1859 - Theater, Film

Theater, Film

Theater: The Thunderstorm (Groza) by Aleksandr Ostrovsky 11/16 at Moscow's Maly Theater, with Prov Sadovsky; The Octaroon, or Life in Louisiana by Dion Boucicault 12/5 at New York's Winter Garden Theater. Boucicault has adapted the 1856 novel The Quadroon by Mayne Reid to create his melodrama.

French tightrope walker Charles Blondin (Jean François Gravelet), 35, crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope June 30.

The world's first flying trapeze circus act is performed November 12 at the Cirque Napoléon in Paris by Jules Léotard, 21, who has practiced at his father's gymnasium in Toulouse. Safety nets will not be introduced until 1871, and Léotard meanwhile will use a pile of mattresses to cushion possible falls. The song "That Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" will be written about Léotard, and his name will be applied to the tights worn by acrobats and dancers.