1859 - What happened in 1859 ?

January 1859

Sunday 02:

Erastus Beadle publishes The Dime Book of Practical Etiquette.

February 1859

Friday 04:

Codex Sinaiticus discovered in Egypt.

Saturday 05:

Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza under the name Romania (see December 1 1918 for the final unification, Transylvania and other regions were still missing at this time).

Monday 14:

Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.

April 1859

Monday 25:

Ground is broken for the Suez Canal.

June 1859

Monday 06:

Queen Victoria signs Letters Patent making Queensland into a separate colony.

Sunday 12:

The Comstock Lode is discovered near Virginia City, Nevada.

Wednesday 15:

Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the "Northwestern Boundary Dispute" between U.S. and British/Canadian settlers.

Tuesday 21:

Franco-Austrian War: Battle of Solférino is fought. Witnessed by Henri Dunant, the results were the Geneva Conventions and the Red Cross.

Friday 24:

Battle of Solferino: (Battle of the Three Sovereigns). Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy.

July 1859

Monday 04:

Franco-Piedmontese War: The Battle of Magenta.

Friday 08:

King Charles XV / Carl IV accedes to the throne of Sweden-Norway.

Monday 11:

A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is published.

August 1859

Saturday 27:

Petroleum discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania. World's first successful oil well.

September 1859

Saturday 17:

Joshua A. Norton declares himself Emperor Norton I of the United States.

October 1859

Wednesday 12:

Self-described "Emperor of the United States" Joshua A. Norton 'orders' the U.S. Congress to dissolve

Sunday 16:

John Brown leads raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia

November 1859

Tuesday 01:

The current Cape Lookout, North Carolina, lighthouse is lighted for the first time. Its first-order Fresnel lens can be seen for 19 miles (30 kilometers).

Thursday 24:

British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection (it immediately sold out its initial print run).

December 1859

Friday 02:

Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry.