1869:

* William Lanne(y), the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal, dies. William Crowther (Member for Hobart Town and future Premier of Tasmania), dismembers Lanney's body. He also removed the skull and sent it to the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Even in 1869 this act outraged many people; a brawl ensued outside the Council chambers. Crowther was reprimanded.

* Mahatma Gandhi is born.

* All Japanese domains are returned to Emperor Meiji, forming a fully centralised government. This is the second year of the Meiji Period where Japan is thrust out of being an isolated feudal society to becoming a modern industrialised nation.