May 4 — the sixteen-year-old heir Alexander was declared of age and received a number of high appointments that at first glance seemed responsible, but in essence were fictitious. He became ataman of the Cossack troops, commander-in-chief of the Guards and Grenadier Corps, and the first adjutant to his father.
E. A. and M. A. Cherepanov in Nizhny Tagil built the first railway in Russia with steam traction for factory use.
The struggle of the highlanders of Chechnya and Dagestan was headed by Shamil, the third imam of Dagestan (the Imamate of Shamil).
March 4 — Natalia Nikolaevna Pushkina suffered a miscarriage. In April she went with the children to Moscow and to Polotnyany Zavod, where she spent the summer; in May she visited her mother in Yaropolye; in August Pushkin came to Polotnyany Zavod for his wife’s name day and lived with the family for about two weeks. In September the Pushkins and the Goncharova sisters left for St. Petersburg. In November A. S. Pushkin deliberately left the capital for Moscow so as not to be present, along with the other chamber-junkers, at the ceremonial unveiling of the Alexander Column. “The Queen of Spades” and “The History of Pugachev” were published.
Andrey Nikolayevich Vyazemsky married a married woman, Natalia Alexandrovna Guryeva. Her husband agreed to take all the blame upon himself so that his wife could divorce him and marry Vyazemsky. It was said that he was stingy while his wife spent a great deal; shortly before that he had had to pay more than twelve thousand rubles in assignats on bills from fashionable shops, and so he agreed. For Prince Andrey, permission to marry cost about forty thousand rubles in assignats.
Georges-Charles d’Anthès, adopted by the Dutch envoy Baron L. Heeckeren, became a lieutenant in the Chevalier Guards Regiment.
M. Yu. Lermontov, after graduating from the School of Guards Ensigns and Cavalry Junkers, was appointed to the Life Guards Hussar Regiment.
Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev was born into the family of the director of the Tobolsk Gymnasium, the future chemist.
June 14 — Isaac Fischer of Springfield patented sandpaper.