Events January events January – Opening throughout of first railroad in Africa and the Middle East, from Alexandria to Cairo, Egypt (). January 29 – The 223-mile North Carolina Railroad is completed from Goldsboro through Raleigh and Salisbury to Charlotte. March events March 23 or 26 – Cambridge Railroad street railway opens in Boston (United States), giving the city the world's oldest continuously working streetcar system. April events April 19 – Death of American locomotive builder Thomas Rogers, following which his son, Jacob S. Rogers, reorganizes Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor as Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works. April 21 – The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River opens between Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa. May events May 1 – First section of Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway opens, between Ankleshwar and Utran. May 6 – The newly constructed sidewheeler Effie Afton runs into one of the supports for the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River, causing a fire that destroys the bridge just two weeks after it had opened. June events June 21 – The Illinois Central Railroad opens its Great Central Station in Chicago. July events July 14 – The Rome and Frascati Rail Road opens for service. July 17 – The Great Train Wreck (the worst railroad calamity in the world up to this date) occurs near Philadelphia in the United States. September events September 16 – Tarragona–Reus line in Spain opens. September 21 – The Illinois Central Railroad connects Chicago to Cairo, Illinois, completing 700 miles (1,126 km) of track to become the longest railway in the United States. September 22 – The Oriental Railway Company is granted the concession to build the first railway in Turkey, from İzmir to Aydın. October events October 23 – The line that is now Belgian railway line 161 is completed and opened connecting Brussels-North and Namur stations. October 28 – Opening of first railway in Portugal, from Lisbon to Carregado (). December events December 1 – Opening of first steam-operated passenger railways in Sweden, from Gothenburg to Jonsered () and Malmö to Lund (). Accidents Births February births February 2 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, director of the New York Central system (d. 1938). December births December 30 – Sam Fay, General manager of the Great Central Railway of England, 1902–1922 (d. 1953). Deaths January deaths January 8 – Charles "Joe" Baldwin, conductor on the Wilmington and Manchester