1858

Years: 1855 1856 1857 - 1858 - 1859 1860 1861
Decades: 1820s 1830s 1840s - 1850s - 1860s 1870s 1880s

Events of 1858

January 14 – Felice Orsini and his accomplices fail to assassinate Napoleon III in Paris but their bombs kill 8 and wound 142 people. 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. Orsini is executed by guillotine on March 13 of the same year.
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.

April 16 – The Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is wound up.
April 19 – Treaty with Yankton Sioux Tribe.
April 28–May 1 – Battle of Grahovac (between Ottoman and Montenegrin forces)
May 11 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.
May 19 – The Marais des Cygnes massacre is perpetrated by pro-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.
June 20 – The 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.
May–July – Mahtra War: Peasants in the Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire revolt against serfdom (which was officially abolished in 1816).

July
- Count Camillo Benso di Cavour goads Austria into attacking Sardinia.
- Fifty-Niners stream into the Rocky Mountains of the western United States during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.
July 1 – Papers by Darwin and Wallace announcing a theory of evolution by natural selection are read at London's Linnean Society.
July 12 – The Advertiser, the daily news paper still in circulation, begins publication in Adelaide, Australia.
July 17 – The Lutine bell, is salvaged and subsequently hung in Lloyd's of London.
July 28 – In Bengal/India, British officer William James Herschel uses the hand impression of Rajyadhar Konai as a contract fingerprint signature.
July 29 – The 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 21 – The first of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 is held.
August 7 – A football match played under unknown set of rules is held between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College.
August 11 – First ascent of the Eiger.
August 16 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
September 11 – First ascent of Dom, the third highest summit in the Alps.

October 28 – Macy's department store, founded by R.H. Macy, opens for business.
November 17
- The Epoch of the Modified Julian Day is reached.
- The city of Denver, Colorado is founded.

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