1858 CE

I. K. Brunel's SS Great Eastern, the largest ship built to date, is launched on the River Thames. The Scottish National Gallery on The Mound in Edinburgh opens. In Bengal, India, British officer William James Herschel uses the hand impression of Rajyadhar Konai, as a contract fingerprint signature.

In the 1850s, the 19th century.

1858 at a glance

World population
about 1.29 billion Our World in Data
U.S. president
James Buchanan Wikidata
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, head of state
Victoria Wikidata

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • April 19 – The United States signs a treaty with the Yankton Sioux Tribe.source
  • May 11 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.source
  • May 11 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state (see History of Minnesota).United Statessource
  • May 28 - The Treaty of Aigun is signed by Yishan and Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky on behalf of the Qing Dynasty and the Russian Empire.source
  • May 28 - Treaty of Aigun between the Russian Empire and ChinaRussiasource
  • June 13–17 – The Treaty of Tientsin is signed, ending the first part of the Second Opium War.source
  • June 16 – Abraham Lincoln accepts the Republican Party nomination for a seat in the United States Senate, delivering his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.source
  • 17 July – New commercial treaty agreed with the United States.Belgiumsource
  • July 29 – The United States and Japan sign the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, negotiated by Townsend Harris.source
  • August 2 – The Government of India Act, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, transfers the territories of the British East India Company and their administration to the direct rule of the British Crown, through a Secretary of State for India.source
  • August 8 – Ottoman Penal Code decriminalized homosexual sex between consenting adults in the Ottoman Empiresource
  • 19 August – the Electoral Districts Act 1858 is enacted, increasing the number of members of parliament from 37 to 41, with the supplementary elections held in late 1859.New Zealandsource
  • 10 September – Fitzroy, Victoria becomes a municipality in its own right, after separating from the City of Melbourne.Australiasource
  • 1 November – the end of the British East India Company's rule in India is proclaimedIndiasource
  • December 24 — Manuel Robles Pezuela (1817–1862) becomes Conservative president of Mexico.source
  • Queen Victoria announces her choice of Ottawa as capital of the Province of Canada.source
  • Feudalism and serfdom in Bulgaria are abolished in the Ottoman Empire (practically in 1880).source
  • William M. Tweed begins his 13-year term as "Boss" of Tammany Hall.source
  • Benito Juárez becomes the Liberal President of Mexico and its first indigenous president. At the same time, the conservatives installed Félix María Zuloaga as a rival president.source
  • The Russian Empire changes its flag.source
  • About 600 African-Americans from California move to Victoria, British Columbia by invitation of Governor James Douglas as part of the gold rush migration. One of them, Mifflin Gibbs, later plays a key role in persuading British Columbia to become part of Canada. Douglas declares Emancipation Day, August 1, the anniversary of the end of slavery in the British Empire, as the colonies' first official holiday August 1, to the chagrin of the white American element in the colony, though Victoria's West Indian police force, recruited by Douglas, was necessarily disbanded because of the hostility from the numerous Americans in the emerging city. Also among the African-Americans who came with the gold rush was Isaac "Ikey" Dixon, whose brawl in his Yale barbershop and subsequent safe-custody arrest triggered off the events known as McGowan's War, and who soon after became a noted and popular columnist for the Barkerville newspaper The Cariboo Sentinel.Canadasource
  • Treaty of Aigun, unequal treaty between the Russian Empire, and the empire of the Qing Dynasty that reversing the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) by transferring the land between the Stanovoy Mountains and the Amur River from China (Qing Empire) to the Russian Empire establishing much of the modern border between the Russian Far East and Manchuria (the original homeland of the Manchu people and the Qing Dynasty), which is now known as Northeast China.Chinasource

Conflict & Security

  • January 9 – Revolt of Rajab Ali: British forces finally defeat Rajab Ali Khan of Chittagong.source
  • January 14 – Orsini affair: Piedmontese revolutionary Felice Orsini and his accomplices fail to assassinate Napoleon III in Paris, but their bombs kill eight and wound 142 people. Because of the involvement of French émigrés living in Britain, there is a brief anti-British feeling in France, but the emperor refuses to support it.source
  • January – General Sir Hugh Rose begins the Central India campaign; Sir Colin Campbell begins the campaign to recapture Lucknow; trial of Bahadur Shah, King of Delhi, from 27 JanuaryIndiasource
  • March 19 – Senekal's War breaks out between the Orange Free State and the Basotho tribe.South Africasource
  • March 21 – Indian Rebellion: British troops retake Lucknow.source
  • April 28–May 1 – Battle of Grahovac: The Ottomans are decisively defeated by Montenegrin forces. The Bawani Imli massacre, (April 28) where 52 Indian freedom fighters were hanged to death on a tamarind tree by British colonial forces.source
  • May 19 – "Bleeding Kansas: The Marais des Cygnes massacre is perpetrated by pro-slavery forces in the U.S. state of Kansas.source
  • May 19 – The Marais des Cygnes massacre is perpetrated by pro-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.United Statessource
  • May–July – Mahtra War: Peasants in the Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire revolt against ongoing serfdom, which was officially abolished in 1816.source
  • June 20 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: The last rebels surrender in Gwalior.source
  • 20 June – End of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which Major General Charles Hinde plays a major role in suppressing.Walessource
  • June – Gwalior army deserts to the rebels and Tatya Tope and the Rani of Jhansi seize Gwalior; General Rose marches from the Kalpi to Gwalior arriving on the 16th; next day the battle of Kotah-i-Serai and on the 19th the Battle of Gwalior; Gwalior fortress recaptured; during June guerrilla forces in Oudh, Bihar and along the Nepalese frontier are suppressedIndiasource
  • July 8 – A peace treaty ends the Indian Rebellion.source
  • July 28 – In Bengal, India, British officer William James Herschel uses the hand impression of Rajyadhar Konai, as a contract fingerprint signature.source
  • September – Cochinchina Campaign: French warships, under Charles Rigault de Genouilly, attack and occupy Da Nang, Vietnam.source
  • December 7 — Mexican Conservative interim president Félix María Zuloaga proclaims the Plan of Tacubaya to abolish the Reform Laws, setting off a three-year civil war (1857–1860).source
  • Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour goads Austria into attacking Sardinia.source
  • Joseph Lies, The Disasters of WarBelgiumsource
  • Third Seminole War (1855–1858)United Statessource

Exploration & Expansion

  • February 13 – Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke become the first Europeans to discover Lake Tanganyika.source
  • 13 February – Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke become the first Europeans to discover Lake Tanganyika.United Kingdomsource
  • May 13 – John Ruskin begins a tour of Europe; he considers it a significant turning point in his life.source
  • May 14 – David Livingstone's 6-year Second Zambesi expedition arrives at the African coast.source
  • May (unknown date) – Japanese trading company Itochu founded in Toyosato, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.source
  • July – Forty-Niners stream into the Rocky Mountains of the western United States during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.United Statessource
  • 3 August – Explorer John Hanning Speke discovers Lake Victoria, source of the River Nile.United Kingdomsource
  • August 11 – The Eiger is first ascended.source
  • August – German writer Theodor Fontane tours Scotland.Scotlandsource
  • October 28 – Macy's department store, founded by R. H. Macy, opens for business in New York City.source
  • November 28 – At Jekyll Island, Georgia, the Wanderer illegally lands 400 slaves purchased from traders at the mouth of the Congo River.United Statessource
  • December 30 – Paraguay expedition: Seventeen U.S. Navy warships, under the command of William Shubrick, depart from Uruguay on a mission to demand concessions from Paraguay, and to go to war if necessary.source
  • German historian Konrad von Maurer visited Iceland.Icelandsource

Religion & Belief

  • June 23 – Police of the Papal States seize Jewish boy Edgardo Mortara, and take him away to be raised as a Catholic.source
  • 24 June – The Sovereign and Illustrious Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Anglia declared.United Kingdomsource
  • July 8 – The Paulist Fathers, a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life for men, is founded in New York City by Isaac Hecker.United Statessource
  • July 11 – Saint Isaac's Cathedral in Saint Petersburg is consecratedRussiasource
  • 8 December – The construction of St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne begins.Australiasource
  • Creation of the Diocese of BlagoveshchenskRussiasource
  • Reconstruction of Paisley Abbey begins.Scotlandsource
  • Louisa M. Spooner (anonymously) — Gladys of HarlechWalessource
  • Owen Wynne Jones — Lleucu LlwydWalessource

Economy & Finance

  • March 4 – A speech by fire-eater James Henry Hammond of South Carolina in the United States Senate promotes the idea of "King Cotton" and the "mudsill theory" in support of slave labor.United Statessource
  • 2 August – Stock Exchange in Antwerp burns down.Belgiumsource
  • November 17 – Modified Julian Day zero starts on this date.source
  • December 8 – Rensselaer, Indiana is incorporated.United Statessource
  • The haute couture firm of Worth and Bobergh is established in Paris.source
  • The Canadian government imposes revenue tariffs on US manufactured goods to pay for railroad debts.Canadasource
  • The Province of Canada releases its first decimal coinage into circulation, minted in England.Canadasource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 1 January – the permanent North Unst Lighthouse on Muckle Flugga (Shetland), designed by brothers Thomas and David Stevenson, is first illuminated.Scotlandsource
  • 31 January – I. K. Brunel's SS Great Eastern, the largest ship built to date, is launched on the River Thames.United Kingdomsource
  • March 30 – Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser in the United States.source
  • 22 May – The Adelaide to Melbourne telegraph line is open to the public.Australiasource
  • June 17 – The Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad opens, operating 95 miles from Goldsboro, North Carolina, to New Bern, North Carolina.source
  • July 12 – The Advertiser, a daily newspaper still in circulation, begins publication in Adelaide, Australia.source
  • August 5 – Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable, after several unsuccessful attempts. The service ends on September 1, due to weak current.source
  • August 16 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.source
  • August 16 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service on September 1.United Statessource
  • September 11 – Dom, the third-highest summit in the Alps, is first ascended.source
  • 5 October – The Vale of Clwyd Railway, built by David Davies Llandinam, is opened.Walessource
  • December 29 – The Northern Railway Company is established in Madrid, Spain, with a purpose to construct the Northern Railway.source
  • Pike's Peak Gold Rush: Fifty-Niners stream into the Rocky Mountains of the western United States.source
  • The second and third railroad lines in Brazil begin operation.Brazilsource
  • Chinese, German, Norwegian, Jews, American, Irish, Latin American, French, Belgian Canadian and other immigrants who had been in the California goldfields arrive in British Columbia, attracted by the Fraser River Gold rush, joining French Canadians, Métis, Hawaiians and others already in the area who abandoned regular employment to work the banks of the Fraser alongside the native peoples, who also took part in the rush.Canadasource
  • Bernhard Hertz establishes his own workshop.Denmarksource

Science & Discovery

  • February 11 – Lourdes apparitions: Pauper girl Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes, fourteen, has a vision at the grotto of Massabielle, the first in a series of eighteen events which will come to be regarded as Marian apparitions.source
  • 11 February - Lourdes apparitions: Pauper girl Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes, 14, has a vision at the grotto of Massabielle, the first in a series of eighteen events (up to 16 August) which will come to be regarded as Marian apparitions.Francesource
  • June 2 – Comet Donati, the first comet to be photographed, is discovered by Giovanni Battista Donati, and remains visible for several months afterwards.source
  • July 1 – A joint presentation of papers by Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, announcing a theory of evolution by natural selection, are read at London's Linnean Society.source
  • 1 July – Papers by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace announcing a theory of evolution by natural selection read at the Linnean Society of London.United Kingdomsource
  • August – The first aerial photography is carried out by Nadar, from a moored balloon in France.source
  • November 16 – The 2,400,000th day of the Epoch of the Julian day is reached.source
  • Loke Yew leaves China for British MalayaChinasource
  • Creation of K. Rudzki i S-ka (in Warsaw)Russiasource
  • Abraham Lincoln and others observe Comet Donati.United Statessource
  • Mirror galvanometer invented by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin.United Kingdomsource
  • Alfred Russel Wallace — On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original TypeWalessource
  • Morgan Howells — Gweithiau Morgan Howells ... pregethau a thraethodau (posthumously published)Walessource

Health & Medicine

  • April 16 – The Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is wound up.source
  • 16 April – the Wernerian Natural History Society of Edinburgh is wound up.Scotlandsource
  • August 2 – A bill is passed to create a modern sewage system in London as a result of the Great Stink, when the heat of the summer made the smell from sewage in the Thames unbearable.source
  • 2 August – Medical Act 1858 passed "to Regulate the Qualifications of Practitioners in Medicine and Surgery".United Kingdomsource
  • August - Government of India Act 1878Indiasource
  • 1 September – Local Government Act 1858 comes into force, General Board of Health abolished.United Kingdomsource
  • September 1–2 – Staten Island Quarantine WarUnited Statessource
  • 1 December – The recently formed Odontological Society of London opens the Dental Hospital of London.United Kingdomsource
  • Prince Wilhelm of Prussia becomes regent for his brother, King Frederick William IV, who has suffered a stroke. After Prince William's term acting as a regent for the King had been extended three times, the ailing Frederick William signed a regency charter for him on 7 October 1858, based on an expert opinion from the royal personal physicians.source
  • Squibb Pharmacy, as predecessor of Bristol Myers Squibb, a worldwide pharmaceutical brand, is founded in New York, United States.source
  • William becomes regent for his brother, Frederick William IV, who has suffered a stroke.Germanysource

Crime & Justice

  • July 17 – The Lutine bell is salvaged, and subsequently hung in Lloyd's of London.source
  • 17 July – Salvage of the Lutine bell, which is subsequently hung in Lloyd's of London.United Kingdomsource
  • The British Columbia Provincial Police are established.Canadasource
  • Achipudava Samaram led by Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker in Alleppey, Travancore.Indiasource
  • William Davies (Gwilym Teilo) — Llandilo-Vawr and its NeighbourhoodWalessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • 14 April – The 1858 Christiania fire. Several city blocks were destroyed, 41 buildings burned down, and around 1,000 persons lost their homes.Norwaysource
  • The Miners Association is established in Cornwall, England, UK.source
  • The Miners Association established in Cornwall.United Kingdomsource
  • End of Aberdare Strike 1857-8 in the coal mining industry.Walessource

Climate & Environment

  • 9 April - 1858 Hietsu earthquakeJapansource
  • June 19 – A six-minute earthquake destroys much of Mexico City and devastates Texcoco.source
  • Edward Stephen (Tanymarian) — RequiemWalessource

Culture & Society

  • January 25 – The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional, after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter Victoria, Princess Royal, to Prince Friedrich of Prussia in St James's Palace, London.source
  • 24 March – the Scottish National Gallery on The Mound in Edinburgh opens.Scotlandsource
  • June 10 - Establishment of Bolhrad High School in MoldaviaRussiasource
  • 12 July – The first edition of The Advertiser newspaper is published in Adelaide, South Australia.Australiasource
  • August 7 – A football match, played under an unknown set of rules, is held between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College.source
  • August 21 – The first of the Lincoln–Douglas debates is held in Illinois.source
  • August 21 – The first of the seven Lincoln–Douglas debates is held.United Statessource
  • 10 September – The statue of Frederick VI is unveiled at Frederiksberg Runddel.Denmarksource
  • September – International congress on intellectual property held in Brussels.Belgiumsource
  • October 21 – Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, featuring music associated with the can-can, is first performed in Paris.source
  • November 12 – Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein, succeeds to the throne aged 18; he will rule until his death in 1929, the second-longest in European royal history and the longest precisely documented tenure of any monarch without a regent since antiquity.source
  • November 17 – The city of Denver, Colorado, is founded.source
  • Ichikawa Kumehachi make her stage debut as the first actress to appear on stage in Japan since actresses were banned in 1629.Japansource
  • "Great Eisteddfod" at Llangollen; early appearance of Gorsedd ceremony. Ebenezer Thomas (Eben Fardd) wins first prize for his poem Maes Bosworth.Walessource

Births

  • January 6 – Mirza Ali Asghar Khan Amin al-Soltan, Prime Minister of Iran.Iransource
  • January 22 – Frederick Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard, English soldier, explorer and colonial administrator (died 1945)source
  • January 25 - Mikimoto Kōkichi (died 1954), businessmanJapansource
  • February 15 – John Joseph Montgomery, American glider pioneer (died 1911)source
  • 5 March – José Relvas, land owner and politician (died 1929)Portugalsource
  • April 23 – Max Planck, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1947)source
  • May 26 – Horace Smith-Dorrien, British general (died 1930)source
  • June 16 – William D. Boyce, founder of the Boy Scouts of America (died 1929)source
  • June 20 – Charles W. Chesnutt, African-American author, essayist, political activist (died 1932)source
  • July 9 – Franz Boas, German anthropologist (died 1942)source
  • July 14 – Emmeline Pankhurst, English suffragette, mother of Christabel, Sylvia and Adela Pankhurst (died 1928)source
  • August 15 – E. Nesbit, English children's novelist (died 1924)source
  • September 16 – Bonar Law, Canadian-born Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1923)source
  • October 25 – Take Ionescu, 29th prime minister of Romania (died 1922)source
  • October 27 – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1919)source
  • November 30 – Jagadish Chandra Bose, Indian physicist (died 1937)source
  • December 22 – Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (died 1924)source
  • 27 December - Juan Luis Sanfuentes (died 1930)Chilesource

Deaths

  • January 5 – Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (born 1766)source
  • January 9 – Anson Jones, 4th and last President of the Republic of Texas (suicide) (born 1798)source
  • January 9 – Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide.source
  • March 4 – Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, American naval officer (born 1794)source
  • March 13 – Felice Orsini is executed by guillotine for the attempted assassination of Napoleon III of France.source
  • June 18 – Rani of Jhansi, Indian queen of Jhansi and independence activist (born 1828)source
  • June 18 – The Queen of Jhansi, Rani Lakshmibai, dies at 30 at Gwalior, having been mortally wounded in combat against the British.source
  • June 28 – Jane Marcet, British science writer (born 1769)source
  • June 28 – Auguste de Montferrand, French architect (born 1786)source
  • 18 July - Francisco Antonio Pinto (born 1785)Chilesource
  • August 31 – Chief Oshkosh, Menominee chief (born 1795)source
  • September 17 – Dred Scott, African-American slave (born c. 1795)source
  • November 3 – Harriet Taylor Mill, British philosopher, women's rights advocate (born 1807)source
  • November 17 – Robert Owen, British social reformer (born 1771)source
  • December 13 – Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher, German botanist (born 1799 )Germanysource
  • December 17 – Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Ottoman statesman (born 1800)source
  • Li Xubin, Xiang Army commander killed in the Battle of SanheChinasource
  • ? – Fakhr Jahan Khanum, daughter of Fath ‘Ali Shah and calligrapher.Iransource