Mar 04 Longest inauguration speech (8,443 words), William Henry Harrison

Mar 22 Cornstarch patented (Orlando Jones)

Mar 27 First US steam fire engine tested, New York NY

Mar 31 First performance of Robert Schumann's first Symphony in B

Mar 09 US Supreme Court rules Negroes are free (Amistad Incident)

Aug 21 John Hampson patents venetian blind

Aug 21 The Venetian blind is patented by John Hampton of New Orleans, but he didn't tell us how to clean them!

Sep 24 Sarawak obtained by Britain from Sultan of Brunei

Sep 09 Great Lakes steamer "Erie" sinks off Silver Creek NY, kills 300

Feb 18 First continuous filibuster in US Senate began, lasting until March 11

Feb 25 The birth of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French artist

Feb 18 A continuous filibuster in US Senate begins, lasting until March 11

Apr 06 Cornerstone laid for 2nd Mormon temple, Nauvoo, Missouri

Apr 20 First detective story (Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue") published

Apr 10 The New York Tribune published for the very first time

Nov 25 35 Amistad survivors return to Africa

Nov 02 Akbar Khan successfully revolts against Shah Shuja in Afghanistan

Nov 16 N.E. Guerin of NY patents cork-filled life preserver

Dec 31 Alabama becomes first state to license dental surgeons

May 03 New Zealand becomes a British colony

May 01 The first emigrant wagon train leaves Independence MO for California

Jul 17 British humor magazine "Punch" first published

Jul 03 John Couch Adams decides to determine the position of an unknown planet by irregularities it causes in the motion of Uranus

Jul 05 Thomas Cook opens first travel agency

Jun 24 Fordham University (then St John's College), opens in the Bronx

Jun 14 The first Canadian parliament opens in Kingston, Ontario

Jan 05 James Clark Ross (UK) is first to enter pack ice near Ross Ice Shelf

Jan 28 The birth of Sir Henry Morton Stanley, Sent to find the missing Dr Livingstone

Jan 26 Hong Kong proclaimed a sovereign territory of Britain

Jan 05 James Clark Ross (UK) is first to enter pack ice near Ross Ice Shelf

Jan 20 Hong Kong is ceded to Great Britain. (The island returned to Chinese control in 1997.)

Jan 26 Hong Kong becomes a British soverign territory

Oct 16 Queens University in Kingston is chartered