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Events and People Who Made History in the Year 1859 AD
January
January 5: 1st steamboat sails, Red River
January 22: Brahms' 1st piano concerto (in D minor) premieres, Hanover
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February
February 10: General Horsford defeats Begum of Oudh and Nana Sahib in Indian mutiny
February 14: Oregon admitted as 33rd state
February 17: Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Un Ballo in maschera" premieres in Napoli
February 19: Dan Sickles is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity 1st time this defense is successfully used
February 25: 1st use of "insanity plea" to prove innocence
February 26: Paul Morphy's chess match vs Augustus Mongredien begins; Morphy wins
February 28: Arkansas legislature requires free blacks to choose exile or slavery
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March
March 1: Present seal of San Francisco adopted (its 2nd)
March 18: Vera Cruz besieged by Miramon (Cons) in Mexican War of Reform
March 19: Opera "Faust" by Charles Gounod premieres in Paris
March 21: 1st Zoological Society incorporates in Philadelphia
March 21: Scottish National Gallery opens in Edinburgh
March 21: Zoological Society of Philadelphia, 1st in U.S., incorporated
March 26: 1st sighting of Vulcan, a planet thought to orbit inside Mercury
March 28: 1st performance of John Brahms' 1st Serenade for orchestra
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April
April 4: Opera "Dinorah" is produced (Paris)
April 6: U.S. recognizes Liberal government in Mexico's War of Reform
April 12: Hibernia Savings and Loan Society of San Francisco incorporates
April 14: Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities" published
April 25: Ground broken for Suez Canal
April 27: "Pomona" sinks in North Atlantic drowning all 400 aboard
April 30: Paul Morphy returns from 10-month chess tour of Europe, retires
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May
May 31: Philadelphia A's organize to play "town ball" became baseball 20 years later
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June
June 11: Comstock silver load discovered near Virginia City, Nevada
June 12: Comstock Silver Lode in Nevada discovered
June 24: Battle of Solferino, N-Italy: France/Sardinia-Austria
June 28: 1st dog show held, Newcastle-on-Tyne, England
June 30: Charles Blondin is 1st to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope
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July
July 1: 1st intercollegiate baseball game, Amherst beats Williams 66-32
July 1: Balloon covers a record 809 miles over St. Louis
July 5: Captain N. C. Brooks discovers Midway Islands
July 11: Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities" is published
July 12: Paper bag manufacturing machine patents by William Goodale, Massachusetts
July 22: V E Walker takes 10-74 in an innings for England vs. Surrey
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August
August 9: Elevator patented
August 17: 1st air mail (in a balloon) took off from Lafayette Ind
August 27: 1st successful oil well drilled, near Titusville, Penn by Edwin Drake
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September
September 1: 1st Pullman sleeping car in service
September 1: R C Carrington and R Hodgson make 1st observation of solar flare
September 2: Gas lighting introduced to Hawaii
September 16: Lake Nyasa, which forms Malawi's boundary with Tanzania and Mozambique discovered by British explorer David Livingstone
September 17: Man in San Francisco claims himself Norton I, emperor of America
September 20: George Simpson patents electric range
September 29: Great auroral display in US
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October
October 16: John Brown leads 20 in raid on federal arsenal, Harper's Ferry, Va
October 19: Wilhelm Tempel discovers diffuse nebula around Pleid star Merope
October 25: Merchant vessel Royal Charter runs aground at Liverpool, 459 die
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November
November 12: Jules Leotard performs 1st Flying Trapeze circus act (Paris) He also designed garment that bears his name
November 16: Aleksandr Ostrovsky's "Groza," premieres in Moscow
November 24: Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species"
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December
December 5: Dion Boucicault's "Octaroon," premieres in New York City
December 15: GR Kirchoff describes chemical composition of Sun
December 18: South Carolina declared an "independent commonwealth"
December 19: Grading started for Market Street RR
December 31: Dutch colony in Dutch Indies counts 4,800 slaves
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