1852
1852 was a Leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).
Events January 14 - President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte proclaims a new constitution for the French Second Republic. January 17 - United Kingdom recognizes independence of the Transvaal Devil's Island penal colony opens February 11 - First British public toilet for women opens in Bedford Street, London February 15 - Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children , London , admits first patient February 16 - Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the Automobile manufacturer, is established February 19 - The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania March 1 - Archibald William Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland April 1 - Start of Second Burmese War September 24 - French engineer Henri Giffard makes the first Airship trip from Paris to Trappes October 6 - In Mexico , French settlers under Count Gaston Raousset-Boulbon occupy the city of Hermosillo and declare the Republic of Sonora . The attempt falters when the count contracts Dysentery November 2 - Democrat Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire defeats Whig Winfield Scott of Virginia in the U.S. presidential election November 4 - Count Cavour becomes Piedmont prime minister November 11 - New Palace of Westminster opened in Britain November 21 /November 22 New French Empire confirmed by plebiscite: 7,824,000 for , 253,000 against December 2 - Napoleon III becomes Emperor of France . Births March 1 - Théophile Delcassé , French statesman (d. 1923 ) April 1 - Edwin Austin Abbey , American painter (d. 1911 ) April 13 - F.W. Woolworth , American merchant and businessman (d. 1919 ) April 22 - Guillaume IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (d. 1912 ) May 1 - Santiago Ramón y Cajal , Spanish histologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1934 ) May 4 - Alice Pleasance Liddell, inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (d. 1934 ) May 31 - Julius Richard Petri , German bacteriologist (d. 1921 ) July 12 - Hipólito Yrigoyen , President of Argentina (d. 1933 ) August 30 - Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff , Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1911 ) September 12 - Herbert Henry Asquith , Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1928 ) September 28 - Henri Moissan , French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907 ) October 2 - William Ramsay , Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1916 ) October 9 - Hermann Emil Fischer , German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1919 ) November 3 - Mutsuhito of Japan, Meiji Emperor (d. 1912 ) November 11 - Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf , Austro-Hungarian field marshal (d. 1925 ) November 22 - Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant , French diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1924 ) December 15 - Henri Becquerel , French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1908 ) December 19 - Albert Abraham Michelson , German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931 ) Deaths January 6 - Louis Braille , French teacher of the blind (b. 1809 ) March 4 - Nikolai Gogol , Russian writer (b. 1809 ) June 29 - Henry Clay , American Senator (b. 1777 ) July 22 - Auguste Marmont , French marshal (b. 1774 ) September 4 - William MacGillivray , Scottish naturalist and ornithologist (b. 1796 ) September 14 - Augustus Pugin , English architect (b. 1812 ) September 14 - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , British general and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1769 ) September 20 - Philander Chase , American founder of Kenyon College (b. 1775 ) October 24 - Daniel Webster , American statesman (b. 1782 ) November 27 - Augusta Ada King (neé Byron), Countess of Lovelace , early English computer pioneer (b. 1815 ) November 30 - Junius Brutus Booth , English-born actor (b. 1796 )