Taras Shevchenko died on 26 February 1861 in Saint Petersburg, aged 47. A Ukrainian poet, painter and national figure, Shevchenko was born a serf in a village in central Ukraine and orphaned young. His artistic talent attracted the attention of Russian painters, who raised the money to buy his freedom in 1838. He studied at the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg, and in 1840 published his first collection of poems, Kobzar, written in vernacular Ukrainian, which helped to shape the modern literary language and inspired national feeling. In 1847 he was arrested for his membership in a secret society and sent to military service in the Central Asian steppe for ten years, with a ban on writing and painting. He died in St Petersburg and was buried in Ukraine, near Kaniv.
Before and after
- 1861The first Archaeopteryx skeleton is found
- 1861Pasteur disproves spontaneous generation
- from 8 February 1861 to 1 May 1865Confederate States of America
- 16 February 1861Earthquake in Lagundi, Simuk, Tello I, Indonesia
- 26 February 1861Death of Taras Shevchenko
- 3 March 1861Tsar Alexander II emancipates the Russian serfs
- from 17 March 1861 to 18 June 1946Kingdom of Italy
- 23 March 1861Publication of Great Expectations
- 10 April 1861Founding of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.