1851 in Belgium

Monarch: Leopold I

Head of government: Charles Rogier

• National Bank of Belgium prints its first series of banknotes.[1]
• 24 January – Treaty of commerce and navigation with the Kingdom of Sardinia signed in Turin.[2]
• 23 February – Willemsfonds established.
• 18 April – New law on bankruptcy.[3]
• 24 April – Convention with the Netherlands allowing steamships on the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal signed in The Hague.[4]
• May-October – Embroiderer Joseph Van Halle exhibits "Church ornaments and Brussels lace" at the Great Exhibition in London.[5][6] The Belgian ambassador, Sylvain Van de Weyer, was consulted to ensure that the display of ecclesiastical vestments was arranged in such a way as not to offend Protestant sensibilities.[7]
• 8 May – Convention with The Netherlands abolishing tolls on the Meuse signed in Brussels.[8]
• 19 May – Railway line between Liège and Namur completed.
• 30 June – Protocol to the convention abolishing tolls on the Meuse signed in Brussels.[9]
• 27 September – Elections to the Senate
• 27 October – Treaty of commerce and navigation with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland signed in London.[10][11][12]
• 11 December – Victor Hugo's exile in Belgium begins.

Thladiantha dubia from La Belgique Horticole

Periodicals

• Almanach du commerce et de l'industrie, ed. H. Tarlier (Brussels, G. Stapleaux)[13]
• Annales de l'Observatoire Royal de Bruxelles, vol. 8, edited by Adolphe Quetelet.
• Annuaire de la noblesse de Belgique, vol. 5, edited by Isidore de Stein d'Altenstein[14]
• La Belgique Horticole begins publication.[15]
• Journal de l'armée belge, vol. 1.[16]

Official publications and monographs

• Code de justice et de discipline militaires (Brussels, Librairie universelle de Rozez).
• Recueil des lois et arrêtés royaux de la Belgique, vol. 22.[17]
• Henri Alexis Brialmont, Précis d'art militaire (Brussels, A. Jamar)[18]
• Henri Alexis Brialmont, Considérations politiques et militaires sur la Belgique, vols. 1-2 (Brussels, M. Hayez)[19]

Considérations politiques et militaires sur la Belgique, 3 volumes, 1851-1852

Literary publications

• Johan Michiel Dautzenberg, Beknopte prosodia der Nederduitsche taal[20]

Charles-Philogène Tschaggeny, The Gathering of the Harvest (1851)

Paintings

• Hendrick Joseph Dillens, The Winning Archer
• Edouard Hamman, Disillusion
• Henri Adolphe Schaep, View of a Harbour
• Charles-Philogène Tschaggeny, The Gathering of the Harvest

• 8 January – Gérard Leman, general (died 1920)
• 21 April – Eugène Siberdt, painter (died 1931)
• 21 May – Charles Emile Stuyvaert, astronomer (died 1908)
• 21 July – Auguste Brancart, publisher of pornography (date of death unknown)
• 6 August – Paul Wittouck, industrialist (died 1917)
• 12 August – Aloïs Boudry, painter (died 1938)
• 19 August – Frans Schollaert, politician (died 1917)
• 4 October – Michel Levie, politician (died 1939)
• 7 October – Lucien Solvay, newspaper editor (died 1950)
• 21 November – Désiré-Joseph Mercier, cardinal-archbishop (died 1926)
• 10 December – Alfred Ronner, artist (died 1901)

• 17 February – Jean-Baptiste Minne-Barth (born 1796), politician
• 4 July – Martin-Joseph Mengal (born 1784), composer
• 19 July – Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé (born 1818), nobleman and murderer