date: January 24

text: January 24 (O. S.) – Under the rule of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia are united under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire. It would be a principal step in forming the modern state of Romania.


date: January 28

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: January 28 – The city of Olympia is incorporated in the Washington Territory of the United States of America.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Miguel Miramón (1832–1867) becomes Conservative interim President of Mexico.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Border Treaty between Brazil and Venezuela: The two countries agree their borders should be traced at the water divide, between the Amazon and the Orinoco basins.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: May 18

text: May 18 – The 1859 United Kingdom general election concludes. It is the first election fought by the new Liberal Party, in which they win a 28 seat majority, with Liberal leader Viscount Palmerston becoming prime minister.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – The British Crown colony of Queensland in Australia is created, by devolving part of the territory of New South Wales (Queensland Day). Brisbane is declared the capital.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – The Tuscan National Assembly formally deposes the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, ending an ascendancy of 109 years.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: September 17

text: September 17 – In San Francisco, Joshua Norton proclaims himself to be His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – The Treaty of Zürich, reaffirming the terms of the Treaty of Villafranca, brings the Austro-Sardinian War to an official close.

source_section: Events › October–December


text: Count Camillo Benso di Cavour resigns, as president of Piedmont-Sardinia.


text: The Rancho Rincon de Los Esteros Land Grant is confirmed to Rafael Alvisa (part of modern-day Santa Clara County, California).

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: February 17

section: Conflict & Security

text: February 17 – French naval forces under Charles Rigault de Genouilly capture the city and Citadel of Saigon in Vietnam, beginning the Siege of Saigon.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – The army of the Kingdom of Sardinia mobilizes against Austria, beginning the crisis which will lead to the Austro-Sardinian War.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Indian Rebellion revolutionary, Tantia Tope is hanged for the 1857 Rebellion


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Austrian troops begin to cross the Ticino River to Piedmont.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Austro-Sardinian War: Battle of Montebello – The Austrian army led by Karl von Urban faces the French-Sardinian combined forces.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Austro-Sardinian War: Battle of Varese – Giuseppe Garibaldi's Hunters of the Alps confront and defeat Austrian forces, led by Field Marshal-Lieutenant Karl von Urban.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Austro-Sardinian War: Battle of Palestro – The Sardinians defeat the Austrian army.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Austro-Sardinian War: Battle of Magenta – The French and Sardinians defeat the Austrians.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Austro-Sardinian War: Battle of Treponti – The Austrian Field Marshall Karl von Urban defeats Giuseppe Garibaldi.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Austro-Sardinian War – Battle of Solferino: The Kingdom of Sardinia and the armies of Napoleon III of France defeat Franz Joseph I of Austria in northern Italy; the battle inspires Henri Dunant to found the Red Cross.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Austro-Sardinian War – By the preliminary treaty signed at Villafranca, Italy, Lombardy is ceded to the French (who immediately cede it to Sardinia), while the Austrians keep Venetia, and the French promise to restore the Central Italian rulers expelled in the course of the war. This brings the Austro-Sardinian War effectively to a close.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – John Brown raids the Harpers Ferry Armory in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in an unsuccessful bid to spark a general slave rebellion.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Troops under Colonel Robert E. Lee overpower John Brown at the Federal arsenal.


section: Exploration & Expansion

text: May 26, June 2 – Geologist Joseph Prestwich and amateur archaeologist John Evans report (to the Royal Society and Society of Antiquaries of London, respectively) the results of their investigations of gravel-pits in the Somme valley and elsewhere, extending human history back to what will become known as the Paleolithic Era.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – The discovery of the Comstock Lode in the western Utah Territory sets off the Rush to Washoe.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope for the first time.


date: September

text: September – British merchant Thomas Blake Glover begins business in Nagasaki, Japan.


text: The island of Timor is divided between Portugal and the Netherlands.


text: Pike's Peak Gold Rush begins in the Colorado Territory.


date: February 4

section: Religion & Belief

text: February 4 – German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovers the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th-century uncial manuscript of the Greek Bible, in Saint Catherine's Monastery on the foot of Mount Sinai, in the Khedivate of Egypt and arranges for its presentation to his patron, Tsar Alexander II of Russia at Saint Petersburg.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies is succeeded by his 23-year-old son, Francis II of the Two Sicilies.


date: July 28

text: July 28 The Bishop Cotton school (Shimla) (BCS) was founded on July 28, 1859,


section: Economy & Finance

text: Nillmij, a predecessor of Aegon, Dutch-based worldwide insurance company, is founded in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia).


text: The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women is founded.


date: March 3

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: March 3 – Construction begins on the first railway in northern India as tracks are laid between the modern-day locations of Allahabad and Kanpur.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Ground is broken for the Suez Canal, in Egypt.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge, linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.


text: July 11 – The chimes of Big Ben ring for the first time in London.


date: August 28

text: August 28–September 2 – The solar storm of 1859, the largest geomagnetic solar storm on record, causes the Northern lights to be visible as far south as Montería, Colombia and knocks out telegraph communication (this is also called the Carrington event).


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The current Cape Lookout, North Carolina, lighthouse is lighted for the first time (its first-order Fresnel lens can be seen for 19 miles).


text: Alfred, Lord Tennyson publishes the first set of Idylls of the King.


text: Tidskrift för hemmet, the first women's magazine in the Nordic countries, begins publication in Sweden.


date: March 26

section: Science & Discovery

text: March 26 – French amateur astronomer Edmond Modeste Lescarbault claims to have noticed a planet closer to the Sun than Mercury (later named Vulcan).


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Aletschhorn, the second summit of the Bernese Alps, is first ascended.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – The French Navy's La Gloire, the first ocean-going ironclad warship in history, is launched.


text: November 24 – English naturalist Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, a book which argues for the gradual evolution of species through natural selection (it immediately sells out its initial print run).


date: November

text: November – Bernhard Riemann publishes On the Number of Primes Less Than a Given Magnitude. In his paper there is an incidental comment that later becomes the Riemann Hypothesis, one of the most important unsolved problems in Mathematics.


text: Karl Marx publishes A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.


text: John Stuart Mill publishes On Liberty.


text: George Eliot publishes Adam Bede.


section: Health & Medicine

text: District nursing begins in Liverpool, England, when philanthropist William Rathbone employs Mary Robinson to nurse the sick poor in their own homes.


date: February 27

section: Crime & Justice

text: February 27 – United States Congressman Daniel Sickles shoots Philip Barton Key (U.S. District Attorney) for having an affair with his wife.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.


date: April 28

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: April 28 – American ship Pomona is wrecked off the Irish coast, with 424 dead.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Edwin Drake drills the first oil well in the United States, near Titusville, Pennsylvania, starting the Pennsylvania oil rush.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – The steamship Royal Charter is wrecked on the coast of Anglesey, Wales, with 454 dead.


date: June 17

section: Climate & Environment

text: June 17 – The only recorded simoom ever in North America hits Goleta and Santa Barbara, California.


date: February 12

section: Culture & Society

text: February 12 – The Mekteb-i Mülkiye School is founded in the Ottoman Empire.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Pennsylvania issues the charter establishing the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, the first organization of its kind in the United States, and founder of the nation's first zoo.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is founded by Peter Cooper, a New York industrialist, inventor and philanthropist.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is published in England.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Big Ben, the Great Clock at the Palace of Westminster, London, is started.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The first intercollegiate baseball game is played, between Amherst and Williams Colleges.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Charles XV succeeds his father Oscar I of Sweden and Norway (as Charles IV).


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps, is first ascended.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – The first Zappas Olympics open in Greece.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – The Ateneo de Manila University is founded, as the Escuela Municipal de Manila.


text: The University of Michigan Law School is founded.


text: The Mary Institute is founded in Missouri.


date: January 11

section: Births

text: January 11 – George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, British statesman, Viceroy of India (d. 1925)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Wilhelm II, last Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia (d. 1941)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Victor Herbert, Irish-born composer (Babes In Toyland) (d. 1924)


date: February 5

text: February 5 – Louis Cheikho, Lebanese Jesuit Chaldean priest and venerable (d. 1927)


date: February 14

text: February 14 – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., American inventor of the Ferris wheel (d. 1896)


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Alexandru Averescu, Romanian general and politician, 24th Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1938)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Willis Van Devanter, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1941)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, British co-founder of the London School of Economics (d. 1947)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1952)


date: September 17

text: September 17 – William H. Bonney (Billy The Kid), American outlaw, gunfighter (d. 1881)


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Frank Seiberling, American inventor, co-founder of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (d. 1955)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Henri Bergson, French philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1941)


date: October 20

text: October 20 – John Dewey, American philosopher, psychologist and educator (d. 1952)


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Cass Gilbert, American architect (Woolworth Building, United States Supreme Court building) (d. 1934)


date: January 28

section: Deaths

text: January 28 – F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1782)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Eliza Acton, English poet, cookery writer (b. 1799)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian (b. 1805)


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Alexander von Humboldt, German naturalist and geographer (b. 1769)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Bakht Khan, commander-in-chief of Indian rebel forces in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (b. 1797)


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Austrian diplomat (b. 1773)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – The so-called Pig War border dispute between the Americans and the British, over the San Juan Islands, begins by the death of the namesake pig.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Richard Rush, United States Attorney General under James Madison, United States Secretary of the Treasury under President John Quincy Adams (b. 1780)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: August 2

text: August 2 – Horace Mann, American educator, abolitionist (b. 1796)


text: August 4 – John Vianney, French saint known as the Curé de Ars (b. 1786)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Sultan Abd al-Rahman of Morocco (b. 1788)


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Robert Stephenson, English civil engineer (b. 1803)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Washington Irving, American author (b. 1783)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – John Brown, American abolitionist (hanged) (b. 1800)


text: Roman governor Pertinax escapes an assassination attempt, by British usurpers.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: Peasants in Gaul stage an anti-tax uprising under Maternus.


text: The Hatepe volcanic eruption extends Lake Taupō and makes skies red across the world. However, recent radiocarbon dating by R. Sparks has put the date at 233 AD ± 13 (95% confidence).

source_section: Events › By place › New Zealand


text: Ma Liang, Chinese official of the Shu Han state (d. 222)

source_section: Births


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Apollonius the Apologist, Christian martyr

source_section: Deaths


text: Paccia Marciana, Roman noblewoman (approximate date)


text: Bian Zhang, Chinese official and general (b. 133)


text: Sohaemus, Roman client king of Armenia


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour is recalled as Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Abraham Lincoln makes his Cooper Union speech in New York, which is largely responsible for his election to the presidency.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 22

text: March 22 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany is annexed to the newly formed Kingdom of Italy.

source_section: Events › March


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The first Italian Parliament meets at Turin.

source_section: Events › April


date: June 12

text: June 12 – (May 31 O.S.) – The State Bank of the Russian Empire is established.

source_section: Events › June


date: August 13

text: August 13 – José Ignacio Pavón (1791-1866) becomes unconstitutional interim President of Mexico, replacing Miguel Miramón. Two days later Miramón becomes president again.

source_section: Events › August


date: November 6

text: November 6 – 1860 United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln elected as the 16th President of the United States, the first Republican to hold that office, defeating John C. Breckinridge, Stephen A. Douglas, and John Bell.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 20

text: December 20 – American Civil War: South Carolina, led by Governor Francis Pickens, becomes the first state to secede from the United States.

source_section: Events › December


text: In Buenos Aires, leader Bartolomé Mitre subverts the Argentine Confederation and begins to establish a new centralist government, with the help of Uruguayan Colorado party leader Venancio Flores.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: China agrees, in an unequal treaty (the Convention of Peking) imposed on it, to allow missionaries to proselytize throughout the country.


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Battle of Tétouan, Morocco: Spanish troops under General Leopoldo O'Donnell, 1st Duke of Tetuan defeat the Moroccan Army.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – The Wiyot Massacre takes place at Tuluwat Island, Humboldt Bay in northern California.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The First Taranaki War begins at Waitara, New Zealand, when Māori refuse to sell land to British settlers.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Sakuradamon Incident: Rōnin samurai of the Mito Domain in Japan assassinate tairō (Chief Minister) Ii Naosuke outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle, disaffected with his role in the opening of Japan to foreign powers.


date: March

text: March–August – The second rout of the Jiangnan Daying destroys the Qing dynasty's army of 180,000.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – A new uprising erupts in Palermo.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Expedition of the Thousand – Battle of Calatafimi: Troops under Giuseppe Garibaldi defeat the army of Naples in Sicily.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Garibaldi's forces take Palermo, the capital of Sicily.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Battle of Milazzo: The forces of Giuseppe Garibaldi defeat royal Neapolitan forces near Messina, bringing nearly all of Sicily under Garibaldi's control.

source_section: Events › July


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Giuseppe Garibaldi's forces capture Naples.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Piedmontese forces invade the Papal States, hoping to link up with Garibaldi in Naples.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Battle of Castelfidardo: The Piedmontese decisively defeat the Papal forces, allowing them to continue their march into Neapolitan territory, and effectively reducing the Papal States to the territory around Rome.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Battle of Guayaquil: Ecuadorian forces, led by Juan José Flores and Gabriel García Moreno, take the port of Guayaquil from Supreme Chief Guillermo Franco, who is backed by Peruvian forces.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Battle of Volturnus: Garibaldi defeats the last organized army of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and the Ottoman Empire form a commission to investigate the causes of the massacres of Maronite Christians, committed by Druzes in Lebanon earlier in the year.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – The first Convention of Peking formally ends the Second Opium War.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – A new Māori revolt begins in New Zealand.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Garibaldi again defeats the Neapolitan forces, advancing on Gaeta, the last remaining Neapolitan strong-point.


text: October 26 – Meeting at Teano: Giuseppe Garibaldi gives Naples to King Victor Emmanuel II, recognizing him as King of Italy.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The combined forces of Giuseppe Garibaldi and King Victor Emmanuel II besiege King Francis II of the Two Sicilies in Gaeta, his last remaining stronghold.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Mexico's interim president Miguel Miramón flees the country after being defeated in battle.


text: Christians and Druzes clash in Damascus, Syria.


text: Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, and Empress Eugénie visit Algiers and stay at the Casbah of Algiers.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – In the U.S., the Pony Express begins its first run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, with riders carrying a small Bible.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Expedition of the Thousand: Giuseppe Garibaldi and his troops depart from Quarto.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Assisted by the British Navy, the troops of Giuseppe Garibaldi cross from Sicily to the Italian mainland.


date: October

text: October – John Hanning Speke and James Augustus Grant leave Zanzibar, to search for the source of the Nile River.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – After a fiercely contested campaign, Monier Monier-Williams is elected as the new Boden Professor of Sanskrit, at Oxford University.


text: TAG Heuer watchmaker founded in Bern Canton, Switzerland.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – The world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled and armoured battleship, the (British) HMS Warrior, is launched.


text: The Russian Empire has c. 1250 mi km of railroads.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – The astronomer Urbain Le Verrier announces the discovery of a hypothetical planet Vulcan at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – French typesetter Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville creates a recording of the French folk song Au clair de la lune with his phonautograph, producing the world's earliest known intelligible sound recording of the human voice (however, it was not rediscovered until 2008).


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Charles Dickens publishes the first installment of Great Expectations in his magazine All the Year Round.


text: Discovery of the chemical elements: Robert Bunsen discovers caesium and rubidium.


text: German chemist Albert Niemann makes a detailed analysis of the coca leaf, isolating and purifying the alkaloid, which he calls cocaine.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Section 377 of the British Indian penal code was enacted in British India.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – The Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts collapses, killing at least 77 workers.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Canadian Royal Mail steamer (1859) is wrecked on Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, on passage from the British Isles to the United States with all 205 onboard lost.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – A Chondrite-type meteorite falls to earth in Muskingum County, Ohio, near the town of New Concord.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – The is accidentally rammed and sunk in Lake Michigan, drowning at least 300 people.


date: October 18

text: October 18–21 – Beijing's Old Summer Palace is burned to the ground by orders of British general Lord Elgin, in retaliation for mistreatment of several prisoners of war, during the Second Opium War.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – In New Granada (modern-day Colombia) the southern state of Cauca secedes from the central government, in protest at the suggestion of increase of presidential powers; Magdalena and Bolívar join it; civil war erupts.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – The German association football club TSV 1860 München is founded.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Vladivostok is founded in Russia.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Mutsuhito (the future Emperor Meiji) becomes Crown Prince of Japan.


date: September 3

text: September 3–5 – The First International Chemistry Congress is held in Karlsruhe, Baden.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – The Open Championship, also known as the British Open, is played for the first time at Prestwick Golf Club in Ayrshire, Scotland. The event is won by Willie Park Sr


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Charles Curtis, American politician, 31st Vice President (d. 1936)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Carl Georg Barth, Norwegian-American mathematician, mechanical engineer (d. 1939)


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Horatio Bottomley, British politician and businessman (d. 1933)


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Will Keith Kellogg, American industrialist, founder of the Kellogg Company (d. 1951)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Theodor Herzl, Austrian founder of modern political Zionism (d. 1904)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Willem Einthoven, Dutch inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1927)


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Otto Jespersen, Danish linguist, creator of Ido and Novial languages (d.1943)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Florence Harding, First Lady of the United States (d. 1924)


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Jane Addams, American social worker, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1935)


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Juliette Gordon Low, American founder of the Girl Scouts (d. 1927)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Joseph Cook, 6th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1947)


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1904)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Joseph S. Cullinan, American oil industrialist, founder of Texaco (d. 1937)


text: December 31 – John T. Thompson, United States Army officer, inventor of the Tommy gun (d. 1940)


date: January 5

text: January 5 – John Neumann, Saint and Roman Catholic Bishop of Philadelphia (b. 1811)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Ezequiel Zamora, leader of the Federalist Army in Venezuela (b. 1817)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Thomas Brisbane, Scottish astronomer (b. 1773)


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Stéphanie de Beauharnais, Grand Duchess of Baden (b. 1789)


date: March 25

text: March 25 – James Braid, Scottish surgeon (b. 1795)


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Theodore Parker, American preacher, Transcendentalist, and abolitionist (b. 1810)


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Sir Charles Barry, English architect (b. 1795)


text: May 21 – Phineas Gage, improbable American head injury survivor (b. 1823)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (b. 1788)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Sir Harry Smith, English soldier, military commander (b. 1787)


text: October 31 – Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, British admiral (b. 1775)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia), Empress Consort of Russian Emperor Nicholas I (b. 1798)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Ferdinand Christian Baur, German theologian (b. 1792)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1784)


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union.

source_section: Events › January


text: January 10 – Florida secedes from the Union.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Alabama secedes from the Union.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Texas secedes from the Union.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 4

text: February 4 – In Montgomery, Alabama, the Provisional Confederate States Congress is formed by representatives from the first seven break-away states.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Abraham Lincoln is sworn in as the 16th president of the United States.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 11

text: March 11 – American Civil War: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Unification of Italy: The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed by the new Parliament, with Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia becoming its king.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, gives the infamous Cornerstone Speech in Savannah, Georgia, in which he declares that slavery is the natural condition of blacks, and the foundation of the Confederacy.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Confederate Arizona: A convention in modern-day Tucson ratifies the ordinance of secession of the southern part of New Mexico Territory.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Virginia secedes from the Union.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Arkansas secedes from the Union.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Tennessee secedes from the Union.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality", which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – American Civil War: The state of Virginia's ordinance of secession from the United States is ratified in a referendum.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – The Perpetual Truce of Peace and Friendship is signed between Bahrain and the United Kingdom.


date: May

text: Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which lasts until September 3, when Confederate forces enter the state.


text: North Carolina secedes from the Union.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The Confederate States sign a Treaty with Choctaws and Chickasaws in Indian Territory.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Lagos Treaty of Cession between the British Empire and Dosunmu, Oba of Lagos, by which the latter, under threat of military bombardment, cedes Lagos Island to Britain, whilst retaining his title and powers, subject to English law, and allowing the British Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron to have a base there to prevent the slave trade.

source_section: Events › August


date: October 28

text: October 28 – The Missouri legislature takes up a bill for Missouri's secession from the Union.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Trent Affair – The stops the United Kingdom mail ship Trent, and arrests two Confederate envoys, James Mason and John Slidell, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the U.K. and U.S.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 11

text: November 11 – The Tongzhi Emperor succeeds to the throne of China at the age of 5. His mother, Empress Dowager Cixi, becomes co-regent and will be the power behind the imperial throne for almost 50 years.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – American Civil War: A rebel government representing Kentucky is accepted into the Confederate States of America, although Kentucky officially remains part of the United States.

source_section: Events › December


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Unification of Italy: The Siege of Gaeta, stronghold of the Neapolitan King Francis II, is ended by Piedmontese forces. Francis goes into exile.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C. in light of suspicions of a conspiracy in Baltimore to kill him.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – American Civil War: The "Stars and Bars" is adopted as the flag of the Confederate States of America.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – El Hadj Umar Tall seizes the city of Ségou, destroying the Bamana Empire of Mali.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Tsushima incident: The Russian corvette Posadnik arrives at Tsushima Island in the Korea Strait, Japan, provoking a reaction from the Japanese Shogunate.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Unification of Italy: The surrender of Civitella del Tronto ends the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – The American Civil War begins with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, South Carolina.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in the United States.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Russian sailors clash with a group of Japanese samurai and farmers at Tsushima Island.

source_section: Events › May


date: July 21

text: July 21 – First Battle of Bull Run – At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war ends in a Confederate victory.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 25

text: July 25 – The Crittenden–Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress, stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union, and not to end slavery.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac, following the disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – American Civil War: The first major battle west of the Mississippi River, the Battle of Wilson's Creek, is fought, with a Confederate victory.


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Confederate General Leonidas Polk invades neutral Kentucky, prompting the state legislature to ask for Union assistance.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, Kentucky, which gives the Union control of the mouth of the Tennessee River.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Argentine Civil War: Battle of Pavón: Victory of Buenos Aires over the Argentine Confederation, and the re-unification of Argentina.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Australian frontier wars: Cullin-la-ringo massacre – 19 white settlers are murdered by indigenous Australians, following which more than 300 of the latter are killed in retaliation.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 21

text: October 21 – American Civil War: Battle of Ball's Bluff – Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops, in the second major battle of the war. Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, is also killed in the fighting.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – American Civil War: Western Department Union General John C. Frémont is relieved of command and replaced by David Hunter.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Battle of Belmont – In Belmont, Missouri, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant (in his first combat leadership role) overrun a Confederate camp, but are forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrive.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Battle of Round Mountain in Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma).


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah P. Benjamin Secretary of War.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – At a battle in the Sundarbans of Bengal, the house of Rahimullah of Baraikhali is attacked and he and 33 others are killed.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – American Civil War: Trent Affair – The British government dispatches its response, partly drafted by Prince Albert (a fortnight before his death).


date: February 20

text: February 20 – In Britain, storms damage the Crystal Palace and cause the collapse of the steeple of Chichester Cathedral.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Ivan Kasatkin lands on Hakodate, and introduces the Eastern Orthodox Church into Japan.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce is established.


date: August

text: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government issues the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US$800; rescinded in 1872).


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The Toronto Stock Exchange is established in Canada.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The first steam-powered carousel is recorded, in Bolton, England.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – A 7-day working men's package holiday to Paris, organised by Thomas Cook, sets out from London Bridge station.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States.


text: The first industrial meat packing plant in Uruguay is established, at Fray Bentos.

source_section: Events › Undated


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Discovery of the chemical elements: British chemist William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Giovanni Schiaparelli discovers the asteroid 69 Hesperia.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Comet C/1861 J1 (the "Great Comet of 1861") is discovered from Australia.


text: May 17 – Scottish-born physicist James Clerk Maxwell demonstrates the principle of permanent three-colour photography in a lecture at the Royal Institution in London using a photograph captured by Thomas Sutton.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Règlement Organique: With the approval of European powers, the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate is established as a semi-autonomous sub-division separate from the Sidon Eyalet. An Ottoman Armenian, Davud Pasha, is appointed Mutasarrıf by the Ottoman Sultan.

source_section: Events › June


date: August 1

text: August 1 – The first public weather forecast: measured and predicted correctly by Admiral Robert FitzRoy in Britain.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – First description of Archaeopteryx, based on a feather found in Bavaria; in September the first complete identified skeleton is found near Langenaltheim in Germany.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Weisshorn, the fifth highest summit in the Alps, is first ascended.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – A population census is taken in the United Kingdom. The population is more than double that of 1801 and those living in urban areas are in a majority.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Kukis raid the Chhagalnaiya plains in eastern Bengal, murdering and kidnapping hundreds of people, particularly women.


text: May 13 – North Star affair: The British merchant ship North Star leaves Hong Kong for Nagasaki, Japan. Chinese pirates board the vessel, kill an officer, and escape with a large quantity of gold.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Martin Doyle is the last person executed in Britain for attempted murder.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Tooley Street fire breaks out and takes the life of James Braidwood, first superintendent of the London Fire Brigade.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Lambing Flat riots: White miners attack Chinese in the Australian goldfields.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – A tenement collapses in the Old Town, Edinburgh (Scotland), killing 35 people, while 15 others survive.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – In southern French Indochina, resistance forces led by Nguyễn Trung Trực ambush, board and sink the French lorcha (boat) L'Esperance on the Nhat Tao canal.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, Argentina.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The Canellas meteorite, an 859 gram chondrite type meteorite, strikes Earth near Barcelona, Spain.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – The Pony Express American transcontinental mail service announces its closure.


text: Statistically, this year is considered the end of the whale oil industry and (in replacement) the beginning of the petroleum oil industry.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Mariehamn, the capital of Åland, is founded.


date: March 3

text: March 3 (February 19 O.S.) – Emancipation reform of 1861: Alexander II abolishes serfdom in the Russian Empire.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – The Royal Seminary is granted its constitution as the first public institution of higher academic learning open to women in Sweden.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The first issue of the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano is published.


text: July 1 – In Cologne, the Wallraf–Richartz Museum of art opens.


date: August 20

text: August 20–22 – The first modern Welsh National Eisteddfod takes place in Aberdare.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – The University of Washington is founded in Seattle.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – The first Melbourne Cup horse race is held in Melbourne, Australia.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1947)

source_section: Births › January–June


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher, social reformer and author (d. 1925)


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, British soldier, administrator (d. 1936)


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Rabindranath Tagore, Poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist, story-writer, composer, painter, philosopher, social reformer, educationist, linguist, grammarian, and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate for the collection of poems Gitanjali. (d. 1941)


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Frederick Russell Burnham, American scouter (d. 1947)


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Herman Webster Mudgett (alias H. H. Holmes), American serial killer (d. 1896)


date: June 19

text: June 19 – José Rizal, Filipino national hero (d. 1896)


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1947)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Nettie Stevens, American geneticist credited with the discovery of sex chromosomes (d. 1912)

source_section: Births › July–December


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Edith Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States (d. 1948)


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Dorothea Klumpke, American astronomer, Director of the Bureau of Measurements at the Paris Observatory (d. 1942)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Frederic Remington, American cowboy artist, sculptor (d. 1909)


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer, scientist and humanitarian, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1930)


date: November 6

text: November 6 – James Naismith, Canadian inventor of basketball (d. 1939)


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Lola Montez, Irish-born dancer, mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1821)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet (b. 1814)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Princess Victoria, Duchess of Kent and Strathearn, mother of Queen Victoria (b. 1786)


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Isaiah Stillman, U.S. Army Major in the Black Hawk War (b. 1793)


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Stephen A. Douglas, American senator from Illinois, Democratic presidential candidate (b. 1813)


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Richard Lawrence, failed assassin of Andrew Jackson (b. 1800)


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Abdülmecid I, Ottoman sultan (b. 1823)


text: June 25 – Abdülmecid I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1839–1861) dies and is succeeded by Abdülaziz (1861–1876).


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (b. 1806)


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Nathaniel Lyon, first Union Army General to die in combat in the American Civil War (b. 1818)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Eliphalet Remington, American gunsmith, founder of Remington Arms (b. 1793)


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Xianfeng Emperor, 9th emperor of the Qing dynasty (b. 1831)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – William Lyon Mackenzie, Scottish journalist, 1st Mayor of Toronto (b. 1795)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Death of French explorer Henri Mouhot, following which his servant Phrai begins shipping his diaries and specimens back to the west; they include accounts of Mouhot's discovery of Angkor Wat.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated in Richmond, Virginia, to a six-year term as president of the Confederate States.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed U.S. Department of Agriculture).


date: May 20

text: May 20 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Treaty of Saigon: Emperor Tự Đức of the Nguyễn dynasty in Vietnam cedes Saigon, Côn Sơn Island and three southern provinces of what is to become known as French Cochinchina (Biên Hòa, Gia Định and Định Tường) to become part of the French colonial empire. Guerilla leader Trương Định refuses to recognize the treaty.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Morrill Land-Grant Act into law, creating a system of land-grant colleges, to teach agricultural and mechanical sciences across the United States.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Francisco Solano López is appointed second President of Paraguay.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – American Civil War: The preliminary announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation is made by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln: From January 1, 1863, slaves in the Confederate States will be considered free.


text: September 22 – Otto von Bismarck becomes Minister President of Prussia, following refusal by the country's Landtag to accept the military budget.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein signs into law the 1862 Constitution of Liechtenstein.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – New Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck delivers his Blood and Iron (Blut und Eisen) speech to the Prussian Landtag.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Otto is deposed as King of Greece.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Ramón Castilla loses the Presidency of Peru for a second time.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – In his State of the Union address, President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery, as he ordered ten weeks earlier in his Emancipation Proclamation.


date: December

text: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia into two.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – French intervention in Mexico: French, Spanish and British forces arrive in Veracruz, Mexico.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 11

text: February 11–16 – Battle of Fort Donelson – General Ulysses S. Grant attacks Fort Donelson, Tennessee, capturing it on the last day.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 8

text: March 8 – Ironclad (formerly USS Merrimack) is launched at Hampton Roads, Virginia; the Battle of Hampton Roads starts the same day.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 13

text: March 13 – American Civil War: The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Second French intervention in Mexico: The Spanish and the British ended their alliance with France.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 6

text: April 6–7– Battle of Shiloh – The Union Army, under General Ulysses S. Grant, defeats the Confederates near Shiloh, Tennessee.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Second French intervention in Mexico: Battle of Puebla – Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza defeats the French Army; commemorated each year as Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for Fifth of May).


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Battle of Cross Keys – Confederate troops under General Stonewall Jackson save the Army of Northern Virginia from a Union Army attack on the James Peninsula that is led by General George B. McClellan.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – American Civil War: Battle of Mechanicsville – Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats the troops of General George B. McClellan in the first of the Seven Days Battles.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – American Civil War: Henry Halleck takes command of the Union Army.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Battle of Baton Rouge – Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Confederate ironclad is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering damage in a battle with , near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Battle of Cedar Mountain – Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope at Cedar Mountain, Virginia.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota, as Dakota Sioux attack white settlements along the Minnesota River. They are overwhelmed by the U.S. Army six weeks later.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Dakota War of 1862: During an uprising in Minnesota, Dakota warriors decide not to attack heavily defended Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.


date: August 28

text: August 28–30 – Second Battle of Bull Run – Confederate forces inflict a crushing defeat on Union General John Pope.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln restores Union General George B. McClellan to full command, after General John Pope's disastrous defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – In the Confederacy's first invasion of the North, General Robert E. Lee leads 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River at White's Ford near Leesburg, Virginia, into Maryland.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – American Civil War: Battle of Perryville – Union Army forces under General Don Carlos Buell halt the Confederate invasion of Kentucky by defeating troops led by General Braxton Bragg at Perryville, Kentucky.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – American Civil War: In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the North.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – In the Granadine Confederation (modern-day Colombia), rebel troops of the southern states defeat government forces.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – President Abraham Lincoln approves the plan by General Ambrose Burnside to capture the Confederate capital city of Richmond, Virginia. This plan leads to a disastrous Union defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Battle of Fredericksburg – The Union Army suffers massive casualties and abandons its attempts to capture the Confederate capital city of Richmond, Virginia.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 26

text: December 26–29 – Battle of Chickasaw Bayou – Another victory for the Confederate Army, outnumbered two to one, results in six times as many Union casualties, defeating several assaults commanded by Union general William T. Sherman.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) extemporises the story that becomes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, for ten-year-old Alice Liddell and her sisters, on a rowboat trip on The Isis from Oxford to Godstow.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Yazoo Pass Expedition – Union ironclad gunboat is sunk by a remotely-detonated "torpedo" (naval mine) while clearing mines from the Yazoo River, the first armored ship sunk by mine.


text: Donald McIntyre builds a settlement in northwest Queensland (Australia) which becomes the town of Julia Creek (named after his niece).

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: October 9

text: October 9 – The Transvaal Civil War breaks out, following Stephanus Schoeman's unconstitutional ousting of the acting President of the Executive Council of the South African Republic.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Global financial group UBS is founded in Switzerland as the Bank in Winterthur.


text: Iwai Fumisuke Shoten (岩井文助商店), predecessor of Japanese conglomerate Sojitz, is founded in Osaka.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – American Civil War: The first U.S. ironclad warship, , is launched in Brooklyn.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – The first railway is opened in New Zealand, by the Dun Mountain Copper Mining Company.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The first railway line in Finland, between the cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, is officially opened.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Great Locomotive Chase (Andrews' Raid) – Union volunteers steal Confederate steam railroad locomotive The General (which will still exist in the 21st century) in an attempt to sabotage the rail network.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Westminster Bridge is opened across the Thames in London. This new iron bridge, designed by Thomas Page, replaces the previous stone one.

source_section: Events › May


date: July 1

text: July 1 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the Pacific Railroad Acts, authorizing construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps, is first ascended.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – The Vienna Stadtpark opens its gates.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Richard Jordan Gatling patents the Gatling gun in the United States.


text: Japanese construction company Satō Kōgyō is founded in Toyama as Satō-gumi.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Alvan Graham Clark makes the first observation of Sirius B, a white dwarf star, through an eighteen-inch telescope at Northwestern University in Illinois.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – A smallpox epidemic in San Francisco spreads to British Columbia.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – The first United States Navy hospital ships enter service.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – John Winter Robinson, the Secretary of State of Kansas, is convicted and removed from office as the result of a bond scandal, becoming the first state executive official to be impeached and removed from office in American history.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – American Indian Wars: In Minnesota, more than 300 Santee Sioux are found guilty of rape and murder of white settlers, and are sentenced to hang.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Hartley Colliery disaster in north-east England: 204 men are trapped and die underground when the only shaft becomes blocked.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – An ammunition warehouse explosion in San Andres Chalchicomula, Mexico, kills between 1,400 and 2,280 during the Second French intervention in Mexico.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – General Order No. 11, which expels all Jews from his military district, is issued by General Ulysses S. Grant. This order is rescinded just a few weeks later.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – sinks in a storm in the Atlantic, off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.


date: December

text: December – Peruvian slave raiders land on Easter Island, beginning a decade of the destruction of the society and population on the island.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – American Civil War: Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is published for the first time in the Atlantic Monthly.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Victor Hugo's epic French historical novel Les Misérables begins publication in Brussels.


date: May 1

text: May 1–November 1 – The 1862 International Exhibition is held at South Kensington in London; it is particularly noteworthy for an exhibit from Japan, influential in the development of Anglo-Japanese style.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – The California State Normal School (later San Jose State University) is created by an Act of the California legislature.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Russian State Library is founded, as The Library of the Moscow Public Museum.


text: July 1 – Princess Alice, the second daughter of Queen Victoria, marries Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine.


text: July 1 – The Bureau of Internal Revenue, the forerunner of the Internal Revenue Service, is established in the United States.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Horace Greeley publishes an editorial, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions", in the New York Tribune, in which he urges U.S. President Abraham Lincoln to make abolition of slavery an official aim of the Union war effort.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Notts County F.C. is founded in Nottingham, England, making it (by the 21st century) the world's oldest professional Association football team.


text: Anglo-Indian teacher Anna Leonowens accepts an offer made by the Siamese consul in Singapore, Tan Kim Ching, to teach the wives and children of Mongkut, the King of Siam.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – James Clark McReynolds, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1946)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: March 25

text: March 25 – George Sutherland, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1942)


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Aristide Briand, French politician, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1932)


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Nicholas Murray Butler, American president of Columbia University, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1947)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Charles Evans Hughes, American jurist, politician, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1948)


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Philipp Lenard, Hungarian–German physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1947)


date: July 2

text: July 2 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1942)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Ida B. Wells, American journalist, suffragist, and anti-lynching crusader (d. 1931)


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man), English sufferer from deformities (d. 1890)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Andrew Fisher, 5th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1928)


text: August 29 – Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate (d. 1949)


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, British general, 12th Governor General of Canada (d. 1935)


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Carl Eytel, German-American artist working in Palm Springs, California (d. 1925)


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Gerhart Hauptmann, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1946)

source_section: Births › October–December


text: February 3 – Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist, astronomer and mathematician (b. 1774)


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Francisco de Paula Martínez de la Rosa y Berdejo, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1787)


date: February 20

text: February 20 – William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln, third son of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln (b. 1850)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American Confederate general (b. 1803)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – W. H. L. Wallace, American Civil War Union general (died of wounds) (b. 1821)


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Henry David Thoreau, American author, philosopher (b. 1817)


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Edward Gibbon Wakefield, English theorist of colonization (b. 1796)


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Juana Azurduy de Padilla, South American guerrilla military leader (b. c. 1781)


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Henry Thomas Buckle, English historian sometimes called "the father of scientific history" (b. 1821)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning, English Viceroy of India (b. 1812)


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Martin Van Buren, 79, 8th President of the United States (b. 1782)


date: September 6

text: September 6 – John Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1780)


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Bahadur Shah II, 19th and Last mughal emperor (b. 1775)


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, American Confederate general (killed in action) (b. 1823)


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation during the third year of the American Civil War, making the abolition of slavery in the Confederate States of America an official war goal. The signing proclaims the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's four million slaves and immediately frees 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as the Union Army advances. This event marks the start of America's Reconstruction Era.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Arizona is organized as a United States territory.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Idaho Territory is organized by the U.S. Congress.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Prince Wilhelm George of Denmark is elected at the age of 17 by the Hellenic Parliament as George, King of the Hellenes; he will reign in Greece for 50 years. He arrives in Athens on October 30 to take the throne.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – The Treaty of Huế is signed between Vietnam and the French Empire.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – The Granadine Confederation becomes the United States of Colombia, under President Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Slavery is abolished in the Dutch colonies of Suriname (independent from 1975) and Curaçao and Dependencies.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – American Indian Wars: Representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) sign the Box Elder Treaty.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – At the suggestion of Senator J. V. Snellman and the order of Emperor Alexander II, full rights are promised to the Finnish language by a language regulation in the Grand Duchy of Finland.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – After Spain's annexation of the Dominican Republic, rebels raise the Dominican flag in Santiago to begin the Dominican Restoration War.


date: October 26

text: October 26–29 – The Resolutions of the Geneva International Conference are signed by sixteen countries meeting in Geneva agreeing to form the International Red Cross.

source_section: Events › October


text: Douglas becomes the capital of the Isle of Man, after its parliament (Tynwald) moves its chambers from Castletown.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – French intervention in Mexico: French forces bombard Veracruz.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to liberate the Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth from Russian occupation.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – American Indian Wars – Bear River Massacre: The United States Army, led by General Patrick Edward Connor, massacres Chief Bear Hunter and forces of the Shoshone, in the Idaho Territory.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – U.S. Army Private Jacob Parrott, a soldier in "Andrews' Raiders", becomes the first person to receive the Medal of Honor, presented by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to six of the Raiders. Parrott is followed that day by six others.


date: May 1

text: May 1–4 – American Civil War: Battle of Chancellorsville – General Robert E. Lee defeats Union forces with 13,000 Confederate casualties, among them Stonewall Jackson (fatally wounded by friendly fire), and 17,500 Union casualties.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – American Civil War: Battle of Jackson, Mississippi – Union General Ulysses S. Grant defeats Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, opening the way for the siege of Vicksburg.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – American Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts, the first African-American regiment, leaves Boston to fight for the Union.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – French intervention in Mexico: French forces enter Mexico City.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Second Battle of Winchester – A Union garrison is defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester, Virginia.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – The Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg campaign ends inconclusively.


text: July 1–3 – Battle of Gettysburg – Union forces under George G. Meade turn back a Confederate invasion by Robert E. Lee in the largest battle of the war (28,000 Confederate casualties, 23,000 Union).


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Siege of Vicksburg – Ulysses S. Grant and the Union army capture the Confederate city Vicksburg, Mississippi, after the town surrenders following a 47-day siege.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – American Civil War: The Siege of Port Hudson ends, and the Union controls the entire Mississippi River for the first time.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – New York City draft riots: In New York City, opponents of conscription to the American Civil War begin 3 days of violent rioting, which will be regarded as the worst in the history of the United States with around 120 killed.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The New Zealand Wars against the Māori people resume, as British forces in New Zealand led by Duncan Cameron begin their Invasion of the Waikato.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – American Civil War: Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (Davis refuses the request upon receipt).


date: August 15

text: August 15–17 – Bombardment of Kagoshima: The British Royal Navy bombards the town of Kagoshima in Japan in retribution, after the Namamugi Incident of 1862.


date: August

text: Battle of Lawrence: Lawrence, Kansas, is attacked by William Quantrill's raiders, who kill an estimated 200 men and boys. The raid becomes notorious in the North as one of the most vicious atrocities of the Civil War.


date: September 19

text: September 19–20 – Battle of Chickamauga – Confederate forces turn back a Union invasion of Georgia.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 29

text: October 29 – American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie – Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant, having fought through the night, ward off a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet. Union forces thus open a supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Battle of Campbell's Station – Near Knoxville, Tennessee, Confederate troops led by General James Longstreet unsuccessfully attack Union forces under General Ambrose Burnside.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – King Christian IX of Denmark signs the November Constitution, which declares Schleswig to be part of Denmark, regarded by the German Confederation as a violation of the London Protocol of 1852, leading to the German–Danish war of 1864.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address, at the military cemetery dedication ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Battle of Missionary Ridge – At Missionary Ridge in Tennessee, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant break the siege of Chattanooga, by routing Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – The is destroyed on her maiden voyage while attempting to run the blockade into Charleston, South Carolina. The wreck is discovered exactly 102 years later, by E. Lee Spence.


text: The American clipper ship Anglo Saxon (westbound) is captured and burned by Confederate privateer Florida off the south coast of Ireland.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Founding date of the New Apostolic Church, a Christian and chiliastic church, in a schism with the Catholic Apostolic Church in Hamburg, Germany.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 17

text: February 17 – The "Committee of the Five" holds their first meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, which is regarded as the foundation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, following the lead of humanitarian businessman Henry Dunant.

source_section: Events › February


date: May 21

text: May 21 – The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is formed in Battle Creek, Michigan.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Valuev Circular bans the publication of religious, educational and training books in Ukrainian in the Russian Empire.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – King Christian IX of Denmark succeeds his distant cousin Frederick VII, giving rise to the beginning of the Second Schleswig-Holstein crisis.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – Master Lucius Tar Paint Company (Teerfarbenfabrik Meister Lucius), predecessor of Hoechst as a worldwide chemical manufacturing brand, is founded in a suburb of Frankfurt am Main, Germany.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Abraham Lincoln signs the National Banking Act into law.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – The pharmaceutical brand Bayer is founded by Friedrich Bayer in Germany.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Gerard Adriaan Heineken, 22, buys the brewery 'De Hooiberg' ("The Haystack") in Amsterdam.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – The first section of the London Underground Railway (Paddington to Farringdon Street) opens officially. This is the world’s first ever underground railway.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Adam Opel founds Opel in Germany, originally for the manufacture of sewing machines.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Alanson Crane of Virginia patents a fire extinguisher.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Queen Victoria issues Letters Patent granting Goulburn city status, making it Australia's first inland city.

source_section: Events › March


date: April 16

text: April 16 – The first ever submarine to be propelled by mechanized (rather than human) power, Plongeur, of the French Navy, propelled by compressed air, is launched in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime.

source_section: Events › April


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Kingston loop line of the London and South Western Railway opens.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Queen Victoria issues Letters Patent, annexing to South Australia the part of the colony of New South Wales that will later become the Northern Territory.


date: September

text: September – The Western Railroad from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to the coal fields of Egypt, North Carolina, is completed.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – The Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Rail Road starts operations in Brooklyn, New York, making it the oldest right-of-way on the New York City Subway, the largest rapid transit system in the United States, and one of the largest in the world.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The first steam-operated passenger railway in New Zealand opens at Christchurch in South Island.


text: December 15 – Romania opens its first mountain railway (from Anina to Oravița).


date: June 27

text: June 27 – The Chōshū Five leave Japan secretly to study at University College London, which is part of the ending of sakoku.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Linoleum is patented in the United Kingdom.


text: Richard Owen publishes the first description of a fossilised bird, Archaeopteryx.


text: The first outbreak of phylloxera on the European mainland is observed, in the vineyards of the southern Rhône region of France.


text: The recipe for the herbal liqueur Bénédictine is devised by Alexandre Le Grand in Fécamp, France.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – In the Swiss canton of Ticino, the village of Bedretto is partly destroyed and 29 killed by an avalanche.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – The Winged Victory of Samothrace, one of the most significant sculptures of classical antiquity, is found in excavations on the Greek island of Samothrace by Charles Champoiseau. Made c. 190 BC, it is later shipped to the Louvre in Paris.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – The Augustus of Prima Porta, one of the most significant sculptures of classical antiquity, is found in excavations in the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, near Rome.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – The opening of Salon des Refusés in Paris draws attention to paintings by avant-garde artists, notably Manet's_ Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe.


text: The Colmar Treasure, a hoard of 14th century Jewish precious metal objects, is discovered in Alsace.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – In the Swiss canton of Ticino, the roof of the church of Sant'Antonio in Locarno collapses under the weight of snow, killing 47.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – sinks while attempting to enter Manukau Harbour in New Zealand, with the loss of 189 lives.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – The Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, first tested in July, sinks during another test, killing Horace Lawson Hunley (its inventor) and a crew of seven.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – The Church of the Company Fire in Santiago, Chile, kills between 2,000 and 3,000 people.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – The Yorkshire County Cricket Club is founded at the Adelphi Hotel, in Sheffield, England.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Jules Verne's first adventure novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon (Cinq semaines en ballon), is published in Paris.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII of the United Kingdom) marries Princess Alexandra of Denmark (later Queen Alexandra).


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Ayyam-i butun: Bahá'u'lláh begins a 12-day stay in the Najibiyyih gardens, Baghdad (later known as the Garden of Ridván) during which he declares his station as He whom God shall make manifest. This date is celebrated in the Baháʼí Faith as the festival of Ridván.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Ferdinand Lassalle founds the Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein (General German Workers' Association, ADAV), the first socialist workers party in Germany.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – The first Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe horse race is held.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – The Arts Club is founded by Charles Dickens, Frederic Leighton and others in Hanover Square, London.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Samuel Butler's dystopian article "Darwin among the Machines" is published (under the pen name Cellarius) in The Press newspaper in Christchurch, New Zealand; it will be incorporated into his novel Erewhon (1872).


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Otago Boys' High School is founded in New Zealand.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 26

text: August 26 – The Swedish-language liberal newspaper Helsingfors Dagblad proposes a blue-and-white cross as the flag of Finland.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Georges Bizet's opera Les pêcheurs de perles debuts, at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln proclaims a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Hector Berlioz's opera Les Troyens is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 6

text: December 6 – C.S.A.C. Fides Quadrat Intellectum, the First Reformed student society, is founded at the Theologische Universiteit Kampen (Broederweg), in Kampen, the Netherlands.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Anna Murray Vail, American botanist and first librarian of the New York Botanical Garden (d. 1955)


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Swami Vivekananda, Indian Hindu religious leader (d. 1902)


date: January 17

text: January 17 – David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1945)


text: January 17 – Constantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre practitioner, founder of modern realistic acting (d. 1938)


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Count Leopold Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (d. 1942)


date: April 29

text: April 29 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (d. 1951)


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Reginald McKenna, British Chancellor of the Exchequer (1915-1916) (d. 1943)


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Gaston Doumergue, President of France during the Third Republic (d. 1937)


date: August 17

text: August 17 – Gene Stratton-Porter, American author, screenwriter and naturalist (d. 1924)


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Arthur Henderson, Scottish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1935)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Austen Chamberlain, English politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Andrés Bonifacio, Filipino revolutionary leader (d. 1897)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Black Elk/ Heȟáka Sápa', Oglala Teton Lakota (Western Sioux) medicine/holy man (d. 1950)


date: December 16

text: December 16 – George Santayana, Spanish-born philosopher, poet, essayist and novelist (d. 1952)


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Earl Van Dorn, American Confederate general (murdered) (b. 1820)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, American Confederate general (died of wounds) (b. 1824)


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Antonio Valero de Bernabé, Latin American liberator (b. 1790)


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Dost Mohammad Khan, Emir of Kabul, King of Kandahar (b. 1793)


date: July 1

text: July 1 – John F. Reynolds, American general (killed in action) (b. 1820)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Lewis Armistead, American Confederate general (died of wounds) (b. 1817)


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Robert Gould Shaw, American Union Army officer (killed in action) (b. 1837)


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Sam Houston, first President of the Republic of Texas (b. 1793)


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Eugène Delacroix, French painter (b. 1798)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Benjamin Hardin Helm, Confederate politician and general (died of wounds) (b. 1831)


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Theodore Judah, American railroad engineer (yellow fever) (b. 1826)


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Ignacio Comonfort, President of Mexico 1855-1857 (killed in action) (b. 1812)


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Jane Pierce, 15th First Lady of the United States (b. 1806)


date: December 24

text: December 24 – William Makepeace Thackeray, British novelist (b. 1811)


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Denmark rejects an Austrian-Prussian ultimatum to repeal the Danish Constitution, which says that Schleswig-Holstein is part of Denmark.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia (the 500 prisoners had left Richmond, Virginia, seven days before).


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Alejandro Mon y Menéndez takes office as Prime Minister of Spain.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Under terms of the Treaty of London, the United Kingdom voluntarily cedes control of the United States of the Ionian Islands to the Kingdom of Greece.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Montana Territory is organized out of parts of Washington Territory and Dakota Territory.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – The First Geneva Convention, for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, is signed in Geneva by 12 European states, under the auspices of the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded (predecessor of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement).


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Charlottetown Conference: Delegates from the Canadian colonies meet, to discuss Canadian Confederation.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – The Quebec Conference begins, to discuss plans for the creation of a Dominion of Canada.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – The capital of Idaho Territory is moved from Lewiston to Boise; North Idaho declares the move illegal, and proposes secession.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – 1864 United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln is reelected, in an overwhelming victory over George B. McClellan.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – The judicial reform of Alexander II is launched in the Russian Empire.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Danish-Prussian War (Second Schleswig War): 57,000 Austrian and Prussian troops cross the Eider River into Denmark.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Pillow – Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers who surrender at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Choe Je-u, founder of the Donghak Movement, is executed by beheading for sedition, at Daegu, Korea.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Danish-Prussian War (Second Schleswig War) – Battle of Dybbøl: The Prussian army, fielding 10,000 men, defeats the Danish defending army of 9,200 at Dybbøl Mill, after an artillery bombardment from April 7–18.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Battle of Yellow Tavern – Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – The Russian Empire begins the Circassian genocide. More than 1.5 million Circassians are driven from their homeland to the Ottoman Empire, ending the Russo-Circassian War.


date: May

text: & May 15 – Battle of New Market – Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate Army, forcing Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – American Civil War: Battle of Cherbourg – Confederate States Navy CSS Alabama is sunk in a single-ship action with USS Kearsarge, in the English Channel off the coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, France.


date: June

text: Battle of Brice's Crossroads – Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force, led by General Samuel D. Sturgis, in Mississippi.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Battle of Peachtree Creek – Near Atlanta, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 5

text: August 5 – American Civil War: Battle of Mobile Bay – At Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses, and seals one of the last major Southern ports.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – An undeclared Uruguayan War begins, when Uruguay refuses an ultimatum from the Empire of Brazil.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – American Civil War: Battle of Globe Tavern – Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, forcing the Confederates to use wagons.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – American Civil War: Union forces, led by General William T. Sherman, launch an assault on Atlanta.


date: September 5

text: September 5–6 – Bombardment of Shimonoseki: An American, British, Dutch and French alliance engages the powerful feudal Japanese warlord or daimyō Lord Mōri Takachika, of the Chōshū clan, based in Shimonoseki, Japan.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – American Civil War: The Second Battle of Cabin Creek is fought in Indian Territory.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – A calamity is narrowly averted in London at the Erith explosion


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Uruguayan War: Forces of the Empire of Brazil invade Uruguay, in support of Venancio Flores' Colorado Party.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – The Second Schleswig War is concluded. Denmark renounces all claim to Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, which come under Prussian and Austrian administration.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – American Civil War: Battle of Johnsonville – At Johnsonville, Tennessee, troops under the command of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest bombard a Union supply base with artillery, and destroy millions of dollars' worth of material.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Sherman's March to the Sea – Confederate General John Bell Hood invades Tennessee, in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Union General Sherman from Georgia.


date: December 15

text: December 15–16 – American Civil War: Battle of Nashville – Union forces decisively defeat the Confederate Army of Tennessee.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – The Decree of Extended Freedom of Trade introduces complete freedom of trade in Sweden.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – The first fish and chips shop perhaps opens in London.


text: October 30 – Helena, Montana, is founded, after four prospectors (the so-called Four Georgians) discover gold at Last Chance Gulch; it is their last and agreed final attempt for weeks, of trying to find gold in the northern Rockies.


text: Asa Mercer travels from Seattle to the U.S. East Coast, and recruits 11 Mercer Girls, potential wives for men on the West Coast.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: The Dutch conquer southern Sumatra.


text: The first Quanjude Peking Roast Duck restaurant opens on Qianmen Street in Peking, China.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – The phrase "In God We Trust" appears for the first time on the newly created two-cent piece.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – In Marseille, Notre-Dame de la Garde, the city's most famous landmark, is consecrated.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Pope Pius IX establishes the Diocese of Gozo.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Syllabus errorum: Pope Pius IX condemns theological liberalism as an error, and claims the supremacy of Roman Catholic Church authority over civil society. He also condemns rationalism and socialism.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Heineken Brewery is founded in the Netherlands.


text: April 22 – The United States Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864, which makes privately issued Civil War tokens illegal. An additional law is passed on June 8 to include all private coinage.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Société Générale, a major financial group in France, is founded.


text: Yasudaya Currency Exchange Bank, as predecessor of Mizuho Financial Group, is founded in Edo (modern-day Tokyo), Japan.


text: Merchants Bank of Halifax, as predecessor of Royal Bank of Canada, founded in Nova Scotia.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – The Elgin Watch Company is founded in Elgin, Illinois.


text: December 8 – The Clifton Suspension Bridge across the River Avon (Bristol) in England, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and completed as a memorial to him, opens to traffic.


date: February

text: February – John Wisden publishes The Cricketer's Almanack for the year 1864 in England; it will go on to become the major annual cricket reference publication.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – The clipper ship City of Adelaide is launched in Sunderland, England. By the 21st century, she will be the world's oldest surviving clipper of only two (Cutty Sark being the other).


text: October 30 – An annular solar eclipse occurs, the 42nd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 131.


text: December 8 – James Clerk Maxwell presents his paper, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field, to the Royal Society in London, treating light as an electromagnetic wave.


date: June

text: June – The United States Sanitary Commission's Sanitary Fair in Philadelphia takes place.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Australian bushranger Ben Hall and his gang escape from a shootout with police, after attempting to rob the Bang Bang Hotel in Koorawatha, New South Wales.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops, and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – the Stifone powder-magazine explosion near Narni, Italy, destroys much of the village of Stifone and kills 12 people.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – The tiny Confederate hand-propelled submarine H. L. Hunley sinks the , using a spar torpedo in Charleston Harbor, becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, although the submarine and her crew of eight are also lost.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – St-Hilaire train disaster, a passenger train operated by Grand Trunk Railway and travelling from Quebec City to Montreal is derailed at a swung open bridge after a signal passed at danger. The train also collapses onto a ship, sinking both ship and train. 99 people are killed and 100 injured making this the deadliest train accident in Canada's history.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Great Fire of Brisbane breaks out in Australia.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Great Sheffield Flood: A reservoir near Sheffield, England, bursts; 250 die.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – A cyclone kills 70,000 people in and around Calcutta in India.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Rossini's Petite messe solennelle is first performed, by twelve singers, two pianists and a harmonium player in a mansion in Paris.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Gallaudet University is founded in Washington, D.C., as the first university for the deaf and hard of hearing.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Arlington National Cemetery is established in the United States, when 200 acre km2 of the grounds of Robert E. Lee's home (Arlington House) are officially set aside as a military cemetery, by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Dimitri Atanasescu founds the first Romanian school in the Balkans for Aromanians in Trnovo, in the Ottoman Empire (modern-day North Macedonia). By the early 20th century, the number of these schools will have risen to 106.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – The University of Bucharest in Romania is founded.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – The International Workingmen's Association is founded in London.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (d. 1892)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson, British general (d. 1925)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – W. H. R. Rivers, English psychiatrist (d. 1922)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Max Weber, German sociologist (d. 1920)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet, British field marshal, politician (d. 1922)


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Walther Nernst, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)


date: July 12

text: July 12 – George Washington Carver, African-American botanist (d. 1943)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Frances Cleveland, First Lady of the United States (d. 1947)


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician, Prime Minister (d. 1903)


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Eleftherios Venizelos, 7-time prime minister of Greece (d. 1936)


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English politician, diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1958)


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Reginald Dyer, British army officer, perpetrator of Jallianwala Bagh massacre (d. 1927)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1945)


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Breaker Morant, Australian soldier (d. 1902)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song "Beautiful Dreamer" is published in March.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Vedanayagam Sastriar, Tamil Lutheran hymnwriter and court poet in the palace of Serfoji II, the last Maratha King of Thanjavur (b. 1774)


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Serbian linguist, major reformer of the Serbian language (b. 1787)


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Anna Harrison, First Lady of the United States (b. 1775)


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Giacomo Meyerbeer, German composer (b. 1791)


date: May 12

text: May 12 – J. E. B. Stuart, Confederate general (in battle) (b. 1833)


date: May 20

text: May 20 – John Clare, Northamptonshire peasant poet (b. 1793)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Matías Ramón Mella, Dominican general (b. 1816)


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Ferdinand Lassalle, Prussian-German philosopher, socialist and politician (b. 1825)


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Roger Taney, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (b. 1777)


date: November 30

text: November 30 – States Rights Gist, Confederate general (in battle) (b. 1831)


text: November 30 – Patrick Cleburne, Confederate general (in battle) (b. 1828)


date: December 8

text: December 8 – George Boole, English mathematician, philosopher (b. 1815)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – George M. Dallas, U.S. Senator, 11th Vice President of the United States (b. 1792)


date: January 31

text: January 31 – The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (conditional prohibition of slavery and involuntary servitude) passes narrowly, in the House of Representatives.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – The municipal administration of Finland is established.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – Tennessee adopts a new constitution that abolishes slavery.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – The U.S. Congress authorizes formation of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – The Treaty of the Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay against Paraguay is formally signed, following the outbreak of the Paraguayan War.


date: May

text: Jefferson Davis meets with his Confederate Cabinet (14 officials) for the last time, in Washington, Georgia, and the Confederate Government is officially dissolved.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – The New Zealand Parliament first meets in Wellington on a permanent basis, making it de facto the national capital.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – The Dominican Republic regains independence from Spain.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Florida drafts its constitution in Tallahassee.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Duar War between Britain and Bhutan ends with the Treaty of Sinchula, in which Bhutan cedes control of its southern passes to Britain in return for an annual subsidy.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – The United States Congress creates the United States House Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on Banking and Commerce, reducing the tasks of the House Committee on Ways and Means.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Leopold II becomes King of the Belgians, following the death (on December 10) of his father, King Leopold I.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Secretary of State William H. Seward declares the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified by three-quarters of the states, including those in secession. As of December 6, slavery is legally outlawed in the last two slave states of Kentucky and Delaware, and the remaining 45,000 slaves are freed.


date: January 13

text: January 13 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Fort Fisher – Union forces launch a major amphibious assault against the last seaport held by the Confederates, Fort Fisher, North Carolina.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 3

text: February 3 – American Civil War: Hampton Roads Conference: Union and Confederate leaders discuss peace terms.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 19

text: March 19–21 – American Civil War : Battle of Bentonville: Union troops compel Confederate forces to retreat from Four Oaks, North Carolina.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 25

text: March 25 – American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces capture Fort Stedman from the Union, although it is retaken the same day. Lee's army suffers heavy casualties: about 2,900, including 1,000 captured in the Union counterattack. Confederate positions are weakened. After the battle, Lee's defeat is only a matter of time.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – American Civil War – Battle of Five Forks: In Petersburg, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 9

text: April 9 – American Civil War: Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union Army General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the war.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: President of the United States Abraham Lincoln is shot while attending an evening performance of the farce Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.


text: April 14 – United States Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home, by Lewis Powell.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his entire cabinet arrive in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a contingent of 1,000 soldiers.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders to Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, at Durham Station, North Carolina.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – American Civil War: Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, commanding all Confederate forces in Alabama, Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana, surrenders his forces to Union General Edward Canby at Citronelle, Alabama, effectively ending all Confederate resistance east of the Mississippi River.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by the Union Army near Irwinville, Georgia.


date: May 12

text: May 12–13 – American Civil War – Battle of Palmito Ranch: In far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the civil war with casualties, ends with a Confederate victory.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – American Civil War: President of the United States Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation of general amnesty for most citizens of the former Confederacy.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – American Civil War: Confederate forces west of the Mississippi River under General Edmund Kirby Smith surrender at Galveston, Texas, under terms negotiated on May 26, becoming the last to do so.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Battle of the Riachuelo: The Brazilian Navy squadron defeats the Paraguayan Navy.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – American Civil War: Union Major General Gordon Granger lands at Galveston, Texas, and informs the people of Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation (an event celebrated in modern times each year as Juneteenth).


date: June 23

text: June 23 – American Civil War: At Fort Towson in Oklahoma Territory, Confederate General Stand Watie, a Cherokee Indian, surrenders the last significant Rebel army.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Following Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 14, the four conspirators condemned to death during the trial are hanged, including David Herold, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell and Mary Surratt. Her son, John Surratt, escapes execution by fleeing to Canada, and ultimately to Egypt.