1849

1800–1850	USA [consumer products]	A revolution in retail and wholesale trade occurs: specialization transforms the urban retail market, replacing the general store with individual stores for hardware, groceries, dry goods, furnishing, books, tobacco, and so on. Cash-only sales policies are instituted around 1806.
1810–1859	USA [agriculture]	US cotton production, the vast majority of which is grown in the southern states, rises from 171,000 bales in 1810 to just under 5.4 million in 1859.
1840–1850	USA [farming]	Wheat becomes an increasingly important cash crop in the USA; production in 1839 is nearly 85 million bushels and climbs to over 100 million bushels in 10 years.
1840–1860	world [plagues and epidemics]	A cholera pandemic kills millions of people worldwide.
1841–1850	USA, UK [statistics and demography]	Emigration to the USA is 267,044 from Britain and 780,719 from Ireland.
1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
1848–1849	Africa [exploration]	German explorers Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann travel into the interior of Africa from its eastern coast, exploring the region of Kenya, and becoming the first Europeans to sight Mounts Kilimanjaro (Rebmann, May 1848) and Kenya (Krapf, December 1849).
1849	USA [civic and commercial buildings]	The Laing Store, in New York City, designed by the US architect James Bogardus, is completed. It is one of the first public buildings to have a cast-iron façade, a feature which allows the use of pre-fabricated parts.
1849	Germany [orchestral music]	The German composer Robert Schumann completes his Manfred overture (Opus 115), based on a verse drama by the English poet George Gordon, Lord Byron; his piano pieces Waldscenen/Woodland Scenes (Opus 82); and his orchestral work Introduction and Allegro appassionato (Opus 92).
1849	Hungary [orchestral music]	The Hungarian composer Franz Liszt completes his work for piano and orchestra Totentanz/Dance of Death and his piano transcription of Richard Wagner's overture to Tannhäuser.
1849	France [clothing and fashion]	French tailor M Jolly-Bellin invents dry-cleaning.
1849	England [fiction]	The English writer Charles Dickens begins to publish his novel David Copperfield in serial form. It is published as a book in 1850. Its full title is: The Personal History, Experience and Observations of David Copperfield the Younger, of Blunderstone Rookery, Which He Never Meant to be Published on Any Account.
1849	England [architecture]	The English writer and art critic John Ruskin publishes his influential treatise on architecture The Seven Lamps of Architecture.
1849	UK [shops and shopping]	English tea wholesaler Henry Charles Harrod buys a grocery store in London, England, which will grow to become one of the world's most famous department stores.
1849	France [weapons]	French army officer Claude-Etienne Minié invents the Minié ball, a cylindrical bullet which increases the range of rifles from 200m/650 ft to 1,000 m/3,300 ft, and which is subsequently used by all European armies and in the American Civil War.
9 February 1849	Papal States, Italy [revolution]	The Papal States in Italy are proclaimed a republic (the Roman Republic) under the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini.
15 February 1849	UK [natural disasters]	Sixty-five people die when the Theatre Royal in London, England, burns down.
4 March 1849	Austrian Empire [law and government]	The Kremsier Constitution is promulgated in Austria, giving all national groups considerable autonomy, but is immediately replaced by a constitution in which the territories are deemed indivisible.
23 March 1849	Austrian Empire, Sardinia-Piedmont [wars]	The Austrian army of Count Joseph Radetzky decisively defeats the Piedmontese army of King Charles Albert at Novara, Piedmont, ending the war between them. Charles Albert, who had renewed the war only because of radical pressure, abdicates in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel II.
29 March 1849	India, UK [treaties]	Britain annexes the Indian province of Punjab by a treaty with the maharajah of Lahore, following the surrender of the Sikh army on 12 March.
3 April 1849	Prussia, Germany [political events]	King Frederick Wilhelm IV of Prussia is unwilling to take the crown of a new united Germany from the people and wishes instead to receive it from the German princes. His vague reply is taken by the German National Assembly as a refusal.
15 May 1849	Naples [political events]	The capital of Sicily, Palermo, is entered by Neapolitan forces to end the revolt in Sicily, which is forced to resubmit to monarchical rule from the Italian kingdom of Naples.
21 May 1849	Germany [political events]	The core of the deputies to the German National Assembly in Frankfurt withdraw, having been unable to organize a peaceful parliamentary union of the German states.
3 July 1849	Papal States [revolution]	French troops enter Rome despite resistance by the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, and restore Pope Pius IX, ending the radical Roman Republic.
13 August 1849	Hungary, Russian Empire, Austrian Empire [revolution]	The army of Lajos Kossuth's Hungarian Republic capitulates at Vilagos, Hungary, after determined but hopeless resistance, to Russian troops under General Ivan Paskievich, sent to aid Austria in putting down the Hungarian revolt.
7 October 1849	USA [births and deaths]	Edgar Allan Poe, US poet, critic, and short-story writer, dies in Baltimore, Maryland (40).
17 October 1849	France [births and deaths]	Frédéric Chopin, French composer known for his works for piano, dies in Paris, France (39).