Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century
Decades: 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s 1840s - 1850s - 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
Years: 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 - 1853 - 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858
Events
- January 19 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in Rome
- January 21 - Russell L. Hawes patents the envelope folding machine.
- August 24 - Potato chips first prepared.
- December 30 - Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest
- Franklin Pierce succeeds Millard Fillmore as President of the United States of America
- Start of Crimean War
- Independent Santa Cruz Maya of Eastern Yucatan recognized as an independent nation by British Empire
Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy
Births
- January 28 - Jose Marti, revolutionary (+ 1895)
- March 14 - Ferdinand Hodler, painter (+ 1918)
- March 30 - Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter
- July 5 - Cecil John Rhodes, South African politician
- July 18- Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate
Deaths
- January 16 - Matteo Carcassi, Italian composer