Events |

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  January 23 – The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in Oregon is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.


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  March 1 – Victor Hugo gives speech at the French national assembly and uses the phrase United States of Europe several times


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  March 27 – First reported case of white men seeing Yosemite Valley.


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  March 30 – A population census was taken of all people living in the United Kingdom.


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  May 1 – The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London is opened by Queen Victoria. It runs until October 18.


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  May 15 – Rama IV is crowed King of Thailand.


• July – The immortal game, a famous chess game, is played.


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  July 1 – Colony of Victoria separates from New South Wales.


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  July 29 – Annibale de Gasparis, in Naples, Italy discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.


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  August 22 – The yacht America wins the first America's Cup race (see Yachting).


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  October 18 – The Great Exhibition in London is closed.


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  November 13 – The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what will become Seattle, Washington.


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  December 2 – Louis Napoleon, president of France, dissolves French National Assembly and declares a new constitution to extend his term. Later he declares himself as an emperor Napoleon III. End of the Second Republic.


• 
  December 24 – The Library of Congress burns.


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  December 29 – The first YMCA opens, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Births |

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  January 17 – A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)


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  January 19 – Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)


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  February 8 – Kate Chopin, American writer (d. 1904)


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  March 27 – Vincent d'Indy, French composer and teacher (d. 1931)


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  April 21 – Charles Barrois, French geologist (d. 1939)


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  May 6 – Aristide Bruant, French cabaret singer and comedian (d. 1925)


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  May 20 – Emil Berliner, telephone and recording pioneer (d. 1929)


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  August 14 – Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter (d. 1887)


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  October 2 – Ferdinand Foch, French commander of allied forces in World War I (d. 1929)


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  October 31 – Princess Louise of Sweden
  


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  Robert Abbe, American surgeon (d. 1928)


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  Ruperto Chapí, Spanish zarzuelist


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  Tom Morris, Jr., Scottish golfer (d. 1875)

Deaths |

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  February 1 – Mary Shelley, British writer of Frankenstein
  


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  August 28 – Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, Australian explorer
  


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  September 14 – James Fenimore Cooper
  

Art, music, theatre, and literature |

• 
  The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne.


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  Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.