Camillo Benso di Cavour founds a newspaper in north Italy and calls it Il Risorgimento ('The Resurgence')

An uprising in Sicily in January starts off Europe's 'year of revolutions'

An uprising in Rome causes Pope Pius IX to flee for safety to a coastal fortress at Gaeta

The prime minister of the papal states, Pellegrino Rossi, is assassinated in Rome

A new Roman republic is proclaimed, with veteran agitator Giuseppe Mazzini in the leading role

Giuseppe Garibaldi arrives from exile in South America to defend the new Roman republic against a French army

Pope Pius IX returns to Rome under the protection of French troops, with his enthusiasm for any form of change much reduced.

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto, based on a play by Victor Hugo, is a huge success at its premiere in Venice

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore is a success at its premiere in Rome

Just six weeks after the success of Il Trovatore, Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata is a disaster at its premiere in Venice

Pope Pius IX issues a papal bull declaring that the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is to be an article of faith for Catholics

Napoleon III and Cavour hatch a secret plan at Plombièes to tempt Austria into war in north Italy, and agree how to divide up the spoils

A French and Piedmontese army liberates Milan from Austrian rule

French and Piedmontese forces defeat the Austrians decisively at Solferino, in a battle involving appalling casualties

The treaty of Turin brings much of north Italy under the control of Cavour (for the kingdom of Sardinia), who in return cedes Savoy and Nice to France

Garibaldi lands at Marsala in Sicily in May with his thousand Redshirts, and wins control of the island for the king in waiting, Victor Emmanuel II

Garibaldi crosses from Sicily to the mainland and by September is in Naples

Victor Emmanuel II is proclaimed king of a united Italy, with only Rome and Venetia remaining outside his realm

Pope Pius IX includes socialism, civil marriage and secular education among eighty modern errors listed in his Syllabus

Austrian rule ends in the Venetian territories, which now join the new kingdom of Italy

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

As the result of a plebiscite, Rome and the remaining papal states are included in the kingdom of Italy

Rome becomes the capital city of the entire Italian peninsula, for the first time since the Roman empire

Italy, previously non-aligned, signs a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello has its premeiere at La Scala in Milan