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).
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 .''
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