In the year 1859, ground is broken for the Suez Canal in Egypt (Apr 25), A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is published in England (Apr 30), the British Crown Colony of Queensland in Australia is created (Jun 6), the chimes of Big Ben ring for the first time (Jul 11), Pennsylvania Oil Rush begins (Aug 27), Charles Darwin publishes _On the Origin of the Species _(Nov 24) - and all these fine people were born:

1859-0109 Carrie Chapman Catt* (b Lane) teacher/ superintendent/ suffragette leader - Ripon, WI USA (1947/88) 1859-0110 Francisco Ferrer* radical freethinker/anarchist - Barcelona, Spain (1909/50) 1859-0110 Erik “Talas-Eera” Karppinen* police officer/strongman - Paltamo, GD of Finland (1903/44) 1859-0110 Liisi Kivioja* schoolteacher/ banker/pioneering politician - Siikajoki, GD of Finland (1925/66) 1859-0125 Pietari Kärna* teacher/lay preacher/politician - Nurmes, GD of Finland (1930/71) 1859-0127 Wilhelm II* last Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia - Berlin, Prussia (82) 1859-0201 Henry Miller* actor/director/ producer - London, England (1926/67) 1859-0202 Havelock Ellis* physician/ writer/social reformer - Croydon, Surrey, England (1939/80) 1859-0206 Elias Disney* farmer/entrepreneur/father of Walt Disney - Bluevale, Province of Canada, British Empire (1941/82) 1859-0214 George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. * civil engineer/creator of the original Ferris Wheel - Galesburg, IL USA (1896/37) 1859-0219 Svante Arrhenius* physicist/ chemist/N - Wik Castle, Sweden (1927/68) 1859-0222 George Lansbury* politician/social reformer/grandfather of Angela Lansbury - Halesworth, Suffolk, England (1940/81) 1859-0228 Jakob Liiv* Estonian writer/ playwright - Alatskivi Parish, Tartu County (1938/78) 1859-0303 Konstantīns Pēkšēns* Latvian architect - Ņuki, Mazsalaca parish, Russian Empire (1928/69) 1859-0315 August Ramsay* mathematician/banker - Taalintehdas, Dragsfjärd, GD of Finland (1943/84) 1859-0316 Alexander Popov* physicist/ inventor of radio? Krasnoturinsk, Russia (1906/46) 1859-0408 Edmund Husserl* German philosopher -  Brossnitz, Austrian Empire (1938/79) 1859-0408 Sally Liebling* German pianist/composer/one of the Liebling brothers - Posen, Kingdom of Prussia (1909/50) 1859-0411 Magnus Dahlström* businessman/ philanthropist - Turku, GD of Finland (1924/64) 1859-0414 Paul Sinebrychoff* founder of Sinebrychoff brewery/art collector - Helsinki, GD of Finland (1917/58) 1859-0418 Arthur Godfrey Peuchen* military officer/businessman/Titanic survivor - Montreal, Canada East (1929/70) 1859-0420 1859-0423 Elin Kallio* pioneering gymnast/considered the founder of the women’s gymnastic movement in Finland - Helsinki, GD of Finland (1927/68) 1859-0515 Pierre Curie* physicist/N - Paris, France (1906/46) 1859-0522 Arthur Conan Doyle* writer (Sherĺock Holmes) - Edinburgh, Scotland (1930/71) 1859-0601 1859-0605 Belle Archer* (b Mingle) actress/singer - Easton, PA USA (1900/41) 1859-0610 1859-0620 1859-0621 Henry Ossawa Tanner* painter - Pittsburgh, PA USA (1937/77) 1859-0623 Édouard Michelin* industrialist/ co-director of the Michelin company - Clermont-Ferrand, France (1940/81) 1859-0623 Johann Baptist Winklhofer* German industrialist/founder of Iwis - München-Haidhausen  (1949/89) 1859-0625 1859-0630 1859-0706 Verner von Heidenstam* poet/novelist/N - Olshammar, Sweden (1940/80) 1859-0727 Jonatan Reuter* engineer/ teacher/author - Tammisaari, GD of Finland (1947/88) 1859-0804 Knut Hamsun* writer/N -  Lom, Gudbrandsdalen, Norway (1952/92) 1859-0907 Margaret Crosfield* paleontologist/ geologist - England (1952/93) 1859-0912 Alice Ayres* nursemaid honoured for her bravery in rescuing the children in her care from a house fire - Isleworth, Middlesex, England (1825/25) 1859-0915 1859-0919 Marshall Pinckney Wilder* actor/ monologist/sketch artist - Geneva, NY USA (1915/55) 1859-1018 Henri Bergson* philosopher/ writer/N - Paris, France (1941/81) 1859-1020 John Dewey* philosopher/ educational reformer - Burlington, VT USA (1952/92) 1859-1122 Fusajiro Yamauchi* Founder of Nintendo - Kyoto, Japan (1940/80) 1859-1123 Billy the Kid* (b Henry McCarty) a.k.a. William H. Bonney outlaw/gunfighter - Manhattan, NY USA (1881/21) birthdate disputed 1859-1124 Cass Gilbert* architect - Zanesville, OH USA (1934/74) 1859-1127 William Bliss Baker* landcsape artist- New York City, NY USA (1886/26) 1859-1202 Georges Seurat* painter - Paris, France (1891/31) 1859-1215 L. L. Zamenhof* Polish doctor/writer/ creator of Esperanto - Bialystok, Russian Empire (1917/57) 1859-1220 1859-1223 Sigurd Ibsen* writer/ statesman/PM/son of Henrik Ibsen - Christiania, Sweden-Norway (1930/70) 1859-1225 Anna Palm de Rosa* artist/landscape painter - Stockholm, Sweden (1924/64) 1859-0 1859-0 1859-0 Updated 2025-0426 Helsinki-Vienna Search for another year here