1851

Events from the year **1851 in the United States**.

* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Howell Cobb (D-GA) (until March 4), Linn Boyd (D-KY) (starting December 1)
* Congress: 31st (until March 4), 32nd (starting March 4)

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Henry W. Collier (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: John Selden Roane (Democratic)
* Governor of California: Peter Hardeman Burnett (Democratic) (until January 9), John McDougall (Democratic) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Connecticut: Thomas H. Seymour (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: William Tharp (Democratic) (until January 21), William H. H. Ross (Democratic) (starting January 21)
* Governor of Florida: Thomas Brown (Whig)
* Governor of Georgia: George W. Towns (Democratic) (until November 5), Howell Cobb (Democratic) (starting November 5)
* Governor of Illinois: Augustus C. French (Democratic)
* Governor of Indiana: Joseph A. Wright (Democratic)
* Governor of Iowa: Stephen P. Hempstead (Democratic)
* Governor of Kentucky: John L. Helm (Democratic) (until September 2), Lazarus W. Powell (Democratic) (starting September 2)
* Governor of Louisiana: Joseph Marshall Walker (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: John Hubbard (Democratic)
* Governor of Maryland: Philip F. Thomas (Democratic) (until January 6), Enoch Louis Lowe (Democratic) (starting January 6)
* Governor of Massachusetts: George N. Briggs (Democratic) (until January 11), George S. Boutwell (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Michigan: John S. Barry (Democratic)
* Governor of Mississippi:
	+ until February 3: John A. Quitman (Democratic)
	+ February 3-November 4: John I. Guion (Democratic)
	+ starting November 24: James Whitfield (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Austin Augustus King (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Samuel Dinsmoor Jr. (Democratic)
* Governor of New Jersey: Daniel Haines (Democratic) (until January 21), George F. Fort (Democratic) (starting January 21)
* Governor of New York: Washington Hunt (Whig)
* Governor of North Carolina: Charles Manly (Whig) (until January 1), David Settle Reid (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Governor of Ohio: Reuben Wood (Democratic)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: William F. Johnston (Whig)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Henry B. Anthony (Whig) (until May 6), Philip Allen (Democratic) (starting May 6)
* Governor of South Carolina: John Hugh Means (Democratic)
* Governor of Tennessee: William Trousdale (Democratic) (until October 16), William B. Campbell (Whig) (starting October 16)
* Governor of Texas: Hansborough Bell (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Charles K. Williams (Whig)
* Governor of Virginia: John B. Floyd (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Nelson Dewey (Democratic)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of California: John McDougall (Democratic) (until January 9), David C. Broderick (Democratic) (starting January 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Charles H. Pond (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Green Kendrick (Whig) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: William McMurtry (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: James H. Lane (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: vacant (until September 2), John Burton Thompson (political party unknown) (starting September 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Jean Baptiste Plauche (Whig)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: John Reed Jr. (political party unknown) (until January 11), Henry W. Cushman (political party unknown) (starting January 11)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: William M. Fenton (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Thomas Lawson Price (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Sanford E. Church (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Thomas Whipple (political party unknown) (until May 6), William Beach Lawrence (political party unknown) (starting May 6)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Joshua John Ward (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: John Alexander Greer (Democratic) (until August 4), James Wilson Henderson (Democratic) (starting August 4)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Julius Converse (Whig)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Samuel W. Beall (Democratic)

## Events

### January - March

* January 15 – Christian Female College, later Columbia College, receives its charter from the Missouri General Assembly.
* January 23 – The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in the Oregon Territory is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.
* January 28 – The Illinois General Assembly grants a charter to create Northwestern University.

### April - June

* April 9 – San Luis, the oldest permanent settlement in the state of Colorado, is founded by settlers from Taos, New Mexico.
* April 28 – Santa Clara College is chartered in Santa Clara, California.
* May 1 – The Great Flood of 1851 causes extensive damage in the Midwest; the town of Des Moines is virtually destroyed.
* May 6 – John Gorrie of Apalachicola, Florida is granted Patent No. 8080 for a machine to make ice.
* May 15 – Alpha Delta Pi sorority, the first secret society for women, is founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.
* May 29 – Sojourner Truth delivers the first version of her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, at the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

### July - September

* July 10 – The University of the Pacific is chartered as California Wesleyan College in Santa Clara, California.
* July 31 – Western Union is founded as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company.
* August 1 – Virginia closes its Reform Constitutional Convention deciding that all white men have the right to vote.
* August 2 – The Great Flood of 1851 ends.
* August 3 – The filibustering Lopez Expedition departs New Orleans for Cuba.
* August 22 – The yacht *America* of the New York Yacht Club wins the first America's Cup race, off the coast of England.
* September 15 – Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
* September 18 – *The New York Times* is founded.

### October - December

* October 15 – The City of Winona, Minnesota is founded.
* November 13 – The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what later becomes Seattle, Washington.
* November 14 – Herman Melville's novel *Moby-Dick; or The Whale* is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York, after being first published on October 18 in London by Richard Bentley, in 3 volumes as *The Whale*.
* December 29 – The first YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.

## Memoriam

* January 17 – Thomas Lincoln, farmer and father of the President of the United States Abraham Lincoln (aged 73; Coles County, IL, USA)
* January 27 – John James Audubon, naturalist and illustrator (aged 65; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 31 – David S. Kaufman, Congressman from Texas (aged 37; Washington, DC, USA)
* February 3 – Benjamin Williams Crowninshield, Congressman from Massachusetts, secretary of U.S. Navy (aged 78; Boston, MA, USA)
* March 11 – George McDuffie, 55th Governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1846 (aged 60; Sumter District, SC, USA)
* May 3 – Thomas Hickman Williams, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1838 to 1839 (aged 50; Pontotoc, MS, USA)
* May 22 – Mordecai Manuel Noah, Jewish playwright, diplomat, journalist and utopian (aged 65; New York City, NY, USA)
* July 6 – Thomas Davenport, electrical engineer (aged 48; Salisbury, VT, USA)
* August 24 – James McDowell, politician (aged 55; Lexington, VA, USA)
* September 10 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, minister, educator, co-founder of the first permanent school for the deaf in North America (aged 63; Hartford, CT, USA)
* September 11 – Sylvester Graham, nutritionist and inventor (aged 57; Northampton, MA, USA)
* September 14 – James Fenimore Cooper, historical novelist (aged 61; Cooperstown, NY, USA)
* September 24 – Lucius Lyon, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1843 to 1845 (aged 51; Detroit, MI, USA)
* November 1 – Willis Buell, politician and portrait painter (aged 61; GA, USA)
* November 28 – Amos Ellmaker, politician, attorney, and judge (aged 64; Lancaster, PA, USA)