1861
1861 is a
common year starting on Tuesday.
January
*
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
United States*
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
United States*
January 11 -
American Civil War:
Alabama secedes from the
United States*
January 18 -
American Civil War:
Georgia joins the
Confederacy*
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
*
February 1 -
American Civil War:
Texas secedes from the
United States.
*
February 4 - American Civil War: In
Montgomery, Alabama the
Confederate States of America is formed by delegates from six break-away
United States.
*
February 8 - American Civil War: The
Confederate States of America are formed.
*
February 9 - American Civil War:
Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the
Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at
Montgomery, Alabama.
*
February 11 - American Civil War: US House unanimously passes resolution guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any state.
*
February 13 - End of the
Siege of Gaeta, last stronghold of the Neapolitan King
Francis II, 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.
*
February 18 -
Victor Emmanuel of
Piedmont-Sardinia becomes King of
Italy. See:
Italian unification*
February 19 -
Serfdom is
abolished in
Russia.
*
February 23 - President-elect
Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in
Washington, DC after an
assassination attempt in
Baltimore, Maryland.
*
February 27 - A crowd in
Warsaw protesting
Russian rule over
Poland is fired upon by Russian troops killing five protesters.
*
February 28 -
Colorado is organized as a
United States territory.
March-April
*
March 2 -
Nevada is organized as a
United States territory.
*
March 3 - Formal
emancipation of the serfs in
Imperial Russia.
*
March 4 - End of term for
President of the United States James Buchanan. He is succeeded by
Abraham Lincoln.
* March 4 -
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 - Proclamation of the kingdom of
Italy with
Victor Emanuel II as its king.
*
March 19 -
First Taranaki War ends in
New Zealand.
*
March 20 - An earthquake completely destroys
Mendoza, a city on western
Argentina.
*
March 20 - Surrender of
Civitella del Tronto. End of the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
*
March 30 -
Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of
Thallium (see
Discovery of the chemical elements).
*
April 12 -
American Civil War begins at
Fort Sumter,
South Carolina.
*
April 27 -
American Civil War:
President Abraham Lincoln suspends the
writ of habeas corpus in the
United States.
* April 27 -
American Civil War:
West Virginia secedes from
Virginia.
May-June
*
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 - American Civil War:
Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of
neutrality" which recognizes the
breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
* May 13 -
Comet C/1861 J1 (the "Great Comet of 1861") discovered in
Australia.
*
May 14 - The Canellas meteorite, an 859
gram chondrite type
meteorite struck earth near
Barcelona, Spain.
*
May 20 - American Civil War:
Kentucky proclaims its
neutrality which will last until
September 3 when
Confederate forces enter the state.
North Carolina secedes from the
United States*
June 8 -
American Civil War:
Tennessee secedes from the
Union.
*
June 9 -
Lebanon separated from
Syrian administration and reunited under
Ottoman governor with the approval of European powers
*
June 15 -
Benito Juárez 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).
July-August
*
July 1 - First issue of
Vatican's newspaper
L'Osservatore Romano was published.
*
July 2 -
Ioan Kasatkin lands on
Hakodate and introduces the
Eastern Orthodox church into
Japan.
*
July 21 -
American Civil War:
First Battle of Bull Run - At
Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins (
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 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).
*
August 5 -
US Army abolishes
flogging*
August 27 - Last
execution in Britain for
attempted murder - Martin Doyle in Chester
September-October
*
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.
*
October 9 - the
Battle of Santa Rosa 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 was completed and commissioned.
*
October 31 - American Civil War: Citing failing health,
Union General
Winfield Scott resigns as Commander of the
United States Army.
November
*
November 1 -
American Civil War: US President
Abraham Lincoln appoints
George 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 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: The "
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 UK and US.
*
November 21 - American Civil War:
Confederate President
Jefferson Davis appoints
Judah Benjamin secretary of war.
*
November 25 -
Tenement collapses in the Old Town of
Edinburgh and buries 50 - rescuers find 15 of them alive
Unknown dates
* News of
Henri Mouhot's discovery of
Angkor Wat published.
* In Britain, the death penalty is limited to
murder,
embezzlement,
piracy and to acts of
arson perpetrated upon docks or ammunition depots.
*
British Empire establishes bases in
Lagos to stop the slave trade.
*
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 26 - King
Ferdinand of Bulgaria (d.
1948)
*
February 27 -
Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher (d.
1925)
*
April 8 -
Son, Byong-Hi, Korean nationalist (d.
1922)
*
April 15 -
Bliss Carman, Canadian poet (d.
1929)
*
May 7 -
Rabindranath Tagore, Indian writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1941)
*
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)
*
September 10 -
Niels Hansen Jacobsen, Danish sculptor and ceramist (d.
1941)
*
September 23 -
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, British poet and novelist (d.
1907)
*
October 16 -
J. B. Bury, British historian (d.
1927)
*
October 30 -
Antoine Bourdelle, French sculptor (d.
1929)
*
December 4 -
Lillian Russell, American singer and vaudeville star (d.
1922)
*
November 6 -
James Naismith, Canadian inventor of basketball (d.
1939)
*
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)
*
December 16 -
Antonio de La Gandara, French painter (d.
1917)
*
December 20 -
Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (d.
1926)
*
William H. Stayton - American founder of the
Association Against the Prohibition Amendment (d. ?)
*
Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar -
Malayali Journalist and Short story writer (d.
1914)
*
January 2 -
Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia (b.
1795)
*
January 17 -
Lola Montez, Irish-born dancer and mistress of King
Ludwig I of Bavaria (b.
1821)
*
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)
*
July 25 -
Jonas Furrer,
member of the Swiss Federal Council (b.
1805)
*
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)
