What Happened in 1849

Elizabeth Blackwell is banned from most hospitals and moves to Paris

Banned from practice in most hospitals she was advised to go to Paris, France and train at La Maternité, but while she was there her training was... Read more

Muhammad Abduh is born

The Egyptian reformer and Muslim apologist Muhammad 'Abduh was a pupil and friend of al-Afghani. Although deeply influenced by him, 'Abduh was less... Read more

Elizabeth Blackwell becomes first women to earn medical degree in US

When they discovered that she was serious, both students and townspeople were horrified. She had few allies and was an outcast in Geneva. At first,... Read more

Zachary Taylor is inaugurated as the 12th president of the United States

For the second time in the history of the Republic, March 4 fell on a Sunday. The inaugural ceremony was postponed until the following Monday,... Read more

Charles Dickens publishes David Copperfield

David Copperfield or The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (which... Read more

The St. Louis Great Fire

The St. Louis Fire of 1849 was a devastating fire that occurred on May 17, 1849 and destroyed a significant part of St. Louis, Missouri and many of... Read more

Lincoln Receives a Patent

As a young man, Abraham Lincoln took a boatload of merchandise down the Mississippi River from New Salem to New Orleans. At one point the boat slid... Read more

"Blind Tom" Wiggins is born

Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins was born on May 25, 1849 on the Wiley Edward Jones Plantation in Harris County, Georgia. Blind at birth, he was sold in... Read more

Louis Pasteur Marries Marie Laurent

Arriving in Strasbourg in January of 1849, he met Marie Laurent, daughter of the university's rector. With characteristic decisiveness, Pasteur... Read more

Edgar Allan Poe Becomes Engaged to Sarah Elmira Royster

August 1849 Engaged Again Poe travels to Richmond and convinces his childhood sweetheart, Elmira Royster Shelton, to become his fiancée. He joins... Read more

Harriet Tubman and brothers escaped from slavery

Harriet was given a piece of paper by a white abolitionist neighbor with two names, and told how to find the first house on her path to freedom. At... Read more

Edgar Allan Poe dies

On October 3, 1849, Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore delirious, "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance", according to... Read more

Franklin A. Buck Writes To His Sister Mary

"I have not come 20,000 miles," Yankee trader Franklin A. Buck wrote to his sister Mary on November 25, 1849, "to turn around and go right back... Read more