American Civil War
The Union survives and slavery is abolished
The war between the Union and the seceded slaveholding states of the Confederacy began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861. The Union victory preserved the United States, and the 13th Amendment of 1865 abolished slavery nationwide.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Did you know
Darwin and Lincoln were born on the same day: 12 February 1809.
Alexander II signed the manifesto freeing the serfs on 3 March 1861 (19 February Old Style); the very next day Lincoln became US president.
China's Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) overlapped with the American Civil War and cost an estimated 20–30 million lives — many times more.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — 16 years earlier
- 1859 Darwin's On the Origin of Species — 2 years earlier
- 1861 Unification of Italy — same year
- 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War — 9 years later
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — 25 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1853–1856 Crimean War — 8 years earlier
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — same year
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 6 years later
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 8 years later
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 16 years later
Middle East
- 1839 The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat — 22 years earlier
- 1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War — 22 years earlier
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 15 years later
Africa
- 1847 Liberia declares independence — 14 years earlier
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — 8 years later
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 18 years later
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 24 years later
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — 24 years later
Asia
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — 8 years earlier
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — 7 years later
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — 15 years later
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 22 years later
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 24 years later
Oceania
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — 10 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 52)
- Abraham Lincoln (aged 52)
- Karl Marx (aged 43)
- Queen Victoria (aged 42)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 40)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 33)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 27)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 21)
- Thomas Edison (aged 14)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 8)