1844

1844 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).

Events

• January 15 – University of Notre Dame receives its charter from Indiana.
• February 27 – The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.
• February 28 – A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing two United States Cabinet members and several others.
• May 23 – Persian Prophet The Báb announces His revelation, founding Bábism.
• May 24 – First electrical telegram sent by Samuel Morse from Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, D.C., saying "What hath God wrought?".
• June 6 – George Williams founds the Young Men's Christian Association in London.
• June 15 – Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
• June 27 – Joseph Smith, Jr. is murdered with his brother Hyrum in Carthage Jail, Carthage, Illinois.
• July 3 – The last pair of Great Auks are killed.
• August 8 – During a meeting held in Nauvoo, the Quorum of Twelve, headed by Brigham Young, is created as the leading body of the Mormon Church.
• October 22 – Date predicted by the Millerites for the Second Coming of Jesus; leads to the Great Disappointment.
• November – James K. Polk defeats Henry Clay in the U.S. presidential election
• November 6 – The Dominican Republic gains its independence from Spain.

• First ever international cricket match is played in New York City between Canada and the United States.
• Swedish chemistry professor Gustaf Erik Pasch invents the safety match
• Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx meet in Paris
• Alexander Dumas Jr meets Marie Duplessis
• Locksmith Alexander Fichet invents the first safe
• Carlos Antonio Lopez becomes dictator of Paraguay
• Abd al-Kader is defeated at Isly in Morocco. The sultan of Morocco soon repudiates his ally.

Births

• February 17 – Aaron Montgomery Ward, American department store founder (d. 1913)
• February 20 – Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (d. 1906)
• February 20  – Joshua Slocum, Canadian seaman and adventurer (d. 1909)
• February 21 – Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (d. 1937)
• March 10 – Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist (d. 1908)
• March 18 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (d. 1908)
• March 30 – Paul Verlaine, French lyric poet (d. 1896)
• April 16 – Anatole France, French writer (d. 1924)
• May 17 – Julius Wellhausen, German biblical scholar (d. 1918)
• May 21 – Henri Rousseau, French artist (d. 1910)
• May 22 – Mary Cassatt, American artist (d. 1926)
• May 23 – `Abdu'l-Bahá, Persian religious leader (d. 1921)
• July 11 – King Peter I of Serbia (d. 1921)
• July 22 – William Archibald Spooner, British scholar and Anglican priest (d. 1930)
• August 6 – Prince Alfred of the United Kingdom, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1900)
• August 17 – Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1913)
• August 22 – George Washington De Long, American naval officer and explorer (d. 1881)
• August 23 – Hamilton Disston, American land developer (d. 1896)
• October 15 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (d. 1900)
• October 22 – Louis Riel, Canadian leader (d. 1885)
• October 22 – Sarah Bernhardt, French actress
• October 23 – Robert Bridges, English poet (d. 1930)
• November 2 – Mehmed V, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1918)
• November 23 – Karl Benz, German automotive pioneer
• December 1 – Alexandra of Denmark, queen of Edward VII of England
• December 8 – Émile Reynaud, French science teacher and animation pioneer
• Abd ar-Rahman Khan, Emir of Afghanistan

Deaths

• January 27 – Charles Nodier, French writer
• February 27 – Nicholas Biddle, President of the Second Bank of the United States
• June 27 – Hyrum Smith, American religious leader (b. 1800)
• June 27 – Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement (b. 1805)
• July 27 – John Dalton, English chemist and physicist
• July 29 – Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian composer
• November 14 – Flora Tristan, French feminist

• Amadou Lobbo, Fulani Muslim leader in West Africa