Directory

1857 CE

The University of Calcutta is established in Calcutta, as the first multidisciplinary modern university in South Asia. The University of Bombay is also established in Bombay, British India, this year. Spanish financial group, Banco Santander founded in Cantabria, Spain. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is officially opened by Queen Victoria.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 5 – The Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States is promulgated.source
  • March 14 – Youssef Bey Karam is assigned, by the people of Ehden and Bsharri, to be the region's ruler.source
  • August 28 – The Matrimonial Causes Act makes divorce without parliamentary approval legal in the United Kingdom.source
  • November 1 – The Indus Valley Region (i.e., Pakistan Region) is incorporated as part of British India, for the next 90 years until 1947.source
  • November 30 – President of Mexico Ignacio Comonfort is succeeded by Félix María Zuloaga.source
  • December 7 – U.S. Consul in Japan Townsend Harris meets the Shogun in Edo in a diplomatic reception, the first ever meeting between the Shogun and a foreign diplomat.source
  • December 31 – Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as the capital of Canada.source

Conflict & Security

  • March 3 – France and the United Kingdom formally declare war on China, in the Second Anglo-Chinese War.source
  • March 3 – The largest slave auction in U.S. history is held, dubbed The Weeping Time. Over a 2-day period (starting March 2), Pierce M. Butler sells 436 men, women, children, and infants, all of whom are kept in stalls meant for horses at a racetrack in Savannah, Georgia, for weeks beforehand.source
  • March 8 – 12 – Spirit Lake Massacre, near Okoboji and Spirit lakes in the northwestern territory of Iowa near the Minnesota border.source
  • March – The Austrian garrison leaves Bucharest.source
  • April 4 – The Anglo-Persian War ends.source
  • April 8 – Mangal Pandey is hanged for mutiny against the British East India Company army; the execution is a precursor event to the Indian Rebellion of 1857.source
  • May 10 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: The 3rd Light Cavalry of the British East India Company's army rebels against its British officers, thus beginning the rebellion.source
  • May 11 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: Indian combatants capture Delhi from the British East India Company.source
  • June 1 – Second Anglo-Chinese War: Battle of Fatshan Creek – The British Royal Navy defeats the Cantonese fleet of Qing dynasty China.source
  • June 12 – U.S. mercenary William Walker is overthrown as ruler of Nicaragua by Honduran general Florencio Xatruch.source
  • June 26 – At a ceremony in London, Queen Victoria awards the first 66 Victoria Crosses to British troops, for actions during the Crimean War.source
  • July 1–November 19 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: Siege of Lucknow.source
  • July 15 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: The second massacre at Kanpur takes place.source
  • September 11 – The Mountain Meadows massacre occurs in Utah.source
  • September 20 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: British forces recapture Delhi, compelling the surrender of Bahadur Shah II, the last Mughal emperor.source
  • November 16 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: British troops win 24 Victoria Crosses in action this day.source
  • December 28 – Second Anglo-Chinese War: 2nd Battle of Canton – British and French forces begin an assault on the Qing dynasty Chinese city of Canton (Guangzhou).source
  • December – The Reform War in Mexico begins.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • July 18 – The Utah Expedition leaves Fort Leavenworth, effectively beginning the Utah War.source
  • The Mormons abandon Las Vegas.source
  • The first commercial tea plantation in the British Raj is opened in the Mulnicherra Estate in Sylhet.source
  • Suzumoto Vaudeville Theater officially opens in Ueno region, Edo (modern-day Tokyo) in Japan.source

Economy & Finance

  • May 15 – Spanish financial group, Banco Santander founded in Cantabria, Spain.source
  • May 28 – Banco de Bilbao, as predecessor of BBVA is founded in Spain.source
  • October 13 – Panic of 1857: New York banks close, and do not reopen until December 12.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 7 – The partly French-owned London General Omnibus Company begins operating.source
  • September – The Panic of 1857 begins: Speculation in U.S. railroad shares, and the collapse on August 24 of the New York City branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, following widespread embezzlement, trigger a financial crisis which will extend to Europe.source
  • December 20 – Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria issues a decree, Es ist Mein Wille, which leads to the demolition of the city walls of Vienna, allowing the construction of the Ringstraße.source
  • U.S. composer James Lord Pierpont composes "Jingle Bells", originally entitled "The One Horse Open Sleigh".source
  • Bustling tourist attraction Sunny Lane in Falmouth, United Kingdom, is built.source
  • Bucharest becomes the world's first city to have its streets illuminated by kerosene lamps.source
  • Kuala Lumpur, the future capital of Malaysia, is founded as a tin mining settlement.source

Science & Discovery

  • March 23 – Elisha Otis' first elevator is installed (at 488 Broadway, New York City).source
  • March 25 – The phonautograph is patented by French typesetter Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. It is the earliest known device for recording sound.source

Health & Medicine

  • March 12 – Elizabeth Blackwell opens a hospital, the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children.source
  • U.S. politician William Daniel proposes the Local Option for Prohibition.source
  • Liberia annexes the Republic of Maryland as native groups (notably Grebo people and Kru people) continually attack and kill settlers in Cape Palmas.source

Crime & Justice

  • May 5 – October 17 – The Art Treasures of Great Britain exhibition is held in Manchester, one of the largest such displays of all time.source
  • July 18 – Prison hulks are used for the last time in the United Kingdom.source
  • October 24 – 28 enslaved people escape their enslavers in Maryland.source
  • La Tène culture artifacts are discovered in Switzerland, by Hansli Kopp.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • August 20 – The Dunbar wrecks near the entrance to Sydney Harbour, Australia, with the loss of 121 lives.source
  • September 12 – The sinks off the coast of North Carolina with the loss of 425 lives.source
  • September 22 (September 10 O.S.) – Russian ship of the line Lefort sinks in the Gulf of Finland during a sudden squall with the loss of 826 lives; 30 other ships are wrecked in the same storm.source

Climate & Environment

  • January 9 – The 7.9 Fort Tejon earthquake shakes Central and Southern California, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent).source
  • December 16 – The 7.0 Basilicata earthquake shakes the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Southern Italy) with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing about 10,000 people.source

Culture & Society

  • January 1 – The biggest Estonian newspaper, Postimees, is established by Johann Voldemar Jannsen.source
  • January 24 – The University of Calcutta is established in Calcutta, as the first multidisciplinary modern university in South Asia. The University of Bombay is also established in Bombay, British India, this year.source
  • February 3 – The National Deaf Mute College (later renamed Gallaudet University) is established in Washington, D.C., becoming the first school for the advanced education of the deaf.source
  • March 6 – Dred Scott v. Sandford: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that blacks are not citizens and slaves can not sue for freedom, driving the U.S. further towards the American Civil War (the ruling is not overturned until the 14th Amendment is adopted in 1868).source
  • April 14 – Princess Beatrice, the fifth daughter and the youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, is born.source
  • April 18 – The Spirits' Book (Le Livre des Esprits), one of the Five Fundamental Works of Spiritism, is published by French educator Allan Kardec.source
  • April 27 – First horse race run at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris.source
  • June 6 – Sophia of Nassau marries the future King Oscar II of Sweden–Norway.source
  • June 20 – The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is officially opened by Queen Victoria.source
  • October 24 – Sheffield F.C., the world's first association football team, is founded in Sheffield, United Kingdom by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prestsource
  • San Jose State, the first public U.S. university west of the Mississippi River, opens in San Francisco as Minn's Evening School.source
  • Illinois State University, the first public university in Illinois, is established in Normal, Illinois.source

Births

  • January 31 – George Jackson Churchward, British chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway(d. 1933)source
  • February 22 – Robert Baden-Powell, English founder of the Scouting movement (d. 1941)source
  • March 6 – George Dayton, American businessman, founder of Target Corporation (d. 1938)source
  • March 7 – Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Austrian neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1940)source
  • April 14 – Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, youngest child of Queen Victoria (d. 1944)source
  • May 13 – Ronald Ross, English physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1932)source
  • July 5 – Clara Zetkin, German-born Marxist theorist, activist and women's rights advocate (d. 1933)source
  • July 24 – Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1943)source
  • July 28 – Ballington Booth, British-born American Salvation Army officer, co-founder of Volunteers of America (d. 1940)source
  • August 8 – Henry Fairfield Osborn, American geologist, paleontologist and eugenist (d. 1935)source
  • September 5 – Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian scientist, inventor (d. 1935)source
  • September 18 – John Hessin Clarke, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1945)source
  • November 27 – Charles Scott Sherrington, English physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1952)source
  • December 3 – Joseph Conrad, Polish-British novelist (d. 1924)source

Deaths

  • January 27 – Dorothea Lieven, Baltic-German diplomat in Russian services (b. 1785)source
  • February 10 – David Thompson, British-Canadian explorer (b. 1770)source
  • February 16 – Elisha Kent Kane, American explorer of the Arctic regions (b. 1820)source
  • March 9 – Dominic Savio, Italian adolescent saint (b. 1842)source
  • May 11 – Eugène François Vidocq, French criminal, private detective (b. 1775)source
  • May 13 – Parley P. Pratt, early American Latter Day Saint movement leader (murdered) (b. 1807)source
  • May 23 – Augustin-Louis Cauchy, French mathematician (b. 1789)source
  • May 29 – Archduchess Sophie of Austria, first child of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria (b. 1855)source
  • June 10 – John Walbach, French baron and officer in the United States Army, with a military career spanning over 57 years (b. 1766)source
  • July 4 – Henry Lawrence, British soldier, statesman (b. 1806)source
  • July 19 – Stefano Franscini, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1796)source
  • July 29 – Charles Lucien Bonaparte, French naturalist, ornithologist (b. 1803)source
  • September 5 – Auguste Comte, French philosopher (b. 1798)source
  • November 26 – Joseph von Eichendorff, German poet (b. 1788)source