Key events from 1865

1865

The American Civil War ends with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, preserving the Union and ending slavery in the United States.
President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, shocking the nation and creating martyrdom for the Great Emancipator.
Maxwell’s electromagnetic field theory - James Clerk Maxwell publishes “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field,” revolutionizing physics by unifying electricity and magnetism.
Gregor Mendel publishes his laws of inheritance, founding the science of genetics through his experiments with pea plants.

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