1851: Jan. 4 -- U. S. supreme court dismisses the writ of error in the case of STRADER & GORMAN vs. Christopher GRAHAM; brought up from the Kentucky court of appeals. The latter court had affirmed the decree of the Louisville chancery court, giving Dr. Graham $3,000 damages against the owners of the mail steamboat Pike, for transporting, without Dr. Graham's consent, his three negro men (musicians at the Harrodsburg springs) from Louisville to Cincinnati, whence they made their escape to Canada. Feb. 1 -- (The state rules) the close shaving, once a week, of the heads of convicts in the penitentiary prohibited hereafter. Feb. 22 -- All U.S. government property in Ky. (custom houses, post-offices, court rooms, etc.) exempted from taxation Feb. 24 -- Slaves hereafter emancipated must leave the state; and any free negro retuning or coming into the state, and remaining over 30 days, to be arrested for felony and punished by confinement in the penitentiary not longer than one year. May 1 -- Continuation of the coldest spring ever known in northern Ky.; heavy black frost, the most severe since April 26, 1834, destroying whole orchards of fruit, the grapes, and many tender trees; fires and overcoats indispensable to personal comfort; thermometer 20 degrees to 28 degrees above zero. --James SIMPSON elected from the first district. June 26 -- Lieutenant John D. LANDHORNE, of the U.S. surveying steamer Gallatin, saves the lives of twenty deck passengers of the bark Savannah, consumed by fire off the coast of Georgia. July 1 -- By act of congress, newspapers to be carried by mail, to all points within the county where published, free of postage; and single letters, to distances less than 3,000 miles, for 3 cents if prepaid, or 5 cents if not prepaid. Aug. 4 -- Surnames of first elected state officers under new constitution: Archibald DIXON, Lazarus W. POWELL, Cassius M. CLAY, John B. THOMPSON, Robert N. WICKLIFFE, Geo. D. BLAKEY, Richard C. WINTERSMITH, Elisha A. MACURDY, Thos. S. PAGE,, James HARLAN, Robert J. BRECKENRIDGE, David R. HAGGARD -- all Whigs, except for Governor Archibald DIXON. Aug. 15 -- A silver mine reported to have been discovered in Muhlenburg county. -- Col. Wm. L. CRITTENDEN, of Louisville, Capt. Victor KERR, ----. GREEN ____.STANDEFORD, John FISHER, Gilman A. COOK, and 44 others, nearly all Kentuckians under his command -- deceived by Gen. Lopez into the belief that the "patriots" of Cuba were engaged in a revolution for freedom -- engage in an armed expedition which invades the island; two days after landing, they are attacked by 700 Spanish troops, and after a gallant fight, captured, and next day, shot; of 80 others of his command, captured with him, 77 were afterward shot. The U.S. government promptly dispatched the steam frigate Saranac, Com. PARKER, to inquire into the circumstances; President Fillmore recalls Mr. OWEN, consul at Havana, evidently an incompetent officer. Sept. 21 -- Explosion of steamboat James Jackson, while leaving Shawneetown, Illinois; 35 killed or wounded. Sept. 22 -- Deaths from cholera at Cynthiana 11, at Grayson, Carter county, 3. Sept. 29 -- Burning of the buildings of the Kentucky Institute for the education of the blind, at Louisville. No lives lost. Oct. 3 -- Very able letter of Henry Clay to Daniel ULLMAN, Stephen WHITNEY, and others -- discussing the compromise measures and the doctrine of secession. Oct. 27 -- Ben. SELBY, state librarian, invites Ky. editors to send him a copy of each paper, and to join him in educating the public up to the idea of filing and preserving, in the state library, copies of all newspapers published in the state -- as "such a record will furnish to the country the very best history of the age." He will endeavor to procure an appropriation from the legislature to pay the cost, which will not exceed $180, for newspapers and postage. --The year 1851 remarkable for railroad progress in Ky. Roads from Lexington to Maysville, to Danville, and to Covington; and from Louisville to Nashville, under construction; while surveys are making from Lexington to the mouth of Big Sandy, from Maysville to the same point, from Frankfort to Harrodsburg, from Eminence to Covington, and from Cynthiana through Georgetown to Lexington. The road from Louisville to Frankfort completed. Dec. 13 -- Legislature passes an act to regulate the retailing of ardent spirits, which authorizes tavern license without the privilege of retailing liquor, and requires $25 tax on the latter if granted. Dec. 19 -- George ROBERTSON, in a card "To the Public," says he has "opposed, for 30 years, any agitation of the question of emancipation in Kentucky, and freesoilism in all its forms, and challenges the production of a single scrap of proof that he ever uttered or wrote a sentence favoring either the one or the other. The Compromise (of 1850) was, in his judgment, just, equal, and proper; and ought to be considered a final adjustment of all national controversy on the subject of slavery. Dec. 22 -- Ohio river closed with ice for 6 days. Deep snow.