1859

1810–1859	USA [agriculture]	US cotton production, the vast majority of which is grown in the southern states, rises from 171,000 bales in 1810 to just under 5.4 million in 1859.
1840–1860	world [plagues and epidemics]	A cholera pandemic kills millions of people worldwide.
1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
1851–1860	world [photography]	Photographic exposure times become short enough to capture movement.
1851–1860	USA, UK [statistics and demography]	Emigration to the USA from Britain is 423,964, and from Ireland, 914,119.
1857–1859	Africa [exploration]	British explorers John Hanning Speke and Richard Burton explore inland east Africa, becoming the first Europeans to reach Lake Tanganyika (February 1858). Speke continues northwards, and on 30 July 1858 he visits and names Lake Victoria, which he guesses to be the source of the Nile.
1859	Russia [fiction]	The Russian writer Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov publishes his comic novel Oblomov.
1859	England [fiction]	The English writer Charles Dickens publishes his novel A Tale of Two Cities.
1859	Australia [hunting]	The Australian landowner Thomas Austin imports two dozen English rabbits, so that he can shoot them for sport: the rabbits multiply rapidly, causing a major agricultural problem in Australia.
1859	England, Persia [poetry]	The English writer Edward Fitzgerald publishes The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam of Naishapur anonymously. A translation of the poetry of the 12th-century Persian poet and astronomer Omar Khayyam, it becomes very popular.
1859	England [political theory]	The English philosopher John Stuart Mill publishes On Liberty. His most important work, it is an attempt to safeguard the rights of individuals in a democratic society.
1859	India [clubs and societies]	The Cachar Club, the first polo club of the modern era, is founded in Assam, India.
1859	France [opera]	The opera Faust by the French composer Charles-François Gounod is first performed, in Paris, France. It is based on Goethe's verse drama Faust, published in 1808.
1859	France [painting]	The French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres paints The Turkish Bath.
1859	France [painting]	The French artist Jean-François Millet paints The Angelus. Through reproductions, this becomes one of the best-known images in late 19th-century France.
1859	France [technology]	Belgian inventor Etienne Lenoir builds the first successful internal combustion engine, which runs on a mixture of coal gas and air. Ignition is supplied by a high-tension spark obtained from a battery and induction coil. It is the first gas engine and development follows rapidly.
1859	USA [energy]	US businessman George Bissell distils kerosene from crude oil and markets it as lamp fuel.
1859	France [ships and shipping]	The Gloire, the first ironclad battleship, is launched in France. Designed by French naval architect Stanislas-Henri-Laurent Dupuy de Lôme, its iron plates, 11 cm/4.5 in and 12 cm/4.6 in thick, are attached to the outside of a 66 cm/26 in thick wooden hull.
27 January 1859	Prussia [births and deaths]	Kaiser Wilhelm II, German emperor and king of Prussia 1888–1918, born in Potsdam, near Berlin, Prussia (–1941).
3 May 1859	France, Austrian Empire, Sardinia-Piedmont [wars]	France declares war on Austria in response to the Austrian invasion of the Italian kingdom of Piedmont to dispute plans for Italian unification.
22 May 1859	Scotland [births and deaths]	Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish novelist who creates the detective Sherlock Holmes, born in Edinburgh, Scotland (–1930).
14 June 1859	Prussia, France, Austrian Empire, Italy [wars]	Prussia begins to mobilize against France in support of Austria, opposing the unification of Italy.
24 June 1859	Austrian Empire, France, Sardinia-Piedmont, Italy [wars]	Austrian forces, opposing the unification of Italy, are defeated in a decisive battle at Solferino, near Verona, Italy, by French and Piedmontese forces.
30 June 1859	France, USA, Canada [sports]	The French tightrope walker Charles Blondin (pseudonym of Jean-François Gravelet) crosses Niagara Falls, between Canada and the USA, on a tightrope. About 25,000 people witness the crossing, which takes five minutes.
8 July 1859	Sweden [political events]	King Oscar I of Sweden dies and is succeeded by Charles XV.
11 July 1859	France, Austrian Empire, Parma, Lombardy, Tuscany, Modena, Venice, Sardinia-Piedmont, Italy [diplomacy]	The preliminary Peace of Villafranca temporarily ends the conflict between France and Austria. Austria is to cede the Italian states of Parma and Lombardy to France, for subsequent cession to Sardinia-Piedmont; Tuscany and Modena are to be restored to their pre-revolutionary rulers, and Venice is to remain Austrian. The treaty causes the Piedmontese prime minister Count Camillo Benso di Cavour to resign in disgust.
28 August 1859	USA [natural resources]	US engineer Edwin Drake drills the world's first oil well, at Titusville, Pennsylvania. Drilled to a depth of 21 m/69 ft, it produces 1,818 l/400 gal per day. His success, coinciding with a growing demand for oil products, especially kerosene, leads to further drilling.
15 September 1859	England [births and deaths]	Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British marine engineer who built the first transatlantic steamer, the Great Western (1838), and the Great Eastern (1858), the largest ship in the world for 40 years, dies in Westminster, London, England (53).
27 October 1859	USA [births and deaths]	Theodore (‘Teddy’) Roosevelt, twenty-sixth president of the USA 1901–09, a Republican, born in New York City (–1919).
24 November 1859	England [biology]	Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection, which expounds his theory of evolution by natural selection, and by implication denies the truth of biblical creation and God's hand in Nature. It sells out immediately and revolutionizes biology.