The potato blight reaches Ireland
1845 · Event
A fungus-like organism from the Americas, Phytophthora infestans, turns the potato fields black in a fortnight — and a third of the crop rots. Three million of Ireland's poorest live on potatoes almost alone; the blight will return worse in 1846, and near-totally in 1848.
On these timelines: The Irish Famine, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, Master, United Kingdom (combined), British Empire
More from The Irish Famine
- Great Famine of Ireland (1845)
- Black '47 (1847)
- The coffin-ship emigration (1846)
- London winds down famine relief (1847)
- The census counts Ireland's missing millions (1851)
- The Gregory clause (1847)
- Young Irelander Rebellion (1848)
Around 1845
- Taiping Rebellion (1851)
- Crimean War (1853)
- Revolutions of 1848 (1848)
- Opium Wars (1839)
- Perry Expedition to Japan (1853)
- Communist Manifesto (1848)
- Victorian era (1837)
- Reign of Victoria (1837)
- First public demonstration of surgical anaesthesia (1846)
- Revolutions of 1848 in Germany (1848)