The 1858 senate campaign featured the seven Lincoln – Douglas debates of 1858, the most famous political debates in American history.

* 1858 – Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician ( d. 1932 )

* 1858 – Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, ( d. 1934 )

After 1890 came philosopher Josiah Royce ( 1855 – 1916 ), botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey ( 1858 – 1954 ), the Southern Agrarians of the 1920s and 1930s, novelist John Steinbeck ( 1902 – 1968 ), historian A. Whitney Griswold ( 1906 – 1963 ), environmentalist Aldo Leopold ( 1887 – 1948 ), Ralph Borsodi ( 1886 – 1977 ), and present-day authors Wendell Berry ( b. 1934 ), Gene Logsdon ( b. 1932 ), Paul Thompson, and Allan C. Carlson ( b. 1949 ).

* 1858 – Hans Rott, Austrian composer ( d. 1884 )

Bloch was highly interdisciplinary, influenced by the geography of Paul Vidal de la Blache ( 1845 – 1918 ) and the sociology of Émile Durkheim ( 1858 – 1917 ).

* 1858 – The Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is wound up.

* Adrian Kashchenko ( 1858 – 1921 ), Ukrainian writer, historian of Zaporozhian Cossacks

* 1858 – E. Nesbit, English author ( d. 1924 )

* 1858 – U. S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

* 1858 – Arthur Achleitner, German writer ( d. 1927 )

* 1858 – Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria ( d. 1889 )

* Alexander Karađorđević, Prince of Serbia ( 1842 – 1858 )

* 1858 – The Round Oak rail accident occurs in Brierley Hill in the Black Country, England.

* 1858 – Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts.

* 1858 – The Eiger in the Bernese Alps is ascended for the first time by Charles Barrington accompanied by Christian Almer and Peter Bohren.

* 1858 – Christiaan Eijkman, Dutch physician, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1930 )

He was the brother of Gaston Calmette ( 1858 – 1914 ), the editor of Le Figaro who was murdered in 1914 by Henriette Caillaux, socialite wife of Finance Minister Joseph Caillaux.

* John Gaston Grant ( 1858 – 1923 ), U. S. Representative from North Carolina

John Gaston Grant was born 1 January 1858 in a log cabin in Henderson County, North Carolina ( near Bat Cave, North Carolina ), along what is now Highway 74.

* 1785 – Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, French composer ( d. 1858 )

On November 17, 1858, Emperor Napoleon III annexed Clipperton as part of the French colony of Tahiti.

Similar treaties were subsequently negotiated by the United Kingdom ( Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty, October 1854 ), the Russians ( Treaty of Shimoda, 7 February 1855 ), and the French ( Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan, 9 October 1858 ).

The Kingdom of Rarotonga was established in 1858 and in 1888 it became a British protectorate by the request of Queen Makea Takau, mainly to thwart French expansionism.

* 1916 – Charles de Foucauld, French religious figure ( b. 1858 )

In the late 19th century ( beginning about 1858 with the construction of prototypes by the British and French navies ), the armoured frigate was a type of ironclad warship and for a time was the most powerful type of vessel afloat.

The first anarchist journal to use the term " libertarian " was La Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social and it was published in New York City between 1858 and 1861 by French anarcho-communist Joseph Déjacque.

* 1858 – Alfred Capus, French author ( d. 1922 )

There was a widespread recognition that something must be done, and " in 1858 Morse was awarded the sum of 400, 000 French francs ( equivalent to about $ 80, 000 at the time ) by the governments of France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Piedmont, Russia, Sweden, Tuscany and Turkey, each of which contributed a share according to the number of Morse instruments in use in each country.

* 1858 – Charles de Foucauld, French priest ( d. 1916 )

* 15 December 1858 — Lesseps establishes the " Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez ", with Said Pasha acquiring 22 % of the Suez Canal Company ; the majority is still controlled by French private holders.

; 1858: The Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, responds to the Orsini plot against French emperor Napoleon III, the bombs for which were purchased in Birmingham, by attempting to make such acts a felony ; the resulting uproar forces him to resign.

* June 27 – Joséphin Péladan, French occultist ( b. 1858 )

* November 15 – Émile Durkheim, French sociologist ( b. 1858 )

* April 22 – Amédée-François Lamy, French soldier ( b. 1858 ) ( killed in battle )

* Eight are killed and 142 wounded in Paris in a failed assassination attempt on Napoleon III, Emperor of the French ( 1858 ).

* January 23 – Auguste de Montferrand, French architect ( d. 1858 )

* August 22 – Aimé Bonpland, French explorer and botanist ( d. 1858 )

David Émile Durkheim ( ) ( April 15, 1858 – November 15, 1917 ) was a French sociologist.

In 1858, the brief period of unification under the Nguyễn Dynasty ended with a successful attack on Da Nang by French Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly under the orders of Napoleon III.

French troops landed in Vietnam in 1858 and by the mid-1880s they had established a firm grip over the northern region.

Indochina: An Ambiguous Colonization, 1858 – 1954 ( University of California Press ; 2010 ) 490 pages ; a history of French Indochina.

On January 14, 1858, the Italian nationalist Felice Orsini attempted to assassinate the French Emperor Napoleon III.

He approved the launching of a naval expedition under Charles Rigault de Genouilly in 1858 to punish the Vietnamese for their mistreatment of French Catholic missionaries and force the court to accept a French presence in the country.