1850

Events 
 The speed of light in water was observed to be slower than that in air.

 Books 
 The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

 Births 
 January 21 – Paul Vinzenz Busch, ringmaster (d. 1927)
 January 27 – Samuel Gompers, English-born labor leader (d. 1924)
 January 27 – Edward J. Smith, Captain of the Titanic (d. 1912)
 May 1 – Prince Arthur of the United Kingdom (d. 1942)
 May 8 – Ross Barnes, baseball player (d. 1915)
 May 12 –  Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. statesman (d. 1924)
 May 21 – Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian volcanologist (d. 1914)
 July 12 – Otto Schoetensack, German anthropologist (d. 1912)
 September 2 – Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer (d. 1915)
 November 13 – Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish writer (d. 1894)
 December 9 – Emma Abbott, American opera singer (d. 1891)
 December 21 – Zdenek Fibich, Czech composer (d. 1900)

 Deaths 
 July 2 – Robert Peel
 July 9 - Zachary Taylor, 65, twelfth President of the United States, cholera (b. 1784)