January–March •
January 14 – President
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte proclaims a
new constitution for the
French Second Republic. •
January 15 – Nine men representing various Jewish
charitable organizations come together to form what will become
Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. •
January 17 – The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the
Transvaal. •
February 3 –
Battle of Caseros,
Argentina: The Argentine provinces of
Entre Rios and
Corrientes, allied with
Brazil and members of
Colorado Party of Uruguay, defeat Buenos Aires troops under
Juan Manuel de Rosas. •
February 11 – The first British public toilet for women opens in
Bedford Street, London. •
February 14 – The
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits its first patient. •
February 15 – The
Helsinki Cathedral (known as ''St. Nicholas' Church'' at time) is officially inaugurated in
Helsinki,
Finland. •
February 16 – The
Studebaker Brothers Wagon Company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established in
South Bend, Indiana. •
February 19 –
Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded in
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, at
Jefferson College. •
February 25 – sinks near
Cape Town,
British Cape Colony. Only 193 of the 643 on board survive, after troops stand firm on the deck so as not to overwhelm the
lifeboats containing women and children. •
March 1 –
Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, is appointed
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. •
March 2 – The first American experimental steam
fire engine is tested. •
March 4 –
Phi Mu sorority is founded in Macon, Georgia. •
March 17 –
Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid
Psyche from the north dome of the
Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in
Naples. •
March 18 –
Henry Wells and
William Fargo create
Wells Fargo & Company. •
March 20 – ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin'', by
Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published in book form in
Boston, Massachusetts.
April–June •
April 1 – The
Second Anglo-Burmese War begins. •
April 18 –
Taiping Rebellion in China: Taiping forces begin the siege of
Guilin. •
May 19 – Taiping Rebellion: The siege of Guilin is lifted. •
June 12 – Taiping Rebellion: Taiping forces enter
Hunan. •
June 30 – The
New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 is passed by the
Parliament of the United Kingdom to grant the British
colony self-government with a representative constitution.
July–September •
July 1 – American statesman
Henry Clay is the first to receive the honor of
lying in state in the
United States Capitol rotunda. •
July 5 –
Frederick Douglass delivers his famous speech, "
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?", in
Rochester, New York. •
July 28 –
Henry Clay steamboat disaster in
Riverdale, Bronx, claims several lives, including
Stephen Allen. •
August 3 – The first American intercollegiate athletic event, the
Boat Race between
Yale and
Harvard, is held. •
August 23 – Boston missionary Reverend Benjamin Galen Snow lands on the island of
Kosrae in the
Caroline Islands (
Micronesia) first to bring the gospel to the island. •
September 11 –
Revolution of 11 September 1852 in Argentina:
Buenos Aires Province declares independence. •
September 19 –
Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid
Massalia from the north dome of the
Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in
Naples. •
September 24 – French engineer
Henri Giffard makes the first
airship trip, from Paris to
Trappes.
October–December •
October 7 – After learning that U.S. President Fillmore has sent Commodore
Matthew C. Perry to open trade with Japan,
Nicholas I of Russia sends Rear Admiral
Yevfimy Putyatin to lead the
Pallada on a similar mission (Putyatin arrives on
August 21,
1853, one month after Perry). •
October 16 – After nearly five years' imprisonment in France, former Algerian Emir
Abdelkader El Djezairi is released by orders of then-president
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. •
October 23 – The conjecture of the
four color theorem is first proposed, as student
Francis Guthrie of
University College London presents the question of proving, mathematically, that no more than four colors are needed to give separate colors to bordering shapes on a map (the theorem is not proven for almost 123 years, until
1976). •
October 31 – General Joaquin Solares of
Guatemala leads an invasion of neighboring
Honduras, beginning a war that lasts until
February 13,
1856. •
November –
Leo Tolstoy's
debut novel Childhood is published under the initials L. N., in this month's issue of the Saint Petersburg literary journal
Sovremennik (and later in book form). •
November 2 –
1852 United States presidential election:
Democrat Franklin Pierce of
New Hampshire defeats
Whig Winfield Scott of
Virginia. •
November 4 –
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour becomes the
Piedmontese prime minister. •
November 11 – The new
Palace of Westminster opens in London as the home of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom. •
November 21–
22 – The
New French Empire is confirmed by
plebiscite: 7,824,000
for, 253,000
against. •
November 23 – The first roadside
pillar boxes in the British Isles are brought into public use in
Saint Helier, on
Jersey in the
Channel Islands, at the suggestion of English novelist
Anthony Trollope, at this time an official of the British
General Post Office. •
November 27 – A
magnitude 7.5 to 8.8 earthquake strikes near the Banda Islands, Dutch East Indies, triggering a deadly tsunami. •
December – The
Western Railroad is chartered to build a railroad from
Fayetteville,
North Carolina, to the coal fields of
Egypt, North Carolina. •
December 2 –
Napoleon III becomes
Emperor of the French. •
December 4 – The French
capture Laghouat. •
December 23 –
Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army takes
Hanyang and begins the siege of
Wuchang. •
December 29 –
Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army takes
Hankou.
Date unknown • The
grooved rail is developed by
Alphonse Loubat. • The
Devil's Island penal colony opens in the colony of
French Guiana. • The
semaphore line in France is superseded by the
telegraph. •
Smith & Wesson is founded as a firearms manufacturer in the United States. • In
Hawaii, sugar planters bring over the first Chinese laborers on 3- or 5-year contracts, giving them 3 dollars per month plus room and board for working a 12-hour day, 6 days a week. • Germans are encouraged to
immigrate to
Chile. • The British
Inman Line is the first to offer United States-bound migrants steerage passage in a steamer, . •
Loyola College is chartered in
Baltimore,
Maryland. •
Antioch College is founded in
Yellow Springs, Ohio (its first president is Horace Mann). •
Mills College is founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in
Benicia, California. • The French Catholic
De La Salle Brothers arrive from Europe in
Singapore, aboard
La Julie, and sail up to
Penang in the
Straits Settlements, to found the first
Lasallian educational institutions in Asia. •
Justin Perkins, an American
Presbyterian missionary, produces the first translation of the
Bible in
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, which is published with the parallel text of the
Syriac Peshitta, by the American Bible Society. == Births ==