1857

Events in 1857 42

• 1526 – 1857 Mughal Empire Persianate empire of unity, wealth and architecture The Mughal Empire unified most of the subcontinent and blended Persian and Indian culture into a brilliant courtly civilisation. At its height it was among the richest states on earth, producing masterpieces of architecture, painting and administration before its long decline left a vacuum filled by regional powers and the British.
• 1779 – 1857 Karl Ritter (1779-1857) Died 28 September 1857, aged 78 Ritter was a German geographer regarded, alongside Alexander von Humboldt, as a founder of modern scientific geography. He held the first chair of geography at the University of Berlin and emphasized the relationship between physical environment and human history. His comparative method shaped geography as an academic discipline.
• 1780 – 1857 Pierre-Jean de Beranger (1780-1857) Died 16 July 1857, aged 76 Beranger was a French poet and songwriter whose satirical and patriotic verses made him one of the most popular writers in France during the early nineteenth century. His songs circulated widely among ordinary French readers and were seen as an influence on republican sentiment. He was given a state funeral attended by large crowds in Paris.
• 1795 – 1857 Henry Havelock (1795-1857) Died 24 November 1857, aged 62 Havelock was a British general who led the relief of the besieged garrison at Lucknow during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He died of dysentery in Lucknow shortly after the city's first relief. He was celebrated as a national hero in Britain and commemorated with a statue in Trafalgar Square.
• 1798 – 1857 Auguste Comte (1798-1857) Died 5 September 1857, aged 59 Comte was a French philosopher who founded positivism and coined the term sociology. He argued that societies progress through theological, metaphysical, and scientific stages of understanding. His ideas influenced the development of social science throughout the nineteenth century.
• 1803 – 1857 Douglas Jerrold (1803-1857) Died 8 June 1857, aged 54 Jerrold was an English playwright and writer best known for his contributions to the satirical magazine Punch and his play Black-Eyed Susan. He was a prominent figure in London literary circles alongside Charles Dickens. His journalism combined social criticism with popular humor.
• 1804 – 1857 Eugene Sue (1804-1857) Died 3 August 1857, aged 53 Sue was a French novelist best known for The Mysteries of Paris and The Wandering Jew, serialized novels that were immensely popular and helped establish the genre of the newspaper serial. His sympathetic portrayal of Paris's poor gave his fiction a strong social and political dimension. He died in exile after Napoleon III's coup.
• 1804 – 1857 Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) Died 15 February 1857, aged 52 Glinka was a Russian composer often called the father of Russian classical music. His operas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila established a distinctly Russian musical idiom that influenced later composers including the Mighty Five. He died in Berlin while studying counterpoint.
• 1810 – 1857 Alfred de Musset (1810-1857) Died 2 May 1857, aged 46 Musset was a French poet and playwright associated with the Romantic movement, known for works including Lorenzaccio and his autobiographical novel The Confession of a Child of the Century. His turbulent relationship with the writer George Sand became one of the era's best-known literary romances.
• 1822 – 1857 John Nicholson (1822-1857) Died 23 September 1857, aged 34 Nicholson was a British army officer in India who became a celebrated, controversial figure for his role in suppressing the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He was mortally wounded leading the assault during the storming of Delhi and died of his injuries days later. He was widely mythologized in Britain as a hero of the campaign.
• 1827 – 1857 Mangal Pandey (1827-1857) Executed 8 April 1857, aged 29 Pandey was a sepoy in the British East India Company's army whose attack on his officers at Barrackpore in March 1857 is often cited as the spark that ignited the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He was court-martialed and hanged weeks later. He has since become a celebrated symbol of Indian resistance to colonial rule.
• 1857 – 1885 Alfonso XII of Spain (1857-1885) Died 25 November 1885, aged 27 King of Spain from 1874, he restored the Bourbon monarchy after a period of revolution and republican rule and presided over a period of relative political stability under the Constitution of 1876. He died of tuberculosis at the royal palace of El Pardo, leaving his pregnant wife to become regent for their unborn son, Alfonso XIII.
• 1857 – 1952 Charles Sherrington (1857-1952) Died 4 March 1952, aged 94 Sir Charles Sherrington, the British neurophysiologist who shared the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on the function of neurons, died on 4 March 1952. His research established the concept of the synapse and laid foundations for modern neuroscience. He had also served as president of the Royal Society.
• 1857 – 1938 Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) Died 13 March 1938, aged 80 Darrow was an American defence lawyer and civil libertarian. He was famous for the Leopold and Loeb case and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial.
• 1857 – 1934 Edward Elgar (1857-1934) Died 23 February 1934, aged 76 English composer of the Enigma Variations, The Dream of Gerontius and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches. He was the leading figure of English music around 1900.
• 1857 – 1894 Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) Died 1 January 1894, aged 36 Hertz was a German physicist who proved the existence of electromagnetic waves predicted by James Clerk Maxwell, laying the groundwork for radio technology. He died of a genetic vasculitis condition in Bonn. The unit of frequency, the hertz, is named in his honor.
• 1857 – 1928 Hermann Sudermann (1857-1928) Died 21 November 1928, aged 71 German naturalist playwright and novelist, author of the play Heimat and the novel Frau Sorge. He was one of the most performed dramatists in Germany around 1900. Several of his works were adapted for film.
• 1857 – 1944 Ida Tarbell (1857-1944) Died 6 January 1944, aged 86 American investigative journalist and a leading muckraker. Her series The History of the Standard Oil Company helped bring about the 1911 break-up of John D. Rockefeller's monopoly. She also wrote widely read biographies of Abraham Lincoln.
• 1857 – 1858 Indian Rebellion of 1857 The great revolt; Crown rule replaces the Company The uprising of 1857 — sparked among Company sepoys and spreading into a widespread revolt — shook British rule to its foundations. After brutal fighting on both sides, the rebellion was crushed, the East India Company abolished, and India placed under direct British Crown rule (the British Raj).
• 1857 – 1935 Juan Vicente Gómez (1857-1935) Died 17 December 1935, aged 78 Gómez was the dictator who ruled Venezuela from 1908 until his death. During his rule the country's oil industry was developed. He died in office in Maracay.
• 1857 – 1936 Karl Pearson (1857-1936) Died 27 April 1936, aged 79 Karl Pearson was an English mathematician and a founder of modern mathematical statistics. He developed the correlation coefficient and the chi-squared test, and founded the journal Biometrika. He was also a prominent advocate of eugenics.
• 1857 – 1935 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) Died 19 September 1935, aged 78 Tsiolkovsky was a Russian pioneer of astronautics who worked out the rocket equation and the theory of multistage rockets. His work later inspired the Soviet space programme.
• 1857 Morphy wins First American Chess Congress Debut triumph in New York At 20, Paul Morphy won the First American Chess Congress convincingly, establishing himself as the strongest player in the United States.
• 1857 – 1932 Paul Doumer (1857-1932) Died 7 May 1932, aged 75 The President of France was shot in Paris by the Russian émigré Paul Gorguloff and died the next day. He had previously served as Governor-General of French Indochina.
• 1857 – 1939 Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) Died 10 February 1939, aged 81 Achille Ratti was pope from 1922. He signed the Lateran Treaty, which created Vatican City. In 1937 he condemned Nazism in the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge.
• 1857 – 1941 Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941) Died 8 January 1941, aged 83 Robert Baden-Powell was a British army officer and the defender of Mafeking who founded the worldwide Scout movement. He died in Kenya, where he had retired.
• 1857 – 1932 Ronald Ross (1857-1932) Died 16 September 1932, aged 75 The British physician showed that mosquitoes transmit malaria, and he received the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• 1857 – 1929 Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) Died 3 August 1929, aged 72 American economist and sociologist. In The Theory of the Leisure Class he coined the term "conspicuous consumption".
• 1857 – 1927 Vladimir Bekhterev (1857-1927) Died 24 December 1927, aged 70 Vladimir Bekhterev was a Russian neurologist who founded the Psychoneurological Institute in Saint Petersburg and did pioneering work on reflexes and brain anatomy. He died suddenly in Moscow, reportedly soon after examining Stalin.
• 1857 Universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras established India's first modern universities founded The colonial government established the Universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, modeled on the University of London, as India's first institutions granting Western-style degrees. The University of Calcutta was inaugurated in January 1857. The three universities became the foundation of modern higher education in the subcontinent.
• 1857 James Buchanan inaugurated as US president Fifteenth president takes office James Buchanan was sworn in as the fifteenth President of the United States, succeeding Franklin Pierce. His administration struggled to contain the growing sectional crisis over slavery. He served a single term marked by economic depression and rising secessionist sentiment.
• 1857 Treaty of Paris ends the Anglo-Persian War Persia renounces its claim to Herat Britain and Persia signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the brief Anglo-Persian War fought over Persian control of Herat. Persia agreed to withdraw its forces and renounce claims to the Afghan city. The treaty preserved Herat as a buffer state between British India and Russian-influenced Persia.
• 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decided US Supreme Court rules against Black citizenship The US Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott, an enslaved man who had sued for his freedom, could not be a US citizen and had no standing to sue. The decision also held that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the territories, inflaming sectional tensions. The ruling is widely regarded as a major catalyst for the American Civil War.
• 1857 First safety passenger elevator installed Elisha Otis's elevator opens in a New York department store Elisha Otis installed the first safety passenger elevator for public use in the Haughwout department store in New York City. Its safety brake prevented the car from falling if the hoisting cable broke, resolving the main obstacle to tall buildings. The invention is credited with making skyscrapers practical.
• 1857 Utah War begins US federal troops march against Mormon settlers President James Buchanan ordered US Army troops to Utah Territory to suppress a reported rebellion by Mormon settlers and install a non-Mormon governor. The ensuing standoff between federal forces and the Nauvoo Legion militia produced skirmishes but little bloodshed before a negotiated settlement in 1858. It was one of the costliest peacetime military mobilizations in antebellum US history.
• 1857 Panic of 1857 Global financial crisis triggered by a US bank failure The failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company in August 1857 set off a financial panic that spread through the United States and across the Atlantic to Britain and continental Europe. Railroad overexpansion and falling grain prices had left banks overextended, and the ensuing credit collapse caused widespread bankruptcies and unemployment. It is considered the first worldwide economic crisis.
• 1857 Obscene Publications Act passed in Britain First British statute criminalising obscene material The British Parliament passed the Obscene Publications Act, giving courts the power to seize and destroy obscene books and images. It was the country's first legislation specifically targeting obscenity rather than blasphemy or libel. The act remained the basis of British obscenity law for over a century.
• 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act passed in Britain Civil divorce introduced in England and Wales The British Parliament passed the Matrimonial Causes Act, creating a civil court for divorce and ending the Church of England's exclusive jurisdiction over marriage dissolution. Previously, divorce had required a private Act of Parliament, available only to the wealthy. The law made divorce, though still difficult, accessible to a much wider public.
• 1857 – 1930 William Howard Taft 27th President — also Chief Justice William Howard Taft (Sep 15, 1857 – Mar 8, 1930) was the 27th President 1909-1913 and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 1921-1930 — the only person to hold both offices. He was the heaviest president at 340 pounds.
• 1857 David Livingstone publishes Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa Bestselling account fuels Victorian interest in Africa David Livingstone published his account of his travels across southern and central Africa, including his crossing of the continent and sighting of Victoria Falls. The book became a bestseller in Britain and cemented Livingstone's fame as an explorer. It helped spur British missionary and imperial interest in the African interior.
• 1857 The Alpine Club founded in London World's first mountaineering club established A group of British climbers founded the Alpine Club in London, the world's first organization dedicated to mountaineering. The club formalized the sport during what became known as the Golden Age of Alpinism. It later played a central role in early ascents of the Alps' major peaks.
• 1857 Capture of Guangzhou Anglo-French forces seize the Chinese city during the Second Opium War British and French forces bombarded and captured Guangzhou, overcoming Qing defenses in a decisive early engagement of the Second Opium War. The allied powers occupied the city for several years afterward. The campaign pressured the Qing government toward further trade concessions.