1859

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.