End of the Caucasian War and the Circassian expulsion
Hundreds of thousands of Circassians are driven to the Ottomans
On 21 May 1864 a parade at Kbaada (today Krasnaya Polyana) marked Russia's end of the Caucasian War. Most Circassians (Adyghe), the native people of the north-western Caucasus, were forced off their land: hundreds of thousands left for the Ottoman Empire, and many died of hunger and disease on the coast and on the way. Their descendants now live in Turkey, Jordan and Syria; in Russia, as the Adyghe, Kabardians and Cherkess.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — 19 years earlier
- 1859 Darwin's On the Origin of Species — 5 years earlier
- 1861 Unification of Italy — 3 years earlier
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — 22 years later
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — 25 years later
Middle East
- 1839 The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat — 25 years earlier
- 1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War — 25 years earlier
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 12 years later
Africa
- 1847 Liberia declares independence — 17 years earlier
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — 5 years later
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 15 years later
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 21 years later
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — 21 years later
Asia
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — 11 years earlier
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — 4 years later
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — 12 years later
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 19 years later
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 21 years later
Americas
- 1863 Emancipation Proclamation — 1 year earlier
- 1864–1870 Paraguayan War — same year
- 1865 Assassination of Abraham Lincoln — 1 year later
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — 12 years later
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — 15 years later
Oceania
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — 13 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 55)
- Abraham Lincoln (aged 55)
- Karl Marx (aged 46)
- Queen Victoria (aged 45)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 43)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 36)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 30)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 24)
- Thomas Edison (aged 17)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 11)