* John Austin ( legal philosopher ) ( 1790 – 1859 ), English jurist

In 1859, Nobel's father left his factory in the care of the second son, Ludvig Nobel ( 1831 – 1888 ), who greatly improved the business.

* 1859 – Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.

* 1779 – Carl Ritter, German geographer ( d. 1859 )

* 1785 – Thomas De Quincey, English author ( d. 1859 )

* 1859 – Charles Comiskey, American baseball player and manager ( d. 1931 )

* 1859 – The Tuscan National Assembly formally deposes the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

* 1859 – Katharine Lee Bates, American poet ( d. 1929 )

* Alexander John Cuza, prince of Romania ( 1859 – 1866 )

* 1859 – A geomagnetic storm causes the Aurora Borealis to shine so brightly that it is seen clearly over parts of USA, Europe, and even as far away as Japan.

* 1859 – Matilda Howell, American archer ( d. 1938 )

* 1859 – Vittorio Sella, Italian photographer ( d. 1943 )

* 1917 – L. L. Zamenhof, Polish creator of Esperanto ( b. 1859 )

* 1859 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1952 )

* 1859 – British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.

* 1944 – William Stephens, American politician ( b. 1859 )

* 1803 – James Curtiss, American politician, Mayor of Chicago ( d. 1859 )

* 1859 – Walter Camp, American football player, coach, and writer ( d. 1925 )

* 1943 – Alexandre Millerand, French politician, President of France ( b. 1859 )

Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936 ), usually known as A. E. Housman, was an English classical scholar and poet, best known to the general public for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad.

* Page, Norman, ‘ Housman, Alfred Edward ( 1859 – 1936 )’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004 )

His siblings included Sarah ( 1802 – 1859 ), Naphtali ( 1807 ), Ralph ( 1809 – 1898 ), and James ( 1813 – 1868 ).

The Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister 1855 – 58, 1859 – 65

* April 30 – Alfred Edward Housman, English poet ( b. 1859 )

* July 12 – Alfred Dreyfus, French military officer ( b. 1859 )

Alfred Dreyfus ( ; 9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935 ) was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history.

*" Tithonus " by Alfred Tennyson was originally written as " Tithon " in 1833 and completed in 1859.

Another legend, that of Brock's horse Alfred, was first published in 1859.

The scientific theory of biogeography grows out of the work of Alexander von Humboldt ( 1769 – 1859 ), Hewett Cottrell Watson ( 1804 – 1881 ), Alphonse de Candolle ( 1806 – 1893 ), Alfred Russel Wallace ( 1823 – 1913 ), Philip Lutley Sclater ( 1829 – 1913 ) and other biologists and explorers.

In 1859, in association with Étienne Eugène Azam, Charles-Pierre Denonvilliers, François Anthime Eugène Follin, and Alfred Armand Louis Marie Velpeau, Broca performed the first experiments in Europe using hypnotism as surgical anesthesia.

* Andoche Alfred Michel Junot, 3rd Duc d ' Abrantes ( Ciudad Rodrigo, 25 November 1810 – killed in action at Brescia, 19 July 1859 ), married firstly on 2 April 1845 Marie Céline Elise Lepic ( 9 October 1824 – 6 June 1847 ), and married secondly on 10 January 1853 Marie Louise Léonie Lepic ( 19 July 1829 – 17 August 1868 ), both sisters, daughters of Joachim Lepic, 1st Baron Lepic, and wife Anne-Marguerite Pasquier, and had:

Reverend Bernard J. McQuaid served as the first college president ( 1856 – 1857, 1859 – 1868 ) and directed a staff of four diocesan clergy including Reverend Alfred Young, vice-president ; Reverend Daniel Fisher ( the second college president, 1857 – 1859 ) and five lay instructors.

* Alfred Dreyfus ( 1859 – 1935 ), French Jewish military officer and focus of the Dreyfus affair

* Alfred Dreyfus ( 1859 – 1935 ), French military officer best known for being the focus of the Dreyfus affair

Alfred Lewis Vail ( September 25, 1807 – January 18, 1859 ) was a machinist and inventor.

He studied philosophy and sociology in 1899 – 1900 with Georg Simmel in Berlin, spent a semester in Straßburg ( 1900 ), and took his PhD in Philosophy in 1903 at Heidelberg under Wilhelm Windelband ( 1848 – 1915 ) and Alfred Hettner ( 1859 – 1941 ) with a dissertation titled Masse und Publikum.

* Charles Alfred Worsley Pelham, 4th Earl of Yarborough ( 1859 – 1936 )

* 1859 – 1861 Alfred B. Greenwood

A Shropshire Lad is a cycle of sixty-three poems by the English poet Alfred Edward Housman ( 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936 ).

* 1859 – Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace: Theory of evolution by natural selection

Glick moved to Atchison, Kansas, in 1859 and formed a partnership with Alfred P. Otis.

Alfred von Waldersee was the fifth of six children of the Prussian cavalry general Franz Heinrich Count von Waldersee ( 1791 – 1873 ) and Bertha von Hünerbein ( 1799 – 1859 ).

The English biologist Alfred Wallace visited Manado in 1859, and praised the town for its beauty.

This naturalistic explanation fitted well with the recent account of evolution by Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, as outlined in his famous 1859 book The Origin of Species.