Second Opium War 1856–1860

Belligerents: United States, Qing dynasty, Second French Empire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Key battles

• Battle of Canton (1857)
• Battle of Palikao (1860)

Who lived through the Second Opium War

Well-known people alive during 1856–1860:

• Karl Marx (1818–1883) — German-born philosopher (1818-1883)
• Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) — president of the United States from 1861 to 1865 (1809-1865)
• Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) — Russian author (1828–1910)
• Charles Darwin (1809–1882) — English naturalist and biologist (1809–1882)
• Victor Hugo (1802–1885) — French novelist, poet, dramatist and politician (1802–1885)
• Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) — Dutch painter (1853–1890)
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) — German philosopher (1844-1900)
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) — Russian novelist (1821–1881)
• Mark Twain (1835–1910) — American author and humorist (1835–1910)
• Thomas Edison (1847–1931) — American inventor and businessman (1847–1931)
• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) — Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939)
• Charles Dickens (1812–1870) — English novelist and social critic (1812–1870)
• Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) — Danish writer and poet (1805–1875)
• Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) — Irish poet, playwright, and aesthete (1854-1900)
• Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) — German statesman and Chancellor (1815-1898)
• Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) — Serbian-American engineer and inventor (1856–1943)
• Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) — French chemist and microbiologist (1822-1895)
• Richard Wagner (1813–1883) — German composer (1813–1883)
• Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) — German philosopher, sociologist and economist (1820–1895)
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) — Russian composer (1840–1893)
• Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923) — French stage actress, painter and sculptor (1844–1923)
• Alfred Nobel (1833–1896) — Swedish chemist and inventor (1833–1896)
• Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) — 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909 (1858–1919)
• Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) — president of the United States from 1913 to 1921 (1856–1924)
• Jules Verne (1828–1905) — French writer (1828–1905)

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Who else was alive in 1850 →