Directory

1845 CE

The United States Congress approves the annexation of Texas. HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, with 134 men, comprising Sir John Franklin's expedition to find the Northwest Passage, sail from Greenhithe on the Thames. They will last be seen in the summer, entering Baffin Bay. HMS Terror and HMS Erebus of the Franklin Expedition go missing in the Davis Strait west of Greenland, while searching for the Northwest Passage.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 23 – The United States Congress establishes a uniform date for federal elections, which will henceforth be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.source
  • February 28 – The United States Congress approves the annexation of Texas.source
  • March 1 – President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas, subject to approval by the voters in the Republic. The territory claimed includes all of the future U.S. state of Texas, as well as portions of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming.source
  • March 3 – Florida is admitted as the 27th U.S. state. On the same day, both houses of the U.S. Congress vote by a two-thirds majority, to override a presidential veto for the first time in history in order to pass legislation.source
  • April 20 – Ramón Castilla becomes president of Peru.source
  • August 9 – The Aberdeen Act is passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, empowering the British Royal Navy to search Brazilian ships, as part of the abolition of the slave trade from Africa.source
  • October 13 – A majority of voters in the Republic of Texas approve a proposed constitution that, if accepted by the United States Congress, will make Texas a U.S. state.source
  • December 2 – Manifest destiny: U.S. President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly enforced, and that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.source
  • December 27 – American newspaper editor John L. O'Sullivan claims (in connection with the annexation of the Oregon Country) in The United States Magazine and Democratic Review that the United States should be allowed "the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions". It is the second time he uses the term manifest destiny (first in connection with the Republic of Texas in July – August), and it will have a huge influence on American imperialism in the following century.source
  • December 29 – Texas is admitted as the 28th U.S. state.source
  • The Republic of Yucatán separates from Mexico for a second time.source

Conflict & Security

  • March 11 – The New Zealand Wars open with the Flagstaff War. Chiefs Kawiti and Hōne Heke lead 700 Maoris in the burning of the British colonial settlement of Kororareka (modern-day Russell, New Zealand).source
  • September 18 – The Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata is formally declared.source
  • November 20 – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata – Battle of Vuelta de Obligado: The Argentine Confederation is narrowly defeated by an Anglo–French fleet on the waters of the Paraná River, but the victors suffer serious damage to their ships, and Argentina attracts political support in South America.source
  • December 11 – First Anglo-Sikh War: Sikh army crosses the Sutlej in the Punjab.source
  • December 22–23 – Battle of Ferozeshah (Anglo-Sikh War): East India Company forces are victorious over those of the Sikh Empire.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 1 – The Philippines began reckoning Asian dates by hopping the International Date Line through skipping Tuesday, December 31, 1844. That time zone shift was a reform made by Governor–General Narciso Claveria on August 16, 1844, in order to align the local calendars in the country with the rest of Asia as trade interests with Imperial China, Dutch East Indies and neighboring countries increased, after Mexico became independent in 1821. The reform also applied to Caroline Islands, Guam, Marianas Islands, Marshall Islands, and Palau as part of the Captaincy General of the Philippines.source
  • May 19 – HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, with 134 men, comprising Sir John Franklin's expedition to find the Northwest Passage, sail from Greenhithe on the Thames. They will last be seen in the summer, entering Baffin Bay.source
  • May 30 – Fatel Razack (Fath Al Razack, 'Victory of Allah the Provider', ) is the first ship to bring indentured labourers from India to Trinidad and Tobago, landing in the Gulf of Paria with 227 immigrants.source
  • July 28 – HMS Terror and HMS Erebus of the Franklin Expedition go missing in the Davis Strait west of Greenland, while searching for the Northwest Passage.source

Religion & Belief

  • October 9 – The eminent and controversial Anglican, John Henry Newman, is received into the Roman Catholic Church.source
  • The Ancient and Accepted Rite for England and Wales and its Districts and Chapters Overseas is founded in Freemasonry.source

Economy & Finance

  • December 30 – Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Galway are incorporated in Ireland.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 17 – Stephen Perry patents the rubber band, in the United Kingdom.source
  • May 2 – Yarmouth suspension bridge in Great Yarmouth, England, collapses leaving around 80 dead, mostly children.source
  • July 26–August 10 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iron steamship Great Britain makes the transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to New York, the first screw propelled vessel to make the passage.source

Science & Discovery

  • August 28 – The journal Scientific American begins publication.source
  • Ephraim Bee reveals that the Emperor of China has given him a special dispensation: that he has entrusted him with certain sacred and mysterious rituals through Caleb Cushing, the U.S. Commissioner to China, to "extend the work and influence of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus" in the New World.source
  • Heinrich Hoffmann publishes a book (Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder), introducing his character, Struwwelpeter, in Germany.source

Health & Medicine

  • December 27 – Anesthesia is used for childbirth for the first time, by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • April 10 – The Great Fire of Pittsburgh destroys much of the American city of Pittsburgh.source
  • May 25 – A theater fire in Canton, China, kills 1,670.source
  • August 4 – British emigrant barque Cataraqui is wrecked on King Island (Tasmania) with 400 people killed and only 9 survivors.source

Climate & Environment

  • April 7 – An earthquake destroys part of Mexico City, along with the nearby towns of Tlalpan and Xochimilco.source
  • August 19 – A tornado kills 75 in France at Montville while destroying two large factories.source
  • September 9 – Potato blight breaks out in Ireland, beginning the Great Famine.source

Culture & Society

  • January 10 – Elizabeth Barrett receives a love letter from the younger poet Robert Browning; on May 20, they meet for the first time in London. She begins writing her Sonnets from the Portuguese.source
  • January 29 – The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is published for the first time, in the New York Evening Mirror.source
  • February 1 – Anson Jones, President of the Republic of Texas, signs the charter officially creating Baylor University (the oldest university in the U.S. state of Texas that still operates under its original name).source
  • February 7 – A drunken visitor smashes the Portland Vase in the British Museum, requiring months of repair work.source
  • March 13 – The Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn premieres in Leipzig, with Ferdinand David as soloist.source
  • May – Frederick Douglass's autobiographical Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is published by the Boston Anti-Slavery Society.source
  • September 25 – The Phi Alpha Literary Society is founded, in Jacksonville, Illinois.source
  • October 10 – In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipmen and seven professors.source
  • October 19 – Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser debuts at the Dresden Royal Court Theater.source
  • October 21 – The New York Herald becomes the first newspaper to mention the game of baseball.source
  • Eugénie Luce founds the Luce Ben Aben School in Algiers.source
  • Friedrich Engels' treatise The Condition of the Working Class in England is published in Leipzig as Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England.source

Births

  • February 15 – Elihu Root, American statesman, diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)source
  • February 25 – Sir George Reid, 4th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1918)source
  • March 3 – Georg Cantor, German mathematician (d. 1918)source
  • March 20 – Victor Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey, 18th Governor of New South Wales (d. 1915)source
  • May 4 – William Kingdon Clifford, English mathematician, philosopher (d. 1879)source
  • May 12 – Gabriel Fauré, French composer (d. 1924)source
  • May 15 – Élie Metchnikoff, Russian microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1916)source
  • June 18 – Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1922)source
  • June 22 – Richard Seddon, 15th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1906)source
  • August 16 – Gabriel Lippmann, Luxembourger-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1921)source
  • August 19 – Edmond James de Rothschild, French philanthropist (d. 1934)source
  • August 20 – Albert Chmielowski, Polish painter, Roman Catholic religious professed and saint (d. 1916)source
  • August 25 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria (d. 1886)source
  • November 10 – Sir John Thompson, 4th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1894)source

Deaths

  • January 11 – Etheldred Benett, British geologist (b. 1776)source
  • January 24 – Emiliano Madriz, acting Supreme Director of Nicaragua (b. 1800)source
  • February 22 – William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington, British politician (b. 1763)source
  • March 18 – Johnny Appleseed, American pioneer (b. 1774)source
  • May 12 – August Wilhelm Schlegel, German poet, translator and critic (b. 1767)source
  • June 8 – Former U.S. President Andrew Jackson, 78, dies at The Hermitage (Nashville, Tennessee).source
  • July 12 – Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian writer (b. 1808)source
  • July 17 – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1764)source
  • July 22 – Heinrich Graf von Bellegarde, Austrian field marshal, statesman (b. 1756)source
  • August 3 – Charlotte Ann Fillebrown Jerauld, American poet and story writer (b. 1820)source
  • August 23 – Rafael Urdaneta, hero of the Latin American War of Independence (b. 1788)source
  • October 12 – Elizabeth Fry, British humanitarian (b. 1780)source
  • November 17 – Sir Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, British admiral (b. 1778)source
  • November 18 – King Aleamotuʻa of Tonga (b. 1738)source