Timeline July 1866

Events in July 1866 5

• 1826 – 1866 Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866) Died 20 July 1866, aged 39 German mathematician whose work on geometry and complex analysis laid the mathematical foundations later used in Einstein's general relativity. He died of tuberculosis in Italy, and the Riemann hypothesis he posed remains one of mathematics' most famous unsolved problems.
• 1866 Battle of Königgrätz Also known as the Battle of Sadowa Prussian forces decisively defeated the Austrian army near Hradec Králové in Bohemia, the largest and most consequential battle of the Austro-Prussian War. The defeat forced Austria to seek peace and ended its bid to lead a unified Germany.
• 1866 Battle of Lissa Austrian navy defeats Italy in the Adriatic Off the island of Vis, an outnumbered Austrian fleet under Wilhelm von Tegetthoff routed the Italian navy, notably by ramming and sinking the ironclad Re d'Italia. It was the first major naval battle between ironclad fleets and shaped naval tactics for decades.
• 1866 First permanent transatlantic telegraph cable completed The Great Eastern lands a working cable at Newfoundland The steamship Great Eastern successfully laid a durable telegraph cable across the Atlantic, landing at Heart's Content, and also recovered and completed the failed 1865 cable. For the first time, reliable near-instant communication linked Europe and North America.
• 1866 New Orleans Massacre of 1866 Attack on a Louisiana constitutional convention A white mob and police attacked delegates and supporters of a reconvened Louisiana constitutional convention seeking Black suffrage, killing dozens of mostly Black attendees. The violence shocked Northern opinion and strengthened the case for Radical Reconstruction.