Gaspare Campari invents the famous Campari

Mendel reads Darwin’s On the Origin of Species; he will be very impressed by it.

Gustav Kirchoff discovers blackbody radiation

John Brown walks to the gallows and, as he does so, hands the jailer six lines of memo. In them, the Puritan, with impressive foresight, depicted the catastrophe looming over the United States of America: “Charleston, Virginia, December 2, 1859. I, John Brown, am now fully certain that the crimes of this guilty country will never be atoned for except in blood. I, as I now believe, have vainly flattered myself that this could be accomplished without much bloodshed.”

Tsar Alexander II defeats Chechen resistance after 47 years of war: Imam Shamil surrenders to the Russians

Francesco Crispi, a patriot trained in Mazzini, went to Sicily where, together with Rosolino Pilo, he laid the first local foundations for what would become the Expedition of the Thousand.

Riemann publishes an essay in the monthly notes of the Berlin Academy. These ten dense pages of concepts on prime numbers will remain the only pages Riemann wrote on prime numbers, and yet they will forever change the subject. It is a visionary essay, yet deeply frustrating given the simplicity of its content: Riemann, like Gauss, loved covering his tracks. Buried in the document is the statement of the Riemann Hypothesis: or: every nontrivial zero of the zeta function is such that its real part is 1/2. If this is true, then Gauss’s function will provide an increasingly better approximation of the number of primes as we count. This period represents a brief interlude of happiness in Riemann’s life. He occupied the chairs of both his mentors, Gauss and Dirichlet, married Elise Koch, a friend of his sister, but then Riemann fell ill with pleurisy, took refuge in the countryside of Pisa, to which he was attached, and died in 1866.

Captain John Brown orders his men: “Men, take up arms! We’re marching on Harper’s Ferry!” He has received secret support from six influential New England figures, who financed the attempted enterprise. Thus begins an unsuccessful attempt to take control of the town and spark a slave revolt, which ends with ten attackers killed (including Brown’s two sons) and five wounded, with the remainder captured by federal marines commanded by Robert E. Lee. Captain John Brown is hanged on November 2, 1859, after a regular trial. The affair causes immense outcry and indignation in the North. The story takes on epic and legendary overtones and is sung in several versions of the song dedicated to him.

Ola Mansson, paternal grandfather of Charles August Lindbergh, who would become the first person to fly across the Atlantic, is forced to leave his home village of Gardlosa in Sweden due to accusations of fraud and embezzlement as a member of parliament.

In a rare instance of respect in the realm of scientific discovery, Alfred Wallace, who published on the theory of evolution at the same time as Darwin, acknowledges that he devoted one week to him as opposed to Darwin’s twenty years, and then returns to his main interest, biogeography, and publishes Zoography of the Malay Archipelago.

The Frenchman Le Verrier, thanks in part to the successful discovery of the planet Neptune thanks to orbital perturbations on Uranus, suggested the presence of a planet, which he named Vulcan, inside Mercury’s orbit, which would explain the orbital perturbations, which were indeed present. The planet was never found, and today we know it doesn’t exist. The explanation would come in 1916, when Albert Einstein explained these orbital perturbations with General Relativity.

The Cantino Charter, stolen from Lisbon in 1502 by Alberto Cantino, agent of the Duke of Modena and Ferrara, was lost following the sacking of the city of Modena. It was rediscovered by Giuseppe Boni, director of the Estense Library, a few months later in a city shop.

Claude Monet meets Camille Pissarro (or Pissarro)

Napoleon III made Sigurta’ Park his headquarters

Duchy of Parma. Plebiscite for annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Astronomer Richard Christopher Carrington notices enormous sunspots and describes their details. He also notes that the Sun does not rotate as a single solid body. In the following days, the solar storm reaches Earth, and the aurora borealis is visible as far away as Cuba and sub-Saharan Africa.

Edwin Drake, in Titusville, Pennsylvania, puts into operation the first oil well in the world; it extracts 35 barrels a day and the price of oil is $40 a barrel (about $700 today).

Duchy of Modena and Reggio. Plebiscite for annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Armistice of Villafranca. The French and Piedmontese armies narrowly won the bloody battle against the Austrians in Lombardy. The armistice was negotiated with their Austrian counterparts by Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II, keeping Cavour in the dark, who was informed only after the fact. The armistice gave Piedmont Lombardy but not Veneto, but it seemed a shameful betrayal to Cavour, who had masterminded a complex plan that had led to the French entry into the war against Austria, as predicted. Cavour subsequently resigned, but was soon recalled by the king.

Karl Marx publishes “A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy” with a succinct and peremptory presentation of the materialist theory of history

End of the Este regency period in Modena: it is annexed to the Kingdom of Piedmont by Charles Albert

Battle of Solferino (French vs. Austrians) and San Martino (Piedmontese vs. Austrians): the Franco-Piedmontese push the Austrians beyond the Mincio River. In total, 6,000 Austrians die and 9,000 are captured.

Solferino. 12:00 PM. The French sustain the brunt of the battle against the Austrians. Napoleon III sends the best of his army into the attack: the fresh Guard unit, 5,000 men who had not yet fought. The battle rages fiercely. The French gradually advance up the steep slopes: first the cypress hill, then the village, and finally the fortress and cemetery. With the capture of the central heights, the French practically secure victory. But the overall situation remains unclear for hours.

Modena, Parma, Bologna, and all of Romagna, following Tuscany in April, ask to be annexed to Piedmont.

Modena. Francis V leaves the Duchy forever after the Austrian defeat at Magenta, followed to Mantua by 3,500 loyal soldiers and 118 officers commanded by General Saccozzi, who constitute the so-called Estense Brigade. He takes with him the family’s gold and precious possessions, as well as 80 prisoners in chains who are imprisoned in Mantua’s prisons. Luigi Carlo Farini, royal commissioner of the Piedmontese government, arrives in Modena. He is later appointed dictator and then governor of all of Emilia, whose annexation to Piedmont, along with Tuscany, is proclaimed.

Second Italian War of Independence: plebiscite in Lombardy, which sanctions annexation to the kingdom of Vittorio Emanuele II.

Second Italian War of Independence: The French take Melegnano

Second Italian War of Independence: Triumphal entry of Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II into Milan

Second Italian War of Independence: Mac Mahon and the Algerians of Turcos enter Milan

Second Italian War of Independence: The Austrians leave Milan

Second War of Independence: Battle of Magenta. 55,792 Austrians clash with 47,517 French and Piedmontese. The latter prevail. The Austrians suffer 1,368 dead, 4,358 wounded, and 4,500 captured, while the Franco-Piedmontese suffer 657 dead, 3,223 wounded, and 655 captured.

8:30 PM. Magenta. Under a pouring thunderstorm and in the dark, the massacre of Magenta ends. The French remain dead and wounded, with 564 dead and 3,045 wounded, while the Austrians suffer 1,368 dead, 4,358 wounded, and 4,500 missing and prisoners. Gyulai hesitates but then retreats to the Quadrilateral.

8:00 PM. Magenta. Sunset witnesses a fierce clash on the city streets.

5:00 PM. Magenta. The Austrians must abandon their positions immediately outside the city.

4:00 PM. Mac Mahon’s troops finally advance towards Boffalora to bring aid to the French who had been fighting there for several hours.

1:00 PM. The French cross the Naviglio at the Ponte Nuovo. The Austrian counterattack arrives. The French manage to hold off. The Austrian push slows and then ceases.

Morning. A division of the French Imperial Guard crosses the Ticino without great difficulty.

The French managed to establish a small bridgehead at Turbigo, north of Buffalora. Napoleon III’s plan was to attack Magenta, on the road to Milan.

Second Italian War of Independence: Cialdini and Durando win the Battle of Palestro against the Austrians

After building some bridges over the Sesia River, Cialdini’s Piedmontese troops and some French units advanced north toward Palestro. They prevailed with a bayonet charge. It was a good, though not a resounding, victory. The Austrians were forced to retreat in good order, but the intervention of the French Zouaves prompted a general Austrian retreat. Victor Emmanuel II, who had led some of the assaults, was proclaimed their corporal general by the Zouaves. Losses were heavy on both sides: 700 Piedmontese killed and wounded, 270 French, 1,140 Austrians, and 400 prisoners of the Franco-Piedmontese.

Battle of San Fermo. Garibaldi and the Alpine Hunters defeat the Austrians and occupy Como.

Garibaldi and his Alpine Hunters arrive at San Fermo, heading towards Como. Garibaldi’s cunning action spreads panic among the enemy lines, but in the fierce fighting, Garibaldi’s commander De Cristoforis also loses his life. Eventually, the Austrians flee in rout. Late that night, Garibaldi finally enters Como, welcomed triumphantly by the population.

Garibaldi and his Alpine Hunters confront the leading brigade of the Austrian division at Varese. Giacomo Medici and Enrico Cosenz, the two best commanders, fire on the Austrians passing on the road below, then attack their flank and force them to retreat. The retreat is due more to surprise than casualties, but it is, and it boosts the morale of Garibaldi’s men.

Duchy of Modena and Reggio. Duke Francis V inaugurates the railway. He had signed the railway agreement in Rome in 1951 to run the railway between Modena and Reggio Emilia. He had it run close to his home: between the Ducal Palace and the Villa Ducale Pentetorri, with the train station right in between.

China. The new British envoy, Frederick Bruce, arrives in Dagu to implement the declarations of the recent Treaty of Tianjin and take up residence in Beijing as ambassador. But he finds the capital’s main waterway blocked by chains and metal spikes and defended by the military. Chinese soldiers surprise the British, and in the ensuing firefight, 519 British soldiers are killed and 456 wounded. This episode only temporarily halts British ambitions in China: soon, an Anglo-French army marches on the Chinese capital and sets fire to the Emperor’s Summer Palace, causing immeasurable damage.

Second Italian War of Independence: at Montebello the French and Sardinian cavalry stopped Gyulai’s Austrians.

At the first sign of an Austrian advance, the order for a general retreat by the Piedmontese was given, later revoked.

Austrian General Gyulai, unconvinced, wastes three days before entering Piedmont. In reality, he has a clear path to Turin, but he doesn’t know it.

Humphrey Davy discovers aluminum (the fourth most common element in the Earth’s crust)

Second Italian War of Independence: the Austrians arrive 50 km from Turin.

Florence. An insurrection expels the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Twenty months saw the unification of almost all of Italy, with the exception of Veneto and Lazio, under the Piedmontese monarchy of Savoy. It was a complex and tortuous process, marked by twists and turns and by fortunes.

Second Italian War of Independence. The Franco-Piedmontese War against the Austrian Empire in 1859 pitted the Franco-Piedmontese army against the Austrian Empire. Its outcome allowed the reunification of Lombardy with the Kingdom of Sardinia and laid the foundation for the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy.

After the Austrian ultimatum, practically a declaration of war given the conditions, Cavour asks Parliament for full war powers with an emotional face and an altered and trembling voice.

Austria imposes an ultimatum on the Kingdom of Sardinia demanding its disarmament, which Victor Emmanuel II refuses, and the Second War of Independence breaks out; Napoleon III’s French army intervenes alongside the Italians; the Austrians are defeated at Magenta and Solferino.

The Piedmontese set up a rudimentary intelligence service against the Austrians. They had a first line of informants and a code where generals, weapons, and soldiers were designated with the terms of theater managers. Gyulai was the tenor Pigolini, the infantry was the soprano, the cavalry was the contralto, and the artillery was the bass; one thousand francs was one thousand men. This rudimentary code held until the end of March, when it was discovered. There was also a second line of “good spies”: plainclothes carabinieri who employed a novelty learned in the East: carrier pigeons. This last device would be adopted by the French, who would use it up to and including the First World War.

In Heidelberg, Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchoff built a spectroscope: a sophisticated prism that allowed the identification of elements by separating the colors they develop when exposed to a flame (generated by a Bunsen burner). This led to the discovery of caesium, through its characteristic blue light.

Gaston Platè’s 1859 invention of the rechargeable lead-acid battery. At the end of the 19th century, electric carriages and automobiles, unlike trams and trains, relied on rechargeable lead-acid batteries. They were extremely heavy due to the lead sheet and suffered from the sloshing of the acidic, corrosive liquid, which also emitted an incredible stench, similar to horse piss.

England. Utilitarian John Stuart Mill, after publishing “On Liberty” and “The Subjugation of Women,” publishes “Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform,” in which he proposes that any homeowner, male or female, should have the right to vote. “Why should the right to vote make a distinction where the tax collector does not?”

Queen Victoria sends a 100-word message to US President James Buchanan, but part of the telegram only reaches Washington the next day; slow and unreliable, the cable fails within three weeks.

Speak reaches the source of the Nile at Lake Victoria; it is a great achievement for the British Empire which aspired to control this vital source of water.

Alfred Wallace from Malaysia publishes On the Tendency of Varieties to Detach Indefinitely from the Original Type, in which he presents a theory entirely identical to the one Darwin has been developing for years.

Charles Darwin’s youngest son, also named Charles, dies

Florence. Giovanni Battista Donati spots a comet that will become one of the brightest of the 19th century, and also the first to be photographed. It will be called Comet Donati. Abraham Lincoln will also mention it.

Hymen Lipman patents the pencil-mounted eraser holder (ferrule).

Vienna. The late Austrian general Radetzky is succeeded by Ferencz Gyulai, who, however, does not enjoy the same reputation. He is a bureaucrat burdened with formal duties and institutional commitments and fixated on completely absurd details: for example, he requires all officers to wear black moustaches (blonds must dye them, and hairless men must draw them with shoe polish).

Austrian General Radetzky dies at the age of 92.

China. After British forces conquered Guangzhou and the Dagu Forts and threatened to march on Beijing, the Chinese signed the Treaty of Tianjin. London thus gained a permanent embassy in Beijing, travel on the Yangtze River, the opening of new treaty ports with special licenses, and proselytism in China.

Arizona, Mexico. Geronimo’s family is massacred by the Mexicans. For the next thirty years, Geronimo seeks revenge against the White Eyes.

Modena. The Porta Castello gate, on the north side of the city walls, is demolished on behalf of Duke Francis V, to connect the city center to the train station. The canal within the walls is also covered, and the Viale, later dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele, is inaugurated.

Modena: Construction of the railway station begins

Unification of the Danubian principalities, Romania is born

Treaty of Aigun: Russia seizes 300,000 square kilometers of territory north of the Amur and Ussuri rivers, territories long held by China. Manchuria, south of the two rivers, remains Chinese territory. These territories had already been recognized as Chinese in the previous Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689.