Explore 785 historical events from 1850–1859.
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and journalist. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist …
Charles Dickens publishes the first edition of his literary magazine, All the Year Round, containing the first installme
Horatio Gordon "Horace" Hutchinson was an English amateur golfer who played in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Hutchinson won the 1886 and 1887 Amateur Championships.…
Horace Hutchinson, English golfer (died 1932)
Aleksandr Pavlovich Dianin was a Russian chemist from Saint Petersburg. He carried out studies on phenols and discovered a phenol derivative now known as bisphenol A and the accord…
Alexander Dianin, Russian chemist (died 1918)
Nicolás Bravo Rueda was a Mexican soldier and politician who served as interim President of Mexico three times, in 1839, 1842, and 1846. Previously, he fought in the Mexican War of…
Nicolás Bravo, Mexican general and politician, 11th President of Mexico (born 1786)
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the Ho…
Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the h
The Aletschhorn is a mountain in the Alps in Switzerland, lying within the Jungfrau-Aletsch region, which has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The mountain shares p…
First ascent of Aletschhorn, second summit of the Bernese Alps
Ivan Aleksandrovich Nabokov was a Russian adjutant general and general of the infantry prominent during the Napoleonic Wars.
Ivan Nabokov, Russian general (born 1787)
The Wernerian Natural History Society, commonly abbreviated as the Wernerian Society, was a learned society interested in the broad field of natural history, and saw papers prese…
The Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is dissolved
Friedrich Robert Faehlmann (Fählmann) was an Estonian writer, medical doctor and philologist. He was a co-founder of the Learned Estonian Society and its chairman (1843-1850).
Friedrich Robert Faehlmann, Estonian philologist and physician (born 1798)
The 1856 Last Island hurricane was a deadly and destructive tropical cyclone that is tied with 2020's Hurricane Laura and 2021's Hurricane Ida as the strongest hurricane on record …
The Last Island hurricane strikes Louisiana, resulting in over 200 deaths.
The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. It is the bor…
British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal
The Pomona was a fast packet clipper ship constructed in 1856 for Howland and Frothingham. She operated for just over two and a half years transporting emigrants and cargo from Liv…
The sailing clipper ship Pomona is wrecked on the coast of Ireland with the loss of 424 of the 448 passengers and crew a
The Cornwall Railway was a 7 ft 1⁄4 in broad gauge railway from Plymouth in Devon to Falmouth in Cornwall, England, built in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was const…
The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking Devon and Cornwall in England
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and journalist. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist …
Charles Dickens publishes the first edition of his literary magazine, All the Year Round, containing the first installme
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in…
Members of the Melbourne Football Club codified the first rules of Australian rules football
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in…
Members of the Melbourne Football Club codify the first rules of Australian rules football
The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the H…
The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time
The Aletschhorn is a mountain in the Alps in Switzerland, lying within the Jungfrau-Aletsch region, which has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The mountain shares p…
First ascent of Aletschhorn, second summit of the Bernese Alps
A dog show is an animal show; it is an event where dogs are exhibited. A conformation show, also referred to as a breed show, is a kind of dog show in which a judge, familiar with …
The first conformation dog show is held in Newcastle upon Tyne, England
The Second Italian War of Independence, also called the Sardinian War, the Austro-Sardinian War, the Franco-Austrian War, or the Italian War of 1859, was fought by the Second Frenc…
Italian Independence wars: In the Battle of Magenta, the French army, under Louis-Napoleon, defeat the Austrian army
Queensland is a state in northeastern Australia, the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New So…
Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales
The Pig War was a confrontation in 1859 between the United States and the United Kingdom over the British–U.S. border in the San Juan Islands, between Vancouver Island and the Wash…
Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the "Northwestern Boundary Dispute" between American and British/Canadian settle
The Battle of Solferino on 24 June 1859 was the climactic battle of the Second Italian War of Independence and resulted in the victory of the allied French army under Napoleon III …
Battle of Solferino (Battle of the Three Sovereigns): Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy
Acrobatics is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive…
French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope
Midway Atoll is a 2.4 sq mi (6.2 km2) atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. Midway Atoll is an insular area of the United States, and is an unorganized and unincorporated territory of …
The United States discovers and claims Midway Atoll.
Charles XV and IV was King of Sweden and King of Norway, there often referred to as Charles IV, from 8 July 1859 until his death in 1872. Charles was the third Swedish monarch from…
King Charles XV & IV accedes to the throne of Sweden–Norway.
The Grand Combin is a mountain massif in the western Pennine Alps in the canton of Valais. At a height of 4,309 metres (14,137 ft) the summit of Combin de Grafeneire is one of the …
First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps.
The American Dental Association (ADA) is an American professional dental association. Established in 1859 and with over 159,000 current members, ADA is the world's largest and olde…
The American Dental Association is founded in Niagara Falls, New York.
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was an Italian monarchy located in Central Italy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1860, replacing the Republic of Florence. The grand duchy…
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany formally deposes the exiled House of Lorraine.
Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a natural resource that appears as a yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting primari…
Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania, leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.
The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking on 1–2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. It created strong auroral displays that were r…
The Carrington event is the strongest geomagnetic storm on record to strike the Earth. Electrical telegraph service is…
The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking on 1–2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. It created strong auroral displays that were r…
Carrington Event started - the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history.
The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking on 1–2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. It created strong auroral displays that were r…
The Carrington Event is the strongest geomagnetic storm on record.
Joshua Abraham Norton was a resident of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 declared himself "Emperor of these United States" in a proclamation that he signed "Norton I., Empero…
Joshua A. Norton declares himself "Norton I, Emperor of the United States".