1849

Events from the year **1849 in the United States**.

## Incumbents

### Federal Government

* President: James K. Polk (D-TN) (until March 4), Zachary Taylor (W-KY) (starting March 4)
* Vice President: George M. Dallas (D-PA) (until March 4), Millard Fillmore (W-NY) (starting March 4)
* Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (MD)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Robert Charles Winthrop (W-MA) (until March 4), Howell Cobb (D-GA) (starting December 22)
* Congress: 30th (until March 4), 31st (starting March 4)

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Reuben Chapman (Democratic) (until December 17), Henry W. Collier (Democratic) (starting December 17)
* Governor of Arkansas:
	+ until January 10: Thomas Stevenson Drew (Democratic)
	+ January 10-April 19: Richard C. Byrd (Democratic)
	+ starting April 19: John Selden Roane (Democratic)
* Governor of Connecticut: Clark Bissell (Whig) (until May 2), Joseph Trumbull (Whig) (starting May 2)
* Governor of Delaware: William Tharp (Democratic)
* Governor of Florida: William Dunn Moseley (Democratic) (until October 1), Thomas Brown (Whig) (starting October 1)
* Governor of Georgia: George W. Towns (Democratic)
* Governor of Illinois: Augustus C. French (Democratic)
* Governor of Indiana: Paris C. Dunning (Democratic) (until December 5), Joseph A. Wright (Democratic) (starting December 5)
* Governor of Iowa: Ansel Briggs (Democratic)
* Governor of Kentucky: John J. Crittenden (Whig)
* Governor of Louisiana: Isaac Johnson (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: John W. Dana (Democratic)
* Governor of Maryland: Philip F. Thomas (Democratic)
* Governor of Massachusetts: George N. Briggs (Democratic)
* Governor of Michigan: Epaphroditus Ransom (Democratic)
* Governor of Mississippi: Joseph W. Matthews (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Austin Augustus King (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Jared W. Williams (Democratic) (until June 7), Samuel Dinsmoor Jr. (Democratic) (starting June 7)
* Governor of New Jersey: Daniel Haines (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: Hamilton Fish (Whig)
* Governor of North Carolina: William Alexander Graham (Whig) (until January 1), Charles Manly (Whig) (starting January 1)
* Governor of Ohio: William Bebb (Whig) (until January 22), Seabury Ford (Whig) (starting January 22)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: William F. Johnston (Whig)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Elisha Harris (Whig) (until May 1), Henry B. Anthony (Whig) (starting May 1)
* Governor of South Carolina: Whitemarsh B. Seabrook (Democratic)
* Governor of Tennessee: Neill S. Brown (Whig) (until October 16), William Trousdale (Democratic) (starting October 16)
* Governor of Texas: George T. Wood (Democratic) (until December 21), Peter Hansborough Bell (Democratic) (starting December 21)
* Governor of Vermont: Carlos Coolidge (Whig)
* Governor of Virginia: William Smith (Democratic) (until January 1), John B. Floyd (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Nelson Dewey (Democratic)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Charles J. McCurdy (Whig) (until May 2), Thomas Backus (Democratic) (starting May 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Joseph Wells (Democratic) (until January 8), William McMurtry (Democratic) (starting January 8)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: vacant (until December 5), James H. Lane (Democratic) (starting December 5)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: John LaRue Helm (Whig)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Trasimond Landry (Whig)
* 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: Edward W. Lawton (political party unknown) (until May 1), Thomas Whipple (political party unknown) (starting May 1)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: William Henry Gist (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: John Alexander Greer (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Robert Pierpoint (Whig)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: John E. Holmes (Democratic)

## Events

* January 23 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor.
* February 14 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first sitting President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
* February 28 – Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS *California* in San Francisco Bay. The *California* leaves New York Harbor on October 6, 1848, rounds Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrives at San Francisco, California after a 4-month-21-day journey.
* March 3
	+ Minnesota Territory is established.
	+ The United States Department of the Interior is established.
	+ The U.S. Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of gold coins.
* March 4 – Zachary Taylor becomes the 12th President of the United States, and Millard Fillmore becomes Vice President of the United States, but both refuse to be sworn in office on a Sabbath (Sunday). Urban legend holds that David Rice Atchison, President pro tempore of the United States Senate is President *de jure* for a single day.
* March 5 – President Zachary Taylor and Vice President Millard Fillmore are sworn into office.
* May 3 – The Mississippi River levee at Sauvé's Crevasse breaks, flooding much of New Orleans, Louisiana.
* May 20 – Astor Place Riot occurs in Manhattan.
* June 6 – Fort Worth, Texas is founded.
* September 1 – The first segment of the Pennsylvania Railroad, from Lewistown, Pennsylvania to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, opens for service.
* September 17 – Harriet Tubman emancipates herself.
* November 1 – Austin College receives a charter in Huntsville.
* November 13 – The Constitution of California is ratified by the electorate.

## Memoriam

* January 30 – Jonathan Alder, settler (aged 75; Madison County, OH, USA)
* March 17 – Ann Gerry, Second Lady of the United States from 1813 to 1814 as wife of Elbridge Gerry (aged 85; New Haven, CT, USA)
* June 15 – James K. Polk, 11th President of the United States from 1845 to 1849 (aged 53; Nashville, TN, USA)
* July 5 – Robert Cary Long Jr., architect working in Baltimore (aged 39; Morristown, NJ, USA)
* July 12 – Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States from 1809 to 1817 as wife of James Madison (aged 81; Washington, DC, USA)
* July 14 – Thomas Earle, journalist, lawyer, and politician (aged 53; Willow Grove, PA, USA)
* July 30 – Jacob Perkins, inventor, mechanical engineer, and physicist (aged 83; London, England, UK)
* August 12 – Albert Gallatin, 4th United States Secretary of the Treasury (aged 88; New York City, NY, USA)
* August 23 – Edward Hicks, folk painter and Quaker preacher (aged 69; Newtown, PA, USA)
* October 7 – Edgar Allan Poe, author, poet, editor and literary critic (aged 40; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* October 22 – William Miller, Baptist preacher, leader of the Second Advent Movement (aged 67; Low Hampton, NY, USA)