istoryworld
Europe timeline
English author Matthew Arnold publishes Culture and Anarchy, an influential collection of essays about contemporary society
Das Rheingold, with its premiere in Munich, is the first part of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle to be staged
The most famous of the three-masted tea-clippers, the Cutty Sark is launched at Dumbarton for service to and from China
Young French artists Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir paint together in the open air at La Grenouillère, developing the Impressionist style
French part-time painter Henri Rousseau becomes known as Douanier ('customs officer') Rousseau because of his paid employment
Coppélia, with choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to music by Delibes, has its premiere at the Paris Opera
Otto von Bismarck adjusts the Prussian king's telegram from Ems in a way calculated to provoke the French
Pope Pius IX, rapidly losing temporal authority, declares a new dogma – that the pope, when speaking from the throne, is infallible on matters of faith or morals
The Turkish sultan finally allows the Christians of Bulgaria to have their own Orthodox patriarch
With public opinion in France outraged by the Ems telegram, the French government declares war on Prussia
16-year-old Arthur Rimbaud sends some of his poems to Paul Verlaine, already an established poet
French artist Claude Monet, fleeing from the Franco-Prussian War, arrives in London
Isaac Butt, an Irish MP at Westminster, founds the Home Rule association
Napoleon III is among 83,000 French prisoners captured by the Germans at Sedan in the Franco-Prussian war
A French government of national defence deposes Napoleon III and proclaims the third French republic
The all-round English cricketer W.G. Grace begins a 28-year career as captain of Gloucestershire
Richard Wagner marries Cosima, the daughter of the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt
As the result of a plebiscite, Rome and the remaining papal states are included in the kingdom of Italy
The Prussian king, William I, is proclaimed emperor of a united Germany in the palace at Versailles
Troops of the new German empire march through Paris in a victory parade at the end of the Franco-Prussian war
An uprising results in the Paris Commune, followed by the siege of the city by French government forces
Rome becomes the capital city of the entire Italian peninsula, for the first time since the Roman empire
The Paris communards are overwhelmed in a battle at the Père Lachaise cemetery, which is followed by brutal reprisals
Whistler paints his mother and calls the picture Arrangement in Grey and Black
English actor Henry Irving plays what becomes one of his most famous parts, that of Mathias in the melodrama The Bells
