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1860 (MDCCCLX) was a leap year starting on Sunday.
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January
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March
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April
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May
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June
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July
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August
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September
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October
October 18 - The British general Lord Elgin - with protestations from the French - ordered his forces to set fire to the huge complex of Beijing's Old Summer Palace, known as the Gardens of Perfect Brightness, which burned to the ground. It took 3,500 British troops to set the entire place ablaze and took three days to burn. Elgin justified the order as retaliation for the imprisonment, torture, and murder of several western prisoners of war, among them two British envoys who had been under protection of a flag of truce. The burning of the Gardens of Perfect Brightness is still a very sensitive issue in China today.
October 26 - Garibaldi again defeats the Neapolitan forces, advancing on Gaeta, the last remaining Neapolitan strong-point.
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November
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December
December 20 - South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the Union.
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Unknown month
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January-April
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May-August
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September-December
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