istoryworld
Events relating to europe
The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels, is published in Paris with the ringing slogan: 'Workers of the world, unite!'
A revolution in Paris in February removes Louis-Philippe and introduces France's second republic
An uprising in Rome causes Pope Pius IX to flee for safety to a coastal fortress at Gaeta
Scottish physicist William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, proposes the 'absolute' scale of temperature
Harry Smith annexes for Britain the land between the Orange and Vaal rivers, calling it the Orange River Sovereignty
Honoré de Balzac completes publication of La Comédie Humaine, a 17-volume collected edition of his numerous novels and stories
Louis Napoleon is elected the first president of France's new Second Republic
English art students Rossetti, Holman Hunt and Millais form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The prime minister of the papal states, Pellegrino Rossi, is assassinated in Rome
The second Anglo-Sikh war begins when a British army invades the Punjab to suppress a local uprising
Branwell, Emily and Anne Brontë die within a period of eight months
A new Roman republic is proclaimed, with veteran agitator Giuseppe Mazzini in the leading role
Nationalist leader Lajos Kossuth announces the independence of Hungary and the deposition of the Habsburg dynasty
Charles Dickens begins the publication in monthly numbers of David Copperfield, his own favourite among his novels
A British victory at the Battle of Gujarat effectively ends the second Anglo-Sikh war, and is followed by annexation of the Punjab
Giuseppe Garibaldi arrives from exile in South America to defend the new Roman republic against a French army
Scottish painter David Roberts completes publication of his 6-volume The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia
Pope Pius IX returns to Rome under the protection of French troops, with his enthusiasm for any form of change much reduced.
Expelled from Germany after the year of revolutions, Marx makes his home in tolerant London
Vancouver Island is given the status of a British crown colony, to be followed by British Columbia in 1858
Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky undergoes a mock execution, after being sentenced to death for revolutionary activities against tsar Nicholas I
Fyodor Dostoevsky begins four years of hard labour in Siberia for revolutionary activities
Queen Victoria knights her favourite painter of animals, Edwin Landseer
The British government buys the Danish fortresses on the Gold Coast, including Christiansborg castle in Accra
British foreign secretary Lord Palmerston sends a naval squadron to seize Greek ships in the Don Pacifico case
