1859 was one of the most consequential years in modern history. Within a single twelve-month span, Charles Darwin reshaped biology, the modern oil industry was born, the largest solar storm on record knocked out global communications, an abolitionist’s raid pushed the United States closer to civil war, and a Swiss businessman witnessed a battle so horrific it inspired the creation of the Red Cross. Here’s what was happening.
Darwin Published On the Origin of Species
On November 24, 1859, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published in London. The first edition sold out on its first day. Darwin had spent more than two decades developing his theory of evolution by natural selection, drawing on observations from his famous voyage aboard the HMS Beagle and years of painstaking research into breeding, geology, and the fossil record. The book argued that species were not fixed creations but changed over time through the survival and reproduction of individuals best suited to their environments.
The reaction was immediate and polarizing. The first German translation appeared in 1860, done by the naturalist Heinrich Georg Bronn, who disagreed with parts of Darwin’s theory enough to add his own footnotes and an entire concluding chapter. The first French translation, by the self-taught scientist and women’s rights advocate Clémence Royer, included a lengthy preface and numerous footnotes of her own. The book didn’t just start a scientific debate; it triggered a cultural earthquake that reshaped philosophy, religion, and how humanity understood its place in the natural world.
The Largest Solar Storm in Recorded History
On September 1, 1859, two English astronomers, Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson, independently became the first people to observe a white-light solar flare while watching a large sunspot group. Within roughly 17 hours, a massive burst of charged particles from the sun slammed into Earth’s magnetic field, triggering what is now called the Carrington Event.
The geomagnetic storm raged from late August through early September in two waves, driven by two closely spaced eruptions from the sun. The effects were staggering. Auroras, normally confined to polar regions, were visible as far south as roughly 18 degrees magnetic latitude during the September 2-3 storm, meaning people in the tropics could see them. Vivid auroral displays of all types and colors were visible below 50 degrees latitude for about 24 hours during the first wave and roughly 42 hours during the second. The world’s roughly 200,000 kilometers of telegraph lines were severely disrupted, with many systems unusable for eight hours or more. Telegraph operators reported sparks flying from their equipment, and some lines continued to transmit messages even after being disconnected from their power sources, running on the electrical currents induced by the storm itself.
The Carrington Event remains the benchmark for extreme space weather. A storm of the same magnitude today would pose serious risks to power grids, satellites, and communications infrastructure on a global scale.
John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
On the evening of October 16, 1859, the abolitionist John Brown led 18 men in an armed raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). His plan was to seize weapons and spark a slave uprising across the South. After a prayer and a brief outline of his battle plans, Brown told his men, “Get on your arms; we will proceed to the Ferry.”
The raid failed quickly. By the following morning, U.S. Marines under the command of Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart stormed the engine house where Brown and his remaining men had barricaded themselves. Sixteen people died in the fighting, including ten of Brown’s raiders, among them two of his own sons. Brown himself was beaten with a sword by Lieutenant Israel Green and captured.
Brown was tried for treason and hanged on December 2, 1859. His execution electrified both sides of the slavery debate. Abolitionists in the North regarded him as a martyr. Southerners saw the raid as proof that the North intended to destroy their way of life by force. Harpers Ferry did not start the Civil War, but it made the already deep fractures in American society nearly impossible to bridge. The war began less than 18 months later.
The Birth of the American Oil Industry
In the summer of 1859, Edwin Drake drilled a well along the banks of Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania. At just 69.5 feet deep, he struck oil, sparking the first oil boom in the United States. Drake’s well was not the first time anyone had found oil, but it was the first commercial oil well in the country, and it proved that petroleum could be extracted reliably using a drilling rig. Within months, speculators and prospectors flooded into northwestern Pennsylvania, and the modern petroleum industry was underway. The effects of Drake’s modest well would eventually reshape global energy, transportation, geopolitics, and the climate itself.
The Battle That Created the Red Cross
On June 24, 1859, French and Sardinian forces clashed with the Austrian army at the Battle of Solferino in northern Italy, part of the Second Italian War of Independence. The battle left over 40,000 soldiers and civilians wounded, dying, or dead on the field. A Swiss businessman named Henry Dunant happened to be traveling through the area on a business trip and witnessed the aftermath firsthand.
Overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties and the near-total lack of medical supplies or organized care, Dunant set up improvised hospitals and organized local volunteers to assist the wounded regardless of which side they had fought on. He later documented his experience in a book, A Memory of Solferino, which became a catalyst for one of the most important humanitarian movements in history. Dunant’s advocacy led directly to the founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross and to the Geneva Convention of 1864, which established the first international rules for the treatment of wounded soldiers. Dunant became the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Red Cross symbol, a red cross on a white background, was adopted in his honor as a Swiss citizen (inverting the colors of the Swiss flag).
Silver in Nevada and Oil in Pennsylvania
While Drake was drilling for oil in Pennsylvania, prospectors near Virginia City, Nevada, stumbled onto what became known as the Comstock Lode, the first major silver deposit discovered in the United States. Ore samples sent to California for analysis came back showing three-fourths pure silver and one-fourth gold, valued at $3,876 per ton, an enormous sum at the time. The discovery triggered a massive rush of miners and fortune seekers to the Nevada Territory. The wealth from the Comstock Lode helped finance the Union during the Civil War, accelerated Nevada’s path to statehood in 1864, and transformed San Francisco into a major financial center.
Oregon Became a State
On February 14, 1859, Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state. The act of Congress was formally accepted by Oregon’s Legislative Assembly on June 3 of that year. Oregon’s admission reflected the steady westward expansion of the United States, though the new state’s constitution included provisions that were deeply exclusionary, barring Black people from living in, working in, or owning property in the state.
Big Ben Rang for the First Time
On May 31, 1859, the Great Bell of Westminster, popularly known as Big Ben, chimed for the first time in the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster in London. The bell quickly became one of the most recognizable sounds in the world. It didn’t last long in its original form: a crack silenced Big Ben for three years until repairs were completed in 1862. The bell has rung to mark the hour in London almost continuously ever since.
Florence Nightingale Redefined Nursing
In 1859, Florence Nightingale published two landmark texts while recovering from Crimean fever in a hotel room: Notes on Hospitals and Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not. Drawing on her experience reforming military hospitals during the Crimean War, Nightingale laid out principles that sound obvious today but were revolutionary at the time: clean air and water, proper sanitation, good nutrition, and attention to a patient’s mental state as well as their physical condition. “Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise do a patient more harm than any exertion,” she wrote.
Nightingale championed disease prevention, advocated for housing access and improved conditions in workhouses, and argued that healthcare was essentially a human right. She was instrumental in making nursing a respectable profession, and her Nightingale School of Nursing opened to its first students in 1860. Her approach to collecting and using data to drive medical decisions anticipated what we now call evidence-based medicine by more than a century.
Dickens Serialized A Tale of Two Cities
From April 30 to November 26, 1859, Charles Dickens published A Tale of Two Cities in weekly installments in his own literary journal, All the Year Round. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, the novel became one of the best-selling works of fiction in history. Its famous opening line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” could have served as a fitting description of 1859 itself: a year of scientific breakthroughs, humanitarian awakenings, and gathering storms.