What Happened in 1848

Charles Dickens publishes The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain

The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, A Fancy for Christmas-Time, (better known as The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain) is a novella by... Read more

Louis Pasteur Discovers Molecular Chirality

There's an easy way to understand chirality. Hold out your hands, palms facing each other. Imagine that each hand is the chemical structure of a... Read more

Lee Departs for Fort Carroll

. . . . My days are spent pretty much at Fort Carroll (Sollers Point); My thoughts are engrossed with driving piles & laying stone. . . . Poor... Read more

Douglass Participates in First Women's Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, New York

Frederick DouglassA crowd of about three hundred people, including forty men, came from five miles round. No woman felt capable of presiding; the... Read more

Douglass Begins Sheltering Escaped Slaves Fleeing North on the "Underground Railroad."

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1818, and was given the name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey... Read more

John C. Calhoun Makes A Speech To Congress

This was a controversial proposition for two reasons. First, idealistic advocates of Manifest Destiny like John L. O'Sullivan had always maintained... Read more

James W. Marshall Discovers Gold In California

On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold on the property of Johann A. Sutter near Coloma, California. A builder, Marshall was... Read more

Major John C. Fremont Is Court-Martialed

Major John C. Frémont (1813-90), popularly admired for his mapmaking expeditions to the West, was court-martialed on grounds of mutiny and... Read more

Mexican CessionTreaty Is Signed

The Mexican Cession of 1848 is a historical name for the region of the present day southwestern United States that was ceded to the U.S. by Mexico... Read more

Treaty Of Guadalupe Hidalgo Is Signed

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in Mexico City on February 2, 1848, ending the Mexican War and extending the boundaries of the United... Read more

Battle Of Santa Cruz De Rosales

The Battle of Santa Cruz de Rosales was an engagement of the Mexican-American War that took place after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had been... Read more

Ice Dam Is Formed At The Source Of The Niagara River

An enormous ice dam formed at the source of the Niagara River on the eastern shore of Lake Erie on March 29, 1848. Just after midnight, the... Read more

Wisconsin is the 30th State Admitted to the Union

On May 29, 1848, Wisconsin became the thirtieth state admitted to the Union. The "Badger State" was the last state formed in its entirety from the... Read more

Congress Creates The Oregon Territory

On August 14, 1848, Congress created the Oregon Territory, an area encompassing present-day Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and parts of western Montana... Read more

New York Herald Reports on the Discovery of Gold in California

The gold mine discovered in December last, on the South branch of the American fork, in a range of low hills forming the base of the Sierra Nevada,... Read more

Ulysses S. Grant Gets Married

On August 22, 1848, Grant married Julia Boggs Dent (1826–1902), the daughter of a slave owner. Together, they had four children: Frederick Dent... Read more

Phineas Gage Survives Being Impaled Through the Head by a Three Foot Long Iron Rod

Phineas P. Gage (July 9, 1823 – May 21, 1860) was a railroad construction foreman now remembered for his incredible survival of an accident in... Read more

Edgar Allan Poe Proposes to Poet Sarah Whitman but Engagement is Called Off

November 1848 Engagement Poe proposes to a poet named Sarah Helen Whitman, who agrees on the condition that he quit drinking. Poe can't live up... Read more