The World in 1860 the year a letter reached California in ten days

Distance still ruled daily life. News from London reached an American farm about two weeks after it happened, because it crossed the ocean in a ship's mailbag. Riders for the Pony Express tried to beat that by changing horses every ten or fifteen miles and riding through the night. Most people never went far from where they were born, and a journey of fifty miles meant a full day on the road.

A picture from 1860
~30,000 miRailroad track in the US
~10,000 miRailway open in Britain
1stJapanese ship to cross the Pacific
3¢Postage on a US letter
1dA London daily paper (UK)
~HalfThe world's coffee grown in Brazil
31.4MPeople in the United States
3.9MEnslaved people in the US
~2.8MPeople in London

The year in 8 events

The Pony Express carried mail from Missouri to California in about ten days. The same letter took three weeks or more by stagecoach, and months if it went by ship around South America.

  • ⚔️Mar 24 Ii Naosuke, chief minister to Japan's shogun, is killed by swordsmen outside the gates of Edo Castle.
  • 🐎Apr 3 The first Pony Express rider leaves St Joseph, Missouri, with mail bound for California.
  • ⛵May 11 Giuseppe Garibaldi lands in Sicily with about a thousand volunteers and starts a march up Italy.
  • 🐪Aug 20 Robert Burke and William Wills leave Melbourne to cross Australia from south to north.
  • 📜Oct 24 China signs the Convention of Peking, ending the Second Opium War with Britain and France.
  • 🗳️Nov 6 Abraham Lincoln is elected president of the United States.
  • 🏛️Dec 20 South Carolina votes to leave the United States. Six more states follow within weeks.
  • 🚢Dec 29 Britain launches HMS Warrior, an iron warship that outclasses every wooden ship afloat.

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60,523days agoThat is 1 century, 6 decades, 5 years, 9 months and 4 weeks.
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The world in 1860

Political map of the World as it stood that year. Drag the timeline to explore. Open the map page ›

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Notable events in history compared to 1860

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  1. 🎄 Next Christmas
  2. ⚽ FIFA World Cup 2030
  3. 🗳️ Next U.S. presidential election
  4. 🎮 GTA VI release
  5. ⚠️ U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran
  6. 🤖 Release of ChatGPT
  7. ⚔️ Russia invades Ukraine
  8. 😷 COVID-19 pandemic
  9. 💂 Brexit referendum
  10. 📉 2008 financial crisis
  11. ⚠️ September 11 attacks
  12. 💻 Windows 95 release
  13. 🟥 Collapse of the Soviet Union
  14. 🧱 Fall of the Berlin Wall
  15. ☢️ Chernobyl disaster
  16. ⛽ 1973 oil crisis
  17. 🌕 Moon landing
  18. 🔫 JFK assassination
  19. 🚀 Sputnik launch
  20. 🕌 India gains independence
  21. ☢️ Hiroshima bombing
  22. ⚔️ World War II Starts
  23. 📉 Wall Street Crash
  24. ⚔️ World War I Starts