rity of Congress, Louis
Kossuth, Hungarian patriot chief, is given an asylum on an American war
vessel. He visits England and later the United States, and is received
with great distinction and respect by the President and all officers of
the government, acting unofficially.

Founding of the Congressional Library at Washington, and of the University
of Wisconsin at Madison. United States begins soundings for an Atlantic
cable. The New York _Times_ and New York _Ledger_ appear. Death of J.F.
Cooper, American novelist, and J.J. Audubon, American naturalist.

In England, the year opens with great excitement due to the discovery of
gold in Australia. The first great World's Fair is opened in London, in
Hyde Park, and is a great success; exhibition building subsequently
removed to Sydenham, and known as the "Crystal Palace." American yacht
America wins international prize cup at the Cowes Regatta in a match
around the Isle of Wight. The English colonists wage fierce warfare with
Kafir and Hottentot natives in South Africa. France and England are
connected by telegraphic cable. Invention of the opthalmoscope by
Helmholtz. Death of Oersted, discoverer of relation between electricity
and magnetism.

In France, on the night between December 2 and 3, the president, Louis
Napoleon, successfully plans and executes his famous _coup d'etat_, making
himself practically a dictator. Officers of the government and leaders
opposing him are quietly arrested and locked up; later many are banished,
including M. Thiers. The legislative assembly is dissolved and universal
suffrage proclaimed. Paris being declared in a state of siege, there are
barricades and sanguinary conflicts. On the 21st an election throughout
France confirms Napoleon as president of the republic for ten years. In
England, Lord Palmerston is dismissed from the ministry because of
official indiscretion in expressing congratulations over events in France
(see 1852). Death of Thomas Moore, Irish poet; in France, of Daguerre,
inventor of first photographic process.

=POPULATION--Washington, D.C., 40,001; Chicago, 29,963; New York, 515,547;
London, 2,362,236; United States (census of 1850), 23,191,876; Great
Britain and Ireland, 27,368,736.=

=RULERS--United States, Millard Fillmore, President; Great Britain,
Victoria; France, Louis Napoleon, President; Spain, Isabella II; Prussia,
Frederick William IV; Russia, Nicholas I; Austria, Francis Joseph; Pope,
Pius IX.=

1852