Explore 418 historical events from 1850–1859.
Thorstein Bunde Veblen was an American economist and sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known critic of capitalism.
Thorstein Veblen, American economist and sociologist (died 1929)
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist. Along with his poetry, he is known for writing the autobiographical novel La Confession d'un enfan…
Alfred de Musset, French dramatist, poet, and novelist (born 1810)
Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near…
Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge, English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist (died 1934)
Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist. He was one of the first to rigorously state and prove the key theorems of calculus, pioneered the f…
Augustin-Louis Cauchy, French mathematician and academic (born 1789)
Douglas William Jerrold was an English dramatist, journalist, and writer, best known for his satirical wit, his socially critical essays, and his association with the early years o…
Douglas William Jerrold, English journalist and playwright (born 1803)
Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny was a French naturalist who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology, palaeontology, geology, archaeology and anth…
Alcide d'Orbigny, French zoologist and paleontologist (born 1802)
Carlo Pisacane, Duke of San Giovanni was an Italian patriot and one of the first Italian socialist thinkers. He was an early advocate of propaganda by deed, arguing that violence w…
Carlo Pisacane, Italian soldier and philosopher (born 1818)
William Learned Marcy was an American lawyer, politician, and judge who served as U.S. Senator, the eleventh Governor of New York, U.S. Secretary of War and the twenty-first U.S. S…
William L. Marcy, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 21st United States Secretary of State (born 1786)
Carl Czerny was an Austrian composer, music educator, and pianist of Czech origin. His music spanned the late Classical and early Romantic eras. His vast musical production amounte…
Carl Czerny, Austrian pianist and composer (born 1791)
Stefano Franscini was a Swiss politician and statistician. He was one of the initial members of the Swiss Federal Council elected in 1848 and Switzerland's first native Italian spe…
Stefano Franscini, Swiss statistician and politician (born 1796)
Reverend Thomas Dick, was a British church minister, science teacher and writer, known for his works on astronomy and practical philosophy, combining science and Christianity, and …
Thomas Dick, Scottish minister, astronomer, and author (born 1774)
Mindon Min, born Maung Lwin, was the penultimate king of Burma (Myanmar) from 1853 to 1878. He was one of the most popular and revered kings of Burma because of his role in the Fif…
Mindon Min was crowned as King of Burma
The Revolution of the Ganhadores was a labor strike that involved African porters, known as ganhadores, in the Brazilian city of Salvador, Bahia. The strike began following the pas…
The Revolution of the Ganhadores, the first general strike in Brazil, began in Salvador, Bahia
The Australian labour movement began in the early 19th century and since the late 19th century has included industrial and political wings. Trade unions in Australia may be formed …
Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the Universit
Lawrence is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride …
Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces
The Mormon handcart pioneers were participants in the migration of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Salt Lake City, Utah, who used handcarts to transpo…
Five hundred Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa for the Mormon Trail
Granville Tailer Woods was an American inventor who held more than 60 patents in the United States. He was the first African American mechanical and electrical engineer after the C…
Granville Woods, American inventor and engineer (died 1910)
Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain, better known as Marshal Pétain, was a French military officer who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of th…
Philippe Pétain, French general and politician, 119th Prime Minister of France (died 1951)
Sir Joseph George Ward, 1st Baronet, was a New Zealand politician who served as the 17th prime minister of New Zealand from 1906 to 1912 and from 1928 to 1930. He was a dominant fi…
Joseph Ward, Australian-New Zealand businessman and politician, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1930)
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the Ho…
Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the h
John Brown was an American Christian abolitionist in the decades preceding the American Civil War. First reaching national prominence in the 1850s for his radical abolitionism and …
John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas
The Pitcairn Islands, officially Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, are a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas…
A group of 194 Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty, arrives at Norfolk Island, commencing the
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies arising from conflicts in the psyche through …
Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst (died 1939)
Robert Edwin Peary was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was long …
Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (died 1920)