275px|thumb|[[July 14: Japan welcomes the first U.S. envoys from the Perry Expedition, begins to end isolation.]]

thumb|275px|[[November 30 (November 18 O.S.): The Battle of Sinop is fought in the Crimean War as the Russian Empire destroys the Ottoman Turkish fleet in the last major naval battle involving sailing warships.]]

Events

January–March

  • January 6
  • Florida Governor Thomas Brown signs legislation that provides public support for the new East Florida Seminary, leading to the establishment of the University of Florida.
  • U.S. President-elect Franklin Pierce's only living child, Benjamin "Benny" Pierce, is killed in a train accident.
  • January 8 – Taiping Rebellion: Zeng Guofan is ordered to assist the governor of Hunan in organizing a militia force to search for local bandits.
  • January 12 – Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army occupies Wuchang.
  • January 19 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres at Teatro Apollo in Rome.
  • January 20 – The United Kingdom proclaims its annexation of Lower Burma, ending the Second Anglo-Burmese War.
  • February 10 – Taiping Rebellion: Taiping forces assemble at Hanyang, Hankou and Wuchang for the march on Nanjing.
  • February 12 – The city of Puerto Montt is founded in the Reloncaví Sound, Chile.
  • February 22 – Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary.
  • March 5 – Saint Paul Fire and Marine, as predecessor of The Travelers Companies, a worldwide insurance service, founded in Minnesota, United States.
  • March 6 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera La traviata premieres at La Fenice in Venice, but is poorly received at this time.
  • March 20 – Taiping Rebellion: A rebel army of around 750,000 seizes Nanjing, killing 30,000 Imperial troops.
  • March 29 – Manchester is granted city status in the United Kingdom.
  • March – The clothing company Levi Strauss & Co. is founded in San Francisco (US).

April–June

  • April 7 – Prince Leopold, the youngest son and the eighth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, is born in Buckingham Palace; he has inherited haemophilia. During the labour, Victoria chooses to use chloroform, thereby encouraging the use of anesthesia in childbirth.
  • April 16 – Indian Railways: The first passenger railway in India opens from Bombay to Thana, Maharashtra, .
  • May 5 – Perpetual Maritime Truce comes into force between the United Kingdom and the rulers of the Sheikhdoms of the Lower Gulf, later known as the Trucial States.
  • May 12–October 31 – The Great Industrial Exhibition is held in Dublin, Ireland.
  • May 23 – The first plat for Seattle, Washington, is laid out.
  • May
  • The world's first public aquarium opens, as a feature of the London Zoo.
  • An outbreak of yellow fever kills 7,790 people in New Orleans.
  • Isambard Kingdom Brunel accepts John Scott Russell's tender for construction of the passenger steamer.
  • June 22 – Guimarães is elevated to city status by Queen Maria II of Portugal.
  • June 27 – Taiping Rebellion: The Northern Expeditionary Force crosses the Yellow River.
  • June 30 – Georges-Eugène Haussmann is selected as préfect of the Seine (department) to begin the re-planning of Paris.

July–September

  • July 1 – The Swiss watch company Tissot is founded.
  • July 8 – U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrives in Edo Bay, Japan, with a request for a trade treaty.
  • July 14 – Japan allows Commodore Perry to come ashore and begin negotiations.
  • July 25 – Outlaw and bandit Joaquin Murrieta is killed in California.
  • July 27 – Iesada succeeds his father Ieyoshi as Japanese shōgun. The Late Tokugawa shogunate (the last part of the Edo period in Japan) begins.
  • August 12 – New Zealand acquires self-government.
  • August 23 – The first true International Meteorological Organization is established in Brussels, Belgium.
  • August 24
  • Potato chips are first prepared, by George Crum at Saratoga Springs, New York, according to popular accounts.
  • The Royal Norwegian Navy Museum is founded at Karljohansvern in Horten, perhaps the world's first naval museum.
  • September 19 – English missionary Hudson Taylor first leaves for China.
  • September 20 – Otis Elevator, as predecessor of Otis Worldwide, is founded in the United States.

October–December

  • October 1 – C. Bechstein's piano factory is founded, one of three established in a "golden year" in the history of the piano (Julius Blüthner and Steinway & Sons being the others).
  • October 4–5 – Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire begins war with Russia.
  • October 4 – On the east coast of the United States, Donald McKay launches the Great Republic, the world's biggest sailing ship, which at 4,500 tons is too large to be successful.
  • October 25 – In Munich, the art museum Neue Pinakothek opens.
  • October 28 – Crimean War: The Ottoman army crosses the Danube into Vidin/Calafat, Wallachia.
  • October 30 – Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping Northern Expeditionary Force comes within of Tianjin.
  • November 3 – Troops of William Walker capture La Paz in Baja California Territory and declare the (short-lived) Republic of Sonora.
  • November 4 – Crimean War: Battle of Oltenitza – Turkish forces defeat the Russians.
  • November 15 – Maria II of Portugal is succeeded by her son Pedro V as King of Portugal.
  • November 30 (November 18 O.S.) – Crimean War: Battle of Sinop – The Russian fleet destroys the Turkish fleet.
  • December 6 – Taiping Rebellion: French minister de Bourboulon arrives at the Heavenly Capital, aboard the Cassini.
  • December 14 – Compagnie Générale des Eaux, predecessor of Vivendi and Veolia, a global media conglomerate, is founded in Paris, France.
  • December 30 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys approximately of land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.

Date unknown

  • French diplomat Arthur de Gobineau begins publication of his An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines), an early example of scientific racism.
  • Charles Pravaz and Alexander Wood independently invent a practical hypodermic syringe.
  • Wheaton Academy is founded as an evangelical high school in West Chicago, Illinois.
  • The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China is incorporated in London by Scotsman James Wilson, under a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria.
  • Melbourne Cricket Ground, the largest sports stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, officially opens.
  • 1853–1873 – More than 130,000 Chinese laborers come to Cuba.

Births

January–March

thumb|110px|[[Vincent van Gogh]]

  • January 1 – Karl von Einem, German general (d. 1934)
  • January 9 – Henning von Holtzendorff, German admiral (d. 1919)
  • January 16
  • Johnston Forbes-Robertson, English actor (d. 1937)
  • Sir Ian Hamilton, British general (d. 1947)
  • January 18 – Eusebio Hernández Pérez, Cuban eugenicist, obstetrician and guerrilla (d. 1933)
  • January 23 – John Marks Moore, American politician (d. 1902)
  • January 28
  • José Martí, Cuban revolutionary (d. 1895)
  • Vladimir Solovyov, Russian philosopher (d. 1900)
  • c. February – William O'Malley, Irish politician (d. 1939)
  • January 29 – Kitasato Shibasaburō, Japanese physician, bacteriologist (d. 1931)
  • February 4 – Kaneko Kentarō, Japanese politician, diplomat (d. 1942)
  • February 18 – Ernest Fenollosa, Catalan-American philosopher (d. 1908)
  • February 22 – Annie Le Porte Diggs, Canadian-born state librarian of Kansas (d. 1916)
  • March 2 – Ella Loraine Dorsey, American author, journalist and translator (d. 1935)
  • March 5 – Howard Pyle, American artist, fiction writer (d. 1911)
  • March 10 – Thomas Mackenzie, 18th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
  • March 13 – Robert William Felkin, British writer (d. 1926)
  • March 14 – Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (d. 1918)
  • March 25 – Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, 5th Qajarid Shah of Persia (d. 1907)
  • March 27 – Yakov Zhilinsky, Russian general (d. 1918)
  • March 29 – Elihu Thomson, English-American engineer, inventor, co-founder of General Electric (d. 1937)
  • March 30 – Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (d. 1890)

April–June

thumb|110px|[[Ella Eaton Kellogg]]

  • April 6 – Emil Jellinek, German automobile entrepreneur (d. 1918)
  • April 7
  • Ella Eaton Kellogg, American pioneer in dietetics (d. 1920)
  • Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, member of the British royal family (d. 1884)
  • April 22 – Alphonse Bertillon, French police officer, forensic scientist (d. 1914)
  • April 30 – Alexey Abaza, Russian admiral and politician (d. 1917)
  • May 4 – Marie Robinson Wright, American travel writer (d. 1914)
  • May 20
  • Ella Hoag Brockway Avann, American educator (d. 1899)
  • Vladimir Viktorovich Sakharov, Russian general (d. 1920)
  • May 26 - Placido Moreira Dias, Brazilian military commander (d. ?)
  • May 28 – Carl Larsson, Swedish painter (d. 1919)
  • June 3 – William Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (d. 1942)
  • June 12 – Chester Adgate Congdon, American mining magnate (d. 1916)

July–September

thumb|right|110px|[[Cecil Rhodes]]

thumb|right|110px|[[Hendrik Lorentz]]

thumb|right|110px|[[Albrecht Kossel]]

thumb|right|110px|[[Heike Kamerlingh Onnes]]

thumb|right|110px|[[Teresa Carreño]]

  • July 4 – Ernst Otto Beckmann, German chemist (d. 1923)
  • July 5 – Cecil Rhodes, English businessman (d. 1902)
  • July 10 – Percy Scott, British admiral (d. 1924)
  • July 18 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
  • July 24 – William Gillette, American actor, playwright and stage-manager (d. 1937)
  • July 26 – Philip Cowen, American Jewish publisher and author (d. 1943)
  • July 29 – Ioan Culcer, Romanian general and politician (d. 1928)
  • August 23
  • João Marques de Oliveira, Portuguese painter (d. 1927)
  • John Thomson, Australian politician (d. 1917)
  • August 28
  • Vladimir Shukhov, Russian engineer, polymath, scientist and architect (d. 1939)
  • Franz I, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1938)
  • September 1 – Aleksei Brusilov, Russian general (d. 1926)
  • September 2 – Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932)
  • September 6 – Katherine Eleanor Conway, American journalist, editor, poet and Laetare Medalist (d. 1927)
  • September 16 – Albrecht Kossel, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1927)
  • September 20 – Chulalongkorn, Rama V, King of Siam (d. 1910)
  • September 21 – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926)
  • September 23 – Fritz von Below, German general (d. 1918)

October–December

  • October 4 – Jane Maria Read, American poet and teacher (unknown year of death)
  • October 13 – Lillie Langtry, Jersey-born stage actress and royal mistress (d. 1929)
  • October 14 – John William Kendrick, American railroad executive (d. 1924)
  • October 16 – Thadeus von Sivers, Baltic German-born Russian general (death date unknown)
  • October 17 – Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, wife of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (d. 1920)
  • October 26 – Tokugawa Akitake, Japanese daimyō, the last lord of Mito Domain, younger brother of the last shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu (d. 1910)
  • October 30 – Louise Abbéma, French painter, sculptor and designer of the Belle Époque (d. 1927)
  • November 9 – Stanford White, American architect (d. 1906)
  • November 13 – John Drew, Jr., American stage actor (d. 1927)
  • November 18 – Leopold Poetsch, Austrian history teacher, high school teacher of Adolf Hitler and Adolf Eichmann (d. 1942)
  • November 20 – Oskar Potiorek, Austro-Hungarian general (d. 1933)
  • November 29 – Panagiotis Danglis, Greek general, politician (d. 1924)
  • December 6 – Hara Prasad Shastri, Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist and historian of Bengali literature (d. 1931)
  • December 14 – Errico Malatesta, Italian anarchist (d. 1932)
  • December 17 – Émile Roux, French physician, bacteriologist and immunologist (d. 1933)
  • December 21 – Noda Utarō, Japanese entrepreneur and politician (d. 1927)
  • December 22
  • Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer and conductor (d. 1917)
  • Sarada Devi, Indian mystic and saint (d. 1920)
  • December 23 – William Henry Moody, 35th United States Secretary of the Navy, 45th United States Attorney General and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1917)
  • December 31 – Tasker H. Bliss, American general (d. 1930)

Deaths

January–June

thumb|110px|right|[[Christian Doppler]]

  • January 8 – Mihály Bertalanits, Slovene (Prekmurje Slovene) poet in the Kingdom of Hungary (b. 1788)
  • January 16
  • Matteo Carcassi, Italian composer (b. 1792)
  • Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria, Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia (b. 1783)
  • Robert Lucas, governor of Ohio, United States (b. 1781)
  • January 19 – Karl Faber, German historian (b. 1773)
  • January 22 – Méry von Bruiningk, Estonian democrat (b. 1818)
  • February 4 – Princess Maria Amélia of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil (b. 1831)
  • February 6 – Anastasio Bustamante, 4th President of Mexico (b. 1780)
  • February 15 – August, Prince of Hohenlohe-Öhringen (b. 1784)
  • March 17 – Christian Doppler, Austrian mathematician (b. 1803)
  • March 30 – Abigail Fillmore, First Lady of the United States (b. 1798)
  • April 18 – William R. King, 13th Vice President of the United States (b. 1786)
  • April 28 – Ludwig Tieck, German writer (b. 1773)
  • May 18 – Lionel Kieseritzky, Baltic-German chess player (b. 1806)
  • June 2
  • Lucas Alamán, Mexican statesman, historian (b. 1792)
  • Henry Trevor, 21st Baron Dacre, British peer, soldier (b. 1777)
  • June 7 – Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis, Italian opera singer (b. 1800)
  • June 8 – Howard Vyse, English soldier and Egyptologist (b. 1784)
  • June 27 – Lewis Brian Adams, English painter (b. 1809)

July–December

thumb|110px|[[Georg Friedrich Grotefend]]

thumb|right|110px|[[Maria White Lowell]]

  • July 27 – Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 12th shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan (b. 1793)
  • August 9 – Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński, Polish philosopher (b. 1776)
  • August 19 – George Cockburn, British naval commander (b. 1772)
  • August 21 – Maria Quitéria, Brazilian national heroine (b. 1792)
  • August 23 – Alexander Calder, first mayor of Beaumont, Texas (b. 1806)
  • August 29 – Charles James Napier, British army general and colonial administrator (b. 1782)
  • September 3 – Augustin Saint-Hilaire, French botanist, traveller (b. 1799)
  • September 6 – George Bradshaw, English timetable publisher (b. 1800)
  • October 2 – François Arago, French Catalan mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician (b. 1786)
  • October 3 – George Onslow, French composer (b. 1784)
  • October 5 – Mahlon Dickerson, American judge, politician (b. 1770)
  • October 13 – Jan Cock Blomhoff, Dutch director of Dejima, Japan (b. 1779)
  • October 22 – Juan Antonio Lavalleja, Uruguayan military, political figure (b. 1784)
  • October 27 – Maria White Lowell, American abolitionist (b. 1821)
  • November 15 – Maria II of Portugal, queen regnant (b. 1819)
  • December 15 – Georg Friedrich Grotefend, German epigraphist, philologist (b. 1775)
  • December 23 – Juliette Bussière Laforest-Courtois, Haitian journalist (b. 1789)

Date unknown

  • Barnard E. Bee, Sr., American attorney and Texan anti-annexation politician (b. 1787)
  • Meta Forkel-Liebeskind, German writer and scholar (b. 1765)
  • Qiu Ersao, Chinese rebel and military commander, died in action (b. 1822)
  • Ferdinando Quaglia, Italian painter of portrait miniatures (b. 1780)

References