Today in History for Year 1859

Months in Year 1859: January February March April May June July August September October November December

Historical Events

Events 1 - 73 of 73

Jan 5th - 1st steamboat sails, Red River
Jan 22nd - Brahms' 1st piano concerto (in D minor) premieres, Hanover
Jan 24th - Political union of Moldavia and Wallachia; Alexandru Ioan Cuza is elected as ruler.
Feb 4th - The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.
Feb 5th - Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities.
Feb 10th - Gen Horsford defeats Begum of Oude & Nana Sahib in Indian mutiny
Feb 14th - Oregon admitted as 33rd state
Feb 16th - The French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch.
Feb 17th - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Un Ballo in maschera" premieres in Napoli
Feb 25th - 1st use of "insanity plea" to prove innocence
Feb 26th - Paul Morphy's chess match vs Augustus Mongredien begins; Morphy wins
Feb 28th - Arkansas legislature requires free blacks to choose exile or slavery
Mar 1st - Present seal of SF adopted (its 2nd)
Mar 18th - Vera Cruz besieged by Miramon (Cons) in Mexican War of Reform
Mar 19th - Opera "Faust" by Charles Gounod premieres in Paris
Mar 21st - Scottish National Gallery opens in Edinburgh
Mar 21st - Zoological Society of Philadelphia, 1st in US, incorporated
Mar 26th - 1st sighting of Vulcan, a planet thought to orbit inside Mercury
Mar 28th - 1st performance of John Brahms' 1st Serenade for orchestra
Composer Giuseppe Verdi Apr 4th - Opera "Dinorah" is produced (Paris)
Apr 4th - Bryant's Minstrels debut "Dixie" in New York City in the finale of a blackface minstrel show.
Apr 6th - US recognizes Liberal government in Mexico's War of Reform
Apr 12th - Hibernia Savings & Loan Society of SF incorporates
Apr 25th - Ground broken for Suez Canal
Apr 26th - Dan Sickles is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity 1st time this defense is successfully used
Apr 27th - "Pomona" sinks in North Atlantic drowning all 400 aboard
Apr 30th - Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities" is first published in literary periodical All the Year Round, continues in weekly installments until Nov 26
Apr 30th - Paul Morphy returns from 10-mo chess tour of Europe, retires
May 4th - The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.
May 17th - Australian Rules Football first 'laws of the game' published
May 31st - Phila A's organize to play "town ball" became baseball 20 years later
Jun 6th - Australia: Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales (Queensland Day).
Jun 11th - Comstock silver load discovered near Virginia City, Nevada
Jun 12th - Comstock Silver Lode in Nevada discovered
Novelist Charles Dickens Jun 15th - Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the "Northwestern Boundary Dispute" between U.S. and British/Canadian settlers.
Jun 24th - Battle of Solferino, N-Italy: France/Sardinia-Austria
Jun 28th - 1st dog show held (Newcastle-on-Tyne, England)
Jun 30th - Charles Blondin is 1st to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope
Jul 1st - 1st intercollegiate baseball game, Amherst beats Williams 66-32
Jul 1st - Balloon covers a record 809 miles over St Louis
Jul 4th - Austro-Sardinian War: the Battle of Magenta.
Jul 5th - Capt N C Brooks discovers Midway Islands
Jul 8th - King Charles XV/Carl IV accedes to the throne of Sweden-Norway.
Jul 12th - Paper bag manufacturing machine patents by William Goodale, Mass
Jul 22nd - V E Walker takes 10-74 in an innings for England v Surrey
Aug 9th - Elevator patented
Aug 17th - 1st air mail (in a balloon) took off from Lafayette Ind
Aug 27th - 1st successful oil well drilled, near Titusville, Penn by Edwin Drake
Aug 28th - A geomagnetic storm causes the Aurora Borealis to shine so brightly that it is seen clearly over parts of USA, Europe, and even as far afield as Japan.
Sep 1st - 1st Pullman sleeping car in service
Sep 1st - R C Carrington & R Hodgson make 1st observation of solar flare
Sep 1st - A solar superstorm affects electrical telegraph service.
Sep 2nd - Gas lighting introduced to Hawaii
Sep 2nd - A solar super storm affects electrical telegraph service.
Physician and Explorer David Livingstone Sep 16th - Lake Nyasa, which forms Malawi's boundary with Tanzania & Mozambique discovered by British explorer David Livingstone
Sep 17th - Man in SF claims himself Norton I, emperor of America
Sep 20th - George Simpson patents electric range
Sep 29th - Great auroral display in US
Oct 16th - John Brown leads 21 in raid on federal arsenal, Harper's Ferry, Va
Oct 19th - Wilhelm Tempel discovers diffuse nebula around Pleid star Merope
Oct 25th - Merchant vessel Royal Charter runs aground at Liverpool, 459 die
Oct 26th - The Royal Charter is wrecked on the coast of Anglesey, north Wales with 459 dead.
Oct 29th - Spain declares war on Morocco.
Nov 1st - The current Cape Lookout, North Carolina, lighthouse was lit for the first time. Its first-order Fresnel lens can be seen for about 19 miles (30 kilometers), in good conditions.
Nov 12th - Jules Leotard performs 1st Flying Trapeze circus act (Paris) He also designed garment that bears his name
Nov 16th - Aleksandr Ostrovsky's "Groza," premieres in Moscow
Nov 24th - Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species"
Nov 26th - Last weekly installment of Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities" is published in literary periodical All the Year Round
Dec 5th - Dion Boucicault's "Octaroon," premieres in NYC
Naturalist Charles Darwin Dec 15th - GR Kirchoff describes chemical composition of Sun
Dec 18th - South Carolina declared an "independent commonwealth"
Dec 19th - Grading started for Market Street RR
Dec 31st - Dutch colony in Dutch Indies counts 4,800 slaves

Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 125

Jan 5th - DeWitt B Brace, inventor (spectrophotometer)
Jan 6th - Samuel Alexander, English philosopher (Moral order & progress)
Jan 9th - Carrie Chapman Catt, women's rights leader
Jan 9th - Carrie Lane Chapman Catt, founder (League of Women Voters)
Jan 9th - Frederik Pijper, Dutch vicar/church historian (The Monasteries)
Jan 11th - [Gerard] Jan Ligthart, Dutch educator (Nog bij mother, Ot & Sien)
Jan 13th - Karl Bleibtreu, German author (Revolution of Literature)
Jan 13th - Kostis Palamas, Greek poet (d. 1943)
Jan 15th - Archibald Peake, Premier of South Australia (d. 1920)
Jan 19th - Alice Eastwood, Toronto, botanist (Handbook of Trees of California)
Jan 21st - Antoni Wincenty Rutkowski, composer
Jan 24th - Alexander Alexandrovich Il'yinsky, composer
Jan 27th - Wilhelm II, Potsdam, German emperor (1888-1918)
Jan 30th - Tony Mullane, Irish-born American baseball player (d. 1944)
Feb 1st - Victor August Herbert, Dublin Ireland, composer (Babes in Toyland)
Feb 1st - Victor Herbert, Irish/US composer (Kiss in Dark)
Feb 2nd - Havelock Ellis, US physician/sexologist (Psychology of Sex)
Feb 3rd - Hugo Junkers, German aircraft designer (d. 1935)
Feb 4th - Timofei Mikhailov, Russian revolutionary, member of Narodnaya Volya (d. 1881)
Feb 8th - John H Been, town's archivist of Brielle (Baasje & Witkop)
Feb 10th - Alexandre Millerand, French President (d. 1943)
Feb 13th - Frank van de Goes, Dutch writer/marxist theorist
Feb 13th - William Strang, Scottish painter/engraver
Feb 14th - George Washington Gale Ferris, engineer/inventor (Ferris Wheel)
Feb 18th - Sholem Aleichem, [Solomon Rabinowitz], author (Fiddler on the Roof)
Feb 19th - Svante August Arhenius, Swedish physicist/chemist (Nobel 1903)
Mar 8th - Kenneth Grahame, Scottish author (Wind in the Willows)
Mar 8th - Otto Taubmann, composer
Mar 12th - Josef Cyril Sychra, composer
Mar 12th - Abraham H. Cannon, Mormon apostle (d. 1896)
Mar 13th - Ivo Bligh, cricketer (Lord Darnley England capt v Australia 1882-83)
Mar 16th - Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist (d. 1906)
Mar 26th - A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, England, poet (Shropshire Lad)
Mar 26th - Nikolay Alexandrovich Sokolov, composer
Mar 26th - Adolf Hurwitz, German mathematician (d. 1919)
Mar 27th - George Giffen, cricketer (one of Australia's greatest all-rounders)
Apr 3rd - Reginald De Koven, composer
Apr 5th - Wilhelm Harteveld, composer
Apr 7th - Walter Camp, Ct, father of American football (Yale)
Apr 8th - Edmund Husserl, Germany, philosopher (founded Phenomenology)
Apr 11th - Basil Harwood, composer
Apr 16th - Winifred Cochrane, Countess of Dundonald, philanthropist (d. 1924)
Apr 18th - Eduard G H H Cuypers, architect (Sanatorium High-Laren)
May 1st - Bohuslav Jeremias, composer
May 1st - Willem J Leyds, Dutch/South Africa lawyer/politician/diplomat
May 2nd - Eugene D'Harcourt, composer
May 2nd - Jerome Klapka Jerome, English writer (d. 1927)
May 3rd - Andy Adams, US writer (Log of a Cowboy)
May 6th - Luis Maria Drago, Argentina, statesman, anti-interventionist
May 6th - Willem J T Kloos, Dutch poet (Act of Simple Justice)
May 8th - Johan Jensen, Danish mathematician (d. 1925)
May 13th - Eugust Enna, composer
May 15th - Pierre Curie, France, physicist (Nobel 1903)
May 19th - Nellie Melba, [Heal Mitchell], Australian soprano (Peach Melba)
Author of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle (May 22nd) May 22nd - Arthur Conan Doyle, UK, author brought Sherlock Holmes to life twice
May 26th - Alfred Edward Housman, Bromsgrove England, poet (A Buried Life)
May 30th - Pierre Marie Felix Janet, France, psychologist/neurologist
Jun 8th - Smith Wigglesworth, British religious figure (d. 1947)
Jun 10th - Jacques F H Perk, Dutch poet (Iris, Wood Song)
Jun 21st - Henry O Tanner, artist
Jun 22nd - Frank Heino Damrosch, author/musician/teacher (found Inst of Music)
Jun 23rd - Florentinus M Wibaut, Amsterdams social alderman (building of houses)
Jun 27th - Mildred J Hill, composer/musician (Happy Birthday To You)
Jul 6th - Verner von Heidenstam, Sweden, poet/novelist (Charles Men, Nobel 1916)
Jul 13th - Sydney Webb, England, writer/husband of Beatrice Potter
Jul 14th - Willy Hess, German violinist (d. 1928)
Jul 17th - Luis Munoz Rivera, Puerto Rico, journalist (founded Federalist Party)
Jul 30th - Henry Simpson Lunn, English humanitarian (d. 1939)
Aug 4th - Knut Hamsun, Norway, writer/Nazi (Hunger-Nobel 1920)
Aug 6th - J Arthur S Berson, Austria meteorologist (Balloon flights, Amazon)
Aug 12th - Katharine Lee Bates, US, author (America the Beautiful)
Aug 19th - Charles Comiskey, 1st basemen/manager (Chicago White Sox)
Aug 19th - Hippolyte Delehaye, Flemish historian/hagiographer
Sep 3rd - AAJ Jean Jaurès, French socialist (L'Humanité, Les Preuves)
Sep 4th - Edoardo Mascheroni, composer
Sep 11th - Vjenceslav Novak, Croatian writer (d. 1905)
Sep 17th - Frank D Adams, Canada geologist/educator
Sep 17th - Richard Henry Warren, composer
Sep 18th - John L. Bates, 41st Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1946)
Sep 18th - Lincoln Loy McCandless, American cattle rancher (d. 1940)
Sep 20th - Yuan She-k'ai, Chinese general/president/dictator
Sep 21st - Cyriel Buysse, Flemish baron/writer (Sursum Corda, Ace Knave)
Sep 24th - Julius Klengel, cellist/composer
Oct 3rd - Elenora Duse, Italy, actress (Hedda Gabler)
Oct 4th - Henryk Pachulski, composer
Oct 9th - Alfred Dreyfus, accused Jewish French officer (Dreyfus Affair)
Oct 14th - Camille Chevillard, composer
Oct 15th - Jaime de Magalhes Lima, Portuguese author/poet (Salmos do Prisoneiro)
Oct 17th - William "Buck" Ewing, hall of fame catcher (NY Giants, Cin Reds)
Oct 18th - Henri Bergson, France, philosopher (Creative Evolution-Nobel 1927)
Oct 20th - G B Studd, cricketer (brother of C T, 4 Tests for England)
Oct 20th - John Dewey, philosopher, educational theorist/writer (Learn by doing)
Oct 25th - Stephanie H [Lapidoth-]Swarth, Dutch author (Lonely Flowers)
Oct 26th - Arthur Friedheim, composer
Oct 29th - Charles Ebbets, (namesake of Ebbets Field, Brooklyn)
Nov 1st - Charles Brantley Aycock, (Gov-NC)
Nov 1st - William Henry Grattan Flood, composer
Nov 4th - Stanislaw Niewiadomski, composer
Nov 13th - Georg Knorr, German engineer (brake system trains)
Nov 15th - Christopher Hornsrud, Prime Minister of Norway (d. 1960)

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Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 45 of 45

Jan 8th - Antoine GB Schayes, Belgian historian/archaeologist, dies at 50
Jan 20th - B v Arnim, writer, dies at 73
Jan 20th - Bettina Brentano, composer, dies at 73
Jan 27th - Carl A Agardh, Swedish botanist/bishop of Karlstad, dies at 74
Jan 28th - Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1782)
Feb 6th - Johannes Josephus Viotta, composer, dies at 45
Feb 23rd - Zygmunt Krasiński, Polish Romantic poet (b. 1812)
Feb 26th - Ferdinand Lukas Schubert, composer, dies at 64
Mar 1st - Josef Theodor Krov, composer, dies at 61
Apr 12th - John Emde, German evangelist, dies at about 84
Apr 16th - Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian (b. 1805)
Apr 30th - Sergei T Aksakov, Russian writer (Bagrova-vnuka), dies at 67
May 4th - Joseph Diaz Gergonne, French mathematician (b. 1771)
May 5th - Peter G L Dirichlet, German mathematician, dies at 53
May 6th - Friedrich Heinrich Alexander, explorer/scientist, dies
May 6th - Alexander von Humboldt, German naturalist, dies at 89
May 10th - John Archduke of Austria, dies
May 22nd - Ferdinand II, [Re Bomba], Dutch King of Sicily, dies at 49
Jun 7th - David Cox, English artist (b. 1783)
Naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (May 6th) Jun 18th - Joseph Hartmann Stuntz, composer, dies at 65
Jun 27th - Jean C Baud, gov-gen of Dutch-Indies (1834-36), dies at 69
Jul 5th - Charles Cagniard de la Tour, French physicist (b. 1777)
Jul 8th - F J Oscar I, King of Sweden/Norway (1844-59), dies at 60
Jul 20th - Hans E Schack, Danish politician/writer (Fantasy), dies
Jul 29th - Auguste Mathieu Panseron, composer, dies at 63
Aug 2nd - Horace Mann, American educator and abolitionist (b. 1796)
Aug 4th - Jean Vianney, French parish priest (b. 1786)
Aug 10th - George Staunton, writer
Sep 5th - W Friedrich Olivier, German landscape painter, dies at 68
Sep 13th - Cornelis J van Axes, lawyer, dies at 71
Sep 15th - John LA Luyten, Catholic Member of Dutch 2nd parliament, dies at 72
Sep 15th - Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British engineer (b. 1806)
Sep 28th - Rinse Posthumus, Fries writer, dies
Oct 4th - Karl Baedeker, German tour guide (Die Schweiz), dies at 57
Oct 22nd - Louis (Ludwig) Spohr, composer (Faust), dies at 75
Nov 7th - Carl Gottlieb Reissiger, composer, dies at 61
Nov 22nd - Ludwig "Louis" Spohr, German violinist/composer (Faust), dies at 75
Nov 28th - Washington Irving, US author (Geoffrey Crayon, gent), dies
Dec 2nd - John Brown, US abolitionist (Harpers Ferry), hanged at 59
Dec 5th - Louis Poinsot, French mathematician/instrument maker, dies at 82
Dec 8th - Thomas de Quincey, English author (b. 1785)
Dec 16th - Wilhelm Grimm, writer, dies at 73
Dec 21st - Nicolaas C Kist, Dutch church historian/archivist, dies at 66
Dec 28th - Thomas Babington Macaulay, English essayist/historian, dies
Dec 31st - Luigi Ricci, composer, dies at 54