1844

In the Philippines, 1844 had only 365 days, when Tuesday, December 31 was skipped as Monday, December 30 was immediately followed by Wednesday, January 1, 1845, the next day after. The change also applied to Caroline Islands, Guam, Marianas Islands, Marshall Islands and Palau as part of the Captaincy General of the Philippines; these became the first places on Earth to redraw the International Date Line.

Events

January–March

January 4 – The first issue of the Swedish-languaged Saima newspaper founded by J. V. Snellman is published in Kuopio, Finland.
January 15 – The University of Notre Dame, based in the city of the same name, receives its charter from Indiana.
February 27 – The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.
February 28 – A 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.
March 8
* King Oscar I ascends to the throne of Sweden–Norway upon the death of his father, Charles XIV/III John.
* The Althing, the parliament of Iceland, is reopened after 45 years of closure.
March 9 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Ernani debuts at Teatro La Fenice, Venice.
March 12 – The Columbus and Xenia Railroad, the first railroad planned to be built in Ohio, is chartered.
March 13 – The dictator Carlos Antonio López becomes first President of Paraguay.
March 21 – The Baháʼí calendar begins.
March 23 – The Edict of Toleration is passed in the Ottoman Empire.

April–June

May 1 – The Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second and Asia's first modern, police force is established.
May 23 – Persian prophet The Báb privately announces his revelation to Mullá Husayn, just after sunset, founding the Bábí faith in Shiraz, Persia. 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.
May 24 – The first electrical telegram is sent by Samuel Morse from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. to the B&O Railroad "outer depot" in Baltimore, saying "What hath God wrought".
June 3 – The last definitely recorded pair of great auks are killed on the Icelandic island of Eldey.
June 4 – Start of the Silesian weavers' uprising. It is crushed by Prussian military on June 6, with 11 weavers killed and numerous arrested.
June 6 – George Williams sets up 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 triangle – part of all YMCA logos.
June 12 –In the United States, after nine days of heavy rains, the Missouri River and the Mississippi River overflow their banks as the Great Flood of 1844 begins. The water begins to recede by June 28 and the rivers return to their normal level by mid-July.
June 15 – Charles Goodyear receives a United States patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
June 17 – Søren Kierkegaard's The Concept of Anxiety is published in Denmark.
June 22 – The 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.
June 27 – Killing 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.

July–September

July 3 – The 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 imposed on the dynasty.
July 19 – The Bank Charter Act 1844 is approved, which restricts the powers of British banks, limiting note-issuing powers outside the central Bank of England.
August 8 – During a meeting held in Nauvoo, Illinois, the Quorum of the Twelve, headed by Brigham Young, is chosen as the leading body of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
August 10 – German astronomer Friedrich Bessel deduces from the motion of the bright stars Sirius and Procyon that they have dark companions.
August 14 – Abdelkader El Djezairi is defeated at the Battle of Isly in Morocco; sultan Abd al-Rahman of Morocco soon repudiates his ally.
August 16 – Narciso Claveria, Governor-General of the Philippines, makes a decree announcing that Monday, December 30, 1844, will be immediately followed by Wednesday, January 1, 1845.
August 28 – Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx meet in Paris, France.
September 25–27 – The first ever international cricket match is played in New York City, United States v Canadian Provinces.

October–December

October 18 – 1844 Salta earthquake. A magnitude 6.5 earthquake hits Argentina's Salta Province.
October 22 – This second date predicted by the Millerites for the Second Coming of Jesus, 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.
October 23 – The Báb is publicly proclaimed to be the promised one of Islam. 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.
November 3 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera I due Foscari debuts at Teatro Argentina, Rome.
November 6 – The Dominican Republic drafts its first Constitution.
December 4 – 1844 United States presidential election: James K. Polk defeats Henry Clay.
December 13 – Hungarian becomes the official language of Hungary.
December 21 – The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England.
December 31 – This date is omitted from the calendar in the Philippines in order to align it with the calendar elsewhere in East Asia, essentially moving the International Date Line to the east of the archipelago.

Date unknown

Swedish chemistry professor Gustaf Erik Pasch is granted a privilege for his invention of a safety match.
Robert Chambers' anonymous Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, which paves the way for acceptance of Darwin's The Origin of Species, is published in Britain.
The Free Church Institution is established by Reverend Alexander Duff in Calcutta, India. This is later merged with the General Assembly's Institution to form the Scottish Church College, one of the pioneering institutions that ushers in the Bengali Renaissance.
In Munich, the Feldherrnhalle is completed.
In Tibet, the Temple of Guardians burns down.
Flags of the Ottoman Empire: a national flag is adopted for the Empire.

Births

Date unknown

probable – Abdur Rahman Khan, Emir of Kabul, Emir of Kandahar, Emir of Afghanistan

Deaths

January–June

January 25 – Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon, French marshal
January 27
* Charles Nodier, French writer
* Wiliam Gadsby, English Strict Baptist leader
January 28 – Johannes van den Bosch, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
January 29 – Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
February 3 – Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough
February 15 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
February 27 – Nicholas Biddle, president of the Second Bank of the United States
March – Carlota, Cuban slave rebel leader
March 6 – Gabriel Duvall, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
March 8 – King Charles XIV John of Sweden, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, French Napoleonic general
March 20 – Claude Pierre Pajol, French military leader
April 3 – Edward Bigge, English cleric, 1st Archdeacon of Lindisfarne
April 13 – Mamiya Rinzō, Japanese explorer of Sakhalin
April 17 – James Scarlett Abinger, English judge
May 18 – Richard McCarty, American politician
June 13 – Thomas Charles Hope, Scottish chemist, discoverer of strontium
June 15 – Thomas Campbell, Scottish poet
June 27
* Hyrum Smith, American Latter Day Saint leader
* Joseph Smith, American founder of the Latter Day Saint movement

July–December

July 11 – Yevgeny Baratynsky, Russian poet, philosopher
July 27 – John Dalton, English chemist, physicist
July 28 – Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon I, King of Naples and Spain
July 29 – Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian composer
August 2 – Pieter Merkus, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
September ? – Robert Taylor, English-born Radical writer, freethought advocate
November 14 – Flora Tristan, French feminist
November 29 – Princess Sophia of Gloucester
December 2 – Eustachy Erazm Sanguszko, Polish military leader
December 14 – Melchor Múzquiz, 5th President of Mexico
December 20 Nathan of Breslov
December 24 – Friedrich Bernhard Westphal, Danish-German painter

Date unknown

Zheng Yi Sao, Chinese woman pirate