1850

Events from the year 1850 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Zachary Taylor (W-KY) (until July 9), Millard Fillmore (W-NY) (starting July 9)
* Vice President: Millard Fillmore (W-NY) (until July 9), vacant (starting July 9)
* Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (MD)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Howell Cobb (D-GA)
* Congress: 31st
==Events==
===January - March===
* January 1 – Sacramento floods.
* January 29 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to Congress.
* January 31 – The University of Rochester is chartered in Rochester, New York; it admits its first students in November
* February 1 – The Liberty Head double eagle first issued for commerce.
* February 8 – Battle at Fort Utah begins: The Nauvoo Legion kills Timpanogos hostile to the Mormon settlement at Fort Utah on the orders of Brigham Young.
* February 17 – Battle at Fort Utah ends.
* February 28 – The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City.
* 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 16 – Nathaniel Hawthorne's historical novel The Scarlet Letter is published in Boston, Massachusetts.
* March 19 – American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.
===April - June===
* April 4 – Los Angeles is incorporated as a city in California.
* April 15 – San Francisco is incorporated as a city in California.
* April 19 – Clayton–Bulwer Treaty is signed by the United States and Great Britain, allowing both countries to share Nicaragua and not claim complete control over the proposed Nicaragua Canal.
* April 30 – Mayer Lehman arrives from Germany to join his siblings in Lehman Brothers merchant business in Montgomery, Alabama.
* May 7 – The brigantine USS Advance is loaned to the United States Navy.
* May 23 – The USS Advance puts to sea from New York City to search for Franklin's lost expedition in the Arctic.
* June 1 – The 1850 United States census shows that 11.2% of the population classed as "Negro" are of mixed race.
* June 2 – Harper's Magazine published as a new monthly in New York City.
* June 3 – Traditional date of Kansas City, Missouri's founding: it is incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri as the "Town of Kansas".
===July - September===
* July 1 – St. Mary's Institute (the future University of Dayton) admits its first pupils in Dayton, Ohio.
* July 9 – President Zachary Taylor dies in office; Vice President Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th President of the United States.
* July 10 – President Fillmore is sworn in.
* July 14 – John Gorrie makes the first public demonstration of his ice-making machine, in Apalachicola, Florida.
* September 9
** California admitted becomes the 31st state.
** Utah Territory is established.
** New Mexico Territory is organized by order of the U.S. Congress.
* September 18 – The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 is passed by the U.S. Congress. Harriet Tubman becomes an official conductor of the Underground Railroad.
===October - December===
* October 19 – Phi Kappa Sigma International Fraternity founded at the University of Pennsylvania.
* October 28 – Delegate Edward Ralph May delivers a speech on behalf of African American suffrage to the Indiana Constitutional Convention.
==Memoriam==
* February 1 – Edward Baker Lincoln, second son of Abraham Lincoln (aged 3; Springfield, IL, USA)
* March 3 – Oliver Cowdery, religious leader (aged 43; Richmond, MO, USA)
* March 21 – Miguel Pedrorena, early settler of San Diego, California (aged 42; San Diego, CA Territory, USA)
* March 28 – Gerard Brandon, 4th and 6th Governor of Mississippi from 1825 to 1826 and from 1826 to 1832 (aged 61; Fort Adams, MS, USA)
* March 31 – John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President of the United States from 1825 to 1832 (aged 68; Washington, DC, USA)
* April 12 – Adoniram Judson, Congregationalist and later Baptist missionary (aged 61; Bay of Bengal)
* April 24 – John Norvell, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1837 to 1841 (aged 60; Detroit, MI, USA)
* May 16 – William Hendricks, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1825 to 1837 (aged 67; Madison, IN, USA)
* July 9 – Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States from 1849 to 1850 (aged 65; Washington, DC, USA)
* July 19 – Margaret Fuller, journalist, literary critic and women's rights advocate, presumed drowned (aged 40; Fire Island, NY, USA)
* November 3 – Thomas Ford, 8th Governor of Illinois (aged 49; Peoria, IL, USA)
* November 19 – Richard Mentor Johnson, 9th Vice President of the United States from 1837 to 1841, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1819 to 1829 (aged 70; Frankfort, KY, USA)
==External links==
* 1850 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 8