Decades: 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s 1840s - 1850s - 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
Years: 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 - 1850 - 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855
Events End of the Irish potato famine The United States Republican Party is founded Foundation of the University of Sydney, the oldest in Australia January 4 - The first American ice-skating club is formed (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). January 29 - Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the United States Congress February 28 - University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City, Utah March 7 - United States Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech in which he endorses the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war. March 18 - American Express is founded by Henry Wells & William Fargo. April 4 - Los Angeles, California is incorporated as a city. July 9 - President Zachary Taylor dies while in office and Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th President of the United States (he is inaugurated the next day). August 28 - Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin premieres September 9 - California is admitted as the 31st U.S. state. December 16 - The first four ships arrived at Lyttleton to settle Christchurch, New Zealand. Births January 21 - Paul Vinzenz Busch, ringmaster (+ 1927) January 27 - Samuel Gompers, labor union leader (+ 1924) May 1 - Prince Arthur of the United Kingdom, third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, later Duke of Connaught and Strathearn May 12 - Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. statesman (+ 1924) September 2 - Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer November 13 - Robert Louis Stevenson (+ 1894) Deaths July 8 - Prince Adolphus of the United Kingdom, 1st Duke of Cambridge July 9 - Zachary Taylor, President of the United States August 18 - Honore de Balzac, author November 19 - Richard Mentor Johnson, Vice President of the United States