Also Within This Year in History:
1860
In the last year of relative calm before the storm of the Civil War, Americans elected dark horse candidate Abraham Lincoln as their president. Out West, the Pony Express began express mail delivery. In December, South Carolina became the first Southern state to secede from the Union; 10 more would follow in the new year. In England, Charles Dickens published the first installment of “Great Expectations,” a landmark of Victorian-era literature.
On February 27, 1860, President Abraham Lincoln poses for the first of several portraits by noted Civil War‑era photographer Mathew Brady. Days later, the photograph is published on the cover…
On April 3, 1860, the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Ten days later, on April 13,…
Abraham Lincoln, a one‑time U.S. representative from Illinois, is nominated for the U.S. presidency by the Republican National Convention meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for…
British troops occupying Peking, China, loot and then burn the Yuanmingyuan, the fabulous summer residence built by the Manchu emperors in the 18th century. China’s Qing leadership surrendered to the…
Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln received only 40 percent…
