1861

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

Events of 1861

January - March

April - June

July - September

October - December

Undated

Ongoing events

Births

January - June

July - December

Deaths

January - June

July - December

Events of 1861

January - March

★ 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 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 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.

★
★ 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 2 - Nevada is organized as a United States territory.

★ March 3 - Formal emancipation of the serfs 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 - 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.

★
★ 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 - June

★ April 12 - 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 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

★
★ 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 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 - September

★ July 1 - First issue of Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano was published.

★ July 2 - Ivan Kasatkin lands on Hakodate and introduces the Eastern Orthodox church into Japan.

★ July 13 - American Civil War: 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 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 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).

★
★ US Army abolishes flogging.

★ August 27 - Last execution in Britain for attempted murder - Martin Doyle in Chester.

★ 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 - December

★ October 9 - American Civil War: 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 28 -The Missouri legislature took up a bill for Missouri's secession from the Union.

★ October 30 -The bill was passed for Missouri's secession from 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: US 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 - First Racing of the Australian Melbourne Cup horse race.

★ 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 - 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 admitted Missouri as the 12th confederate state.

★ December 10 - American Civil War: Kentucky is accepted into the Confederate States of America.

Undated

★ News of Henri Mouhot's discovery of Angkor Wat 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.

★ British Empire establishes bases in Lagos to stop the slave trade.

★ Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management published.

★ Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg is published.

Ongoing events

★ American Civil War (1861-1865)

★ Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864)

Births

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 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)

★ May 11 - Frederick Russell Burnham, American Scout, father of international scouting movement (d. 1947)

★ 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)

July - December

★ 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)

★ 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)

★ '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)

★
★ Harro Magnussen - German sculptor (d. 1908)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

January - June

★ 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)

★ April 15 - Isaiah Stillman, 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)

July - December

★ July - Frances Longfellow, second wife of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

★ 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 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)
: ''See also .''