Sr October 18 – The first Convention of Peking formally ends the Second Opium War. October 18–21 – Beijing's Old Summer Palace is burned to the ground by orders of British general Lord Elgin, in retaliation for mistreatment of several prisoners of war, during the Second Opium War. October 19 – A new Māori revolt begins in New Zealand. October 26 Garibaldi again defeats the Neapolitan forces, advancing on Gaeta, the last remaining Neapolitan strong-point. Meeting at Teano: Giuseppe Garibaldi gives Naples to King Victor Emmanuel II, recognizing him as King of Italy. November 3 – The combined forces of Giuseppe Garibaldi and King Victor Emmanuel II besiege King Francis II of the Two Sicilies in Gaeta, his last remaining stronghold. November 6 – 1860 United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln defeats John C. Breckinridge, Stephen A. Douglas, and John Bell, and is elected as the 16th President of the United States, the first Republican to hold that office. December 1 – Charles Dickens publishes the first installment of Great Expectations in his magazine All the Year Round. December 7 – After a fiercely contested campaign, Monier Monier-Williams is elected as the new Boden Professor of Sanskrit, at Oxford University. December 20 – American Civil War: South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the United States. December 24 – Mexico's interim president Miguel Miramón flees the country after being defeated in battle. December 29 – The world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled and armoured battleship, the (British) HMS Warrior, is launched. Date unknown Christians and Druzes clash in Damascus, Syria. In Buenos Aires, leader Bartolomé Mitre subverts the Argentine Confederation and begins to establish a new centralist government, with the help of Uruguayan Colorado party leader Venancio Flores. China agrees, in an unequal treaty (the Convention of Peking) imposed on it, to allow missionaries to proselytize throughout the country. Discovery of the chemical elements: Robert Bunsen discovers caesium and rubidium. German chemist Albert Niemann makes a detailed analysis of the coca leaf, isolating and purifying the alkaloid, which he calls cocaine. Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, and Empress Eugénie visit Algiers and stay at the Casbah of Algiers. TAG Heuer watchmaker founded in Bern Canton, Switzerland. The Russian Empire has c. of railroads. Births January–March January 3 – Kato Takaaki, 24th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1926) January 8 – Emma Booth, fourth child of William and Catherine