1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar).

Events

• January 11 - Christian mystic Hong Xiuquan begins the Taiping Rebellion.
• 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.
• March 1 - Victor Hugo gives speech at the French national assembly and uses the phrase United States of Europe several times
• March 27 - First reported case of white men seeing Yosemite Valley.
• March 30 - A population census was taken of all people living in the United Kingdom.
• April 28 - Santa Clara College is chartered in Santa Clara, California.
• 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.
• May 15 - Alpha Delta Pi Sorority, the first secret society for women, founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.
• May 15 - Rama IV is crowed King of Thailand.
• July - The immortal game, a famous chess game, is played.
• July 1 - Colony of Victoria separates from New South Wales.
• July 1 - Serial poisoner Helene Jegado is arrested in Rennes, France
• July 29 - Annibale de Gasparis, in Naples, Italy discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
• August 5 - Mount Pelee erupts and kills 30 people.
• August 22 - The yacht America wins the first America's Cup race.
• September 15 - Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• September 18 - The New York Times is founded.
• October - Reuters news service founded.
• October 18 - The Great Exhibition in London is closed.
• October 24 - Ariel and Umbriel, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Lassell.
• November 13 - The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what will become Seattle, Washington.
• November 14 - Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York - after it was first published on October 18, by Richard Bentley, London.
• 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 6 - Trial of Helene Jegado begins; she is eventually sentenced to death and executed in a guillotine.
• December 9 - The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
• December 24 - The Library of Congress burns.
• December 26-27 - Royal Navy warship bombards Lagos island; Oba Kosoko is wounded and flees to Epe.
• December 29 - The first YMCA opens, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Undated

• Dictator Rosas overthrown in Brazil. New government recognizes independent Paraguay. New Blanco government in Uruguay
• Florida State University is founded.
• Gold discovered in Australia.
• Northwestern University is founded.
• St. Paul's College, Hong Kong is founded.
• Macy's department store founded by R.H. Macy.

Births

• January 17 - A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)
• January 19 - Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)
• January 21 - Reinhard Hetze, Argentinian religious pioneer (d. 1939)
• February 8 - Kate Chopin, American writer (d. 1904)
• March 19 - William Henry Stark, Business Leader (d. 1936)
• March 27 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer and teacher (d. 1931)
• March 28 - Bernardino Machado, Portuguese President (d. 1944)
• April 21 - Charles Barrois, French geologist (d. 1939)
• May 6 - Aristide Bruant, French cabaret singer and comedian (d. 1925)
• May 20 - Emil Berliner, telephone and recording pioneer (d. 1929)
• May 21 - Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1925)
• July 20 - Arnold Pick, Czechoslovakian neurologist and psychiatrist (d. 1924)
• July 24 - Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (d. 1935)
• August 14 - Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter (d. 1887)
• September 7 - David King Udall, American politician (d. 1938)
• October 2 - Ferdinand Foch, French commander of allied forces in World War I (d. 1929)
• Robert Abbe, American surgeon (d. 1928)
• Tom Morris, Jr., Scottish golfer (d. 1875)

Deaths

• January 10 - Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian field marshal (b. 1775)
• January 27 - John James Audubon, French-American naturalist and illustrator (b. 1785)
• January 31 - David Spangler Kaufman, Congressman from Texas (b. 1813)
• February 1 - Mary Shelley, English author (b. 1797)
• February 18 - Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)
• February 28 - Guillaume Dode de la Brunerie, Marshal of France (b. 1775)
• March 9 - Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish scientist (b. 1777)
• September 10 - Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, American educator (b. 1787)
• September 11 - Sylvester Graham, American nutritionist and inventor (b. 1794)
• September 14 - James Fenimore Cooper, American writer (b. 1789)
• October 4 - Manuel de Godoy, Spanish statesman (b. 1767)
• October 19 - Marie Thérèse Charlotte (b. 1778)
• November 26 - Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult, French marshal and politician (b. 1769)
• December 19 - Joseph Mallord William Turner, English artist (b. 1775)
• 1851 - John Brown Russwurm, Abolitionist (b. 1799)

1851

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