Historical Archives & Public Figures

Gerard Manley Hopkins

England

1844 – 1889 (44 years old)

Visionary English Jesuit poet who revolutionized modern verse through sprung rhythm and concepts of inscape and instress in 'The Windhover' and 'Pied Beauty'.

Dublin, Ireland

3 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

6

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Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman

Laura Bridgman

United States

1829 – 1889 (59 years old)

Première personne sourde et aveugle à recevoir une éducation linguistique complète en anglais, cinquante ans avant Helen Keller.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

6 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

5

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Father Damien (Saint Damien of Molokai)

Jozef De Veuster

Belgium

3 January 1840 – 15 April 1889 (49 years old)

Father Damien was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary who volunteered to minister to the quarantined leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Living among the outcast lepers for sixteen years, he built homes, hospitals, and churches, contracted Hansen's disease himself, and died a martyr of charity, canonized in 2009.

Leuven / Kalaupapa, Belgium

5 Full Record →

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

5

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Yohannes IV

ዮሐንስ (Kassa Mercha)

Ethiopian Empire

1837 – 1889 (51 years old)

Emperor of Ethiopia (1872–1889) who staunchly defended Ethiopian sovereignty against Egyptian expansionism, Italian colonial incursions, and Sudanese Mahdist invasions, dying heroically on the battlefield of Gallabat.

Tigray Region, Ethiopia

5 Full Record →

Arts & Music

4

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Alexandre Cabanel

Kingdom of France

1823 – 1889 (65 years old)

French academic master whose sensuous 'Birth of Venus' was personally purchased by Emperor Napoleon III in 1863, and whose 'The Fallen Angel' remains an icon of Romantic pathos.

Montpellier, France

4 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

5

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Domingo Faustino Sarmiento

United Provinces of the Río de la Plata

1811 – 1888 (77 years old)

President of Argentina (1868–1874) and 'Teacher of the Americas' who transformed national education, founded the Naval Academy, and authored the classic Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

5 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

3

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Henry Bergh

United States

1813 – 1888 (74 years old)

Visionary humanitarian who founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and co-founded the world's first child protection society.

Brooklyn, United States

3 Full Record →

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

4

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Wilhelm I (German Emperor)

Wilhelm I (Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig)

Kingdom of Prussia (Germany)

1797 – 1888 (90 years old)

First German Emperor (Kaiser) who unified Germany with Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, proclaimed at Versailles in 1871.

Berlin, Germany

4 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

5

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Saint Jean Bosco

Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco

Italy

1815 – 1888 (72 years old)

Prêtre et éducateur piémontais, fondateur des Salésiens et apôtre des enfants des rues et jeunes ouvriers exploités de Turin, inventeur du « système préventif ».

Turin, Italy

5 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

5

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Dorothea Lynde Dix

Dorothea Dix

United States

1802 – 1887 (85 years old)

Réformatrice américaine et avocate des aliénés mentaux, créatrice des premiers asiles psychiatriques modernes et surintendante des infirmières durant la guerre de Sécession.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

5 Full Record →

Arts & Music

3

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Alexander Borodin

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin

Russian Empire

1833 – 1887 (53 years old)

Russian composer of The Mighty Handful and distinguished professor of organic chemistry, celebrated for 'Prince Igor', the 'Polovtsian Dances', and his Second Symphony.

Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire

3 Full Record →

Nakayama Miki (Oyasama / Foundress of Tenrikyo)

Prophets & Divine Messengers

13

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Nakayama Miki (Oyasama / Foundress of Tenrikyo)

中山みき

Japan

1798 – 1887 (88 years old)

Affectionately revered as 'Oyasama' (Beloved Parent) by millions of Tenrikyo followers, Nakayama Miki became the living shrine of God the Parent (Tenri-O-no-Mikoto) in 1838, divesting herself of all possessions to teach the Joyous Life (Yokigurashi).

Tenri, Japan

13 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

3

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Lat Dior

Lat Dior Ngone Latyr Diop

Kingdom of Cayor

1842 – 1886 (44 years old)

Damel of the Kingdom of Cayor and legendary Senegalese national hero who waged a fierce twenty-year resistance against French colonial governor Louis Faidherbe to stop the French military Dakar-Saint-Louis railway across his sovereign lands.

Dekhele (Louga), Senegal

3 Full Record →

Religious Figures & Theologians

3

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Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

শ্রীরামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস

India

1836 – 1886 (50 years old)

Revered 19th-century Bengali mystic who experienced divine ecstasy across Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, formulating the universal truth: 'As many faiths, so many paths'.

Howrah, India

3 Full Record →

Religious Figures & Theologians

4

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Gadadhar Chattopadhyay

শ্রীরামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস

India

1836 – 1886 (50 years old)

Beloved mystic of Dakshineswar whose direct spiritual realizations through Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity proclaimed the universal truth that all religions lead to the same God.

Howrah, India

4 Full Record →

Arts & Music

9

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Franz Liszt (Liszt Ferenc)

Liszt Ferenc

Austria

22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886 (74 years old)

Hungarian musical titan and greatest piano virtuoso in history, who invented the solo piano recital and the orchestral symphonic poem, composed the Hungarian Rhapsodies, and anticipated modern harmony.

Bayreuth, Germany

9 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

10

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Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

United States

10 December 1830 – 15 May 1886 (55 years old)

One of America's greatest and most original poets who lived as a reclusive hermit in white at her family home in Amherst, secretly binding nearly 1,800 revolutionary, dashed, epigrammatic poems exploring immortality, grief, and faith.

Amherst (Massachusetts), United States

10 Full Record →

Humanitarian & Peace

3

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Lord Shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Great Britain

1801 – 1885 (84 years old)

Foremost British social reformer of the Victorian era who dedicated fifty years in Parliament to abolishing child labor in coal mines and factories, passing the Ten Hours Act, and establishing Ragged Schools for destitute children.

Wimborne St Giles (Dorset), United Kingdom

3 Full Record →

Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries