istoryworld
All Events
A French and Piedmontese army liberates Milan from Austrian rule
The opera Faust, by French composer Charles Gounod, has its premiere in Paris
Liberal leader Lord Palmerston returns to office as the British prime minister after the collapse of Derby's coalition government
The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia merge as a single new entity, to be called Romania
A 13-ton bell is installed above London's Houses of Parliament, soon giving its name (Big Ben) to both the clock and the clock-tower
French and Piedmontese forces defeat the Austrians decisively at Solferino, in a battle involving appalling casualties
Frozen remains and a document are finally found to reveal the fate of the Franklin expedition of 1845 to the NorthWest Passage
Edwin L. Drake strikes oil in Pennsylvania, leading to several local oil rushes
After a six-year campaign by Sir William Hooker, the government allocates £10,000 for a new conservatory - the Temperate House - to be built to designs by Decimus Burton.
French author Stendhal publishes his novel La Chartreuse de Parme ('The Charterhouse of Parma')
In On Liberty John Stuart Mill makes the classic liberal case for the priority of the freedom of the individual
Samuel Smiles provides an inspiring ideal of Victorian enterprise in Self-Help, a manual for ambitious young men
Tennyson publishes the first part of Idylls of the King, a series of linked poems about Britain's mythical king Arthur
John Brown is captured leading a group of abolitionists to seize arms from the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry
Abolitionst John Brown is convicted of treason at Harper's Ferry and is hanged
Charles Dickens publishes his French Revolution novel, A Tale of Two Cities
Edward FitzGerald publishes The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, romantic translations of the work of the Persian poet
US artist James McNeill Whistler settles in London, which he makes his home for the rest of his life
The treaty of Turin brings much of north Italy under the control of Cavour (for the kingdom of Sardinia), who in return cedes Savoy and Nice to France
Mail is carried by horse relay from Missouri to California, travelling 2000 miles in ten days in the service known as the Pony Express
German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and technician Peter Desdega perfect the non-luminous gas burner for use in the laboratory
Garibaldi lands at Marsala in Sicily in May with his thousand Redshirts, and wins control of the island for the king in waiting, Victor Emmanuel II
Lincoln becomes the Republican presidential candidate, benefiting from a Democratic party split on the issue of slavery
German immigrants arriving in the USA now outnumber even the Irish
Florence Nightingale opens a training school for nurses in St Thomas's Hospital, establishing nursing as a profession
