One journal to precede Nature was titled Recreative Science: A Record and Remembrancer of Intellectual Observation, which, created in 1859, began as a natural history magazine and progressed to include more physical observational science and technical subjects and less natural history.

About 1859 he began to interest the people of Boston in his scheme for technical education, in which he desired to have associated, on one side research and investigation on the largest scale, and on the other agencies for the popular diffusion of useful knowledge.

It was started in May 1794 as a School of Survey and established as a college in 1859 under the Madras University, and is one of the oldest technical institutes in the world.

The signing on June 28, 1859 of a concordat with the Holy See, which placed education under the oversight of the clergy and facilitated the establishment of religious institutes, led to a constitutional struggle which ended in 1863 with the victory of secular principles, making the communes responsible for education, though admitting the priests to a share in the management.

In 1859, Packer sought to end the state's involvement in construction and management of canals and railroads, selling off the state's investments to the Sunbury and Erie Railroad.

They were revived the following year, and again in 1842 under new management, but in 1859 they closed for good.

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

* 1859 – Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel laureate ( d. 1927 )

* 1952 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian author, Nobel laureate ( b. 1859 )

* 1859 – Verner von Heidenstam, Swedish poet and novelist, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1940 )

He was influenced by the French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson ( 1859 – 1941 ), who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927.

* January 4 – Henri Bergson, French philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature ( b. 1859 )

** Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate ( b. 1859 )

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

* October 2 – Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate ( b. 1859 )

* Knut Hamsun ( 1859 – 1952 ) Nobel Prize winning author

* April 19-Pierre Curie ( born 1859 ), French winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.

* October 2-Svante Arrhenius ( born 1859 ), Swedish winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

* Svante Arrhenius ( 1859 – 1927 ), Swedish physical chemist and 1903 Nobel laureate

* Pierre Curie ( 1859 – 1906 ), French physicist and Nobel Prize winner, Marie's husband

Heidenstam was born in 1859, of a prosperous family.

On October 31, 1859, John Brown was found guilty of treason against the state of Virginia, inciting slave rebellion, and murder.

For these crimes he was sentenced to be hanged in public on Friday, December 2, 1859.

On December 2, 1859, John Brown was hanged at Charles Town, Virginia.

Lincoln rarely raised objections in the courtroom ; but in an 1859 case, where he defended a cousin Peachy Harrison, who was accused of stabbing another to death, Lincoln angrily protested the judge's decision to exclude evidence favorable to his client.

In May 1859, Lincoln purchased the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger, a German-language newspaper which was consistently supportive ; most of the state's 130, 000 German Americans voted Democratic but there was Republican support that a German-language paper could mobilize.

But political debate was cut short throughout the South with Northern abolitionist John Brown's 1859 raid at Harpers Ferry Armory in an attempt to incite slave insurrections.

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.

The baneful influence of these antiquated principles was clearly shown in the maintenance of Königgratz-Josefstadt in 1866 as a strategic point, which was preferred to the defeat of the separated Prussian armies, and in the strange plans produced in Vienna for the campaign of 1859, and in the almost unintelligible Battle of Montebello in the same year.

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.

The eldest of seven children, Housman was born at Valley House in Fockbury, a hamlet on the outskirts of Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, to Sarah Jane ( née Williams, married 17 Jun 1858 in Woodchester, Gloucester ) and Edward Housman ( whose family came from Lancaster ), and was baptized on 24 Apr 1859 at Christ Church, in Catshill.

In 1859, Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species was published.

Part of West Cambridge joined the new town of Belmont in 1859, and the rest of West Cambridge was renamed Arlington in 1867 ; Brighton was annexed by Boston in 1874.

Caving was pioneered by Édouard-Alfred Martel ( 1859 – 1938 ) who first achieved the descent and exploration of the Gouffre de Padirac, France as early as 1889 and the first complete descent of a 110 metre wet vertical shaft at Gaping Gill, in Yorkshire, England in 1895.

Its banner was again picked up by the Avar Imam Shamil, who fought against the Russians from 1834 until 1859.

Between 1859 and 1891, Peirce was intermittently employed in various scientific capacities by the United States Coast Survey, where he enjoyed his highly influential father's protection until the latter's death in 1880.

With the publication of Darwin's theory of evolution in 1859, the concept of a " natural system " of taxonomy gained a theoretical basis, and the idea was born that groups used in a system of classification should represent branches on the evolutionary tree of life.

The first census in Romania was carried out in 1859.

In 1859 his first painting was accepted and exhibited.

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