The physician John Snow links a London cholera outbreak to a public water pump, a founding moment of modern epidemiology.
An alliance of the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France and Sardinia defeats Russia, with fighting centred on the siege of Sevastopol in Crimea.
Britain and France fight Qing China, occupy Beijing and burn the Old Summer Palace in 1860, forcing further unequal treaties.
Sepoys mutiny at Meerut, sparking a widespread uprising against East India Company rule across northern and central India.
After the 1857 rebellion, the Government of India Act transfers rule from the East India Company to the British Crown; the Mughal Empire formally ends.
Charles Darwin sets out the theory of evolution by natural selection.
A wave of revolutions sweeps Europe, from France to the German states, Austria, Italy and Hungary, demanding democratic reform and national self-determination.