1851

Events 
 January 23 – The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in Oregon is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.
 March 1 – Victor Hugo gives speech at the French national assembly and uses the phrase United States of Europe several times
 March 27 – First reported case of white men seeing Yosemite Valley.
 March 30 – A population census was taken of all people living in the United Kingdom.
 May 1 – The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London is opened by Queen Victoria. It runs until October 18.
 May 15 – Rama IV is crowed King of Thailand.
 July – The immortal game, a famous chess game, is played.
 July 1 – Colony of Victoria separates from New South Wales.
 July 29 – Annibale de Gasparis, in Naples, Italy discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
 August 22 – The yacht America wins the first America's Cup race (see Yachting).
 October 18 – The Great Exhibition in London is closed.
 November 13 – The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what will become Seattle, Washington.
 December 2 – Louis Napoleon, president of France, dissolves French National Assembly and declares a new constitution to extend his term. Later he declares himself as an emperor Napoleon III. End of the Second Republic.
 December 24 – The Library of Congress burns.
 December 29 – The first YMCA opens, in Boston, Massachusetts.

 Births 
 January 17 – A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)
 January 19 – Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)
 February 8 – Kate Chopin, American writer (d. 1904)
 March 27 – Vincent d'Indy, French composer and teacher (d. 1931)
 April 21 – Charles Barrois, French geologist (d. 1939)
 May 6 – Aristide Bruant, French cabaret singer and comedian (d. 1925)
 May 20 – Emil Berliner, telephone and recording pioneer (d. 1929)
 August 14 – Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter (d. 1887)
 October 2 – Ferdinand Foch, French commander of allied forces in World War I (d. 1929)
 October 31 – Princess Louise of Sweden
 Robert Abbe, American surgeon (d. 1928)
 Ruperto Chapí, Spanish zarzuelist
 Tom Morris, Jr., Scottish golfer (d. 1875)

 Deaths 
 February 1 – Mary Shelley, British writer of Frankenstein
 August 28 – Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, Australian explorer
 September 14 – James Fenimore Cooper

 Art, music, theatre, and literature 
 The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
 Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.