Significant Events
- Jan 24 University of Calcutta founded as the first full-fledged university in South Asia
- Mar 3 Second Opium War: France and the United Kingdom declare war on China
- Mar 6 Dred Scott Decision: US Supreme Court rules Africans cannot be US citizens
- May 10 Indian Mutiny against rule by the British East India Company begins with the revolt of the Sepoy soldiers in Meerut
- Jun 26 The first 62 recipients are awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in the Crimean war by Queen Victoria
Did You Know?
James Gibbs of Virginia, patents the chain-stitch single-thread sewing machine
On June 2, 1857
World Leaders in 1857
Henry John Temple
British Prime Minister
James Buchanan
15th US President
Famous People in 1857
Charles Dickens
Novelist
Giuseppe Verdi
Composer
Edward Elgar
Joseph Conrad
Milton S. Hershey
Robert Baden-Powell
Tim Keefe
William Howard TaftWould You Believe?
Mountain Meadows Massacre, Mormons dressed as Indians murder 120 colonists in Utah
On September 11, 1857
Famous Weddings
- Jan 10 Novelist Jules Verne (28) weds Honorine de Viane Morel
- Jun 6 Sophia of Nassau marries the future King Oscar II of Sweden-Norway
- Jul 16 Confederate general Thomas Jackson (33) weds Mary Anna Morrison in Lincoln County
- Jul 27 Emperor of Mexico Maximilian I (25) weds princess Charlotte of Belgium (17) in Brussels
- Dec 30 Confederate army cavalry battalion commander John S. Mosby (24) weds Pauline Clarke in Nashville
Famous Deaths
- Jan 20 Edward Francis Fitzwilliam, English composer, dies at 32
- Jan 27 Dorothea von Benckendorff, Baltic monarch of Lieven, dies at 72
- Feb 7 Félix de Merode, Earl of Merode, Belgian minister of War, dies at 65
- Feb 9 Dionysios Solomos, Greek poet of the Greek national anthem (b. 1798)
- Feb 10 David Thompson, Canadian explorer (b. 1770)