The world in 1851

General

• †  Queen Victoria, the reigning monarch, opens the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations at the Crystal Palace. It runs from 1 May until 18 October.
• †  Earl Russell Prime Minister.
• †  In October, the Reuters news service is founded.
• †  The first international chess tournament is held in London on 26 May.
• †  American gambler, gunfighter and friend of famous lawman Wyatt Earp, John Henry ‘Doc’ Holliday is born on 14 August.

Census

• †  The 1851 census was taken on 30 March 1851 and gave the population as 17,922,768.

The Arts

• †  Author Mary Shelley dies on 1 February.
• †  Artist J M W Turner dies on 19 December.
• †  Writer Joanna Baillie is born on 23 February.

Political and Military

• †  John Russell (Liberal) is British Prime Minister.
• †  Lord Palmerston is sacked as Foreign Secretary for sending Napoleon III a congratulatory telegram on his coup d’état, by which he’d seized dictatorial powers over France.
• †  Millard Fillmore is American President.
• †  Frenchman Ferdinand Foch, supreme commander of the allied armies in the Great War, is born.

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