revolutionary coup occurs in Spain. July 19 – Wood's despatch is sent by Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax to Lord Dalhousie, Governor General of India, proposing radical improvements to the Indian educational system. August 9 – Johann succeeds to the throne of Saxony, on the death of his brother. August 16 – Battle of Bomarsund: Russian troops on the island of Bomarsund, in Åland, surrender to French–British troops. August 19 – John Lawrence Grattan leads 29 United States troops and a civilian interpreter in attack on Lakota village over dispute involving emigrant cow. Grattan's command was annihilated. August 27 – English lawyer Alfred Wills and party set out for the first ascent of the Wetterhorn in Switzerland, regarded as the start of the "golden age of alpinism". August 31–September 8 – An epidemic of cholera in London kills over 10,000. Dr John Snow traces the source of one outbreak (that killed 500) to a single water pump, validating his theory that cholera is water-borne, and forming the starting point for epidemiology. September 9 – British Inman Line's is wrecked off Cape Race (Newfoundland) on her maiden voyage without loss of life. September 20 – Crimean War: Battle of Alma – The French–British alliance wins the first major land engagement of the war. September 27 – SS Arctic disaster: The American paddle steamer sinks after a collision with the much smaller French ship , 50 miles (80 km) off the coast of Newfoundland, with approximately 320 deaths. October–December October 1 – The watch company founded in 1850 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, by Aaron Lufkin Dennison, relocates to Waltham, to become the Waltham Watch Company, pioneer in the American system of watch manufacturing. October 9–11 – United States diplomats in Europe meet and draft the Ostend Manifesto, setting out a rationale for the U.S. to acquire Cuba from Spain. October 6 – The great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead in England is ignited by a spectacular explosion. October 17 – The Age newspaper is founded in Melbourne, Australia. October 25 – Crimean War: Battle of Balaclava – The allies gain an overall victory, except for the disastrous cavalry Charge of the Light Brigade, from which only 200 of 700 men survive. November Florence Nightingale and her team of 38 trained volunteer nurses, having set out on October 21 from England, arrive at Selimiye Barracks in Scutari in the Ottoman Empire, to care for