1859 in France

←

1859
in
France

→

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.

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.

v t e Years in France
13th century	Pre-1201 1201 1202 1203 1204 1205 1206 1207 1208 1209 1210 1211 1312 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
14th century	1301 1302 1303 1304 1305 1306 1307 1308 1309 1310 1311 1312 1313 1314 1315 1316 1317 1318 1319 1320 1321 1322 1323 1324 1325 1326 1327 1328 1329 1330 1331 1332 1333 1334 1335 1336 1337 1338 1339 1340 1341 1342 1343 1344 1345 1346 1347 1348 1349 1350 1351 1352 1353 1354 1355 1356 1357 1358 1359 1360 1361 1362 1363 1364 1365 1366 1367 1368 1369 1370 1371 1372 1373 1374 1375 1376 1377 1378 1379 1380 1381 1382 1383 1384 1385 1386 1387 1388 1389 1390 1391 1392 1393 1394 1395 1396 1397 1398 1399 1400
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21st century	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

v t e 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