1859 in France

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1859
in
France

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Decades:

Incumbents

Monarch – Napoleon III

Events

26 March - Attempting to explain Mercury's solar orbit, mathematician Urbain Le Verrier has proposed the existence of a hypothetical planet, Vulcan, inside its orbit and amateur astronomer Edmond Modeste Lescarbault claims to have observed it on this date.^[1]
23 April - Austria issues an ultimatum seeking the complete de-militarization of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
29 April - Second Italian War of Independence begins, when Austrian ultimatum is ignored.
14 May - Napoleon III arrives in Alessandria, taking command of the operations.
20 May - Battle of Montebello, Piedmontese cavalry and French infantry defeat Austrian troops.
30 May - Battle of Palestro, French-Sardinian victory.
4 June - Battle of Magenta, French-Sardinian victory under Napoleon III against the Austrians.
24 June - Battle of Solferino, French-Sardinian victory.
30 June - Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope for the first time.
12 July - Armistice of Villafranca ends the Second Italian War of Independence.
24 November - The French Navy's La Gloire ("Glory"), the first ocean-going ironclad warship in history, is launched.

Arts and literature

19 March - Charles Gounod's opera Faust is first performed, at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris.
30 April - English writer Charles Dickens' historical novel A Tale of Two Cities begins publication in London.
19 December - César Franck inaugurates the new organ at the basilia of Sainte-Clotilde, Paris, an instrument built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.
Georges Bizet composes the opera buffa Don Procopio and symphonic poem Vasco de Gama while in Rome.
Sculptor Aimé Millet receives the Légion d'honneur.
Occitan language campaigner Frédéric Mistral publishes his long poem Mirèio in Avignon.

Births

15 May - Pierre Curie, physicist, shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics (died 1906)
3 July – Abel Julien Pagnard, French engineer and architect (died 1913)
7 August – Gustave Belot, professor and philosopher (died 1929)
3 September - Jean Jaurès, socialist and pacifist (assassinated) (died 1914)
9 October - Alfred Dreyfus, military officer (see: Dreyfus Affair) (died 1935)
18 October - Henri Bergson, philosopher (died 1941)
2 December - Georges-Pierre Seurat, painter (died 1891)
17 December - Paul César Helleu, artist (died 1927)

Deaths

18 March - Jean Louis Lassaigne, chemist (born 1800)
16 April - Alexis de Tocqueville, political thinker and historian (born 1805)
5 July - Charles Cagniard de la Tour, engineer and physicist (born 1777)
23 July - Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, poet (born 1786)
7 November - Auguste Hilarion, comte de Kératry, poet, novelist, historian and politician (born 1769)
19 November - Charles-Gaspard Delestre-Poirson, playwright and theatre director (born 1790)
Full date unknown - Pierre Boitard, botanist and geologist (born 1789)

References

↑ Baum, Richard; Sheehan, William (1997). In Search of Planet Vulcan, the Ghost in Newton's Clockwork Machine. New York: Plenum Press. ISBN 978-0-306-45567-4.

1859 in Europe
Sovereign states	Andorra Austria Baden Belgium Denmark France Germany Greece Hungary Italy Luxembourg Montenegro Netherlands Norway Ottoman Empire Papal States Portugal Prussia Russia San Marino Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United Principalities
Dependencies, colonies and other territories	Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Malta

Years in France
13th century	Pre-1201 1201 1202 1203 1204 1205 1206 1207 1208 1209 1210 1211 1212 1213 1214 1215 1216 1217 1218 1219 1220 1221 1222 1223 1224 1225 1226 1227 1228 1229 1230 1231 1232 1233 1234 1235 1236 1237 1238 1239 1240 1241 1242 1243 1244 1245 1246 1247 1248 1249 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1259 1260 1261 1262 1263 1264 1265 1266 1267 1268 1269 1270 1271 1272 1273 1274 1275 1276 1277 1278 1279 1280 1281 1282 1283 1284 1285 1286 1287 1288 1289 1290 1291 1292 1293 1294 1295 1296 1297 1298 1299 1300
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