Dashed left edge = started before January 1848 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond January 1848
Events in January 1848 5
1750 – 1848Caroline Herschel (1750-1848)Died 9 January 1848, aged 97German-born British astronomer who discovered several comets and worked with her brother William Herschel. She was the first woman to be paid for scientific work in Britain. She received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.
1786 – 1848Christian VIII of Denmark (1786-1848)Died 20 January 1848, aged 61King of Denmark from 1839, and briefly King of Norway in 1814. He died as revolution was about to break out across Europe. His son Frederick VII succeeded him and soon gave up absolute rule.
1786 – 1848Christian FrederikThe Elected KingElected King of Norway in 1814 but forced to abdicate as Norway entered a union with Sweden.
1848Sicilian revolution breaks out in PalermoThe first of the European revolutions of 1848An uprising in Palermo against the Bourbon government of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies began on 12 January. Sicily set up its own independent government. The revolt came before the February Revolution in Paris and is usually counted as the first of the 1848 revolutions.
1848Gold discovered at Sutter's MillThe find that set off the California Gold RushJames W. Marshall found gold flakes in the tailrace of a sawmill he was building for John Sutter at Coloma, California. News of the discovery spread by the end of the year and drew around 300,000 people to California. The rush transformed the economy and population of the American West.