1849

Events from the year 1849 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: James K. Polk (D-TN) (until March 4), Zachary Taylor (W-KY) (starting March 4)
* Vice President: George M. Dallas (D-PA) (until March 4), Millard Fillmore (W-NY) (starting March 4)
* Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (MD)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Robert Charles Winthrop (W-MA) (until March 4), Howell Cobb (D-GA) (starting December 22)
* Congress: 30th (until March 4), 31st (starting March 4)
==Events==
* January 23 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor.
* February 14 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first sitting President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
* February 28 – Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay. The California leaves New York Harbor on October 6, 1848, rounds Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrives at San Francisco, California after a 4-month-21-day journey.
* March 3
** Minnesota Territory is established.
** The United States Department of the Interior is established.
** The U.S. Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of gold coins.
* March 4 – Zachary Taylor becomes the 12th President of the United States, and Millard Fillmore becomes Vice President of the United States, but both refuse to be sworn in office on a Sabbath (Sunday). Urban legend holds that David Rice Atchison, President pro tempore of the United States Senate is President de jure for a single day.
* March 5 – President Zachary Taylor and Vice President Millard Fillmore are sworn into office.
* May 3 – The Mississippi River levee at Sauvé's Crevasse breaks, flooding much of New Orleans, Louisiana.
* May 20 – Astor Place Riot occurs in Manhattan.
* June 6 – Fort Worth, Texas is founded.
* September 1 – The first segment of the Pennsylvania Railroad, from Lewistown, Pennsylvania to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, opens for service.
* September 17 – Harriet Tubman emancipates herself.
* November 1 – Austin College receives a charter in Huntsville.
* November 13 – The Constitution of California is ratified by the electorate.
==Memoriam==
* January 30 – Jonathan Alder, settler (aged 75; Madison County, OH, USA)
* March 17 – Ann Gerry, Second Lady of the United States from 1813 to 1814 as wife of Elbridge Gerry (aged 85; New Haven, CT, USA)
* June 15 – James K. Polk, 11th President of the United States from 1845 to 1849 (aged 53; Nashville, TN, USA)
* July 5 – Robert Cary Long Jr., architect working in Baltimore (aged 39; Morristown, NJ, USA)
* July 12 – Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States from 1809 to 1817 as wife of James Madison (aged 81; Washington, DC, USA)
* July 14 – Thomas Earle, journalist, lawyer, and politician (aged 53; Willow Grove, PA, USA)
* July 30 – Jacob Perkins, inventor, mechanical engineer, and physicist (aged 83; London, England, UK)
* August 12 – Albert Gallatin, 4th United States Secretary of the Treasury (aged 88; New York City, NY, USA)
* August 23 – Edward Hicks, folk painter and Quaker preacher (aged 69; Newtown, PA, USA)
* October 7 – Edgar Allan Poe, author, poet, editor and literary critic (aged 40; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* October 22 – William Miller, Baptist preacher, leader of the Second Advent Movement (aged 67; Low Hampton, NY, USA)
==External links==
* 1849 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 7