The Fight of the Century (TRIH ep 593)
1860 · Resource
Why did two men - John Heenan and and Tom Sayers - illegally meet in a field in Hampshire, in 1860, to brutally fight one another, captivating Britain in the process? What can the fight tell us about the nature of Britishness in the 19th century? Was this the birth of boxing? Who won the infamous boxing match? And, how did the fight change the course of British sport, forever?
On these timelines: The Rest Is History (podcast), Resources: Combined
Around 1860
- Crimean War (1853)
- Indian Rebellion of 1857 (1857)
- American Civil War (1861)
- Taiping Rebellion (1851)
- Meiji Restoration (1868)
- Italian unification (Risorgimento) (1859)
- Wars of German Unification (1864)
- On the Origin of Species (1859)
- Pasteur develops germ theory of disease (1861)
- Perry Expedition to Japan (1853)