1860s Facts for Kids

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century – 19th century – 20th century
Decades:	1830s 1840s 1850s – 1860s – 1870s 1880s 1890s
Years:	1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

The most important events

From top left, clockwise: Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell formulates the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, bringing together for the first time electricity, magnetism, and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon; the Meiji Restoration leads to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure; the International Workingmen's Association is formed in 1864, aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist groups; the Battle of Avay, fought in 1868 during the Paraguayan War, the bloodiest inter-state war in Latin America's history; execution in 1867 of Maximilian I of Mexico, ruler of the Second Mexican Empire, established during the Second French intervention in Mexico; the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the American Civil War, fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North (the Union) and the South (the Confederacy) as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people; the Suez Canal is inaugurated in 1869; Victor Emmanuel meets Garibaldi near Teano in 1860, at the end of the Expedition of the Thousand.
Alfred Nobel invents dynamite in Sweden, patenting it in 1867