1860

Events in 1860 34

• 1777 – 1860 Queen Desideria The Reluctant Queen Desirée Clary, once engaged to Napoleon, she became Queen of Sweden but struggled with the cold climate.
• 1788 – 1860 Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) Died 21 September 1860, aged 72 Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher best known for The World as Will and Representation, which argued that a blind, striving will underlies all existence. Largely ignored for most of his career, he gained wide recognition only in his final years. He died in Frankfurt on 21 September 1860.
• 1791 – 1860 Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen (1791-1860) Died 28 November 1860, aged 69 Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen was a Prussian diplomat and scholar who served as ambassador to Britain and wrote extensively on theology, philology and ancient Egypt. He was a central figure in Anglo-German intellectual exchange during the mid-nineteenth century. He died in Bonn on 28 November 1860.
• 1792 – 1860 Anne Isabella, Lady Byron (1792-1860) Died 16 May 1860, aged 67 Anne Isabella Noel Byron, Lady Byron, was the estranged wife of the poet Lord Byron and a mathematician he nicknamed the 'Princess of Parallelograms'. After their separation she became a noted philanthropist and campaigner for education and the abolition of slavery. She died in London on 16 May 1860.
• 1795 – 1860 Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) Died 12 May 1860, aged 64 Sir Charles Barry was an English architect best known for designing the rebuilt Houses of Parliament in London, working with Augustus Pugin on its Gothic Revival detailing. He also designed numerous country houses and civic buildings in a classical style. He died suddenly in London on 12 May 1860.
• 1800 – 1860 Charles Goodyear (1800-1860) Died 1 July 1860, aged 59 Charles Goodyear was an American inventor who developed the vulcanization process that made rubber commercially durable and usable. His discovery, patented in 1844, transformed manufacturing but left him financially ruined by litigation and debt. He died in New York City on 1 July 1860.
• 1824 – 1860 William Walker (1824-1860) Died 12 September 1860, aged 36 William Walker was an American filibuster who seized control of Nicaragua in 1856 and briefly ruled as its president before being driven out. He attempted further invasions of Central America and was captured by British forces off Honduras in 1860. He was handed to Honduran authorities and executed by firing squad on 12 September 1860.
• 1860 – 1939 Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) Died 14 July 1939, aged 78 Mucha was a Czech painter and designer whose Paris posters defined the Art Nouveau style. He later completed the Slav Epic, a cycle of 20 monumental canvases. The Gestapo interrogated him shortly before his death.
• 1860 – 1926 Annie Oakley (1860-1926) Died 3 November 1926, aged 66 Annie Oakley, the sharpshooter who had risen to fame in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, died in Ohio after a long illness linked to injuries from a 1901 train crash. She remained the best-known female marksman in American popular memory.
• 1860 – 1904 Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) Died 15 July 1904, aged 44 Anton Chekhov, the Russian physician and writer, died of tuberculosis in Badenweiler, Germany. He is regarded as one of the greatest short story writers and playwrights in history, known for works including The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya. His plays remain among the most widely performed in world theatre.
• 1860 – 1936 Charles Curtis (1860-1936) Died 8 February 1936, aged 76 Charles Curtis served as the 31st vice president of the United States under Herbert Hoover. A member of the Kaw Nation, he was the first person of significant Native American ancestry to hold the office. He had earlier been Senate Majority Leader.
• 1860 – 1935 Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) Died 17 August 1935, aged 75 Gilman was an American feminist writer and social theorist best known for the short story The Yellow Wallpaper. Terminally ill with cancer, she took her own life in Pasadena.
• 1860 – 1961 Grandma Moses (1860-1961) Died 13 December 1961, aged 101 American folk artist Anna Mary Robertson Moses, who began painting in her seventies and became internationally celebrated for her nostalgic depictions of rural American life. Her work brought self-taught folk art into mainstream popularity.
• 1860 – 1941 Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) Died 29 June 1941, aged 80 Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a celebrated Polish concert pianist and composer. In 1919 he served as Prime Minister of newly independent Poland, and he died in New York.
• 1860 – 1909 Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) Died 18 May 1909, aged 48 Isaac Albéniz was a Spanish pianist and composer best known for his piano suite Iberia, a cornerstone of Spanish nationalist classical music. He achieved acclaim across Europe as both a virtuoso performer and composer before ill health curtailed his career. He died in Cambo-les-Bains, France, on 18 May 1909.
• 1860 – 1935 Jane Addams (1860-1935) Died 21 May 1935, aged 74 Addams was an American social reformer who founded Hull House in Chicago. In 1931 she became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1860 – 1948 John J. Pershing (1860-1948) Died 15 July 1948, aged 87 John J. Pershing, the American general who commanded United States forces in Europe during the First World War, died on July 15, 1948. He was the only American ever to hold the rank of General of the Armies during his lifetime. His command style and organizational reforms shaped the US Army for decades afterward.
• 1860 – 1938 Kanō Jigorō (1860-1938) Died 4 May 1938, aged 77 Kanō Jigorō founded judo and was the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee.
• 1860 – 1938 Owen Wister (1860-1938) Died 21 July 1938, aged 78 Wister was an American writer whose novel The Virginian helped establish the Western as a literary genre.
• 1860 – 1934 Raymond Poincaré (1860-1934) Died 15 October 1934, aged 74 President of France during the First World War and prime minister several times. In 1923 he ordered the occupation of the Ruhr, and in 1926 he stabilised the franc.
• 1860 – 2002 The Finnish Markka National Currency Finland was granted its own currency by Tsar Alexander II, a major step toward economic independence.
• 1860 – 1904 Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) Died 3 July 1904, aged 44 Theodor Herzl, the Austro-Hungarian journalist and founder of modern political Zionism, died of heart failure in Edlach, Austria. His pamphlet Der Judenstaat and organizing of the First Zionist Congress laid the ideological groundwork for the eventual establishment of the State of Israel. He is regarded as the father of the Zionist movement.
• 1860 – 1942 Walter Sickert (1860-1942) Died 22 January 1942, aged 81 Walter Sickert was a British painter and a leading figure of the Camden Town Group. His dark scenes of music halls and urban interiors influenced 20th-century British art. He died in Bath.
• 1860 – 1925 William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) Died 26 July 1925, aged 65 William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State, died in Dayton, Tennessee, five days after serving as prosecutor in the Scopes trial over the teaching of evolution. He had been a leading voice of American populism and religious fundamentalism. His death came suddenly, reportedly from a combination of exhaustion and diabetes.
• 1860 First Taranaki War Begins Fighting erupts over land sales in New Zealand War broke out in the Taranaki region of New Zealand on 17 March 1860 after colonial authorities tried to force through a disputed land purchase opposed by Maori owners. British troops and colonial militia fought Maori forces in a conflict that lasted just over a year without a clear victor. The war intensified Maori resistance to land alienation and fed the wider New Zealand Wars.
• 1860 Treaty of Turin Cedes Nice and Savoy to France Sardinia rewards French support for Italian unification By the Treaty of Turin, signed 24 March 1860, the Kingdom of Sardinia ceded Savoy and the county of Nice to France in exchange for French military support during the Second Italian War of Independence. Plebiscites in the two territories that April confirmed the transfer by large majorities. The cession fixed France's modern southeastern border.
• 1860 Pony Express Begins Service Fast horseback mail relay opens between Missouri and California The Pony Express began carrying mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, on 3 April 1860, using relays of horseback riders to cut delivery time to about ten days. It became a celebrated symbol of the American West despite operating for only about eighteen months before the transcontinental telegraph made it obsolete.
• 1860 Democratic Party Splits at Charleston Convention Failure to agree on slavery divides the party ahead of the election The Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, broke up in late April 1860 after delegates could not agree on a platform addressing slavery in the territories. The party subsequently split into Northern and Southern factions that nominated separate presidential candidates. The division fatally weakened the Democrats and helped secure Abraham Lincoln's election.
• 1860 Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand Conquest of Sicily and Naples for Italian unification Giuseppe Garibaldi landed at Marsala in Sicily on 11 May 1860 with about a thousand volunteers and rapidly overthrew Bourbon rule across Sicily and southern Italy. Plebiscites in October 1860 saw the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies vote to join the Kingdom of Sardinia under Victor Emmanuel II. The campaign was decisive in bringing about the unification of Italy.
• 1860 Mount Lebanon Civil War and Damascus Massacre Sectarian conflict kills thousands of Christians in Ottoman Syria Fighting between Druze and Maronite Christian communities in Mount Lebanon escalated in the spring of 1860 and spread to Damascus, where a mob killed thousands of Christians in July. The violence prompted a French-led European military intervention and Ottoman reforms that created an autonomous Christian-governed Mount Lebanon. The crisis drew sustained international attention to the treatment of Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire.
• 1860 – 1911 Gustav Mahler Late Romantic symphonist Austrian composer and conductor whose vast symphonies — especially the 5th, 9th and Das Lied von der Erde — pushed the Romantic symphony to its limits.
• 1860 Anglo-French Forces Capture Beijing and Burn the Summer Palace Second Opium War ends with the Convention of Peking British and French troops occupied Beijing in October 1860 and, in reprisal for the killing of captured envoys, looted and burned the Old Summer Palace. The Qing government subsequently signed the Convention of Peking, ending the Second Opium War, ceding Kowloon to Britain and legalising the opium trade. The destruction of the palace remains a potent symbol in Chinese historical memory.
• 1860 Election of Abraham Lincoln Republican wins US presidency, triggering secession crisis Abraham Lincoln won the United States presidential election on 6 November 1860 as the candidate of the newly formed Republican Party. His victory, achieved without any electoral votes from the South, convinced many Southern leaders that slavery's expansion was permanently blocked. Within weeks Southern states began seceding from the Union.
• 1860 South Carolina Secedes from the Union First state to leave the United States On 20 December 1860 a South Carolina convention voted unanimously to secede from the United States, citing the election of Abraham Lincoln and Northern hostility to slavery. It was the first of eleven Southern states to leave the Union over the following months. The secessions led directly to the formation of the Confederate States of America and the American Civil War.