer (d. 1910 )
- Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis , U.S. publisher (d. 1933 )
- Daniel Carter Beard , U.S. scouting pioneer (d. 1941 )
- Daniel J. Greene , Newfoundland politician (d. 1911 )
- Ebenezer Howard , British urban planner (d. 1928 )
- Edgar Wilson Nye , U.S. humorist (d. 1896 )
- Edmond Holmes , English writer and poet (d. 1936 )
- Edmond Nocard , French veterinarian and microbiologist (d. 1903 )
- Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer , responsible for diabetes mellitus (d. 1935 )
- Edward John Gregory , British painter (d. 1909 )
- Emanuel Schiffers , Russian chess player (d. 1904 )
- Ernest Albert Waterlow , English painter (d. 1919 )
- Ernst Bernheim , German-Jewish historian (d. 1922 )
- Fanny Davenport , U.S. actress (d. 1898 )
- Fernando Fernandez , Puerto Rican distiller (approximate date; died 1940 )
- Georg Von Vollmar , Socialist politician in Bavaria (d. 1922 )
- George Henschel , English musician (d. 1934 )
- George Hitchcock , U.S. artist (d. 1913 )
- Hamo Thornycroft , British sculptor (d. 1925 )
- Hendry Brown , U.S. outlaw (approximate date; died 1884 )
- Henricus Van De Wetering , Archbishop of Utrecht (d. 1929 )
- Hermann Ebbinghaus , German psychologist (d. 1909 )
- Hermann Von Ihering , German-Brazilian zoologist (d. 1930 )
J-Z
- J. Walter Fewkes , U.S. anthropologist (d. 1930 )
- James Kenyon , British pioneer of cinematography (d. 1925 )
- James Moore , British cyclist (d. ?)
- Johann Büttikofer , Swiss zoologist (d. 1929 )
- John Casper Branner , U.S. geologist (d. 1922 )
- John Collier , British writer and painter (d. 1934 )
- John Perry , Irish engineer (d. 1920 )
- John Wycliffe Lowes Forster , Canadian portrait painter (d. 1938 )
- Johnny Ringo , U.S. cowboy (d. 1892 )
- Julius Wernher , German-born British businessman and art collector (d. 1912 )
- Kate Chopin , U.S. novelist (d. 1904 )
- László Lukács , Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 1932 )
- Laura E. Richards , U.S. author (d. 1943 )
- Lawrence Hargrave , Australian engineer (d. 1915 )
- Léon-Adolphe Cardinal Amette , French Catholic cardinal and archbishop of Paris (d. 1920 )
- Lluís Domènech I Montaner , Catalan architect (d. 1923 )
- Lucien Gaulard , French inventor (d. 1888 )
- Maria Beatrix Krasińska , Polish noblewoman (d. 1884 )
- Montague Aldous , Canadian surveyor (d. 1946 )
- Murdo MacKenzie , Scottish-Brazilian rancher (d. 1939 )
- Oscar Straus , U.S. politician (d. 1936 )
- Pavel Axelrod , Russian politician (d. 1928 )
- Per Hasselberg , Swedish sculptor (d. 1894 )
- Philip Bourke Marston , English poet (d. 1887 )
- Rose Hawthorne Lathrop , U.S. Roman Catholic nun and social worker (d. 1926 )
- Rose La Touche , lover of John Ruskin (d. 1875 )
- Rudolf Hoernes , Austrian geologist (d. 1912 )
- Solomon Schechter , founder of the United Synagogue of America (d. 1915 )
- Steve Bellan , Cuban baseball player (d. 1932 )
- Thomas Alexander Smith , U.S. politician (d. 1932 )
- Victor Henry , French philologist (d. 1907 )
- Victor Laloux , French Beaux-Arts architect (d. 1937 )
- Vissarion Jughashvili , Joseph Stalin's father (approximate date; died 1890 )
- William Lawrence , U.S. Episcopalian bishop of Massachusetts (d. 1941 )
- William Pugsley , Canadian politician and lawyer (d. 1925 )
- William Wallace Wotherspoon , U.S. general (d. 1921 )
- Yaa Asantewaa , Queen Mother of Edweso (approximate date; died 1921 )
- Zaharoff Basil , Anglo-Turkish financier and arms manufacturer (d. 1936 )
- Hugh Jass , American volconologist (d. 1938 )
Deaths
January - May
- January 20 - Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger , Danish poet and playwright (b. 1779 )
- January 22 - William Joseph Chaminade , French Catholic priest (b. 1761 )
- January 26 - Francis Jeffrey , Scottish judge and literary critic (b. 1773 )
- January 27 - Johann Gottfried Schadow , German sculptor (b. 1764 )
- January 27 - Philipp Roth , composer (b. 1779 )
- February 4 - Daniel Turner , officer in the United States Navy (b. 1794 )
- February 25 - Daoguang Emperor , of the Qing Dynasty of China (b. 1782 )
- February 27 - Samuel Adams , Democratic Governor of the State of Arkansas (b. 1805 )
- March 3 - Oliver Cowdery , U.S. religious leader (b. 1806 )
- March 26 - Samuel Turell Armstrong , U.S. political figure (b. 1784 )
- March 27 - Wilhelm Beer , German banker and astronomer (b. 1797 )
- March 28 - Gerard Brandon , Governor of Mississippi (b. 1788 )
- March 31 - John C. Calhoun , U.S. politician (b. 1782 )
- April 7 - William Lisle Bowles , English poet and critic (b. 1762 )
- April 9 - William Prout , English chemist and physician (b. 1785 )
- April 16 - Marie Tussaud , French wax sculptor (b. 1761 )
- April 23 - William Wordsworth , English poet (b. 1770 )
- April 24 - John Norvell , U.S. newspaperman and senator (b. 1789 )
- May 1 - Henri Marie Ducrotay De Blainville , French zoologist and anatomist (b. 1777 )
- May 10 - Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac , French chemist and physicist (b. 1778 )
- May 21 - Christoph Friedrich Von Ammon , German theological writer and preacher (b. 1766 )
- May 31 - Giuseppe Giusti , Tuscan satirical poet (b. 1809 )
June - December
- June 19 - Margaret Fuller , U.S. journalist (b. 1810 )
- June 30 - Richard Dillingham , U.S. Quaker teacher (b. 1823 )
- July 2 - Robert Peel , British Prime Minister (b. 1788 )
- July 4 - William Kirby , English entomologist (b. 1759 )
- July 7 - Timothy Hackworth , British steam locomotive engineer
- July 8 - Prince Adolphus Of The United Kingdom , 1st Duke of Cambridge (b. 1774 )
- July 9 - The Báb , Persian founder of the Bábí Faith (b. 1819 )
- July 9 - Zachary Taylor , 12th President Of The United States (b. 1784 )
- July 9 - Jean Pierre Boyer , president of Haiti (b. 1776 )
- July 14 - August Neander , German theologian and church historian (b. 1789 )
- July 25 - Richard Barnes Mason , military governor of California (b. 1797 )
- August 3 - Jacob Jones , officer in the United States Navy (b. 1768 )
- August 6 - Edward Walsh , Irish poet (b. 1805 )
- August 13 - Martin Archer Shee , Irish portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy (b. 1770 )
- August 18 - Honoré De Balzac , French author (b. 1799 )
- August 22 - Nikolaus Lenau , Austrian poet (b. 1802 )
- August 26 - King Louis-Philippe Of France (b. 1773 )
- August 27 - Thomas Kidd , English classical scholar and schoolmaster (b. 1770 )
- September 12 - Presley O'Bannon , officer in the United States Marine Corps (b. 1784 )
- September 22 - Johann Heinrich Von Thünen , German economist (b. 1783 )
- September 23 - José Gervasio Artigas , Uruguayan revolutionary (b. 1764 )
- October 2 - Sarah Biffen , English painter (b. 1784 )
- October 29 - Marmaduke Williams , Democratic-Republican U.S. Congressman from North Carolina (b. 1774 )
- November 2 - Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr. , Democratic governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina (b. 1796 )
- November 3 - Thomas Ford , governor of Illinois (b. 1800 )
- November 4 - Gustav Schwab , German classical scholar (b. 1792 )
- November 19 - Richard Mentor Johnson , Vice President Of The United States (b. 1780 )
- November 22 - Lin Zexu , Chinese politician (b. 1785 )
- November 30 - Germain Henri Hess , Swiss chemist and doctor (b. 1802 )
- December 4 - William Sturgeon , English physicist and inventor (b. 1783 )
- December 10 - François Sulpice Beudant , French mineralogist and geologist (b. 1787 )
- December 22 - William Plumer , U.S. lawyer and lay preacher (b. 1759 )
- December 24 - Frédéric Bastiat French author and economist (b. 1801 )
- December 28 - Heinrich Christian Schumacher , German astronomer (b. 1780 )
Unknown Date
- Adoniram Judson , U.S. Baptist missionary (b. 1788 )
- Antoni Potocki , Polish nobleman (b. 1780 )
- Báb , Bahá'í herald (b. 1819 )
- Charles Arbuthnot , British Tory politician (b. 1767 )
- Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn , British Tory politician (b. 1775 )
- Edward Bickersteth , English evangelical divine (b. 1786 )
- Elizabeth Simcoe , wife of John Graves Simcoe (b. 1762 )
- Frances Sargent Osgood , U.S. poet (b. 1811 )
- François-Xavier-Joseph Droz , French writer on ethics and political science (b. 1773 )
- Hone Heke , Maori chief and war leader
- Jan Krukowiecki , Polish general (b. 1772 )
- Jane Porter , English novelist (b. 1776 )
- José Manuel De La Peña Y Peña , interim President of Mexico (b. 1789 )
- Józef Bem , Polish general (b. 1794 )
- Juan Martín De Pueyrredón Y O'Dogan , Argentine general and politician (b. 1776 )
- Michał Gedeon Radziwiłł , Polish noble (b. 1778 )
- Matthew Whitworth-Aylmer, 5th Baron Aylmer , British military officer and colonial administrator (b. 1775 )
- Owen Stanley , British naval officer and explorer of New Guinea (b. 1811 )
- Robert Gilfillan , Scottish poet (b. 1798 )
- Robert Stevenson , Scottish lighthouse engineer (b. 1772 )
- Tan Tock Seng , Singaporean businessman philanthropist
- Valentín Canalizo , acting president of Mexico (b. 1794 )
- Saint Vincent Pallotti , Italian missionary (b. 1795 )
- William Lawson , British explorer of New South Wales (b. 1774 )
- William Hamilton Maxwell , Scots-Irish novelist (b. 1792 )
|