Battle of Solferino
June 24, 1859
On a long, murderous day in northern Italy, French and Piedmontese troops under Napoleon III beat the Austrians out of Lombardy. Forty thousand men fell. A passing Swiss businessman named Henry Dunant saw the dying lying untended on the field, went home, and wrote the book that would lead to the Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions.
In context
Also in 1859 (4 other events on record)
- Origin of Species Published · Europe · Science
- First Oil Well · North America · Technology
- John Brown's Raid · North America · Politics
- French Enter Indochina · Southeast Asia · War
Before and after in Europe
- Before: 1858: Great Stink of London
- After: March 24, 1860: Treaty of Turin
Before and after in War
Era
Industrial Age (1801–1900), one of 513 events from that era on Saeculum.