General
Population: 1.27 Billion*
- Archaeology: LFK Tischendorf discovers Codex Sinaiticus
- Entertainment: Writers include Harriet Wilson (African-American novel), Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities), George Eliot, Edward Fitzgerald,
Ivan Goncharov, Victor Hugo, George Sand, Tennyson, Ferdinand Lasalle (about Prussia), Karl Marx, JS Mill (On Liberty), Ranke (history of England),
Ernest Renen (moral essays), Pasquale Villari, Samuel Smiles writes "Self-Help" the manual on how to succeed in life
Art includes Corot's "Macbeth", Millet's "The Angelus", Whistler's "At the Piano"
Music includes Daniel Decatur Emmet "Dixie", Gounod "Faust", Verdi,
- Science: Darwin's "Origin of Species" published
Bunsen and Kirchhoff begins experimenting with spectrum analysis
HJS Smith writes about number theory
Dinosaur eggs first described
- Technology: RLG Plante creates first practical storage battery
Steamroller invented
- Deaths: Naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, Prince Klemens von Metternich of Austria, Historian Henry Hallam, Financier Richard Rush,
Washington Irving, Composer Louis Spohr, Author Leigh Hunt, Author Thomas de Quincey, Folklorist Wilhelm Grimm, Politician Amos Kendall, Historian WH Prescott,
Historian Thomas Babington Macaulay, Author Alexis de Toqueville, Author Zygmunt Krasinski, King Oscar I of Sweden, Pedro Alarcon
Africa
- General: Lake Tanganyika discovered
- Egypt: Founding of Port Said
Work on Suez Canal begun under the Lesseps' direction
Americas
- Canada: French tightrope walker Charles Blondin crosses Niagara falls on tightrope
- Ecuador: Earthquake
Asia
- China: Conflict with Britain renewed - second Opium War
- Timor: Dutch and Portugese agree to partition island
Europe
- General: French-Austrian War - Austria invades Sardinia and France declares war - ends with Treaty of Zurich
British-French treaty lays basis for free trade between countries
- Austria: Death of Prince Metternich
- France: Anthropological Society of Paris founded
Hot summer in Paris leads to low birthrates next spring
- German States: German National Association founded aimed at uniting Germany under Prussia
Albert von Roon Prussian War Minister reforms army
Bismarck becomes Prussian ambassador to St. Petersburg
- Great Britain: Lord Derby resigns and Lord Palmerston (Liberal) becomes British Prime Minister
Engineer Brunel of England crosses his designed Royal Albert Bridge – from platform truck from overwork
- Italian States: King Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies dies – Francis II rules
Piedmont, supported by France, expels Austrians from N Italy
End of Grand Duchies of Tuscany, Parma, Mocerna
Milan captured in French-Austrian War
- Romania: Wallachia unites with Moldavia to form Romania
- Sweden: Death of King Oscar I of Sweden – Charles XV rules
Middle East
Pacific
- Australia: Outbreak of rabbits
Queensland separated from New South Wales with Brisbane as capital
President:
Pres: James Buchanan
General
- Business: Sales of Proctor and Gamble reach $1 million
- Culture: Susan B. Anthony speaks increasingly on women's rights
- Entertainment: Horace Greely publishes
- Finance: "Indian Head Penny" (actually liberty in feather bonnet) minted
East
- New York: Andelina Patti's debut singing
- Pennsylvania: First oil well drilled by Edwin Drake in Titusville
"Cool Summer of 1859" leaves snow
Conemaugh Dam built at Johnstown PA – would fail in 1889
- Washington DC: Baseball club of Washington DC founded
Midwest
South
- Mississippi: Commercial convention at Vicksburg demands the resumption of slave imports
- Texas: Sam Houston elected governor
- Virginia: Abolitionist John Brown raids Harper's Ferry to start slave revolt, hanged
West and Pacific
- California: Begin of self-proclaimed reign of Emperor Norton I of the US, dissolves congress
Pikes Peak Gold Rush
- Nevada: Comstock Lode discovered
- Oregon: Statehood #33
- Utah: Horace Greely visits
Pig War, Saltfleet Township – teacher locked in the classroom by students and pelted with mud,
President
Pres: Brigham Young
Membership: 57,038
Temples: 0
Other
- Horace Greeley publishes interview with Brigham Young