1851

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Centuries:	18th century - 19th century - 20th century
Decades:	1820s 1830s 1840s - 1850s - 1860s 1870s 1880s
Years:	1848 1849 1850 - 1851 - 1852 1853 1854

1851 in topic:
Subjects: Archaeology - Architecture -
Art - Literature (Poetry) - Music - Science
Sports - Rail Transport
Countries: Australia - Canada - France - Germany - Ireland - New Zealand - Norway - South Africa - UK - USA
Leaders: State leaders - Colonial governors
Category: Establishments - Disestablishments
Births - Deaths - Works

1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Monday ^[1] of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1851

May 1: Great Exhibition in Hyde Park

January 11 - Taiping Rebellion: Hong Xiuquan officially begins the Taiping Rebellion.
January 23 - The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in the Oregon Territory is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.
February 12 - Edward Hargraves claims to have found gold in Australia.
March 1 - Victor Hugo uses the phrase United States of Europe in a speech to the French national assembly.
March 11 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto is first performed at La Fenice in Venice.
March 27 - First reported case of white men seeing Yosemite Valley.
March 30 - A population census is taken 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.
- Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.

July - The immortal game, a famous chess game, is played.
July 1
- Colony of Victoria separates from New South Wales.
- Serial poisoner Helene Jegado is arrested in Rennes, France
July 10 - University of the Pacific is chartered as California Wesleyan College in Santa Clara, California
July 29 - Annibale de Gasparis, in Naples, Italy discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
August 1 - Virginia closes its Reform Constitutional Convention deciding that all white men have the right to vote.
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.
September 30 - The Fregatten Eugenies (or the Frigate Eugenie) left from Karlskrona, Sweden to begin its voyage as the first Swedish Royal Navy vessel to circumnavigate the world.

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; or The Whale is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York - after it was first published, on October 18 in London by Richard Bentley, in 3 volumes as The Whale.
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 by guillotine.
December 9 - The first YMCA (1844) 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 Boston YMCA opens (in Massachusetts).

Scotch College in Melbourne is founded.
Northwestern University is founded.
St. Paul's College, Hong Kong is founded.
Macy's department store founded by R.H. Macy.
Western Union is founded.
Almost 21 million population in Britain.
6.3 million people live in cities of 20,000 or more in England and Wales. Cities of 20,000 or more account for 35% of the total English population.

January 17 - A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)
January 19 - Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)
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 13 - Robert Abbe, American surgeon (d. 1928)
April 17 - Madre Teresa Nuzzo, Foundress of the daughters of the sacred heart (d. 1923)
April 20 - Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (d. 1875)
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)

June 16 - Georg Jellinek, German legal philosopher(d. 1911)
July 15 - Eduardo Gutiérrez, Argentinian author (d. 1889)
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)
October 20 - George Gandy, American entrepreneur (d. 1946)
December 20 - Dora Montefiore, English suffragist and socialist (d. 1933)
December 30 - Asa Griggs Candler, American businessman and politician (d. 1929)