General
Population: 1.28 Billion*
- Entertainment: Writers include Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland), Hugo ("Les Miserables"), Ivan Turgenev, Flaubert, Artemus Ward, Friedrich Hebbel, James Bryce (The Holy Roman Empire), George Rawlinson (ancient monarchies of Asia), Herbert Spencer
Theater includes Sarah Bernhardt's debut at Comedie Française
Art includes Manet ("Lola de Valence" and "La Musicue aux Tuileries"), Moritz von Schwind ("The Honeymoon"), Ingres ("Bain Turque")
Music includes Berlioz, Ludwid Kochel catalogues Mozart's works, Verdi
- Science: Foucault measures speed of light
Hemholtz writes about tones and sensations of sound
Julius Sachs demonstrates that starch is produced by photosynthesis
Johann von Lamont discovers earth currents
Lord Kelvin proposes cooling earth and sun
Sirius B (the Pup) first spotted – very dense white dwarf star
- Technology: Gatling creates 10-barrel machine gun
- Deaths: Commedian Johann Nestroy, Author Henry David Thoreau, Poet Ludwig Uhland, Baseball player Jim Creighton dies when swinging bat too hard and ruptures bladder
Africa
Americas
- General: Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia (1860) dissolves to be absorbed into Chile and Argentina
- Canada: Victoria and Vancouver incorporated
Asia
- Cochin-China: (Cambodia) French begin occupation/ protectorate status
Europe
- Great Britain: Albert Memorial in London designed by Gilbert Scott
English cricket team tours Australia for first time
International Exhibition in London
- Greece: Resignation of King Otto after military revolt
- Italy: Garibaldi fails to capture Rome
- Monaco: Sale of Menton and Toquebrune to France
- Prussia: Bismark begins 28 year career as chief minister
- Romania: Romania established for people of Moldavia and Wallachia
- Switzerland: Swiss humanist Jean Henri Dunant proposes Red Cross
Middle East
Pacific