1861

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Year 1861 (MDCCCLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Contents 1 Events of 1861 1.1 January–March 1.2 April–June 1.3 July–September 1.4 October–December 1.5 Undated 1.6 Ongoing events 2 Births 2.1 January–June 2.2 July–December 3 Deaths 3.1 January–June 3.2 July–December 4 External

[edit] Events of 1861

[edit] January–March

American Civil War: in 1861

• January 1 – Benito Juárez captures Mexico City.
• January 2 – Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia dies and is succeeded by Wilhelm I.
• January 3 – American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the Union.
• January 9 – Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union, preceding the American Civil War.
• January 10 – American Civil War: Florida secedes from the Union.
• January 11 – American Civil War: Alabama secedes from the Union.
• January 12 – Major Robert Anderson sends dispatches to Washington.
• January 18 – American Civil War: Georgia secedes from the Union.
• January 21 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.
• January 26 – American Civil War: Louisiana secedes from the Union.
• January 29 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.
• February 1 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the Union.
• February 4 – American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, the Provisional Confederate Congress is formed by representatives from the first six break-away United States.
• February 8 – American Civil War: The Confederate States of America are formed, comprising the first six break-away States.
• February 9 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davisis elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Weed Convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
• February 11 – American Civil War: The U.S. House unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any state.
• February 13 – The Siege of Gaeta, last stronghold of the Neapolitan King Francis II, is ended by Piedmontese forces. Francis goes into exile.
• February 18
  • American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional president of the Confederate States of America.
  • Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont-Sardinia becomes King of Italy. See: Italian unification

March 4: Lincoln inaugurated.

March 4: Confederate flag.

• February 19 – Serfdom is abolished in Russia.
• February 23 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C. after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.
• February 27 – Russian troops fire upon a crowd in Warsaw protesting Russian rule over Poland, killing 5 protesters.
• February 28 – Colorado is organized as a United States territory.
• March 2
  • Nevada is organized as a United States territory.
  • Texas is admitted to the Confederate States of America.
• March 3 – The emancipation of the serfs is formalized in Imperial Russia.
• March 4
  • President Abraham Lincoln takes office, succeeding James Buchanan.
  • American Civil War: The Stars and Bars is adopted as the flag of the United Confederate States of America.
• March 10 – El Hadj Umar Tall seizes the city of Segou, destroying the Bambara Empire of Mali.
• March 11 – American Civil War: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted.
• March 17 – The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed, with Victor Emmanuel II as its king.
• March 19 – The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.
• March 20
  • An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, Argentina.
  • The surrender of Civitella del Tronto ends the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
• March 30 – Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of Thallium (see Discovery of the chemical elements).

April 12–13: Fort Sumter.

[edit] April–June

• April 12 – The American Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
• April 13 – Fort Sumter surrenders to Southern forces.
• April 17 – The state of Virginia secedes from the Union.
• April 20 – American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.
• April 25 – American Civil War: The Union Army arrives in Washington, D.C.
• April 26 – Giovanni Schiaparelli discovered the asteroid 69 Hesperia.
• April 27 – American Civil War:
  • President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in the United States.
  • West Virginia secedes from Virginia.
• May 6 – American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
• May 7 – American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.
• May 8 – American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America.

May 13: Great Comet.

• May 13
  • American Civil War: Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
  • Comet C/1861 J1 (the "Great Comet of 1861") is discovered in Australia.
• May 14 – The Canellas meteorite, an 859 gram chondrite type meteorite, strikes Earth near Barcelona, Spain.
• May 20 – American Civil War: Kentucky proclaims its neutrality which lasts until September 3, when Confederate forces enter the state. North Carolina secedes from the Union.
• June 9 – Lebanon is separated from Syrian administration and reunited under an Ottoman governor with the approval of the European powers.
• June 15 – Benito Juárez is formally elected President of Mexico; he temporarily stops the payments of foreign debt.
• June 25 – Abd-ul-Mejid, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1839–1861) dies and is succeeded by Abd-ul-Aziz (1861–1876).

June 25: Abdülaziz.

[edit] July–September

• July 1 – The first issue of the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano is published.
• July 1 – Battle of Shanghai (1861), China civil war
• July 2 – Ivan Kasatkin lands on Hakodate and introduces the Eastern Orthodox Church into Japan.
• July 13 – American Civil War: The Battle of Corrick's Ford takes place in western Virginia.
• July 21 – American Civil War – First Battle of Bull Run: At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war ends in a Confederate victory.
• July 25 – American Civil War: 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.
• July 26 – American Civil War: George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.
• August 5
  • American Civil War: 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).
  • The U.S. Army abolishes flogging.
• August 19 – First ascent of Weisshorn, fifth highest summit in the Alps.
• August 27 – Martin Doyle's is the last execution in Britain for attempted murder.
• September 3 – American Civil War: Confederate General Leonidas Polk invades neutral Kentucky, prompting the state legislature to ask for Union assistance.
• September 6 – American Civil War: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, Kentucky, which gives the Union control the mouth of the Tennessee River.

Battle of Santa Rosa Island.

[edit] October–December

• October 9 – American Civil War – Battle of Santa Rosa Island: Confederate forces are defeated in their effort to take the island.
• 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 killed in the fighting.
• October 24 – The HMS Warrior, the world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled armored battleship, is completed and commissioned.
• October 26- The Pony Express announces it's closure.
• October 28 – The Missouri legislature takes up a bill for Missouri's secession from the Union.
• October 30 – The bill is passed for Missouri's secession from the Union.
• October 31
  • The Missouri's secession from the Union bill is signed by Governor Jackson.
  • American Civil War: Citing failing health, Union General Winfield Scott resigns as Commander of the United States Army.
• November 1 – American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as commander of the Union Army, replacing the aged General Winfield Scott.
• November 2 – American Civil War: Western Department Union General John C. Fremont is relieved of command and replaced by David Hunter.
• November 6 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.
• November 5 – The first Australian Melbourne Cup horse race is held.
• November 7 – American Civil War – Battle of Belmont: In Belmont, Missouri, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant overrun a Confederate camp but are forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrive.
• November 8 – American Civil War – Trent Affair: The USS San Jacinto 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.
• November 21 – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin Secretary of War.
• November 25 – A tenement collapses in the Old Town of Edinburgh and buries 50; rescuers find 15 of them alive.
• November 28 – Acting on the ordinance passed by the Jackson government, the Confederate Congress admits Missouri as the 12th Confederate state.
• December 10 – American Civil War: Kentucky is accepted into the Confederate States of America.

[edit] Undated

• News of Henri Mouhot's discovery of Angkor Wat is published.
• In Britain, the death penalty is limited to murder, high treason, espionage, piracy with violence and acts of arson perpetrated upon docks or ammunition depots.
• The British Empire establishes bases in Lagos to stop the slave trade.
• France captures Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico.

[edit] Ongoing events

• American Civil War (1861–1865)
• Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864)

[edit] Births

[edit] January–June

• January 14 – Mehmed VI, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1926)
• January 30 – Charles Martin Loeffler, American composer (d. 1935)
• February 12 – Lou Andreas-Salome, Russian-born author (d. 1937)
• February 15 – Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1938)
• February 17 – Princess Helena, Duchess of Albany, (d. 1922)
• February 26 – King Ferdinand of Bulgaria (d. 1948)
• February 27 – Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher (d. 1925)
• April 8 – Son Byong-Hi, Korean independence activist (d. 1922)
• April 15 – Bliss Carman, Canadian poet (d. 1929)
• May 7 – Rabindranath Tagore, Indian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
• May 11 – Frederick Russell Burnham, American Scout, father of the international scouting movement (d. 1947)
• May 14 – Harro Magnussen, German sculptor (d. 1908)
• June 12 – William Attewell, English cricketer (d. 1927)
• June 19 – Doctor Jose Rizal, Philippine national hero (d. 1896)
• June 20 – Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (d. 1947)

[edit] July–December

• September 2 – Henrietta Crosman, American stage & film actress (d. 1944)
• September 10 – Niels Hansen Jacobsen, Danish sculptor and ceramist (d. 1941)
• September 23 – Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, British poet and novelist (d. 1907)

• September 30 – William Wrigley Jr., U.S. chewing gum industrialist (d. 1932)
• October 4 – Frederic S. Remington, cowboy artist and sculptor (d. 1909)
• October 16 – J. B. Bury, British historian (d. 1927)
• October 30 – Antoine Bourdelle, French sculptor (d. 1929)
• November 6 – James Naismith, Canadian inventor of basketball (d. 1939)
• December 4 – Lillian Russell, American singer and vaudeville star (d. 1922)
• December 4 – Hannes Hafstein, 1st Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1922)
• December 8 – Georges Méliès, French film director (d. 1938)
• December 10 – Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1930)
• December 15
  • Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, Prime Minister and President of Finland (d. 1944)
  • Charles Duryea, manufacturer of motor vehicles (d. 1938)
• December 16 – Antonio de La Gandara, French painter (d. 1917)
• December 20 – Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (d. 1926)
• 'date unknown
  • William H. Stayton – American founder of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment (d. ?)
  • Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar, Malayali journalist and short story writer (d. 1914)

[edit] Deaths

[edit] January–June

• January 2 – King Frederick William IV of Prussia (b. 1795)
• January 17 – Lola Montez, Irish-born dancer and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1821)
• April 15 – Isaiah Stillman, U.S. Army Major in the Black Hawk War (b. 1793)
• March 10 – Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet, nationalist, and founder of Ukrainian literature (b. 1814)
• May 29 – Joachim Lelewel, Polish nationalist historian (b. 1786)
• June 3 – Stephen A. Douglas, U.S. Senator from Illinois and Presidential candidate (b. 1813)
• June 25 – Abd-ul-Mejid, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1823)
• June 29 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (b. 1806)

[edit] July–December

• July 25 – Jonas Furrer, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1805)
• August 12 – Eliphalet Remington, gunsmith and founder of Remington Arms (b. 1793)
• August 17 – Alcée Louis la Branche, American politician (b. 1806)
• August 22 – Xianfeng Emperor, Qing Dynasty the 9th emperor (b. 1831)
• August 24 – Pierre Berthier, French geologist (b. 1782)* October 5 – Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish bishop (b. 1778)
• November 11 – King Pedro V of Portugal (b. 1837)
• December 14 – Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, husband of Queen Victoria (b. 1819)

[edit] External

Personal Letters from 1861 - The Letter Repository

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