- The California Gold Rush begins, attracting thousands of people from around the world to seek their fortune in California.
- The United States Congress passes the Compromise of 1850, which attempts to resolve the growing conflict between the North and the South over the issue of slavery.
- The first women's rights convention in the United States is held in Seneca Falls, New York.
- Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and begins her work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping hundreds of enslaved people escape to freedom.
- The first telegraph line is completed across the English Channel, connecting England and France.
- Anthony Burns, an escaped slave, is captured in Boston and forcibly returned to slavery under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, causing widespread outrage in the North.
- The Australian colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania achieve self-government.
- The New Zealand Company establishes a settlement at Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand.
- The first commercial production of steel begins in Sheffield, England.
- The first passenger train arrives in California, completing the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.