Timeline May 1860

Events in May 1860 5

• 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.
• 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.