* 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

* May 20 – Verner von Heidenstam, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate ( b. 1859 )

Biogeographer Alexander von Humbolt ( 1769 – 1859 ) was an early pioneer in ecological thinking and was among the first to recognize ecological gradients, where species are replaced or altered in form along environmental gradients, such as a cline forming along a rise in elevation.

By the 1830s mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology had emerged with world class science, led by Alexander von Humboldt ( 1769 – 1859 ) in natural science and Carl Friedrich Gauss ( 1777 – 1855 ) in mathematics.

File: AvHumboldt. jpg | Alexander von Humboldt ( 1769 – 1859 )

Brahms never married, despite strong feelings for several women and despite entering into an engagement, soon broken off, with Agathe von Siebold in Göttingen in 1859.

* 1769 – Alexander von Humboldt, German geographer, naturalist, and explorer ( d. 1859 )

* April 4 – Bettina von Arnim, German poet ( d. 1859 )

* May 15 – Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Austrian statesman ( d. 1859 )

It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting.

Portrait of Daniel Chodowiecki, painted posthumously by Adolph von Menzel in 1859

Albrecht von Roon, the Prussian Minister of War from 1859 to 1873, established a draft where every male Prussian capable of fighting would be conscripted at the time of mobilization.

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt ( September 14, 1769 – May 6, 1859 ) was a Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt ( 1767 – 1835 ).

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.

Meanwhile, the defeat of Franz Joseph's army at Solferino in 1859 had weakened the Habsburg Empire, and led to the fall from power of von Bach.

By the 1830s mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology had emerged with world class science, led by Alexander von Humboldt ( 1769 – 1859 ) in natural science and Carl Friedrich Gauss ( 1777 – 1855 ) in mathematics.

Metternich usually refers to Prince Klemens von Metternich ( 1773 – 1859 ), famous Austrian politician and diplomat.

File: Alott Am Strand von Ostende. jpg | Robert Alott ( 1859 – 1910 ): Am Strand von Ostende

** R. Haym, ed., Wilhelm von Humboldts Briefe an Welcker ( Berlin, 1859 )

The change is noticeable in his Epochen der kirchlichen Geschichtschreibung ( 1852 ), Das Christenthum und die christiche Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte ( 1853 ), and Die christliche Kirche von Anfang des vierten bis zum Ende das sechsten Jahrhunderts ( 1859 ), works preparatory to his Kirchengeschichte, in which the change of view is specially pronounced.

The peritrichs were first defined by Friedrich von Stein in 1859.

During the period 1859 – 1866, Sybel was engaged in a literary controversy with the historian, Julius von Ficker, on the significance of the German Empire.

Oesterreich von 1830 bis 1848 ( Berlin, 1859 )