Calendar

The Calendar of Literary Facts contains more than 6,500 events in literary history.

1862 Literary Facts

George Meredith publishes “Modern Love” and Poems of the English Roadside, with Poems and Ballads

Friedrich Hebbel’sDie Nibelungen: Ein deutsches Trauerspiel in drei Abtheilungen (The Nieblungs: A Tragedy in Three Acts) is produced

Victor Hugo publishes Les Miserables

Christina Rossetti publishes Goblin Market and Other Poems

U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia duel for four inconclusive hours at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in the first battle between ironclad warships

Lion Foucault calculates the speed of light

Richard Gatling develops and patents a working machine gun in the U.S.

Henry David Thoreau dies

Explore: Walden, Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

John Kendrick Bangs is born

Duncan Campbell Scott is born

Maurice Maeterlinck is born

Explore: The Blue Bird, The Intruder, Maurice Maeterlinck

William Sydney Porter (“O. Henry”) is born

Explore: Mammon and the Archer, O. Henry, The Cop and the Anthem

Gerhart Hauptmann is born

Explore: Gerhart Hauptmann

Georges Feydeau is born

Explore: A Flea in Her Ear