1866

Decades: 1810s 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s - 1860s - 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s

Years: 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 - 1866 - 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871

Events

• January 12 - Royal Aeronautical Society is formed (London).
• February 13 - Jesse James robs his first bank
• April 1 - Ferruccio Busoni, pianist and composer (+ 1924)
• May 16 - The United States Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
• May 16 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
• June 14 - Beginning of the Austro-Prussian War, when the Austrians and most of the medium German states declare war on Prussia.
• July 3 - Austro-Prussian War decided at the Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.
• July 5 - Marriage of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, third daughter of Queen Victoria to Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
• July 20 - Naval battle at Lissa between Austria Hungary and Italy.
• July 24 - Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.
• July 25 - The United States Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (now called "5-star general") Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank.
• July 27 - The Atlantic Cable is successfully completed, allowing transatlantic telegraph communication for the first time.
• July 28 - The Metric Act of 1866 becomes law and legalizes the standardization of weights and measures in the United States.
• August 23 - Treaty of Prague ends the Austro-Prussian War
• In Sweden The Riksdag of the Estates is replaced by an elected two chamber assembly, The Riksdag.
• Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.

Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy

• 1866 in literature:
• 1866 in science:

Births

• January 29 - Romain Rolland, dramatist, winner of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1915 (+ 1944)
• April 1 - Ferruccio Busoni, pianist and composer (+ 1924)
• April 6 - Butch Cassidy, outlaw (+ 1909)
• May 17- Erik Satie, French composer
• July 28 - Beatrix Potter, Children's author
• September 7 - Tristan Bernard, writer
• September 21 - H. G. Wells, science fiction novelist
• Thomas Hunt Morgan, biologist
• Sun Yat-sen, Chinese Revolutionary
• Robert Broom, paleontologist

Deaths

• Bernhard Riemann, Mathematician

Referenced By