Quite a few noteworthy things are happening in America and around the world.
Revolutions are erupting in France, Denmark, Prussia [pre-Germany], Italy [the Pope has to flee Rome], and Switzerland. Most are ruthlessly crushed except in Switzerland. The Swiss will, eventually, create the first democratic state in Europe.
In America the war with Mexico ends with America victorious. California, New Mexico, and most of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona are added to the U.S. America is generous to her vanquished foe…. she pays 15 million dollars to Mexico. A very good deal for the victor. Texas comes on board for free [in hindsight, not such a good deal for America].
At Seneca Falls, NY the first woman's convention is held and is well attended by both women and men. Freedom from repressive laws barring women from almost everything is promised.
Wisconsin enters the Union as the 30th state to the delight of Cheese-heads everywhere.
Gold is discovered in California but not announced to the nation until 1849….. not wanting to rush??
In Europe, Marx and Engels are also promising freedom with the publication of their "Communist Manifesto". A few diehards still are waiting.
France frees all slaves in her possessions. America resists such impulses in her southern half.
In more news from France, King Louis-Phillipe abdicates and the Second Republic is declared. Louis-Phillipe will spend some of his exile living in Boston above the Union Oyster House. As the practice of stashing cash is not yet in vogue Louis is broke. He teaches French to wealthy Bostonians to pay for his meals at the Oyster House.
The presidential election of 1848 sees Zachary Taylor elected in the first US election where everyone gets to vote on the same day. But not everyone gets to vote yet, of course. Old "Rough and Ready", hero of the Mexican War, died 16 months after his election at the age of 66. Though owning slave plantations in several southern states Taylor was opposed to the expansion of slavery in those new territories. Vice-president Millard Fillmore became president on the death of Taylor.
Here in Boston the Boston Public Library has it's beginnings. The first large free lending library opens to the public. Books may be borrowed and taken home, for free. Proclaimed above the doors, to this day, is the BPL's motto "Free to All". George Ticknor [a Forest Hills Resident] put forth the idea of a free lending library in 1826.
Elizabeth Blackwell, sister-in-law to Lucy Stone [another Resident], receives the first medical degree earned by an American woman.
Needing medical attention and receiving some, Phineas Gage a railroad foreman in Vermont, survives an horrendous explosion. Seems while setting black powder a spark sent the 3 foot long tamping rod completely through his head. The rod landed 80 feet away. Mr. Gage lived for another 12 years. The rod and his skull can be seen at the Warren [more "Residents"] Museum at the Harvard Medical School in Boston. Amazing story that you'll have to look up.
Samuel Gregory [Resident] establishes, in Boston, what he calls the Female Medical Educational Society. Claiming the organization teaches medicine he was not doing much more than training midwives. The school becomes a real medical training facility when it is incorporated into Boston University.
In music in 1848 Jules Perrot's "Faust" opened at La Scala in Milan. Mr. Perrot played the role of Mephistopheles.
More on the Devil: Richard Wagner begins writing notes for what will become the four opera "The Ring of the Nibelung". He has to flee Dresden when revolution erupts. His nationalistic politics brings an arrest warrant for him. But, eventually, a future ruler [Adolph Hitler] would proclaim Wagner the greatest German composer. Who can forget "Apocalypse, Now" with Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries" and Robert Duvall's, "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning".
On a much lighter note the peaceful and uplifting Shaker song "Simple Gifts" is written in America by Elder Joseph Brackett.
In births for 1848: the so-called lawman Wyatt Earp, the artist Paul Gauguin, stain-glass creator extrodinaire [among other talents] Louis Comfort Tiffany, outlaw, bushwhacker, Belle Starr [Myra Maybelle Shirley… surely you can see why she changed her name]. I'm sure she would never receive a Mother-of-the-Year award as it is believed that she was ambushed and killed by one of her sons.
…and on June the 28th 1848 Forest Hills Cemetery was consecrated…………..
