The Suez Canal official opens, connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas
The Suez Canal primarily benefited the sea trading powers of the Mediterranean countries, which now had much faster connections to the Near and Far East.
1860s C.E.
The Dominion of Canada is officially established as a self-governing entity within the British Empire
The autonomous Dominion of Canada, a confederation of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the future provinces of Ontario and Quebec, was officially recognized by Great Britain with the passage of the British North America Act.
Fyodor Dostoevsky publishes Crime & Punishment
Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money.
The Transcaucasus Railway is completed
The Transcaucasus Railway was the first railway in South Caucasus. It was funded by the Russian Empire as a strategic railway connecting the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea.
The First Geneva Convention is signed by 12 nations
The 1864 Geneva Convention was the world’s first codified international treaty that covered the sick and wounded soldiers on the battlefield.
Louis Pasteur invents pasteurization, killing bacteria in milks and revolutionizing health practices
Pasteurization, invented by Louis Pasteur in 1864, kills harmful bacteria that tend to grow in dairy products, especially in the absence of refrigeration. At the time, the discovery was rather revolutionary; it allowed milk to be consumed less immediately and prevented many illnesses.
The world’s first underground railway, the London Underground, opens
The world’s first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon in London using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives.
Abraham Lincoln delivers Emancipation Proclamation, freeing American slaves
On September 22, soon after the Union victory at Antietam, he issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.
U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in all current and future U.S. territories
By this act, they repudiated the 1857 opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred Scott Case that Congress was powerless to regulate slavery in U.S. territories.
Alexander II of Russia signs the Emancipation Manifesto, granting serfs the full rights of free citizens
The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia was the first and most important of the liberal reforms enacted during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. he reform effectively abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire.