Chicago adopts a plan for the first comprehensive city sewer in United States.

He builds roads, sets up printing presses, creates a currency and sets out to reform slavery

King Mongkut of Siam signs a trade agreement with Britain.

Much of Japan's capital, Edo (Tokyo), is destroyed by earthquake, tsunami and fire He removes the pump's handle and the cholera comes to a quick end Snow takes a sample of the water from the pump and through a microscope finds it contaminated. A cholera epidemic has broken out in London, in an area around a water pump.

The scientist John Snow had been claiming that cholera was carried in water or food and could be ingested.

He demonstrates the elevator at the World's Fair in New York City

Elisha Graves Otis has invented an elevator brake and has started a company to manufacture elevators that will hoist freight.

He proclaims the infallible doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (virgin birth) of Jesus Christ, that Jesus was born exempt from all stain of original sin

Pope Pius IX addresses a question about differences between Jesus Christ and others.

The British declare war, and Queen Victoria writes of 'the great sinfulness' of Russia having 'brought about this War' – the Crimean War The British respond with horror to the devastation. At a Turkish port on the Black Sea, the Russian navy, using exploding shells for the first time, sets a Turkish fleet afire.

Imperial Britain and France are afraid of Russian expansion.

The Japanese government signs a treaty with the United States that offers 'peace and friendship,' the opening to two ports (Shimoda and Hakodate), help for US ships wrecked off Japan's coast, protection for shipwrecked persons, and permission for US ships to buy provisions

Tsar Nicholas I of Russia goes to war against the Ottoman Turks over what he sees as his right to defend Orthodox Christians in Turkey and in Jerusalem (then under the authority of the Ottoman Empire).

He declares that he will return the following year to receive Japan's response He demands that Japan open its ports to trade with the United States.

Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Japan with 967 men on four ships, including two steam-powered vessels, which intimidates the Japanese.

Jews he holds had once been biologically pure but they had become 'bestialized' and a threat by having mixed with Africans Degeneration he claims came with conquerors mixing with those they had conquered, polluting the purity of the conquerors' race.

The Frenchman Joseph Gobineau has two volumes of his work published, a work about the fall of civilizations that he believes is based on science.

Louis-Napoleon is declared Emperor Napoleon III. Peasants and the religiously devout give him the votes he wants He crushes an uprising, establishes a dictatorship and holds a plebiscite to justify his move.

Louis-Napoleon (Bonaparte's nephew), President of France's Second Republic, has consolidated conservative support and dissolves parliament.

Britain recognizes the right of Boers to administer their own affairs beyond its Cape Colony border so long as the Boers end slavery.

In the United States, Francis Wolle invents and patents a machine that makes paper bags.The British arrive in lower Burma and bring opium from India for sale to the Burmese.In the South, owning a copy of the book is made illegal In the South complaints arise that the novel is exaggeration. The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin is published. He would like to see people lower their conceit and look for happiness and meaning in the small things that make a life well-lived Herman Melville's Moby-Dick has been published.He becomes known for speaking English, French and Latin He invites European diplomats to his coronation. In Siam, King Mongkut ascends the throne.

An agricultural revolution is beginning using a mechanical harvester, called Ridley's Stripper, that had been invented in Australia Food growers have a greater market for their produce, stimulating Australia's economy. There are tent cities with populations as large as 40,000. Thousands rush to gold in Australia, including Chinese prospectors and prospectors from California.

Classical music timeline