1860 to 1861

Society

1860. The longest bare-knuckle prizefight in U.S. history is held at Berwick, Maine, where J. Fitzpatrick and James O'Neill battle for 4 hours, 20 minutes.

1860. Cigarette smoking increases in America. Richmond, Va., has more than 50 cigarette factories; North Carolina and Virginia together have more than 348.

1860. Louis Pasteur sterilizes milk by heating it to 125 degrees Centigrade at a pressure of 1.5 degrees atmospheres. Pasteur will develop methods using lower heats to "pasteurize" milk.

Literature

The Storm. Aleksandr Ostrovsky. Russian. 1860. Play. Tragedy of young wife trying to break out of stifling atmosphere of her life. Dull, merchant-class milieu; love affair; confesses; hounded; suicide.

The Mill on the Floss. George Eliot. British. 1860. Novel. Brother intrudes on his sister's life and lovers; they are both drowned in a flood on the Floss.

"The Children's Hour." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. American. 1860. Poetry. Devoted to his three daughters by first wife, Mary Potter.

On the Eve. Ivan Turgenev. Russian. 1860. Novel. Heroine finds fulfillment in fighting for social justice with her radical husband.

The Marble Faun. Nathaniel Hawthorne. American. 18650. Novel. Naively joyous male commits crime and matures into a true human. "Fortunate fall." Setting is Rome.

The Woman in White. Wilkie Collins. British. 1860. Novel. Villain puts heiress into an insane asylum in order to get her money. Mystery novel.

Great Expectations. Charles Dickens. British. 1860/61. Novel. Pip grows from boy of shallow dreams to man of depth and character.

Children of Adam. Walt Whitman. American. 1860/67. Poetry. Praises physical love and procreation. Man lost Garden through degradations of senses. The body and soul are one.

Society

1861. Italy unites as a single kingdom while the United States disunites.

1861. Kansas enters the Union as a free state January 29 but Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina secede between January and May, following the course of South Carolina late last year.

1861. Delegates from six seceding states meet at Montgomery, Ala., and form a provisional government, the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi is named provisional president of the C.S.A.

1861. Civil War begins April 12 as Fort Sumter on an island in Charleston Harbor is bombarded by Gen. Pierre Beauregard, who has resigned as superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to assume command of the Confederate Army.

1861. The Battle of Bull Run near the Manassas railway junction across the Potomac ends in a rout of Gen. Irvin McDowell's Union forces by the Confederate troops under Gen. Beauregard.