WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO JULY 1851
Find out what all happened January to July 1851

The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice. (11. March 1851)

Edward Hargraves announces that he has found gold in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, starting the Australian gold rushes. (12. February 1851)

Northwestern University becomes the first chartered university in Illinois. (28. January 1851)

Annibale de Gasparis discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia. (29. July 1851)

Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand. (2. April 1851)

Slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America. (21. May 1851)

The largest Australian bushfires in a populous region in recorded history take place in the state of Victoria. (6. February 1851)

Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition in London. (1. May 1851)

Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper. (5. June 1851)

First reported sighting of the Yosemite Valley by Europeans. (27. March 1851)