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.
The physician John Snow links a London cholera outbreak to a public water pump, a founding moment of modern epidemiology.
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.
A Franco-Spanish force attacks Đà Nẵng, beginning the French conquest of Vietnam.
An alliance of the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France and Sardinia defeats Russia, with fighting centred on the siege of Sevastopol in Crimea.
U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's 'Black Ships' enter Edo Bay, pressing Japan to end its isolation policy.