1859 Events

1859 Douglass Flees to Canada After Harper's Ferry Raid
John Brown and other abolitionist followers raid the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, then in Virginia. He plans to start a slave insurrection and provide refuge for fleeing slaves. Fede...
1859 US Senator William Seward sells Harriet Tubman house in Auburn, New York
On the road between Syracuse and Rochester, were a number of sympathetic Quakers and other abolitionists settled at Auburn. Here also was the home of US Senator and former New York State ...
1859 Feb 1 Victor Herbert Is Born
Victor Herbert was born on February 1, 1859 in Dublin, Ireland. He studied music in Germany, where he became a cellist and composer for the court in Stuttgart and joined the faculty of t...
1859 Feb 14 Oregon is the 33rd State Admitted to the Union
Act of Congress Admitting Oregon to the Union (dated February 14, 1859) Whereas the people of Oregon have framed, ratified and adopted a constitution of state government which is repu...
1859 Mar 3 Q. K. Philander Doesticks Attends A Slave Auction
On March 3, 1859, journalist Q. K. Philander Doesticks (Mortimer Thomson) attended an auction of 436 men, women, and children formerly held by Pierce M. Butler. Butler's slaves were auct...
1859 Apr 30
to 1859 Nov 26
 Charles Dickens publishes A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With 200 million copies sold, it is the most printed original E...
1859 May 31 Big Ben Starts Ticking
Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, and is often extended to refer to the clock or the clock tower as well. Bi...
1859 Jun 24 Anonymous Letters Claim Lee Had Escaped Slaves Whipped
In 1859, three of the Arlington slaves—Wesley Norris, his sister Mary, and a cousin of theirs—fled for the North, but were captured a few miles from the Pennsylvania border and forced to ...
1859 Aug 6 Wreck of the SS Admella
The wreck of the SS Admella in the early hours of August 6th 1859 was only the beginning of a horrific week for survivors who remained on board, in sight of land, while authorities strugg...
1859 Oct 16 John Brown Leads Raid on Harpers Ferry
Late on the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown and twenty-one armed followers stole into the town of Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) as most of its residents slept. The me...
1859 Nov 23 Henry McCarty, aka 'Billy the Kid' is Born
The infamous Western outlaw known as "Billy the Kid" is born in a poor Irish neighborhood on New York City's East Side. Before he was shot dead at age 21, Billy reputedly killed 27 people...
1859 Nov 24 Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species is Published
On the Origin of Species proved unexpectedly popular, with the entire stock of 1,250 copies oversubscribed when it went on sale to booksellers on 22 November 1859. In the book, Darwin set...