November 30, 1853 · Black Sea Theater

A Russian squadron under Admiral Nakhimov annihilated an Ottoman fleet anchored at the port of Sinop on the Turkish Black Sea coast. Nakhimov's warships used explosive shells — a relatively new technology — to devastating effect, destroying seven frigates, two corvettes, and a steamer in less than three hours and killing approximately 3,000 Ottoman sailors. The harbor and town were left in flames.

September 14, 1854 · Crimea Theater

British, French, and Ottoman forces executed the largest amphibious operation since the Napoleonic Wars, landing approximately 60,000 men and their equipment on the western coast of Crimea at Calamita Bay, north of Sevastopol. The operation took several days and was complicated by cholera, which was already devastating both armies. Russian forces offered no opposition to the landing.

September 20, 1854 · Crimea Theater

The first major land battle of the Crimean War was fought at the Alma River, where Menshikov had positioned Russian forces on heights commanding the road to Sevastopol. Allied forces — British on the right, French on the left — crossed the river under fire and stormed the Russian positions. French forces scaled the cliffs on the left flank while British infantry advanced through withering musket fire. Russian resistance collapsed after roughly three hours.

October 17, 1854 · Crimea Theater

The siege of Sevastopol — Russia's principal naval base on the Black Sea — lasted 349 days and became the defining episode of the Crimean War. Russian engineer Colonel Franz Eduard Todleben constructed an extraordinary network of earthworks and bastions that repeatedly repulsed Allied assaults. Both sides suffered catastrophic losses primarily from disease in the cramped, unsanitary conditions. The city finally fell on September 11, 1855, after the French captured the key Malakhov bastion.

October 25, 1854 · Crimea Theater

A Russian force of approximately 25,000 men attacked the Allied supply port of Balaclava, defended by Ottoman troops, British cavalry, and the 93rd Highlanders under Sir Colin Campbell. The battle produced two of the Crimean War's most celebrated episodes: the 'Thin Red Line,' in which 550 Highlanders in a two-deep formation (rather than the standard square) repulsed a Russian cavalry charge; and the Charge of the Light Brigade, in which 673 British cavalrymen rode into a murderous crossfire.

October 25, 1854 · Crimea Theater

At approximately 11:10 AM on October 25, 1854, 673 officers and men of the British Light Brigade charged down the North Valley at Balaclava directly into the mouths of a twelve-gun Russian battery, under fire from artillery and infantry on both flanks. They reached the Russian guns, briefly captured them, and were driven back. Of 673 men who rode in, 110 were killed, 161 wounded, and 475 horses killed or lost. The charge lasted approximately twenty minutes.

November 4, 1854 · Balkans Theater

Florence Nightingale arrived at the Barrack Hospital at Scutari, across the Bosphorus from Constantinople, on November 4, 1854, with thirty-eight nurses. She found conditions of almost unimaginable horror: wards flooded with raw sewage, rodents everywhere, no soap, no clean linen, inadequate food and water, and a death rate exceeding 40 percent. Army medical authorities initially refused her help, insisting conditions were adequate.

November 5, 1854 · Crimea Theater

The bloodiest battle of the Crimean War, fought in dense fog on rocky hillside terrain that negated Russian numerical superiority and prevented coordination between their attacking columns. Two Russian forces — Soimonov's from Sevastopol and Pavlov's from the north — were supposed to attack simultaneously, but the fog and difficult ground prevented coordination. British troops fought in small groups without clear command, earning the battle its nickname 'the soldier's battle.' French troops under Bosquet arrived to deliver the decisive counter-attack.

November 14, 1854 · Crimea Theater

A catastrophic hurricane struck the Allied fleet on November 14, 1854, sinking or damaging dozens of supply ships and destroying the winter clothing, medical supplies, and food intended for British troops on the Crimean heights. The subsequent winter of 1854–55 was one of the worst in memory. British troops in inadequate tents without proper clothing, food, or medical care died by the thousands. Russell's dispatches to The Times created a national scandal that toppled the Aberdeen government.

September 8, 1855 · Crimea Theater

French forces under General MacMahon stormed and captured the Malakhov Tower — the key to Sevastopol's defenses — at noon on September 8, 1855, timing the assault to exploit a moment when Russian defenders traditionally stood down. Once the Malakhov fell, the entire southern defensive line became untenable. A simultaneous British assault on the Great Redan was repulsed with heavy casualties.

September 11, 1855 · Crimea Theater

After 349 days of siege, Russian forces under General Gorchakov evacuated Sevastopol on the night of September 11–12, 1855. They blew up the remaining forts and magazines, scuttled the last warships in the harbor, and crossed to the north side of the bay. Allied forces entered a city of ruins. The fall of Russia's most important Black Sea naval base effectively ended the war, though fighting continued elsewhere until the Treaty of Paris.

March 30, 1856 · Balkans Theater

The Treaty of Paris formally ended the Crimean War on March 30, 1856. Russia ceded southern Bessarabia to Moldavia, returned Kars to the Ottoman Empire, and — most humiliatingly — agreed to the demilitarization of the Black Sea, prohibiting Russian warships and naval bases there. The Ottoman Empire was admitted to the Concert of Europe. Moldavia and Wallachia gained increased autonomy.