Events
March events
- March 4 – Gridley Bryant's Granite Railway is incorporated.
April events
- April 1 – Construction begins in Massachusetts on the Granite Railway, one of the first railroads in North America, under the direction of Gridley Bryant.
- May 26 – Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway in Scotland is authorised by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
October events
- October 1 – Opening of the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway in Scotland.
- October 7 – The first train operates over the Granite Railway in Massachusetts.
November births
- November 10 – Oden Bowie, the 34th Governor of the State of Maryland in the United States from 1869 to 1872, founder and first President of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad and also president of the Baltimore City Passenger Railway.