1850

1850 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1850; MDCCCL
Ab urbe condita	2603
Armenian calendar	1299; ԹՎ ՌՄՂԹ
Assyrian calendar	6600
Baháʼí calendar	6–7
Balinese saka calendar	1771–1772
Bengali calendar	1257
Berber calendar	2800
British Regnal year	13 Vict. 1 – 14 Vict. 1
Buddhist calendar	2394
Burmese calendar	1212
Byzantine calendar	7358–7359
Chinese calendar	己酉年 (Earth Rooster); 4547 or 4340; — to —; 庚戌年 (Metal Dog); 4548 or 4341
Coptic calendar	1566–1567
Discordian calendar	3016
Ethiopian calendar	1842–1843
Hebrew calendar	5610–5611
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1906–1907
- Shaka Samvat	1771–1772
- Kali Yuga	4950–4951
Holocene calendar	11850
Igbo calendar	850–851
Iranian calendar	1228–1229
Islamic calendar	1266–1267
Japanese calendar	Kaei 3; (嘉永３年)
Javanese calendar	1778–1779
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 12 days
Korean calendar	4183
Minguo calendar	62 before ROC; 民前62年
Nanakshahi calendar	382
Thai solar calendar	2392–2393
Tibetan calendar	阴土鸡年; (female Earth-Rooster); 1976 or 1595 or 823; — to —; 阳金狗年; (male Iron-Dog); 1977 or 1596 or 824

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century; 19th century ; 20th century;
Decades:	1830s; 1840s; 1850s ; 1860s; 1870s;
Years:	1847; 1848; 1849; 1850 ; 1851; 1852; 1853;

1850 (MDCCCL) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1850th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 850th year of the 2nd millennium, the 50th year of the 19th century, and the 1st year of the 1850s decade. As of the start of 1850, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Events

January–March

January 29 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the United States Congress.
January 31 – The University of Rochester is founded in Rochester, New York.^[1]
January – Sacramento floods.^[2]
February 28 – The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City.
March 5 – The Britannia Bridge opens over the Menai Strait in Wales.
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 16 – Nathaniel Hawthorne's historical novel The Scarlet Letter is published in Boston, Massachusetts.
March 19 – American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.
March 31 – The paddle steamer RMS Royal Adelaide, bound from Cork to London, is wrecked in the English Channel with the loss of all 250 on board.

April–June

April 4 – Los Angeles is incorporated as a city in California.
April 15
- San Francisco is incorporated as a city in California.
- Angers Bridge collapses in France killing around 226 of the soldiers crossing it at the time.
April 19 – The Clayton–Bulwer Treaty is signed by the United States and Great Britain, allowing both countries to share Nicaragua, and not claim complete control over the proposed Nicaragua Canal.
April
- Pope Pius IX returns from exile to Rome.
- Stephen Foster's parlor ballad "Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway" is published in the United States.
May 23 – The USS Advance puts to sea from New York to search for Franklin's lost expedition in the Arctic.
May 25 – The hippopotamus Obaysch arrives at London Zoo from Egypt, the first seen in Europe since Roman times.
June 1
- The transportation of British convicts to Western Australia begins, as the transportation of British convicts to other parts of Australia is phased out, when the ship Scindian arrives in Fremantle, with 75 male prisoners.
- The postage stamp issues of Austria begin with a series of imperforate typographed stamps, featuring the coat of arms.
- The 1850 United States Census shows that 11.2% of the population classed as "Negro" are of mixed race.
June 3 – Kansas City, Missouri, is incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri, as the Town of Kansas (traditional date of its founding).

July–September

July – Taiping Rebellion: Hong Xiuquan orders the general mobilisation of rebel forces in China.
July 1 – St. Mary's School for Boys (the future University of Dayton) opens its doors in Dayton, Ohio.
July 2 – Former twice-served British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel dies following a fall from his horse at Constitution Hill, London.
July 9
- Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad, known as the Báb, is executed by a firing squad in Tabriz, Persia, for claiming to be a prophet.
- Vice President Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th president of the United States upon the death of President Zachary Taylor, aged 65.
July 10 – President Millard Fillmore is sworn in.
July 17 – Vega became the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed.^[3]
August 28 – Richard Wagner's romantic opera Lohengrin (including the Bridal Chorus) premieres under the direction of Franz Liszt, in Weimar.
September 4 – The Eusébio de Queirós Law is passed in the Brazilian Empire to abolish the international slave trade.
September 9
- California is admitted as the 31st U.S. state.
- The New Mexico Territory is organized by order of the United States Congress.
September 12 – A 7.9 earthquake shakes the Chinese province of Sichuan killing more than 20,000 people.
September 13 – Piz Bernina, the highest summit of the eastern Alps, is first ascended.
September 18
- The Fugitive Slave Law is passed by the United States Congress.
- Harriet Tubman becomes an official conductor of the Underground Railroad.
September 29 – Papal bull Universalis Ecclesiae: The Catholic hierarchy is re-established in England and Wales, by Pope Pius IX and future Pope Pius X.

October–December

October 1 – The University of Sydney (the oldest in Australia) is founded.
October 19 – The Phi Kappa Sigma international fraternity is founded, at the University of Pennsylvania.
October 28 – Delegate Edward Ralph May delivers a speech on behalf of African-American suffrage, to the Indiana Constitutional Convention.
November
- Taiping Rebellion: The first clashes of the Taiping Rebellion occur, between the Imperialist militia and the Heavenly Army.
- Undergraduates at Exeter College, Oxford arrange a "foot grind" (a cross-country steeplechase), the first organised university athletic event.^[4]
November 29 – The treaty known as the Punctation of Olmütz is signed in Olomouc. It means diplomatic capitulation of Prussia to the Austrian Empire, which takes over the leadership of the German Confederation.
December 16 – Members of the Canterbury Association, the first settlers bound for Christchurch, arrive from England at the port of Lyttelton, New Zealand, aboard the Charlotte Jane and Randolph.

Date unknown

Dost Mohammad Barakzai, emir of Afghanistan, captures Balkh.^[5]
The first portion of the Oudh Bequest is transferred from Oudh State in the British Raj to the Shia Islam holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, in Persia.
The American system of watch manufacturing is started in Roxbury, Massachusetts, by the Waltham Watch Company.
Bingley Hall, the world's first purpose-built exhibition hall, opens in Birmingham, England.
Allan Pinkerton forms the North-Western Police Agency, later the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, in the United States.
The temperance organisation, International Organisation of Good Templars, is established in Utica, New York, as the order of the Knights of Jericho.
Mayer Lehman arrives from Germany to join his siblings in Lehman Brothers dry-goods business (predecessor of the bank) in Montgomery, Alabama.
One of the original segments of the historic Pacific Highway (United States) in Washington (state) in Clark and Cowlitz counties is established.^[6]
German physicist Rudolf Clausius publishes his paper on the mechanical theory of heat ("On the Moving Force of Heat") which first states the basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics.
The city of Manchester, England, reaches 400,000 inhabitants.
From this year until 1880, 144,000 East Indian laborers go to Trinidad and 39,000 to Jamaica.
Ongoing – Great Famine (Ireland) subsides.^[7]