Explore 534 historical events from 1850–1859.
Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet was a German mathematician. In number theory, he proved special cases of Fermat's Last Theorem and created analytic number theory. In analysis…
Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician and academic (born 1805)
Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville, was a French diplomat, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regim…
Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and philosopher, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1805)
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brot…
Alexander von Humboldt, German geographer and explorer (born 1769)
Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov was a 19th-century Russian literary figure remembered for his semi-autobiographical tales of family life, as well as his books on hunting and fishing.
Sergey Aksakov, Russian author and academic (born 1791)
Ferdinand II was King of the Two Sicilies from 1830 until his death in 1859.
Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies (born 1810)
David Cox was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of Impressionism.
David Cox, English painter (born 1783)
Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein, known as Klemens von Metternich or Prince Metternich, was a German statesman and diplomat in the service…
Klemens von Metternich, German-Austrian politician, 1st State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire (born 1773)
Baron Charles Cagniard de la Tour was a French engineer and physicist.
Charles Cagniard de la Tour, French physicist and engineer (born 1777)
Oscar I was King of Sweden and Norway from 8 March 1844 until his death. He was the second monarch of the House of Bernadotte.
Oscar I of Sweden (born 1799)
Horace Mann was an American educational reformer, abolitionist and Whig politician known for his commitment to promoting public education; he is thus also known as The Father of Am…
Horace Mann, American educator and politician (born 1796)
John Vianney was a French Catholic priest and member of the Third Order of Mary who is often referred to as the Curé d'Ars. Canonized a saint in 1925, he is known for his priestly …
John Vianney, French priest and saint (born 1786)
Nathaniel Herbert Claiborne was a nineteenth-century Virginia lawyer and planter, as well as an American politician who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and i…
Nathaniel Claiborne, American farmer and politician (born 1777)
Charles Blondin was a French tightrope walker and acrobat who achieved international fame in the mid-19th Century. Known for crossing the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope, he toured th…
French acrobat Charles Blondin crossed Niagara Gorge, making him one of the world's most famous tightrope walkers
Juan Bautista Loreto Mucio Francisco José de Asís de la Santísima Trinidad Ceballos Gómez Sañudo (1811–1859) was a Mexican politician who served in congress and in the supreme cour…
Juan Bautista Ceballos, former president of Mexico (born 1811)
The San Juan Islands are part of an archipelago in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between the U.S. state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. T…
The shooting of a pig in the San Juan Islands led to the so-called Pig War over the border between the United States and
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
The Principality of Montenegro was a principality in Southeastern Europe that existed from 13 March 1852 to 28 August 1910. It was then proclaimed a kingdom by Nikola I, who then b…
Montenegrin forces under Grand Duke Mirko Petrović-Njegoš defeat an Ottoman army under Hussein Pasha in the battle of Gr
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating t…
Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois
The Lourdes apparitions are several Marian apparitions reported in 1858 by Bernadette Soubirous, the 14-year-old daughter of a miller, in the town of Lourdes in Southern France.
The last apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France.
The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States , also called the Harris Treaty was a treaty signed between the United States and Tokugawa Shogunate, which ope…
United States and Japan sign the Harris Treaty.
The Bawani Imli massacre was the execution of 52 Indian freedom fighters including Jodha Singh Ataiya by British East India Company forces on 28 April 1858 during the Indian Rebell…
The Bawani Imli massacre, where 52 Indian freedom fighters are hanged to death on a tamarind tree by British colonial fo
Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have…
Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as
Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have…
Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society of London.
The Government of India Act 1858 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on 2 August 1858. Its provisions called for the liquidation of the East India Company and…
The Government of India Act 1858 replaces Company rule in India with that of the British Raj.