Modern Era
Invention of Dynamite (1867): Alfred Nobel's Explosive Fortune
Dynamite made high explosives far safer to handle, transformed mining, quarrying and construction, and built the fortune that funds the Nobel Prizes.
Region
Europe
Modern Era
Neuschwanstein Castle: Ludwig II's Fairy-Tale Fortress
A romantic castle left unfinished at Ludwig's death in 1886, opened to the public weeks later and now one of Europe's most visited monuments.
Modern Era
Mendeleev's Periodic Table (1869): Ordering the Chemical Elements
Mendeleev's periodic system organised the elements by atomic weight and properties, predicted undiscovered elements and became the central framework of chemistry.
Modern Era
Siege of Paris (1870-1871): Balloons, Hunger and Surrender
Paris capitulated after about four months; an armistice on 28 January 1871 ended the main fighting of the Franco-Prussian War.
Modern Era
Battle of Sedan (1870): Napoleon III Captured by Prussia
Decisive German victory; Napoleon III and about 100,000 French soldiers surrendered, and the Second Empire collapsed two days later.
Modern Era
Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871): Fall of the Second Empire
German victory; the French Second Empire fell, the German Empire was proclaimed and France ceded Alsace and part of Lorraine.
Modern Era
Paris Commune (1871): Revolution and the Bloody Week
The Commune was crushed by the army of the Versailles government; thousands of Parisians were killed and tens of thousands arrested.
Modern Era
Unification of Germany (1871): Bismarck and the German Empire
The German states except Austria were united as the German Empire under the Prussian king as German Emperor.
Modern Era
Iwakura Mission (1871-1873): Japan's Embassy to the West
The mission failed to revise the unequal treaties but gave Japan's leaders first-hand knowledge of Western states that shaped the Meiji reforms.
Modern Era
Congress of Berlin (1878): Bismarck Redraws the Balkans
The Treaty of Berlin replaced the Treaty of San Stefano, reduced Russian gains, created a smaller autonomous Bulgaria and gave Austria-Hungary control of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Prehistory
Bernissart Iguanodons: The 1878 Belgian Coal Mine Discovery
At least 38 Iguanodon skeletons were recovered and taken to Brussels, giving the first complete picture of a dinosaur's skeleton and correcting earlier reconstructions.
Modern Era
Assassination of Alexander II (1881): The Tsar Liberator Killed
Alexander II died of his wounds the same afternoon; the conspirators were hanged and his son Alexander III began a long period of reaction.