Year 1844 (MDCCCXLIV) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). [edit] Events of 1844 [edit] January–March [edit] April–June - May 23 – Persian Prophet The Báb privately announces his revelation to Mullá Husayn, just after sunset, founding the Bábí Faith in Shiraz, Persia.
- May 24 – The first electrical telegram is sent by Samuel F. B. Morse from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. to the B&O Railroad "outer depot" in Baltimore, Maryland, saying "What hath God wrought".
- June 6 – George Williams founds the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in London.
- June 15 – Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
- June 22 – Influential North American fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon is founded at Yale University.
- June 27 – Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum, are killed in Carthage Jail, Carthage, Illinois.
[edit] July–September [edit] October–December [edit] Undated [edit] Births [edit] January–June - January 9 – Julián Gayarre, Spanish opera singer (d. 1890)
- February 17 – Aaron Montgomery Ward, American department store founder (d. 1913)
- February 20
- February 21 – Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (d. 1937)
- March 10 – Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist (d. 1908)
- March 18 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (d. 1908)
- March 25 – Adolf Engler, German botanist (d. 1930)
- March 30 – Paul Verlaine, French poet (d. 1896)
- April 16 – Anatole France, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924)
- May 17 – Julius Wellhausen, German biblical scholar (d. 1918)
- May 21 – Henri Rousseau, French artist (d. 1910)
- May 22 – Mary Cassatt, American artist (d. 1926)
- May 23 – `Abdu'l-Bahá, Persian Bahá'í religious leader (d. 1921)
- June 3 – Garret A. Hobart, 24th Vice President of the United States (d. 1899)
[edit] July–December - July 11 – King Peter I of Serbia (d. 1921)
- July 22 – William Archibald Spooner, British scholar and Anglican priest (d. 1930)
- July 28 – Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (d. 1889)
- July 30 – Robert Jones Burdette, American minister and sentimental humorist (d. 1914)
- August 5 – Ilya Repin, Russian painter and sculptor (d. 1930)
- August 6 – Prince Alfred of the United Kingdom, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1900)
- August 17 – Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1913)
- August 22 – George Washington DeLong, American naval officer and explorer (d. 1881)
- August 23 – Hamilton Disston, American land developer (d. 1896)
- August 29 – Edward Carpenter, English Socialist poet (d. 1929)
- August 30 – Emily Ruete, princess of Zanzibar (d. 1924)
- September 20 – William H. Illingworth, American photographer (d. 1893)
- October 5 – Francis William Reitz, 5th State President of the Orange Free State (d. 1934)
- October 15 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (d. 1900)
- October 22
- October 23 – Robert Bridges, English poet (d. 1930)
- October 24 – Karl Lueger, Vienna's mayor (d. 1910)
- October 27 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1916)
- November 2 – Mehmed V, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1918)
- November 10 – Henry Eyster Jacobs, American Lutheran theologian (d. 1932)
- November 13 – Andrew Harper, Scottish-Australian biblical scholar and teacher (d. 1936)
- November 23 – Karl Benz, German automotive pioneer (d. 1929)
- December 1 – Alexandra of Denmark, queen of Edward VII of England (d. 1925)
- December 8 – Émile Reynaud, French science teacher and animation pioneer (d. 1918)
- probable – Abdor Rahman Khan, Emir of Kabul, Emir of Kandahar, Emir of Afghanistan (d. 1901)
[edit] Deaths [edit] January–June - January 25 – Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Count d'Erlon, French marshal (b. 1765)
- January 27 – Charles Nodier, French writer (b. 1780)
- January 29 – Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1784)
- February 15 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1757)
- February 27 – Nicholas Biddle, president of the Second Bank of the United States (b. 1786)
- March 8 – King Charles XIV John of Sweden, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, French Napoleonic general (b. 1763)
- March 20 – Claude Pierre, comte Pajol, French military leader (b. 1772)
- April 13 – Mamiya Rinzō, Japanese explorer of Sakhalin (b. 1775)
- May 18 – Richard McCarty, American politician (b. 1780)
- June 13 – Thomas Charles Hope, Scottish chemist and discoverer of Strontium (b. 1766)
- June 15 – Thomas Campbell, Scottish poet (b. 1777)
- June 27
[edit] July–December |