* 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 )

* 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

The first ironclad battleship, with iron armour over a wooden hull, La Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in 1859 ; she prompted the British Royal Navy to build a counter.

During the time from 1859 British clipper ships continued to be built.

From 1859 a new design was developed for British clipper ships that was nothing like the American clippers.

The earlier ships were made from wood, though some were made from iron, just as some British clippers had been made from iron prior to 1859.

Inspired by Babbage's difference engine plans, Per Georg Scheutz built several difference engines from 1855 onwards, one of which was sold to the British government in 1859.

* 1859 – Lord George Nathaniel Curzon, British statesman, Viceroy of India ( d. 1925 )

* 1859 – Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the " Northwestern Boundary Dispute " between United States and British / Canadian settlers.

* 1859 – Samuel Alexander, Australian-born British philosopher ( d. 1938 )

Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, GCB, OM, GCVO SGM ( 5 December 1859 – 20 November 1935 ) was a British Royal Navy admiral who commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in World War I.

* 1782 – Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, British statesman ( d. 1859 )

* 1800 – Thomas Macaulay, British poet, historian, and politician ( d. 1859 )

* Smith Wigglesworth ( 1859 – 1947 ) – British evangelist

A British Army Territorial ( reserves ) battalion formed in Nottingham in 1859 was known as The Robin Hood Battalion through various reorganisations until the " Robin Hood " name finally disappeared in 1992.

* Robert Stephenson ( 1803 – 1859 ), British civil and railway engineer ( son of George Stephenson )

Between November 1858 and February 1859, Gladstone, on behalf of Lord Derby's government, was made Extraordinary Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands embarking via Vienna and Trieste on a twelve week mission to the southern Adriatic entrusted with complex challenges that had arisen in connection with the future of the British Protectorate of the Ionian islands.

** Doveton Sturdee, British admiral ( b. 1859 )

* April 9 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British engineer ( d. 1859 )

* November 20 – John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, British admiral ( b. 1859 )

** Leigh Hunt, British critic and essayist ( d. 1859 )

Albert Günther published his Catalogue of the Fishes of the British Museum between 1859 and 1870, describing over 6, 800 species and mentioning another 1, 700.

The cydippid ctenophore Pleurobrachia bachei A. Agassiz, 1860 was named for him ; it was discovered in 1859 by Alexander Agassiz who was working as an engineer on a ship surveying the United States / Canada boundary between Washington State and British Columbia.

* William Thomas Mercer ( 1821 – 1879 ), British Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong, 1859 – 1868

The first station, called Shepton Mallet ( High Street ) in British Railways days, was on the East Somerset Railway branch line from Witham and opened in 1859.

In 1859, Alexander Tilloch Galt, George-Étienne Cartier and John Ross travelled to Great Britain to present the British Parliament with a project for confederation of the British colonies.