1850

Robert Louis Stevenson (Author, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”)

Albert Spalding (Baseball player)

Henry Cabot Lodge (Statesman)

Edward Smith (Naval captain of the RMS Titanic)

Samuel Gompers (American labor union leader, American Federation of Labor)

The first National Woman’s Rights Convention was held in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed slave owners to reclaim slaves who had escaped into other states.

California became the 31st state.

The 12th president of the United States, Zachary Taylor, died after serving only 16 months of his term. (He was succeeded by Millard Filmore.)

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” was published

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