S

Richard Dedekind publishes “Continuity and Irrational Numbers” and introduces infinite sets defined as sets in which at least one subset has size equal to that of the set in which it is contained.

After inventing the aerodynamic brake, George Westinghouse designed the pneumatic brake.

Levi Strauss, a Bavarian-born haberdasher, and Jacob Davis, a tailor from Reno, patented the use of copper rivets to fasten pockets on miners’ overalls, which we now call “jeans.” They used denim fabric produced by the Amoskeag mill in Manchester, New Hampshire, made from American

Great Chicago Fire: 300 dead, 10,000 homes destroyed, $2 billion (year 2000) in damage

Mendeleev publishes the periodic table of elements

Lord Kelvin theorized that collisions between celestial bodies could eject fragments of matter into space with life forms on board (a theory now called “Panspermia”).

The King of Italy enters the Quirinal Palace, the former papal residence

Vladimir Il’jc Ul’ianov (later known as Lenin) was born in Simbirsk

Breach of Porta Pia: Garibaldi’s troops enter Rome.

Japan moved toward Western culture, giving an incredible boost to its industry and economy. This also had cultural repercussions: in 1870, blackening one’s teeth and shaving one’s eyebrows were banned.

Friedrich Nietzsche served briefly in the nursing corps during the Franco-Prussian War.

Brothers Lord Kelvin and James Thomson began building machines capable of solving differential equations analogically. Their goals were problems such as calculating tides and ballistic firing angles. They eventually developed a machine that could calculate the annual tide table in four hours. However, they never

Alfred Wallace publishes his masterpiece: The Malay Archipelago

Japan. Meiji Era.

At dawn. The papal troops, supported by French troops, move to attack Garibaldi’s invaders. The invaders first yield to the onslaught, then retaliate, and finally yield to the papal counterattack and flee. The French are equipped with the new Chassepot breech-loading rifles.

Mendel discovers genes

In Southern Italy, the intensity of the conflict with banditry is finally waning. The military, who conducted it with obtuse and brutality, can nevertheless claim credit for having solved a problem that politicians neither knew nor wanted to address. Alfonso La Marmora, the architect of

The Prussians defeat the Austrian Imperial Army at Sadowa, in Bohemia. Vienna begins peace negotiations. For Italy, this means the war ends without the opportunity for a rematch after Custoza.

Custoza. To the south, in front of Villafranca, the divisions of Bixio and Prince Umberto are attacked by Austrian cavalry. In the center, at Custoza itself, the bulk of the Austrian attack takes place, and General Brignone’s grenadiers are forced to retreat. General Govone’s division,

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed by the House. The amendment aims to guarantee the rights of slaves. Today, it is the foundation of due process and the equal protection clause in the laws of each state. The amendment was proposed

Napoleon III announces the recall of his armed forces from Mexico. A series of Republican victories immediately follows (Chihuahua on March 25, Guadalajara on July 8, and Matamoros, Tampico, and Acapulco in the same month). Napoleon III strongly urges Maximilian to abandon Mexico. The French

Maxwell’s laws (the best-understood interactions in physics and the only ones expressed in a closed, self-compatible mathematical form) and the Second Law of Thermodynamics (the only law of physics that is valid always, in any case, everywhere in the Universe) lay the foundations of modern

Manfredo Fanti dies. A Modenese, he was a leading figure in the Italian insurrections of the 1830s and commander of the Piedmontese expedition through the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1860.

Another attempt to lay a transatlantic telegraph cable between Ireland and Newfoundland: 3,000 km and 6,000 tons. The ship departed England with 550 men, 12 draft oxen, 1 cow, and pigs. Just as they were almost finished laying the cable, it snapped. Perseverance paid off

An 18-year-old Confederate soldier reveals the assassin Booth’s hideout in a Virginia farmhouse.

7:22 a.m. President Abraham Lincoln dies in the house across the street from Ford’s Theatre, a brick house belonging to a man named Petersen. When Sherman delivers the news to Confederate General Johnston, large beads of sweat begin to roll down his forehead. The defeat

10:13 PM. John Wilker Booth, an actor at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., shoots President Lincoln in the head. Booth, a vocal pro-Southerner, is with a small band of Confederate stragglers who also unsuccessfully attempt to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State

The end of the American Civil War: approximately 620,000 dead, 364,511 Union soldiers, approximately 133,821 Confederate soldiers. 2.2 million men fought in the armies and navies of the Union and Confederacy.

The Confederate Congress passed a resolution “conducting slaves voluntarily into the graycoats,” but made no mention of emancipation upon completion of their service. But it was still too late for any action.

The only month (so far) in which February does not see a full moon

General Sherman’s armies capture Charleston, South Carolina, and Fort Sumter, which had resisted the Marines since the beginning of the war four years earlier.

Industrial Revolution: Singer factory releases fourth automatic sewing machine model: the New Family

Claude Monet exhibits in public for the first time

England. Economist William Jevons publishes The Coal Question, in which he argues that the country will run out of coal within a century. It is a Matlhusian book, meaning it extrapolates current data without considering the price elasticity of energy demand and technological evolution.

Italy. The English explorers Gilbert and Churchill explore the Dolomites, a still largely unknown part of the Alps, brought to light by these two English travellers. This was a time when the source of the Nile was still unclear, Antarctica had only been known for

Italy. Riots in Turin against the move of the capital to Florence cost over 150 lives.

Sand Creek Massacre. The Colorado Territorial militia, numbering approximately 700, raided a Cheyenne and Araphao village, killing 70 to 160 people, many of them women and children.

Founding of the Red Cross. In 1864, 12 nations gathered in Geneva adopted the “Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded Soldiers in War.” The agreement, championed by Swiss benefactor Jean-Henri Dunant, called for the care, without discrimination, of the sick and

Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. In the battles of Winchester and Fisher Hill, the Union forces routed the Confederates and took control of the entire valley, burning the earth behind them to prevent it from being used as a logistical support for the Southerners.

Mobile, Alabama. At first light, the Union fleet, led by the battleship Tecumseh, opens fire on Fort Morgan and attempts to force the blockade of the strategic, mined bay. A few minutes later, it hits a mine and sinks. At this point, Admiral Farragut orders

The Confederates reached Pennsylvania but were defeated there by General Shermann.

Siege of Atlanta, Georgia. Union General McPherson, a close associate of Sherman and Grant, is fatally wounded, and they will be deeply shaken by the news. On the other side of the front, Confederate General Hood also mourns his former West Point classmate, who, as

Jefferson Davis and Varina’s infant son, Little Joe, dies in a home accident. Jefferson Davis is the President of the Confederate States of America (CSA).

Fort Pillow, Tennessee. Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest commit atrocities against captured Black Union prisoners, killing dozens. Lincoln refuses immediate revenge on the Confederate prisoners. But in a battle on the Mississippi shortly thereafter, a Union lieutenant writes, “We didn’t take many prisoners. The

Grant has finished preparing the army of 182,276 soldiers and 450 guns that must break through the steel door of the Confederacy which opposes 110,000 men with 300 guns.

Wars of German Unification.

Chemist Angelo Mariani, reading an article by Paolo Mantegazza (a doctor who returned from Peru in 1859), realized the economic potential. He created Vin Mariani, a wine treated with coca leaves. Pope Leo XIII was one of its enthusiastic consumers and even awarded Angelo Mariani

Smiljan, Yugoslavia. Dane, Nikola Tesla’s older brother, is killed by their horse. The Arabian horse had been donated by the local Muslim community to Nikola’s father, an Orthodox priest. Nikola was present during his brother’s accident; he was the favorite of his father, Milutin, who

Battle of Chickamauga, Alabama between the troops of General Bragg (Confederates) and General Grant (Union)

Siege of Charleston, South Carolina. The Union’s new giant cannon, the Angel of the Swamp, a 200-pound Parrot weighing 12 tons, opens fire on the city of Charleston.

5:30 a.m. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Union soldiers, supported by armed civilians, open fire on the Army of Northern Virginia. After a day of fighting, outnumbered, the Federals are forced to abandon the town of Gettysburg and retreat to the slight hills (almost a hill) just south

Japan. Guns at the Japanese port of Choshu fire on the Western fleet offshore, closing the strategic Shimonoseki Strait between the mainland islands of Honshu and Kyushu.

Invasion of Pennsylvania. To alleviate the burdensome situation in Mississippi, Lee decides to regain the initiative in the East, also aiming to carry the war to the North by granting Virginia a truce and strengthening the Northerners’ support for the armistice, ultimately allowing his army

The Army of the Potomac is driven back across the Rappahannock River from which it came. It is a Confederate victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville. The Confederates lost 11,116 men and 5,676 prisoners. The Confederates lost 10,746 killed and wounded and 2,018 prisoners.

Siege of Charleston, South Carolina. Seven Federal Monitor-class battleships, plus one with two non-rotating turrets (the Keokuk), and the large 3,500-ton battleship New Ironside bombard Charleston’s mighty defenses. In vain. New Ironside is hit 95 times, Keokuk 90. Admiral DuPont is forced to order a

Battle of Perryville, Kentucky. The Southerners are repulsed, losing 3,145 soldiers, or a fifth of their forces. The Northerners lose 3,696 soldiers. General Sheridan, an Irishman, makes the difference for the North.

Corinth, between Mississippi and Tennessee. The Southerners attack in three successive waves. Finally, Colonel Rogers’ Texans intervene, advancing deep. Rogers’ horse is killed, but he grabs the flag and continues, arriving to his death right on the Federal defenses. Here too, the Southerners lose the

American Civil War: Strategic Union victory at Antietam, Maryland (known in the South as Sharpsburg). It is the single bloodiest day in the history of the United States.

The first Northern offensive on the Mississippi River ends in partial and temporary failure: Vicksburg and 300 kilometers of river remain firmly in Southern hands, albeit at the cost of heavy losses. The beached battleship Arkansas is reluctantly blown up by its own sailors. 1862,

Marsala. At the site of the 1860 landing, Garibaldi swore the oath, “Rome or death!” which would quickly become the rallying cry of democrats throughout Italy. In parliament, the military party that had governed since April 1861 knew full well that doing so would spark

On Lake Iseo, 120 Garibaldians are arrested on suspicion of preparing an expedition to Trentino. When the news reaches Brescia, a large crowd gathers to demand their release. The police open fire on the crowd, killing three. This causes a great outcry and furious protests.

CSS Virginia sets sail in search of a battle with USS Monitor, but the latter has been ordered to avoid a fight. The Confederates have capitalized on information about the USS Monitor’s design, which they simply read about in an article in Scientific American (!).

The Greenpoint Shipyard in Brooklyn, New York, launches the USS Monitor, the first Union battleship. It features a double hull with 5-inch armor, a waterline of just 18 inches below the deck, a rotating turret with 8-inch armor, and two large 11-inch Dahlgreen guns. It

Michigan, United States. Fourteen-year-old Thomas Alva Edison boards the baggage car of the train from Port Huron, his hometown, to Detroit every morning at 8:00 a.m. He spends the day snooping around and salvaging scraps of brass and iron, and old battery cells, from landfills

After a siege lasting about 5 months by the Sardinian-Piedmontese army, the Bourbon garrison of Civitella del Tronto, near Grottammare, the last bastion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, surrendered.

Springfield, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln, newly elected president, boards a special train at Great Western Station for a two-week journey, stopping in Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, Philadelphia, and dozens of other cities and towns before arriving in Washington, D.C.

The new Confederate States of America are formed; the cause of secession is the position of the new American president, Abraham Lincoln, on the issue of slavery.

China. Count Elgin meets with Crown Prince Gong and forces him to sign a treaty that is effectively a burdensome and costly surrender, on European terms. With the end of the Second Opium War, new coastal cities fall under Western influence, and Beijing must pay

Manfredo Fanti, commander of the newly formed Italian Army, confronts the guerrillas in the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. He orders: “Have it announced that I will shoot all the armed villagers I capture and will only give quarter to the troops. I began

Milazzo. The first Bourbon warship to have defected to Garibaldi’s side arrived to end the battle: the Veloce, renamed Tukory, armed with ten cannons. It appeared unexpectedly and took Garibaldi aboard, who directed the cannon fire against the Neapolitan defensive strongholds. The Bourbons retreated to

Milazzo. During one of their countless charges, Garibaldi and Missori find themselves isolated on the road. Attacked, one defends himself with his saber, killing a knight, and the other with his pistol.

Milazzo. Garibaldi’s follower Vincenzo Malenchini moves his men onto an exposed beach to attack a Bourbon infantry outpost. He suffers heavy losses. For the rest of the day, bayonet attacks continue from house to house. All the commanders are on the front lines: in addition

Australia. Third wave of migration from Melanesia and Polynesia to the sugarcane plantations of Queensland.

The Second War of Independence ends: Austria cedes Lombardy to France which hands it over to the Kingdom of Sardinia

Intense solar activity: A solar superstorm causes aurora borealis that are seen across the continental United States, Cuba, and even Panama. If a supersolar storm were to hit the planet in the 21st century, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates, the damage would be

Captain John Brown disembarks from the train at Harper’s Ferry on the Potomac River, along with his two sons and Jeremiah Anderson. The plan is to destabilize the Southern states by inducing a slave revolt.

U.S. President Buchanan is preparing to ask Congress for $30 million to propose the purchase of Cuba from Spain (which, however, has no intention of selling it). This plan, however, further infuriates Northerners because it would once again only satisfy Southern demands.

Solferino. Late evening. The carnage of the battle, a land of horror and death, is described by Genevan Jean-Henri Dunant. He will recount all this in a book, Un Souvenir de Solferino (1862). He will then work to establish a medical service for the wounded

Solferino. 8:00 PM. Only in the evening, after the storm had passed, did the full extent of the battle’s massacre become clear. The Austrians reported 13,005 dead and wounded, and 8,638 missing and prisoners; the French 10,152 killed and 1,518 missing; the Piedmontese 869 dead,

Solferino. 3:00 PM. On the left of the front, at San Martino, the Piedmontese continue to attack headlong, but making little progress. On the right, the French take the village of Rebecco. The assault is conducted with the new French rifled guns. Finally, a heavy