What Happened in 1849 — Events, Births & Deaths

Second Anglo-Sikh War: The Siege of Multan ends after nine months when the last Sikh defenders of Multan, Punjab, surrender.

Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.

The delegation headed by Metropolitan bishop Andrei Șaguna hands out to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria the General Petition of Romanian leaders in Transylvania, Banat and Bukovina, which demands that the Romanian nation be recognized.

The Territory of Minnesota is created.

The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab.

Lajos Kossuth presents the Hungarian Declaration of Independence in a closed session of the National Assembly.

The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.

The May Uprising in Dresden begins: The last of the German revolutions of 1848–49.

Astor Place Riot: A riot breaks out at the Astor Opera House in Manhattan, New York City over a dispute between actors Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready, killing at least 22 and injuring over 120.

The Sicilian revolution of 1848 is finally extinguished.

France invades the Roman Republic and restores the Papal States.

The Charleston Workhouse Slave Rebellion begins in Charleston, South Carolina, United States.

The first air raid in history occurs; Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.

Antonio María Claret y Clará founds the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, popularly known as the Claretians in Vic, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

Passaleão incident: João Maria Ferreira do Amaral, the governor of Portuguese Macau, is assassinated by a group of Chinese locals, triggering a military confrontation between China and Portugal at the Battle of Passaleão three days later.

President Faustin Soulouque of the First Republic of Haiti has the Senate and Chamber of Deputies proclaim him the Emperor of Haiti, abolishing the Republic and inaugurating the Second Empire of Haiti.

The execution of the 13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian war of independence.

A Russian court sentences writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his sentence is later commuted to hard labor.