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

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Henry W. Collier (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: John Selden Roane (Democratic)
* Governor of California: Peter Hardeman Burnett (Democratic) (starting September 9)
* Governor of Connecticut: Joseph Trumbull (Whig) (until May 4), Thomas H. Seymour (Democratic) (starting May 4)
* Governor of Delaware: William Tharp (Democratic)
* Governor of Florida: Thomas Brown (Whig)
* Governor of Georgia: George W. Towns (Democratic)
* Governor of Illinois: Augustus C. French (Democratic)
* Governor of Indiana: Joseph A. Wright (Democratic)
* Governor of Iowa: Ansel Briggs (Democratic) (until December 4), Stephen P. Hempstead (Democratic) (starting December 4)
* Governor of Kentucky: John J. Crittenden (Whig) (until July 13), John L. Helm (Democratic) (starting July 13)
* Governor of Louisiana: Isaac Johnson (Democratic) (until January 28), Joseph Marshall Walker (Democratic) (starting January 28)
* Governor of Maine: John W. Dana (Democratic) (until May 8), John Hubbard (Democratic) (starting May 8)
* Governor of Maryland: Philip F. Thomas (Democratic)
* Governor of Massachusetts: George N. Briggs (Democratic)
* Governor of Michigan: Epaphroditus Ransom (Democratic) (until January 7), John S. Barry (Democratic) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Mississippi: Joseph W. Matthews (Democratic) (until January 10), John A. Quitman (Democratic) (starting January 10)
* Governor of Missouri: Austin Augustus King (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Samuel Dinsmoor Jr. (Democratic)
* Governor of New Jersey: Daniel Haines (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: Hamilton Fish (Whig)
* Governor of North Carolina: Charles Manly (Whig)
* Governor of Ohio: Seabury Ford (Whig) (until December 12), Reuben Wood (Democratic) (starting December 12)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: William F. Johnston (Whig)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Henry B. Anthony (Whig)
* Governor of South Carolina: Whitemarsh B. Seabrook (Democratic) (until December 13), John Hugh Means (Democratic) (starting December 13)
* Governor of Tennessee: William Trousdale (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Hansborough Bell (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Carlos Coolidge (Whig) (until October 11), Charles K. Williams (Whig) (starting October 11)
* Governor of Virginia: John B. Floyd (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Nelson Dewey (Democratic)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of California: John McDougall (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Thomas Backus (Democratic) (until May 4), Charles H. Pond (Democratic) (starting May 4)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: William McMurtry (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: James H. Lane (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: John LaRue Helm (Whig) (until July 31), vacant (starting July 31)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Trasimond Landry (Whig) (until January 28), Jean Baptiste Plauche (Whig) (starting January 28)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: John Reed Jr. (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: William M. Fenton (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Thomas Lawson Price (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: George W. Patterson (Whig)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Thomas Whipple (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: William Henry Gist (Democratic) (until December 13), Joshua John Ward (Democratic) (starting December 13)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: John Alexander Greer (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Robert Pierpoint (Whig) (until October 11), Julius Converse (Whig) (starting October 11)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: John E. Holmes (Democratic) (until January 7), Samuel W. Beall (Democratic) (starting January 7)

## 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)