General
Population: 1.16 Billion*
- Entertainment: Writers include Balzac, Davy Crockett (autobiography), Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, Joseph von Eichendorff, Lamb, Longfellow,
Johann Nestroy (farce), George Sand, Franz Bopp (grammar),
Music includes Chopin, Heinrich Marschner, Mendelssohn, Wagner,
Giuseppe Mazzini founds "Young Italy" movement
- Medicine: "Handbook of Human Physiology" completed
- Science: Charles Lyell finishes geological studies
- Technology: KF Gauss and WE Weber devise electromagnetic telegraph
Wheatstone bridge for the comparison of electric resistance devised by SH Christie
John Lane develops steel plow
- Deaths: Philanthropist William Wilberforce, Secretary of Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jurist Anselm Feuerbach, Actor Edmund Kean, Politician John Randolph,
Mathematician Adrien Legendre, Religionist Hannah More, Engraver Raffaello Morghen, Steam vehicle inventor Richard Trevithick,
, Ando Hiroshige's "53 stages of the Tokaido"
Africa
- Egypt: Mehemet Ali given Egypt and Syria in convention of Kutahia – founds 120 year dynasty
Independence granted by Ottoman Empire
- Cape Colony: Abolition of slavery
Americas
- Canada: S.S. Royal William crosses Atlantic in 25 days
- Falkland Islands: Occupied by Britain
- Mexico: General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna becomes president of Mexico – country threatened by Civil War
Steven Austin of Texas travels to Mexico City to petition for reforms
Asia
- General: Scottish explorer Alexander Burnes crosses Hindu Kush mountain range in Central Asia
- India: Drought, locusts, and famine - "Guntoor famine" wipes out 200,000
British East India Company rescinded
- Sumatra: Quake estimated at 8.7
Europe
- General: Munchengratz Agreement between Russia and Austria
- German States: William IV grants Hanover a new liberal constitution
All German states join the Zollverein (customs union)
Shakespeare translation completed
Economist Friedrich List advocates extension of German railroads
- Great Britain: British abandon slavery
First Venetian pictures by Turner at Royal Academy London
Edward Bouverie Pusey begins association with Oxford Movement (Anglicans)
British Factory Act provides system for factory inspections and restricts children in industry (none under nine)
Charity bazaars become popular
9 year old executed for stealing paint
- Greece: Prince Otto second son of King Louis I of Bavaria arrives in Nauplia to occupy throne of Greece as King Otto
- Russia: Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi between Russia and Turkey
- Spain: Isabella II proclaimed Queen of Spain (age 3) with mother Maria Christina as regent
Violence emerges
Middle East
- Ottoman Empire: Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi between Russia and Turkey
- Syria: Mehemet Ali given Egypt and Syria – founds 120 year dynasty
Pacific
- Arctic: Sir John Ross returns from his second Arctic expedition (discovery of magnetic north)