1851

Centuries:	18th century - 19th century - 20th century
Decades:	1820s 1830s 1840s - 1850s - 1860s 1870s 1880s
Years:	1848 1849 1850 - 1851 - 1852 1853 1854

1851 in topic:
Subjects: Archaeology - Architecture -
Art - Literature (Poetry) - Music - Science
Sports - Rail Transport
Countries: Australia - Canada - Germany - Ireland - New Zealand - Norway - South Africa - U.S. - UK
Leaders: State leaders - Colonial governors
Category: Establishments - Disestablishments
Births - Deaths - Works v • d • e

1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Monday ^[1] of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar).

[edit] Events of 1851

May 1: Great Exhibition in Hyde Park

January 11 - Taiping Rebellion: Hong Xiuquan officially begins the Taiping Rebellion.
January 23 - The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in the Oregon Territory is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.
February 12 - Edward Hargraves claims to have found gold in Australia.
March 1 - Victor Hugo uses the phrase United States of Europe in a speech to the French national assembly.
March 11 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto is first performed at La Fenice in Venice.
March 27 - First reported case of white men seeing Yosemite Valley.
March 30 - A population census is taken in the United Kingdom.
April 28 - Santa Clara College is chartered in Santa Clara, California.
May 1 - The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London is opened by Queen Victoria. It runs until October 18.
May 15
- Alpha Delta Pi Sorority, the first secret society for women, founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.
- Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.

July - The immortal game, a famous chess game, is played.
July 1
- Colony of Victoria separates from New South Wales.
- Serial poisoner Helene Jegado is arrested in Rennes, France
July 10 - University of the Pacific is chartered as California Wesleyan College in Santa Clara, California
July 29 - Annibale de Gasparis, in Naples, Italy discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
August 1 - Virginia closes its Reform Constitutional Convention deciding that all white men have the right to vote.
August 5 - Mount Pelee erupts and kills 30 people.
August 22 - The yacht America wins the first America's Cup race.
September 15 - Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
September 18 - The New York Times is founded.
September 30 - The Fregatten Eugenies (or the Frigate Eugenie) left from Karlskrona, Sweden to begin its voyage as the first Swedish Royal Navy vessel to circumnavigate the world.

October - Reuters news service founded.
October 18 - The Great Exhibition in London is closed.
October 24 - Ariel and Umbriel, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Lassell.
November 13 - The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what will become Seattle, Washington.
November 14 - Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick; or The Whale is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York - after it was first published, on October 18 in London by Richard Bentley, in 3 volumes as The Whale.
December 2 - Louis Napoleon, president of France, dissolves French National Assembly and declares a new constitution to extend his term. Later he declares himself as an emperor Napoleon III. End of the Second Republic.
December 6 - Trial of Helene Jegado begins; she is eventually sentenced to death and executed by guillotine.
December 9 - The first YMCA (1844) in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
December 24 - The Library of Congress burns.
December 26-27 - Royal Navy warship bombards Lagos island; Oba Kosoko is wounded and flees to Epe.
December 29 - The first Boston YMCA opens (in Massachusetts).

January 17 - A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)
January 19 - Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)
February 8 - Kate Chopin, American writer (d. 1904)
March 19 - William Henry Stark, Business Leader (d. 1936)
March 27 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer and teacher (d. 1931)
March 28 - Bernardino Machado, Portuguese President (d. 1944)
April 13 - Robert Abbe, American surgeon (d. 1928)
April 20 - Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (d. 1875)
April 21 - Charles Barrois, French geologist (d. 1939)
May 6 - Aristide Bruant, French cabaret singer and comedian (d. 1925)
May 20 - Emil Berliner, telephone and recording pioneer (d. 1929)
May 21 - Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1925)

June 16 - Georg Jellinek, German legal philosopher(d. 1911)
July 15 - Eduardo Gutiérrez, Argentinian author (d. 1889)
July 20 - Arnold Pick, Czechoslovakian neurologist and psychiatrist (d. 1924)
July 24 - Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (d. 1935)
August 14 - Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter (d. 1887)
September 7 - David King Udall, American politician (d. 1938)
October 2 - Ferdinand Foch, French commander of allied forces in World War I (d. 1929)
October 20 - George Gandy, American entrepreneur (d. 1946)
December 20 - Dora Montefiore, English suffragist and socialist (d. 1933)
December 30 - Asa Griggs Candler, American businessman and politician (d. 1929)