December – The Western Railroad is chartered to build a railroad from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to the coal fields of Egypt, North Carolina. December 2 – Napoleon III becomes Emperor of the French. December 4 – The French capture Laghouat. December 23 – Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army takes Hanyang and begins the siege of Wuchang. December 29 – Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army takes Hankou. Date unknown The grooved rail is developed by Alphonse Loubat. The Devil's Island penal colony opens in the colony of French Guiana. The semaphore line in France is superseded by the telegraph. Smith & Wesson is founded as a firearms manufacturer in the United States. In Hawaii, sugar planters bring over the first Chinese laborers on 3- or 5-year contracts, giving them 3 dollars per month plus room and board for working a 12-hour day, 6 days a week. Germans are encouraged to immigrate to Chile. The British Inman Line is the first to offer United States-bound migrants steerage passage in a steamer, . Loyola College is chartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Antioch College is founded in Yellow Springs, Ohio (its first president is Horace Mann). Mills College is founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in Benicia, California. The French Catholic De La Salle Brothers arrive from Europe in Singapore, aboard La Julie, and sail up to Penang in the Straits Settlements, to found the first Lasallian educational institutions in Asia. Justin Perkins, an American Presbyterian missionary, produces the first translation of the Bible in Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, which is published with the parallel text of the Syriac Peshitta, by the American Bible Society. Births January–March January 8 – James Milton Carroll, American Baptist pastor, leader, historian and author (d. 1931) January 11 – Constantin Fehrenbach, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1926) January 18 – Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère, French admiral (d. 1924) January 20 – José Guadalupe Posada, Mexican political engraver and printmaker (d. 1913) January 26 – Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, Italian-born explorer of Africa (d. 1905) February 5 – Terauchi Masatake, 9th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1919) February 16 – Charles Taze Russell (Pastor Russell), American Protestant reformer, evangelist, forerunner of Jehovah's Witnesses (d. 1916) February 26 – John Harvey Kellogg, American Adventist doctor and health reformer (d. 1943) March 1 – Théophile Delcassé, French statesman (d. 1923) April–June April 1 – Edwin Austin Abbey, American painter (d. 1911) April 3 – Talbot