1847 (MDCCCXLVII ) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar , the 1847th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 847th year of the 2nd millennium , the 47th year of the 19th century , and the 8th year of the 1840s decade. As of the start of 1847, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
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January–March
January 4 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the U.S. government.
January 13 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends fighting in the Mexican–American War in California .
January 16 – John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
January 17 – St. Anthony Hall fraternity is founded at Columbia University , New York City.
January 30 – Yerba Buena, California , is renamed San Francisco .
February 5 – A rescue effort, called the First Relief, leaves Johnson's Ranch to save the ill-fated Donner Party (California-bound migrants who became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada earlier this winter; some have resorted to survival by cannibalism).
February 22 – Mexican–American War : Battle of Buena Vista – 5,000 American troops under General Zachary Taylor use their superiority in artillery to drive off 15,000 Mexican troops under Antonio López de Santa Anna , defeating the Mexicans the next day.
February 25 – State University of Iowa is founded in Iowa City, Iowa .
March – First known publication of the classic joke "Why did the chicken cross the road? ", in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine .
March 1
March 4 – The 30th United States Congress is sworn into office.
March 9 – Mexican–American War : United States forces under General Winfield Scott invade Mexico near Veracruz .
March 14 – Verdi 's opera Macbeth premieres at the Teatro della Pergola , in Florence , Italy.
March 29 – Mexican–American War : United States forces under General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege .
April–June
April 5 – The world's first municipally-funded civic public park , Birkenhead Park in Birkenhead on Merseyside , England, is opened.[1]
April 15 – The Lawrence School, Sanawar is established in India.
April 16 – New Zealand Wars : A minor Māori chief is accidentally shot by a junior British Army officer in Whanganui on New Zealand 's North Island , triggering the Wanganui Campaign (which continues until July 23 ).
April 25 – The Exmouth , carrying Irish emigrants from Derry bound for Quebec , is wrecked off Islay , with only three survivors from more than 250 on board.[2]
May – The Architectural Association School of Architecture is founded in London.
May 7 – In Philadelphia , the American Medical Association (AMA) is founded.
May 8
The Nagano earthquake leaves more than 8,600 people dead in Japan .
Bahrain's ruler, Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, signs a treaty with the British to prevent and combat the slave trade in the Arabian Gulf.
May 31 – Second Treaty of Erzurum : the Ottoman Empire cedes Abadan Island to the Persian Empire .
June – E. H. Booth & Co. Ltd, which becomes the northern England supermarket chain Booths , is founded when tea dealer Edwin Henry Booth, 19, opens a shop called "The China House" in Blackpool .
June 1 – The first congress of the Communist League is held in London.
June 9 – Radley College , an English public school , is founded near Oxford as a High Anglican institution.[3]
June 26 – The first passenger railway wholly within modern-day Denmark opens, from Copenhagen to Roskilde .[4]
October–December
October – The last volcanic eruption of Mount Guntur in West Java occurs.
October 12 – German inventors and industrialists Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske found Siemens & Halske to develop the electrical telegraph .
October 19 – Charlotte Brontë publishes Jane Eyre under the pen name of Currer Bell in England.
October 31 – Theta Delta Chi is founded as a social fraternity at Union College , Schenectady, New York .
November 3 –29 – Sonderbund War : In Switzerland, General Guillaume-Henri Dufour 's Federal Army defeats the Sonderbund (an alliance of seven Catholic cantons ) in a civil war, with a total of only 86 deaths.
November 4 –8 – James Young Simpson discovers the anesthetic properties of chloroform and first uses it, successfully, on a patient, in an obstetric case in Edinburgh .[5]
November 10 – The first brew of Carlsberg beer is finished in Copenhagen .
November 17 – The Battle of Um Swayya Spring takes place near a spring in Qatar, after a Bahraini force under Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Deputy Ruler of Bahrain defeats the Al Binali tribe. The chief of the Al Binali, Isa bin Tureef, is slain in battle with over 70 fatalities from his side.
December 14 – Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë publish Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey , respectively, in a 3-volume set under the pen names of Ellis Bell and Acton Bell in England.
December 20 – British Royal Navy steam frigate HMS Avenger (1845) is wrecked on the Sorelle Rocks in the Mediterranean Sea with the loss of 246 lives and only eight survivors.[6]
December 21 – Emir Abdelkader surrenders to the French in Algeria.
February
February 3 – Warington Baden-Powell , British admiralty lawyer (d. 1921 )
February 4 – Remus von Woyrsch , German field marshal (d. 1920 )
February 5 – João Maria Correia Ayres de Campos, 1st Count of Ameal , Portuguese politician and antiquarian (d. 1920 )
February 8 – Hugh Price Hughes , Methodist social reformer, first Superintendent of the West London Mission (d. 1902 )
February 11 – Thomas Alva Edison , American inventor (d. 1931 )
February 13 – Sir Robert McAlpine , Scottish builder (d. 1930 )
February 15 – Robert Fuchs , Austrian composer (d. 1927 )
February 16 – Philipp Scharwenka , Polish-German composer (d. 1917 )
February 17 – Otto Blehr , Norwegian attorney, Liberal Party politician, 7th Prime Minister of Norway (d. 1927 )
October
Maria Pia of Savoy
Thomas F. Porter
October 1 – Annie Besant , English women's rights activist, writer and orator (d. 1933 )[7]
October 2 – Paul von Hindenburg , German field marshal, President of Germany (d. 1934 )
October 13
October 14 – Wilgelm Vitgeft , Russian admiral (d. 1904 )
October 15 – Ralph Albert Blakelock , American romanticist painter (d. 1919 )
October 16 – Maria Pia of Savoy , Queen consort of Portugal (d. 1911 )
October 17 – Chiquinha Gonzaga , Brazilian composer (d. 1935 )
October 19 – Aurilla Furber , American author, editor, and activist (d. 1898 )
October 20 – Mifflin E. Bell , American architect (d. 1904 )
October 22 – Koos de la Rey , Boer general (d. 1914 )
October 30
January–June
Fanny Mendelssohn
January 19 – Charles Bent , first Governor of New Mexico Territory (b. 1799 ) (assassinated)
February 3 – Marie Duplessis , French courtesan (b. 1824 )
February 5 – Luis José de Orbegoso , Peruvian general and politician, 11th and 12th President of Peru (b. 1795 )
March 9 – Mary Anning , British paleontologist (b. 1799 )
March 3 – Charles Hatchett , English chemist (b. 1765 )[8]
April 21 – Barbara Spooner Wilberforce , wife of British abolitionist William Wilberforce (b. 1777 )
April 30 – Archduke Charles of Austria , Austrian general (b. 1771 )
May 14 – Fanny Mendelssohn , German composer, pianist (b. 1805 )
May 15 – Daniel O'Connell , Irish politician who promoted the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 (b. 1775 )
May 16 – Vicente Rocafuerte , 2nd President of Ecuador (b. 1783 )
May 29 – Emmanuel de Grouchy, Marquis de Grouchy , French marshal (b. 1766 )
May 31 – Abbasgulu Bakikhanov , Azerbaijani writer (b. 1794 )
June 11 – Sir John Franklin , British explorer (b. 1786 )
First communicated to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, November 10, and published in a pamphlet, Notice of a New Anæsthetic Agent , in Edinburgh, November 12.