1848 - What happened in 1848 ?

January 1848

Monday 24:

California gold rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.

February 1848

Wednesday 02:

California Gold Rush: The first ship with Chinese emigrants seeking fortune in California's gold country arrive in San Francisco.

Monday 21:

Karl Marx publishes the Communist Manifesto.

Thursday 24:

King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates the throne.

Saturday 26:

The second French Republic is proclaimed.

March 1848

Saturday 04:

Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia

Sunday 05:

Louis Antoine Garnier-Pages is named French minister of Finance.

Wednesday 15:

Revolution breaks out in Pest. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.

Monday 20:

1848 – King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates.

Thursday 23:

The ship John Wickliffe arrives at Port Chalmers carrying the first Scottish settlers for Dunedin, New Zealand. Otago province is founded.

May 1848

Monday 01:

Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji), collegiate social fraternity, founded at Jefferson College (now Washington and Jefferson College) in Canonsburg, PA

Saturday 13:

First performance of Finland's national anthem.

Thursday 18:

Opening of the first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany.

Friday 19:

Mexican-American War: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – Mexico ratifies the treaty thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of five other modern-day U.S. states to the USA for USD $15 million.

Monday 29:

Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state.

June 1848

Friday 02:

Slavic congress in Prague begins.

July 1848

Monday 03:

Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands).

Tuesday 11:

The Waterloo railway station in London opens.

Wednesday 19:

Women's rights: The two day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York and the "Bloomers" are introduced at the feminist convention.

Saturday 29:

In Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put-down by police.

August 1848

Monday 14:

Oregon Territory organized by Act of U.S. Congress

Saturday 19:

California Gold Rush: The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).

November 1848

Wednesday 01:

In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which will later merge with Boston University School of Medicine), opens.

Friday 03:

A greatly revised constitution, drafted by Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, severely limiting the powers of the Dutch monarchy, and strengthening the powers of the parliament and the ministers, is proclaimed. This constitution is still in effect today.

Tuesday 07:

U.S. presidential election, 1848: Zachary Taylor is elected president in the first US presidential election held in every state on the same day.

Thursday 09:

Robert Blum, German revolutionary, executed in Vienna

December 1848

Saturday 02:

Franz Josef I becomes Emperor of Austria.

Tuesday 05:

California gold rush: In a message before the U.S. Congress, US President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.