Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story of adultery and betrayal in colonial America, The Scarlet Letter, is published.

On July 9, 1850, after only 16 months in office, President Zachary Taylor dies after a brief illness. The exact cause of his death is still disputed by some historians.

On July 10, 1850, Vice President Millard Fillmore is sworn in as the 13th president of the United States. President Zachary Taylor had died the day before, five days after falling ill with a severe intestinal ailment on the Fourth of July.

On September 1, 1859, Jenny Lind, the greatest opera performer in the world, arrives from Europe to the United States for a triumphant national tour that set astonishing box-office records and fanned the flames of a widespread opera craze in 1850s America. She was invited to tour America by circus impresario P.T. Barnum.

Though it had only been a part of the United States for less than two years, California becomes the 31st state in the union (without ever even having been a territory) on September 9, 1850.

Suffragist organizers hold the first-ever National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts on October 23, 1850.