What Happened in 1857

Important 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
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1857 in Sport

  • Jan 22 National Association of Baseball Players founded in New York
  • Oct 24 World's first soccer club, Sheffield F C, founded in Yorkshire, England

Did You Know?

James Gibbs of Virginia, patents the chain-stitch single-thread sewing machine

On June 2, 1857

Famous People Born in 1857

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World Leaders in 1857

Famous People in 1857

Would 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
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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 and Finance, dies at 65
  • Feb 9 Dionysios Solomos, Greek poet of the Greek national anthem, dies at 58
  • Feb 10 David Thompson, English-Canadian explorer (Columbia River), dies at 86
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