- 1850s
Events and Trends
Industry
* Production of
steel revolutionized by invention of theBessemer process
*Benjamin Silliman fractionatespetroleum bydistillation for the first time
* First transpacific telegraph cable laid
* First safetyelevator installed byElisha Otis
*Railroad s begin to supplantcanal s in the United States as a primary means of transporting goods.
* First commercially successful sewing machine made byIsaac Singer cience
*
Charles Darwin publishes "The Origin of Species ", putting forward the theory ofevolution by natural selection in 1859
*Epidemiology begins when John Snow traces the source of an outbreak ofcholera in London to a contaminated water pump.
* Discovery ofNeanderthal fossils inNeanderthal, Germany
*Solar flare s discovered byRichard Christopher Carrington War, peace and politics
*
Crimean war (1854-1856) fought betweenImperial Russia and an alliance consisting of theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , theSecond French Empire , theKingdom of Sardinia and theOttoman Empire . The majority of the conflict takes place around Crimea, on the northern coasts of theBlack Sea .
* TheIndian Mutiny : revolt against British colonial rule inIndia
*Bleeding Kansas (1854-1859): battles erupt inKansas Territory between proslavery and "Free-State" settlers, directly precipitating theAmerican Civil War .
* Dissolution of theMughal Empire by the British.
* 156 are killed inParis in a failedassassination attempt on Napoleon III, Emperor of the French (1858).
*Moldavia andWallachia are unified and formRomania .
*Gideon T. Stewart attempts to create aProhibition Party .
* On1856-10-08 , theSecond Opium War between several western powers andChina begins with the "Arrow Incident" on the Pearl River.
*Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) in QingChina .
*Second War of Italian Independence (1859), also known as Franco-Austrian War, or Austro-Sardinian War.World leaders
* Padshah
Bahadur Shah Zafar (Mughal Empire ) 1837-1858
* Emperor Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary )
* Emperor Napoleon III (Second French Empire )
* King Frederick William IV (Germany )
*Pope Pius IX
* Queen Maria II (Portugal )
* King Peter V (Portugal )
* Emperor Nicholas I (Russia )
* Emperor Alexander II (Russia )
* QueenIsabella II (Spain )
* Queen Victoria, (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland )
* Prime Minister Lord John Russell (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland )
* Prime Minister Lord Aberdeen (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland )
* Prime Minister Lord Palmerston (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland )
* PresidentMillard Fillmore (United States )
* PresidentFranklin Pierce (United States )
* PresidentJames Buchanan (United States )
*Nasser-al-Din Shah ofQajar dynasty (Persia )Environmental changes
Russia
* Ukrainian settlers bring
Carniolan honeybee s to thePrimorsky Krai External links
* [http://www.assumption.edu/ahc/rhetoric/1850textarchive.html American texts from 1850s]
* [http://www.assumption.edu/ahc/rhetoric/oratoryarchive.html American speeches from 1850s]
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