Historical
1854: Japan - The Convention of Kanagawa formally ends policy of Isolation by Japan
1855: England - Henry Bessemer Invents a process that enables steel to be mass produced from molten pig Iron
1856: Romania - First oil refinery in Romania
1857-1858: India - Indian Rebellion of 1857 (also known as First War of Independence for India, the Great Rebellion, the Indian Mutiny, the Revolt of 1857, the Uprising of 1857, the Sepoy Rebellion and the Sepoy Mutiny), It began as a mutiny of native soldiers (sepoys) employed by the British East India Company's army
1859: England - Charles Darwin publishes "The Origin of Species", It is a work of scientific literature considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology, Its full title is "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life", It presents a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution and Includes evidence Darwin gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings
1861-1865: United States - American Civil War between the Union and seceding Confederacy
1861-1867: France, Mexico - French Intervention in Mexico and the creation of the Second Mexican Empire, ruled by Maximilian I of Mexico and his consort Carlota of Mexico
1861: Russia - Russia abolishes serfdom
1862-1877: China - Muslim Rebellion in northwest China
1863-1865: Poland, Russia - Polish uprising against the Russian Empire
1863: Iraq - Baha u llah declares His station as "He whom God shall make manifest", this date is celebrated in the Baha I Faith as The Festival of Ridvan
1863: Switzerland - Formation of the International Red Cross is followed by the adoption of the First Geneva Convention in 1864
1864-1866: Peru, Chile, Spain - The Chincha Islands War was an attempt by Spain to regain Its South American colonies in Peru and Cile
1864-1870: Paraguay - The War of the Triple Alliance ends Paraguayan ambitions for expansion and destroys much of the Paraguayan population
1865-1877: United States - Reconstruction in the United States, slavery is banned in the United States by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
1865: United States - April 14, 1865, United States President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated while attending a performance at Fords Theater, Washington, D.C., he dies approximately nine hours after being shot on April 15, 1865
1865: United States - April 9, 1865 Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War
1866-1868: Finland - Famine in Finland
1866-1869: Japan - After the Meiji Restoration, Japan embarks on a program of rapid modernization
1866: England, United States - Successful transatlantic telegraph cable follows an earlier attempt in 1858 by Cyrus West Field, the first cable used for telegraph communications laid across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean crosees from the Telegraph Field, Foilhommerum Bay, Valentia Island, in western Ireland to Hearts Content in eastern Newfoundland, messages that took at least ten days to deliver by ship now took only minutes
1866: Germany, Austria - Austro-Prussian War results in the dissolution of the German Confederation and the creation of the North German Confederation and the Austrian-Hungarian Dual Monarchy
1867: Canada - Canadian Confederation formed
1867: Serbia, Turkey - The Principality of Serbia passes a Constitution which defines Its Independence from the Ottoman Empire, International recognition followed in 1878
1867: United States, Russia - The United States purchased Alaska from Russia
1868: United States - The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was approved
1868: United States - The Expatriation Act is approved by Congress, guaranteeing U.S. citizens the right to expatriate, coupled with the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution approved only one day later, the Expatriation Act allows U.S. citizens to renounce federal citizenship in order to regain Constitutional rights ceded by U.S. citizens as defined by the 14th Amendment
1869: Egypt - The Suez Canal opens linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea
1869: United States - First Transcontinental Railroad completed in United States on May 10
1870-1871: France, Germany, Italy - The Franco-Prussian War results in the unifications of Germany and Italy, the collapse of the Second French Empire, the breakdown of Pax Britannica, and the emergence of a New Imperialism
1870s-1890s: Europe, United States - Long Depression in Western Europe and North America
1871-1872: Iran - Famine in Persia is believed to have caused the death of two million
1871-1914: Europe, United States - Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, a phase of the larger Industrial Revolution in the period from the last half of the 19th century until about the time of World War I
1872: United States - Yellowstone National Park is created
1873: England - James Clerk Maxwell publishes "A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism", a set of four partial differential equations describing how the electric and magnetic fields relate to their sources, charge density and current density, and how they develop with time
1874-1875: Spain - First Republic in Spain
1874: France - The Societe Anonyme Cooperative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, and Graveurs, better known today as the Impressionists organize and present their first public group exhibition at the Paris studio of the photographer Nadar
1874: India, England - The British East India Company is dissolved