people who had converted to Christianity, takes place in China when an angry mob attacks churches established in the city. June 22 The office of the Solicitor General of the United States is set up, to supervise and conduct government litigation in the United States Supreme Court. The U.S. Congress creates the United States Department of Justice. June 23 –The first message by electric telegraph using the Great Britain to India submarine cable is sent from London. June 26 – Richard Wagner's opera Die Walküre is first performed at Munich's National Theatre. June 28 – American President Ulysses S. Grant signs an act making the United States Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day federal holidays in the United States. July–September July 14 – The Ems Dispatch is published, serving as casus belli for a war between Prussia and France. July 15 Reconstruction Era: Georgia becomes the last former Confederate state of America to be readmitted to the Union. The British government admits the former Hudson's Bay Company territory of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to the Dominion of Canada. July 18 – Pastor aeternus: Pope Pius IX declares papal infallibility, in matters of faith and morals. July 19 – Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia. July 28 – Start of Solar Saros 153. The final eclipse in this series will be in 3114. July 30 – The 'Diggers' Republic' is proclaimed at Klipdrift in South Africa by diamond miners, with Stafford Parker as president. August 2 – The Tower Subway beneath the River Thames in London, the world's first underground passenger "tube" railway, officially opens. Although this lasts as a railway operation only until November, it demonstrates the technologically successful first use of the cylindrical wrought iron tunnelling shield, devised by Peter W. Barlow and James Henry Greathead, and of a permanent tunnel lining of cast iron segments. August 8 – The Republic of Ploiești, an uprising against Domnitor Carol of Romania, fails. August 24 – The Red River Rebellion in Canada ends with the arrival of the Wolseley Expedition and the flight of Louis Riel. September 2 – Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Sedan – Prussian forces defeat the French armies and take Emperor Napoleon III and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner at Sedan, France. September 4 – Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed and the Third Republic is declared. Empress Eugénie flees