The first great entrepreneur of the railway age, George Hudson, becomes known as the Railway King

The Hungarian diet decrees that Magyar, rather than German, is to be the official language of the kingdom

Daniel O'Connell is acquitted on appeal and released from prison

In his novel Coningsby Benjamin Disraeli develops the theme of Conservatism uniting 'two nations', the rich and the poor

The Russian tsar, Nicholas I, calls Turkey 'the sick man of Europe'

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels meet in Paris and become life-long friends

The Young Men's Christian Association is founded in London by British drapery assistant George Williams

English naval officer John Franklin sets off with two ships, Erebus and Terror, to search for the Northwest Passage

A blight destroys the potato crop in Ireland and causes what becomes known as the Great Famine

With his emphasis on the subjective experience of human Existenz, the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard plants the seed of existentialism

Friedrich Engels, after running a textile factory in Manchester, publishes The Condition of the Working Class in England

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert follow the German custom of a family Christmas tree, immediately making it popular in Britain

The self-contained metal cartridge, with a percussion cap in its base, is patented by a Paris gunsmith named Houiller

British prime minister Robert Peel carries a bill to repeal the Corn Laws, splitting his own party in the process

The Irish, fleeing from the potato famine at home, become the main group of immigrants to the USA

The minority of Conservatives supporting Peel become a separate faction, henceforth known as the Peelites

Edward Lear publishes his Book of Nonsense, consisting of limericks illustrated with his own cartoons

Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah has its premiere in England, in the city of Birmingham

After marrying secretly, the English poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett go abroad to live in Florence

Landlords in Scotland begin to clear crofters from Highland estates so as to provide pasture for sheep

The three Brontë sisters jointly publish a volume of their poems and sell just two copies

A new Factory Act is passed in Britain, limiting the working day of women and children to a maximum of ten hours

Scottish obstetrician James Simpson uses anaesthetic (ether, and later in the year choloroform) to ease difficulty in childbirth

English author William Makepeace Thackeray begins publication of his novel Vanity Fair in monthly parts (book form 1848)

Camillo Benso di Cavour founds a newspaper in north Italy and calls it Il Risorgimento ('The Resurgence')