comprising Sir John Franklin's expedition to find the Northwest Passage, sail from Greenhithe on the Thames. They will last be seen in the summer, entering Baffin Bay. May 25 – A theater fire in Canton, China, kills 1,670. May 30 – Fatel Razack (Fath Al Razack, "Victory of Allah the Provider", Arabic: قتح الرزاق) is the first ship to bring indentured labourers from India to Trinidad and Tobago, landing in the Gulf of Paria with 227 immigrants. June 8 – Former U.S. President Andrew Jackson, 78, dies at The Hermitage (Nashville, Tennessee). July–September July 26–August 10 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iron steamship Great Britain makes the transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to New York, the first screw propelled vessel to make the passage. July 28 – HMS Terror and HMS Erebus of the Franklin Expedition go missing in the Davis Strait west of Greenland, while searching for the Northwest Passage. August 4 – British emigrant barque Cataraqui is wrecked on King Island (Tasmania) with 400 people killed and only 9 survivors. August 9 – The Aberdeen Act is passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, empowering the British Royal Navy to search Brazilian ships, as part of the abolition of the slave trade from Africa. August 19 – Tornado in Montville destroys two large factories, killing 200 people. August 28 – The journal Scientific American begins publication. September 9 – Potato blight breaks out in Ireland, beginning the Great Famine. September 18 – The Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata is formally declared. September 25 – The Phi Alpha Literary Society is founded, in Jacksonville, Illinois. October–December October 9 – The eminent and controversial Anglican, John Henry Newman, is received into the Roman Catholic Church. October 10 – In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with fifty midshipmen and seven professors. October 13 – A majority of voters in the Republic of Texas approve a proposed constitution that, if accepted by the United States Congress, will make Texas a U.S. state. October 19 – Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser debuts at the Dresden Royal Court Theater. October 21 – The New York Herald becomes the first newspaper to mention the game of baseball. November 20 – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata – Battle of Vuelta de Obligado: The Argentine Confederation is narrowly defeated by an Anglo–French fleet on the