February 3 – The National Deaf Mute College (later renamed Gallaudet University) is established in Washington, D.C., becoming the first school for the advanced education of the deaf.
France and the United Kingdom formally declare war on China in the Second Opium War.
The largest slave auction in United States history, dubbed as 'The Weeping Time'. Over a 2-day period, Pierce M. Butler sells 436 men, women, children, and infants, all of whom are kept in stalls meant for horses at a racetrack in Savannah, Georgia, for weeks beforehand.