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January 14 - Felice Orsini and his accomplices fail to assassinate Napoleon III in Paris but their bombs kill 156 bystanders. Because of the involvement of French émigrés living in Britain, there is a brief anti-British feeling in France but the emperor refuses to support it.

January 25 - The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter Victoria, "Vicky," the Princess Royal to Prince Friedrich of Prussia in St. James's Palace, London.

February 11 - The Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to St Bernadette of Lourdes.

March 30 - Hyman Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.

March 13 - would-be-assassin Felice Orsini executed by guillotine.

May 11 - Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.

May 19 - Marais des Cygnes massacre perpetrated by proslavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.

June 20 - Last rebels of the Indian Mutiny surrender in Gwalior.

June 23 - Police of the Papal States seize Jewish boy Edgardo Mortara and take him away to be raised as a Catholic.

July 1 - Papers by Darwin and Wallace announcing a theory of Evolution by natural selection read at London's Linnaean Society.

July 17 - Salvage of the Lutine bell, which is subsequently hung in Lloyd's of London.

July 29 - United States and Japan sign the Harris Treaty.

August 5 - Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. The service ends on September 1 due to weak current.

August 7 - First Australian Rules football match between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College and founding of the Melbourne Football Club.

August 11 - First ascent of the Eiger.

August 16 - US President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal will force a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.

November 17 - epoch of the Modified Julian Day

British Empire takes over powers & properties of the British East India Company(see also history of Bangladesh).

William Marcy Tweed begins his thirteen-year term as "Boss" of Tammany Hall.

British stop using prison hulks.

Last Cape Lion seen.

Haute couture firm of Worth and Bobergh established.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

The Miners Association established in Cornwall, UK.

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Feudalism and serfdom in Bulgaria abolished in the Ottoman Empire; practically in 1880.

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January 7 - Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Russian-born advocate of the Hebrew language (d. 1922)

January 10 - Heinrich Zille, German illustrator and photographer (d. 1929)

January 11 - Harry Gordon Selfridge, American department store magnate (d. 1947)

March 10 - Kokichi Mikimoto, Japanese pearl farm pioneer (d. 1954)

March 18 - Rudolf Diesel, German inventor (d. 1913)

March 23 - Ludwig Quidde, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1941)

April 23 - Max Planck, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)

June 16 - King Gustaf V of Sweden (d. 1950)

June 16 - William Dickson Boyce, founder of the Boy Scouts of America (d. 1929)

July 9 - Franz Boas, German anthropologist (d. 1942)

August 1 - Hans Rott, Austrian composer (d. 1884)

August 11 - Christiaan Eijkman, Dutch physician and pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1930)

August 27 - Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician (d. 1932)

September 1 - Andrew Jackson Zilker, American philanthropist (d. 1934)

September 16 - Andrew Bonar Law, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1923)

October 3 - Eleonora Duse, Italian actress (d. 1924)

October 19 - George Albert Boulenger, Belgian naturalist (d. 1937)

October 27 - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1919)

November 20 - Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)

November 30 - Jagdish Chandra Bose, Indian physicist (d. 1937)

December 22 - Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (d. 1924)

December 25 - Herman P. Faris, American temperance movement leader (d. 1936)

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Month/day unknown

Percy Andreae, American anti-prohibition leader

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Deaths

January 5 - Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (b. 1766)
January 9 - Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas (suicide) (b. 1798)
March 4 - Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, American naval officer (b. 1794)
June 3 - Julius Reubke, German composer (b. 1834)
June 28 - Auguste de Montferrand, French architect (b. 1786)
September 17 - Dred Scott, American slave