Centuries: Year in Review 19th Century (18th century - 19th century - 20th century)
Decades: 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s 1840s - 1850s - 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
Years: 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 - 1855 - 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860
Events
- March 2 - accession of Russian Tsar Alexander II
- November - David Livingstone discovers the Victoria Falls
- accession of Emperor Theodore II of Ethiopia
- Gustave Courbet sets up Pavilion of Realism in protest against "official art" at Paris International Exhibition
Births
- July 30: Wilhelm von Siemens, German industrialist
Deaths
- February 23 - Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer and physicist
- Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher