January 21 – José Mariano Salas (1797–1867) becomes Conservative interim President of Mexico.
January 24 (O. S.) – Under the rule of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia are united under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire. It would be a principal step in forming the modern state of Romania.
January 28 – The city of Olympia is incorporated in the Washington Territory of the United States of America.
February 2 – Miguel Miramón (1832–1867) becomes Conservative interim President of Mexico.
February 4 – German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovers the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th-century uncial manuscript of the Greek Bible, in Saint Catherine's Monastery on the foot of Mount Sinai, in the Khedivate of Egypt.
February 14 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
February 12 – The Mekteb-i Mülkiye School is founded in the Ottoman Empire.
February 17 – French naval forces under Charles Rigault de Genouilly capture the city and Citadel of Saigon in Vietnam, beginning the Siege of Saigon.
February 27 – United States Congressman Daniel Sickles shoots Philip Barton Key (U.S. District Attorney) for having an affair with his wife.
March 3 – Construction begins on the first railway in northern India as tracks are laid between the modern-day locations of Allahabad and Kanpur.
March 9 – The army of the Kingdom of Sardinia mobilizes against Austria, beginning the crisis which will lead to the Austro-Sardinian War.
March 21 – Pennsylvania issues the charter establishing the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, the first organization of its kind in the United States, and founder of the nation's first zoo.
March 26 – French amateur astronomer Edmond Modeste Lescarbault claims to have noticed a planet closer to the Sun than Mercury (later named Vulcan).
April 13 – The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is founded by Peter Cooper, a New York industrialist, inventor and philanthropist.
April 18 – Indian Rebellion revolutionary, Tantia Tope is hanged for the 1857 Rebellion
April 25 – Ground is broken for the Suez Canal, in Egypt.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
January 1959 January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the vicinity of Earth's Moon, where it was intended to crash-land, but instead becomes the first spacecraft to go into heliocentric orbit. January 3 Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state. The southernmost island of the Maldives archipelago, Addu Atoll, declares its independence from the Kingdom of the Maldives, initiating the United Suvadive Republic.
January 1920 January 1 Polish–Soviet War in 1920: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. Kauniainen, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its own market town. January 3 – The 1920 Xalapa earthquake in Mexico kills over 600 people, making it the second deadliest in the country. January 7 – Russian Civil War: The forces of Russian White Admiral Alexander Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk; the Great Siberian Ice March ensues.
A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January 1940 January 4 – WWII: Luftwaffe Colonel Hermann Göring assumes control of most war industries in Germany. January 6 – WWII: Winter War – General Semyon Timoshenko takes command of all Soviet forces. January 7 – WWII: Winter War: Battle of Raate Road – Outnumbered Finnish troops decisively defeat Soviet forces.