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Pierre Curie was born in Paris

In Vienna, the capture of Turin by the Austrian army is celebrated. In reality, the captured town is Trino Vercellese, which, due to a translation error, becomes Torino Vercellese.

The Austrians are moving towards Turin but slowly due to the flooded rice fields.

When the Austrian ultimatum was delivered to the Sardinian government, the Savoy army numbered 65,000 men, with 700 officers drawn from across the Italian peninsula. This was a larger, more trained, and more motivated force than during the First War of Independence. The Second War

Modena. The canal’s covering within the walls ends, between the junction with the Canal Chiaro (just below the southwest tower of the Ducal Castle, now the Military Academy) and Piazzale Natale Bruni.

Two more attempts to establish a transatlantic link between Ireland and Newfoundland. The HMS Agamemnon and the American frigate Niagara attempted again: the first failed immediately, while the second worked for about a month, after which it failed due to excessive voltage passed through the

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace reveal their theory of the origin of species to the world.

Industrial Revolution: Singer factory releases third automatic sewing machine model: the Grasshopper

First operational transatlantic cable (but fails shortly after the first transmissions)

John H. Spoke for the NY Herald tracks Livingstone down in Africa and continues his exploration

In India, the Mughal Empire, founded by Babur three centuries earlier, collapses.

British General John Nicholson dies of wounds sustained in the battle to recapture Delhi. He had distinguished himself for his cruelty and vengeance. Some time earlier, he had tied several Indian rebels to the muzzles of cannons and given the order to fire on them.

After the episode of the great Indian Mutiny, the English learned caution: annexations were limited or stopped, the regions not yet subjugated were left to compliant or indirectly controlled regimes.

Carlo Pisacane landed at Sapri, greeted by the local peasants’ indifference or hostility. He was twice confronted and defeated at Padula and Sanza. Many were killed or captured. Pisacane was among the dead.

John Brown comes into contact in the United States with Hugh Forbes, a former Garibaldian and former merchant from Siena

The French Imperial Army adopts the Napoleon howitzer cannon

Justice Roger Taney of the U.S. Supreme Court reads a verdict in the case of elderly black man Dred Scott, who, after the death of his master, a military doctor, had passed to his widow, who, having remarried in Illinois, had agreed to free him.

Hamburg. Heinrich Hertz is born. He will lay the foundations for the beginning of the century of electricity: the 20th.

Joseph Cajetti invents toilet paper

Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy takes a six-month trip to Europe: France, Switzerland and Germany.

Pasteur discovered that microorganisms cause fermentation; his work led to pasteurization.

James Maxwell reveals that Saturn’s rings are likely composed of a myriad of small bodies

Siemens patents the dynamo and mass-produces it

The prestigious Victoria Cross award was created for the forces of the British Empire; from 1856 to 2006 it was awarded 1,355 times, only 12 after the Second World War.

China. British forces capture Guangzhou and the Dagu (or Taku, or Peiho) forts at the mouth of the Hai He River in northern China. From here, they could easily march on Beijing. The threat is sufficient to force the Chinese to agree to a negotiating

Sicily. An attempted insurrection on the island fails.

Specimens of Homo Neanderthals are discovered in Germany (by the way, “Neander” means “new man” in Greek). Darwin has not yet published On the Origin of Species. He will do so three years later.

Henry Bessemer invented a unique pear-shaped furnace, used in industrial steelmaking to reduce excess carbon in molten pig iron produced in the blast furnace. It was the first furnace to allow steel production in a single process step. Also known as the Bessemer furnace or

Alexis de Tocqueville published The Old Regime and the Revolution. In this work, as in Democracy in America (1835), he attempted to answer the question of why things didn’t go as well in France as in the United States. He wrote that there were five

Giovanni Pascoli was born in San Mauro, in Romagna.

Small aluminum ingots were presented for the first time at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. They were admired by Emperor Napoleon III, who immediately gave them financial support. The price was 3,000 francs per kilogram, about 12 times higher than that of silver. Napoleon III

German Heinrich Geissler invents the vacuum tube, the ancestor of the cathode ray tube

Crimea. Final assault on Sevastopol. During the night, the Russians evacuated the city, leaving behind thousands of corpses and a desolate landscape of destruction.

Crimea. Final assault on Sevastopol. The battle is bloody. Only by evening do the French manage to capture the Makaloff bastion, costing 1,500 dead, 1,400 missing, and 4,000 wounded. The British, however, fail to take the Grand Redant bastion and lose 1,500 killed and wounded.

Crimea. Cholera kills 73 Piedmontese soldiers in a single day. Among them is Alessandro La Marmora, founder of the Bersaglieri.

The Piedmontese landing in Crimea was completed.

The Piedmontese expeditionary force leaves Turin headed for Genoa.

At an anti-slavery meeting in the state of Wisconsin, the name Republican Party was proposed to unite the factions of the “conscience Whigs,” anti-slavery supporters, independent Democrats, the so-called Know-Nothings, the freesoldiers, the Puritans, and the bankers.

European politics is shaken by a grave crisis, stemming from entirely trivial reasons: a decision must be made as to who, between the Orthodox monks protected by Russia and the Catholic monks supported by France, should hold the key to a church in Jerusalem and

South Africa, foundation of the Transvaal (South African Republic) by the Boers

Piedmont. Cavour formed the so-called “Connubio,” an alliance with a segment of the subalpine left, including men like Rattazzi, Lanza, and Cadorna, to create a centrist party, modeled on the one that governed France from 1830 to 1848, but more dynamic, making a secular state

Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, becomes Prime Minister

On his deathbed, Thomas Lincoln summons his son Abraham to say goodbye. Abraham refuses to travel the eighty miles, claiming the meeting would be painful rather than pleasant. He fails to show up at the funeral.

Southern China. Taiping Rebellion. This is a Chinese Christian sect. Led by a charismatic mystic who proclaimed himself to be the brother of Jesus, and a fellow monk said to possess telepathic powers. They sought to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and succeeded in taking control

Meucci took refuge in the United States. He had fled Italy because he was involved in the 1931 uprisings and had worked in a theater in Cuba before the theater burned down.

Otto von Bismark consolidated his power in Prussia and created an openly militaristic state that began preparing for war against France as early as 1850. The French tactic of preventing German unification at all costs backfired, only strengthening German nationalist sentiment.

Armand Fizeau and Jean Foucault make the first (imprecise) non-astronomical measurement of the speed of light.

Rudolf Clausius predicts the heat death of the Universe according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics

English mathematicians James Sylvester and Arthur Cayley used the term “matrix” for the related mathematical object. In fact, Chinese mathematicians had already used matrices two thousand years earlier.

30,000 km of railways laid in the USA

First matchboxes: this is one of the first forms of packaging

A British ship notices an unnamed peninsula in Alaska, and an officer marks the map with “Name?” When the Admiralty copies the map, they write “Cape Nome.” The town of Nome, Alaska, is born.

Flaubert begins writing Madame Bovary

Giuseppe Verdi created the great romantic trilogy Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata.

“God is in the details.” A phrase attributed to Gustave Flaubert (1821-80), who actually said ‘Le bon Dieu est dans le detail’; others attribute the phrase to Michelangelo, or to the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; ‘The Devil is in the details’ is a

Bologna. Gorzkowski’s Austrians execute Garibaldi’s men Ciceruacchio, his thirteen-year-old son Lorenzo, the priest Ramorino, and five others.

Comacchio. 8:30 PM: Garibaldi and a few faithful embark on two fishing boats toward the Comacchio Valleys, which they cross to their southern edge. They are assisted by the chiefs and deputy chiefs of the Valleys, the public officials responsible for protecting the waters and

Cesenatico. Garibaldi seizes thirteen fishing boats and heads for Venice.

After the failure of the 1848 uprisings, Giuseppe Mazzini took refuge in Switzerland.

Universal male suffrage is introduced throughout the French Empire and the world. In the colonies, whites represent just 1% of the electorate. Senegal sends its first black man to the French National Assembly.

Battle of Custoza. First Italian War of Independence, between Piedmontese troops, led by Charles Albert of Savoy, and those of the Austrian Empire, commanded by Josef Radetzky. The two armies clashed at Custoza, near Verona, for control of the Veneto plains. After the victory at

Thomas Alva Edison is only two years old, and these are his earliest memories: he crawls to reach a silver dollar thrown by a suitor for his sister Marion. A caravan of covered wagons passes by, headed west. In one of those wagons is his

Rivoli, just south of Lake Garda. First skirmishes between the Piedmontese and Austrians in the so-called Battle of Custoza. The Austrians, descending from Trentino, and De Sonnaz’s Piedmontese resisted without difficulty. But the main attack was yet to come…

Vicenza. Third and decisive Austrian assault on the city. It is led personally by Radetzky with 30,000 men and 124 cannons. The defense, led by Papal Giovanni Durando, is stubborn everywhere, but the Austrian pressure is unbearable. The defenders attempt a counterattack with Massimo d’Azeglio

During the First War of Independence, Giuseppe Garibaldi led a group of volunteers in the Varese area, successfully fighting the Austrians. In a short speech, he called the people to arms. He began: “Enemies are not fought with shouts and applause, but with weapons and

Northeastern Italy. The Austrians control only three of the four cities of the fortified Quadrilateral, having recently lost Peschiera; Lombardy is in Piedmontese hands, Venetian volunteers are north of the Adige, and the Papal Army has passed through Vicenza, Treviso, and Venice, reaching within sight

While Piedmont’s war against Austria was underway, the moderates of Milan, Venice, Parma, and Modena decided to join Piedmont. But the defeat at Custoza soon prompted Charles Albert to hastily abandon Milan and make peace with Austria.

Cadore Mountains. Volunteer mountaineers led by Pier Fortunato Calvi, armed with rifled carbines, typical of hunters, were joined by citizens who had formed a sort of civic guard, carrying out actions such as launching landslides and rockfalls against the Austrians. On May 27, they even

Pastrengo, behind Peschiera. 8,000 Austrians are attacked by 14,000 Piedmontese and are defeated, retreating across the Adige. The Piedmontese celebrate a brilliant victory, but it is actually a missed opportunity. The famous charge of 240 knights on warhorses. The Piedmontese lost 15 Piedmontese lives and

Milan. Scarlioni Hall. Austrian Captain Antonio Gnoato signs the surrender of the fortress on behalf of Radetzky. He doesn’t even blink when he reads the following paragraph: “The political prisoners, victims of the fallen tyranny, will be immediately released, particularly those imprisoned as a result

1:00 PM. Austrian troops retreating from Milan reach Melegnano. The march has been extremely slow: 14 kilometers in 14 hours. Radetzky’s retreat surprises the Milanese. The desire to celebrate prevails over any desire for revenge. Thousands of volunteers from the countryside stream in through the

The Piedmontese troops cross the Ticino and move towards Milan.

Charles Albert, King of the Kingdom of Piedmont, adopted the tricolor flag on the same day as the declaration of war on Austria. An article by Cavour emphasizes its significance, perhaps beyond the King’s intentions: “Only one path is open to the nation, the government,

Charles Albert, King of the Kingdom of Piedmont, declares war on Austria

Vienna, Austria. The revolutionary wave sweeps Austria. The insurgents’ victory is swift and bloodless.

Vienna, Austria. Several days of peaceful student demonstrations demanding liberal reforms erupt into violent riots after soldiers open fire on the crowd. The deaths and injuries lead Metternich to resign and flee to Holland disguised as a pauper. The police director and the mayor follow

United States. The U.S. Senate approves the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed by Trist, with 38 votes in favor and 14 against. Democrats are in favor, while conservatives are against, believing that the new territories (California, Arizona, New Mexico) are worthless and could lead to

Messina, Sicily. The defeated Bourbons must retreat to their barracks.

Sicily. Messina begins its revolt against the Neapolitans. The Bourbons refuse to relinquish their last foothold on the island, under any circumstances. In a struggle that will drag on for over seven months, popular figures such as Rosa Donato, known as the People’s Artillerywoman, stand

Palermo, Sicily. The uprising begins timidly in the early part of the day. Neapolitan troops remain confined to their barracks. Then, towards evening, it begins to spread throughout the city, and barricades appear in the streets. At that point, the elite Bourbon garrison of 5,000