Pony Express
Horseback mail across half a continent lasts 18 months
From April 1860 Pony Express riders carried mail from Missouri to California in about 10 days, changing horses at relay stations. But in October 1861 the telegraph linked the coasts, and two days later the company announced its closure.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
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The legendary Pony Express lasted only 18 months. Riders carried mail halfway across America in 10 days, but in October 1861 the telegraph linked the coasts, and two days later the company announced it would close. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — 15 years earlier
- 1859 Darwin's On the Origin of Species — 1 year earlier
- 1861 Unification of Italy — 1 year later
- 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War — 10 years later
- 1871 Unification of Germany — 11 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1853–1856 Crimean War — 7 years earlier
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — 1 year later
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 7 years later
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 9 years later
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 17 years later
Middle East
- 1839 The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat — 21 years earlier
- 1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War — 21 years earlier
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 16 years later
Africa
- c. 1835–1846 The Great Trek — 25 years earlier
- 1847 Liberia declares independence — 13 years earlier
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — 9 years later
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 19 years later
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 25 years later
Asia
- 1850–1864 Taiping Rebellion — 10 years earlier
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — 7 years earlier
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — 8 years later
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 23 years later
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 25 years later
Oceania
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — 9 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 51)
- Abraham Lincoln (aged 51)
- Karl Marx (aged 42)
- Queen Victoria (aged 41)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 39)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 32)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 26)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 20)
- Thomas Edison (aged 13)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 7)