1859 in France

none 1859 Events from the year 1859 in France. 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.In Search of Planet Vulcan, the Ghost in Newton's Clockwork Machine Baum Richard Sheehan William 1997 Plenum Press New York 978-0-306-45567-4 registration https://archive.org/details/insearchofplanet0000baum 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. Occitan language campaigner Frédéric Mistral publishes his long poem Mirèio in Avignon. 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 1859 France France Category:1850s in France Category:Years of the 19th century in France