What happened in 1844

22 events　World 3, North America 4, Europe 9, Asia 3, Latin America 2, Africa 1

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Highlights of 1844

World3

  • May 23Persian prophet The Báb privately announces his revelation to Mullá Husayn, just after sunset, founding the Bábí faith (later evolving into the Baháʼí Faith as the Báb intended) in Shiraz, Persia (modern-day Iran). Contemporaneously, on this day in nearby Tehran, is the birth of `Abdu'l-Bahá; the eldest Son of Bahá'u'lláh, Prophet-Founder of the Baháʼí Faith. The Báb's mission is to proclaim He whom God shall make manifest. `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself is later proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh to be His own successor, thus being the third "central figure" of the Baháʼí Faith.
  • Jul 3The United States signs the Treaty of Wanghia with the Qing Empire. The treaty establishes five U.S. treaty ports in China with extraterritoriality and is the first unequal treaty that the United States imposes on the dynasty.
  • Flags of the Ottoman Empire: a national flag is adopted for the Empire.

North America4

  • Feb 28A gun on the USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing U.S. Secretary of State Abel Upshur, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer and four other people. President John Tyler is below decks and is uninjured.
  • Jun 22The Delta Kappa Epsilon student fraternity is founded at Yale College in the United States. ΔΚΕ will be home to many well known figures, such as U.S. Presidents George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford and Theodore Roosevelt.
  • Jun 27Killing of Joseph Smith: Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum, are murdered in Carthage Jail, Carthage, Illinois by an armed mob, leading to a succession crisis in the movement. John Taylor, future president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is severely injured but survives, while the fourth man inside the upper room, then-apostle Willard Richards, escapes with only a graze to his upper ear.
  • Dec 41844 United States presidential election: James K. Polk defeats Henry Clay.

Europe9

  • Mar 8King Oscar I ascends to the throne of Sweden–Norway upon the death of his father, Charles XIV/III John.
  • Mar 9Giuseppe Verdi's opera Ernani debuts at Teatro La Fenice, Venice.
  • Jun 6George Williams sets up (in London) what is often cited as the first youth organisation in the world – "The Young Men's Christian Association", commonly known as YMCA. It will grow to a worldwide organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 57 million beneficiaries from 125 national associations. George Williams aims to put Christian principles into practice by developing a healthy "body, mind, and spirit." These three angles are reflected by the different sides of the (red) triangle – part of all YMCA logos.
  • Jun 17Søren Kierkegaard's The Concept of Anxiety is published in Denmark (as Begrebet Angest by 'Vigilius Haufniensis').
  • Jul 19The Bank Charter Act 1844 is approved, which restricts the powers of British banks, limiting note-issuing powers outside the central Bank of England.
  • Nov 3Giuseppe Verdi's opera I due Foscari debuts at Teatro Argentina, Rome.
  • Dec 21The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England.
  • In Munich, the Feldherrnhalle is completed.
  • Robert Chambers' anonymous Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, which paves the way for acceptance of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, is published in Britain.

Asia3

  • May 1The Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second and Asia's first modern, police force is established.
  • Oct 22This second date predicted by the Millerites for the Second Coming of Jesus (and said to be 6,000 years from creation, relating them to the 6 days of creation, using a day-for-a-year bible principle, with which they proved that the 1,000 years of rest in heaven with God would total to 7,000 years, indicating the completion of creation in the beginning, which make 7 days, but the 7th day is for rest, same as the 7,000th year is for rest in heaven), leads to the Great Disappointment. The Seventh-day Adventist Church believes this date to be the starting point of the Investigative judgment, just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus, as declared in the 26th of 28 fundamental doctrines of Seventh-day Adventists.
  • Oct 23The Báb is publicly proclaimed to be the promised one of Islam (the Qá'im, or Mahdi). He is also considered to be simultaneously the return of Elijah, John the Baptist and the "Ushídar-Máh" referred to in the Zoroastrian scriptures. He announces to the world the coming of "He whom God shall make manifest". He is considered the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh – the founder of the Baháʼí Faith – whose claims include being the return of Jesus.

Latin America2

  • Feb 27The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.
  • Nov 6The Dominican Republic drafts its first Constitution.

Africa1

  • Aug 14Abdelkader El Djezairi is defeated at the Battle of Isly in Morocco; sultan Abd al-Rahman of Morocco soon repudiates his ally.