1858

Events in 1858 39

• 1766 – 1858 Josef Radetzky von Radetz (1766-1858) Died 5 January 1858, aged 91 Radetzky was an Austrian field marshal who commanded imperial forces in northern Italy for decades, notably suppressing revolutions in Lombardy-Venetia in 1848-49. Johann Strauss Sr.'s Radetzky March was composed in his honor and remains a staple of the Vienna New Year's Concert.
• 1771 – 1858 Robert Owen (1771-1858) Died 17 November 1858, aged 87 Owen was a Welsh social reformer and pioneer of the cooperative movement, known for his model industrial community at New Lanark. His ideas influenced early trade unionism and utopian socialism across Britain.
• 1773 – 1858 Aime Bonpland (1773-1858) Died 11 May 1858, aged 84 Bonpland was a French botanist and explorer who accompanied Alexander von Humboldt on his celebrated five-year expedition through Latin America. He later settled in South America, where he studied yerba mate cultivation until his death.
• 1796 – 1858 William H. Prescott (1796-1858) Died 28 January 1858, aged 61 Prescott was an American historian best known for his narrative histories of the Spanish conquests of Mexico and Peru. He produced much of his work despite near-blindness resulting from an eye injury suffered in his youth.
• 1807 – 1858 Harriet Taylor Mill (1807-1858) Died 3 November 1858, aged 51 Taylor Mill was an English philosopher and women's rights advocate whose ideas shaped the work of her husband, John Stuart Mill. She is credited with substantially influencing his writings on liberty and the subjection of women.
• 1857 – 1858 Indian Rebellion of 1857 The great revolt; Crown rule replaces the Company The uprising of 1857 — sparked among Company sepoys and spreading into a widespread revolt — shook British rule to its foundations. After brutal fighting on both sides, the rebellion was crushed, the East India Company abolished, and India placed under direct British Crown rule (the British Raj).
• 1858 – 1935 Adolph Ochs (1858-1935) Died 8 April 1935, aged 77 Ochs was the publisher who turned The New York Times into a leading newspaper and adopted its motto, All the News That's Fit to Print. He died in Chattanooga.
• 1858 – 1943 Beatrice Webb (1858-1943) Died 30 April 1943, aged 85 Beatrice Webb was an English social reformer, economist and Fabian socialist. With her husband Sidney Webb she co-founded the London School of Economics and the New Statesman. She helped shape the ideas behind the British welfare state.
• 1858 – 1947 British Raj Direct British Crown rule over India For nearly a century the British Crown ruled India directly, building railways and a unified administration while extracting wealth and provoking famines and unrest. The Raj also forged the conditions for a mass independence movement that would ultimately end colonial rule.
• 1858 – 1930 Christiaan Eijkman (1858-1930) Died 5 November 1930, aged 72 Dutch physician who showed that beriberi is caused by a dietary deficiency. His work led to the discovery of vitamins. He shared the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• 1858 – 1889 Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (1858-1889) Died 30 January 1889, aged 30 Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Rudolf died in an apparent murder-suicide with his young mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, at his hunting lodge in Mayerling. The scandal, known as the Mayerling incident, altered the Habsburg succession and passed the heirship to his uncle Franz Ferdinand.
• 1858 – 1924 Eleonora Duse (1858-1924) Died 21 April 1924, aged 65 Eleonora Duse was an Italian actress widely regarded as one of the greatest stage performers of her generation, celebrated for her naturalistic style. She toured internationally and was closely associated with the plays of Gabriele D'Annunzio and Henrik Ibsen.
• 1858 – 1928 Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) Died 14 June 1928, aged 69 British suffragette leader who founded the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903. Its militant campaign was central to winning votes for women. She died weeks before the Equal Franchise Act gave women the vote on equal terms with men.
• 1858 – 1944 Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) Died 8 May 1944, aged 86 English composer and suffragette whose works include the opera The Wreckers. Her March of the Women became the anthem of the suffrage movement. She was the first female composer to be made a dame.
• 1858 – 1942 Franz Boas (1858-1942) Died 21 December 1942, aged 84 Franz Boas was a German-born American anthropologist, often called the father of American anthropology. He challenged scientific racism and promoted cultural relativism, and he trained a generation of scholars at Columbia University. He died at a luncheon at the Columbia Faculty Club.
• 1858 – 1932 Giuseppe Peano (1858-1932) Died 20 April 1932, aged 73 The Italian mathematician formulated the Peano axioms for the natural numbers and helped develop modern mathematical logic.
• 1858 – 1927 Kang Youwei (1858-1927) Died 31 March 1927, aged 69 Kang Youwei was a Chinese scholar and reformer who led the Hundred Days' Reform of 1898 under the Guangxu Emperor. When the reforms were crushed he fled abroad, and he remained a constitutional monarchist for the rest of his life.
• 1858 – 1941 Ludwig Quidde (1858-1941) Died 4 March 1941, aged 82 Ludwig Quidde was a German historian and pacifist who shared the 1927 Nobel Peace Prize. He died in exile in Geneva.
• 1858 – 1947 Max Planck (1858-1947) Died 4 October 1947, aged 89 Max Planck was a German theoretical physicist whose 1900 work on black-body radiation founded quantum theory. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. The Max Planck Society is named after him.
• 1858 – 1859 Morphy conquers Europe Undefeated tour of the chess world Morphy toured England and France, defeating every top player he faced including Adolf Anderssen. He returned home hailed as the unofficial world champion.
• 1858 – 1895 Prince Henry of Battenberg (1858-1895) Died 20 January 1895, aged 37 Prince Henry of Battenberg was a German-born member of the British royal family who married Princess Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria. He died of malaria off the West African coast while serving with British forces in the Anglo-Ashanti War. His body was returned to England for burial.
• 1858 – 1936 Saitō Makoto (1858-1936) Died 26 February 1936, aged 77 Saitō Makoto was a Japanese admiral who served as Governor-General of Korea and as prime minister from 1932 to 1934. At the time of his death he was Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. Rebel officers assassinated him during the February 26 Incident.
• 1858 – 1940 Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) Died 16 March 1940, aged 81 Swedish author of "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils" and "Gösta Berling's Saga". In 1909 she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1858 Orsini assassination attempt on Napoleon III Italian revolutionary bombs the French emperor's carriage Felice Orsini threw three bombs at Emperor Napoleon III's carriage outside the Paris Opera, killing eight bystanders and wounding over a hundred people. Napoleon III and his wife survived unharmed. The attack pushed France toward closer involvement in the movement for Italian unification.
• 1858 – 1924 Giacomo Puccini Verismo opera master Italian opera composer whose La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and the unfinished Turandot are among the most performed operas in the world.
• 1858 Bernadette Soubirous's apparitions at Lourdes conclude Final Marian apparition reported at the Lourdes grotto Between February and July 1858, teenager Bernadette Soubirous reported eighteen visions of the Virgin Mary at a grotto near Lourdes, France. The site went on to become one of the world's most visited Catholic pilgrimage destinations. The Church formally authenticated the apparitions in 1862.
• 1858 – 1913 Rudolf Diesel The engine, the fortune, and the ferry Rudolf Diesel was born in Paris to Bavarian parents, deported as an enemy alien at twelve, and educated in a language he had to learn on arrival. He set out to build an engine that would approach the theoretical limit of thermodynamic efficiency and give small workshops a machine to rival the great steam plants of industry. He succeeded, became a millionaire, spent years in court and in sanatoriums, lost almost everything, and walked off the deck of a Channel ferry in 1913. The engine now moves most of the freight on earth.
• 1858 Utah War ends peacefully Standoff between Mormon settlers and the US Army concludes without major battle Following a tense military standoff over federal authority in Utah Territory, negotiations led by Thomas Kane produced a peaceful resolution. President Buchanan issued a general pardon to Mormon settlers who had resisted federal officials, and US Army troops subsequently marched through an evacuated Salt Lake City without conflict. Alfred Cumming replaced Brigham Young as the territory's governor.
• 1858 Donati's Comet dazzles observers worldwide Brightest comet of the 19th century becomes the first comet ever photographed Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Donati discovered the comet in June 1858, and it grew visible to the naked eye across Europe and North America by autumn. It was the first comet ever photographed and inspired numerous paintings of the era. The comet is not expected to return for roughly two thousand years.
• 1858 Treaty of Tientsin signed China opens further ports to foreign trade after the Second Opium War China signed separate treaties with Russia, the United States, Britain, and France at Tianjin, ending the first phase of the Second Opium War. The agreements opened additional treaty ports, permitted foreign legations in Beijing, and legalized the opium trade. China's later refusal to fully implement the terms led to renewed fighting in 1860.
• 1858 – 1950 Gustaf V The Tennis King Reigned through both World Wars. He was a champion tennis player and was involved in the Borggård Crisis.
• 1858 Darwin and Wallace present natural selection to the Linnean Society Joint paper outlines the theory of evolution by natural selection Papers by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, describing evolution driven by natural selection, were read together at a meeting of the Linnean Society in London. Neither naturalist attended the reading in person. The presentation preceded Darwin's fuller treatment of the theory in On the Origin of Species the following year.
• 1858 Harris Treaty opens Japan to American trade Treaty of Amity and Commerce signed between Japan and the United States Townsend Harris negotiated a commercial treaty granting the United States trading rights at additional Japanese ports and extraterritorial rights for American citizens. It was the first of the so-called unequal treaties Japan signed with Western powers that year. Similar treaties with Britain, France, Russia, and the Netherlands followed within months.
• 1858 Colony of British Columbia established Crown colony created amid the Fraser Canyon gold rush Britain proclaimed the mainland Colony of British Columbia after tens of thousands of prospectors poured into the Fraser Canyon following a gold discovery. The rush prompted London to assert direct control over territory previously administered informally by the Hudson's Bay Company. James Douglas was appointed the colony's first governor.
• 1858 First transatlantic telegraph cable completed Cable links Ireland and Newfoundland for the first time Engineers aboard the Agamemnon and Niagara completed a submarine telegraph cable connecting Valentia Island, Ireland, to Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. Queen Victoria and President Buchanan exchanged congratulatory messages over the new link. The cable's insulation failed within about a month, and a durable connection was not achieved until 1866.
• 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates Seven debates over slavery expansion during the Illinois Senate race Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held seven public debates across Illinois while competing for a US Senate seat, focusing on the expansion of slavery into new territories. Douglas won the election, but the debates gave Lincoln national prominence. Transcripts were widely reprinted in newspapers across the country.
• 1858 Wilhelm becomes regent of Prussia Prince Wilhelm assumes power as King Frederick William IV is incapacitated Prince Wilhelm of Prussia was formally appointed regent after his brother, King Frederick William IV, suffered a series of strokes that left him unable to rule. The change ushered in a more liberal period known as Prussia's New Era and put Wilhelm on the path to becoming German Emperor in 1871. He appointed a more moderate cabinet than his brother's.
• 1858 – 1919 Theodore Roosevelt 26th President — Trust Buster, conservationist Theodore Roosevelt (Oct 27, 1858 – Jan 6, 1919) was the 26th President 1901-1909, youngest ever at age 42. He busted monopolies, built the Panama Canal, won the Nobel Peace Prize, and created the national parks system.
• 1858 Suez Canal Company founded Compagnie chartered to build a canal linking the Mediterranean and Red Sea The Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez was formally established under Ferdinand de Lesseps to construct a canal across the Isthmus of Suez. Egyptian ruler Said Pasha had granted the concession the previous year. Construction began in 1859 and the canal opened a decade later.