Key Events in American History: 1849

President: Polk until March 4th; Zachary Taylor thereafter

VP: George M. Dallas until March 4th; Millard Fillmore thereafter

Date, Event

  • Feb 28th SS California arrives in San Francisco from NY; Trip takes 4 months & 21 days
  • Mar 5th President Polk is inaugurated
  • Mar 3rd Minnesota becomes a US territory
  • May 1st Cholera outbreak begins in Missouri
  • Dec 24th Fire in San Francisco destroys 50 buildings

    • Other

  • California Gold Rush (1848-1855)
  • Cholera spreads to Texas
  • California produces $10 million in gold
  • Nearly half of all Cheyenne die of Cholera
  • Waltham Watch Company begins operations
  • Henry David Thoreau publishes "Civil Disobedience" & refuses to pay taxes due to Mexican American war
  • Walter Hunt invents the safety pin

    • Births

  • Sep 14th Ivan Pavlov (Physiologist)

    • Deaths

  • June 15th James K Polk (11th President)
  • Oct 7th Edgar A. Poe (Author, "The Raven," "The Pit & the Pendulum," "The Gold Bug")