1861
Events
February
American Civil War :
February 11
American Civil War : The U.S. House unanimously passes a resolution, guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any state.
About 850 convicts at Chatham Dockyard in England take over their prison in a riot.
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.
February 18 – American Civil War : In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional president of the Confederate States of America.
February 20 – In Britain, storms damage the Crystal Palace and cause the collapse of the steeple of Chichester Cathedral .
February 21 – Mariehamn , the capital of Åland , is founded.
February 23 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C. in light of suspicions of a conspiracy in Baltimore to kill him .
February 24 – Battle of Ky Hoa : the French and the Spanish defeat the Vietnamese.
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
April
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.
American Civil War :
August
August 1 – The first public weather forecast : measured and predicted correctly by Admiral Robert FitzRoy in Britain.
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United States government issues the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US$800; rescinded in 1872 ).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 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.
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.
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.
August 19 – Weisshorn , the fifth highest summit in the Alps, is first ascended.
August 20 – 22 – The first modern Welsh National Eisteddfod takes place in Aberdare .
August 27 – Martin Doyle is the last person executed in Britain for attempted murder .
August 28 - 29 – Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
Births
January– June
Helen Herron Taft
Rabindranath Tagore
January 5 – Robert Lee Bullard , American general (d. 1947 )
January 6 – Victor Horta , Belgian architect and designer (d. 1947 )
January 10 – Germogen (Maximov) , Russian Orthodox Metropolitan (d. 1945 )
January 14 – Mehmed VI , Ottoman Sultan (d. 1926 )
January 27 – Constantin Prezan , Romanian general, Marshal of Romania (d. 1943 )
January 28
January 30 – Charles Martin Loeffler , American composer (d. 1935 )
February 12 – Lou Andreas-Salomé , Russian-born author (d. 1937 )
February 15
February 17 – Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont , Duchess of Albany, German-born member of the British royal family (d. 1922 )
February 19 – Henry Horne, 1st Baron Horne , British general (d. 1929 )
February 22
February 26 – King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (d. 1948 )
February 27 – Rudolf Steiner , Austrian philosopher, social reformer and author (d. 1925 )
March 2 – Nikola Ivanov , Bulgarian general (d. 1940 )
March 21 – Charles Swickard , German-American film director (d. 1929 )
April 3 – Alice Sollier , French doctor, first Black French woman to qualify as a medical doctor (d. 1942)
April 6 – Stanislas de Guaita , French poet (d. 1897 )
April 8 – Son Byong-hi , Korean independence activist (d. 1922 )
April 15 – Bliss Carman , Canadian poet (d. 1929 )
April 22 – István Tisza , 2-time prime minister of Hungary (d. 1918 )
April 22 – Hinke Bergegren , Swedish anarchist and birth control agitator (d. 1936)
April 23 – Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby , British soldier, administrator (d. 1936 )
April 26 – Rudolf Stöger-Steiner von Steinstätten , Austro-Hungarian general and politician (d. 1921 )
May 5 – Peter Cooper Hewitt , American electrical engineer, inventor (d. 1921 )
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 )
May 11 – Frederick Russell Burnham , American scouter (d. 1947 )
May 14 – Harro Magnussen , German sculptor (d. 1908 )
May 16 – Herman Webster Mudgett (alias H. H. Holmes), American serial killer (d. 1896 )
May 24 – Gerald Strickland , 4th prime minister of Malta, 23rd Governor of New South Wales, 15th Governor of Western Australia and 9th Governor of Tasmania (d. 1940 )
June 2 – Helen Herron Taft , First Lady of the United States (d. 1943 )
June 19 – José Rizal , Filipino national hero (d. 1896 )
June 20 – Frederick Gowland Hopkins , English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1947 )
June 22 – Maximilian von Spee , German admiral (d. 1914 )
June 27 – Fanny Davies , Guernesiaise pianist (d. 1934 )
July– December
Kate M. Gordon
Edith Roosevelt
Myra Belle Martin
James Naismith
July 7 – Nettie Stevens , American geneticist credited with the discovery of sex chromosomes (d. 1912)
July 14 – Kate M. Gordon , American suffragette (d. 1932 )
August 2 – Edith Cowan , Australian social reformer and politician (d. 1932 )
August 4
August 6 – Edith Roosevelt , First Lady of the United States (d. 1948 )
August 7 – Spencer S. Wood , United States Navy rear admiral (d. 1940 )
August 9 – Dorothea Klumpke , American astronomer , Director of the Bureau of Measurements at the Paris Observatory (d. 1942)
August 10 – Almroth Wright , British bacteriologist, immunologist (d. 1947 )
August 24 – Simon de Graaff , Dutch civil servant, politician (d. 1948 )
September 2 – Henrietta Crosman , American stage, film actress (d. 1944 )
September 7 – Patriarch Ambrosius of Georgia (d. 1927 )
September 10 – Niels Hansen Jacobsen , Danish sculptor, ceramist (d. 1941 )
September 11
September 15
September 23
September 30
October 4 – Frederic Remington , American cowboy artist, sculptor (d. 1909 )
October 6 – Myra Belle Martin , American financier (d. 1936 )
October 10 – Fridtjof Nansen , Norwegian explorer, scientist and humanitarian, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1930 )
October 16 – J. B. Bury , British historian (d. 1927 )
October 24 – Alexey Kaledin , Russian general (d. 1918 )
October 30 – Antoine Bourdelle , French sculptor (d. 1929 )
November 4
November 6 – James Naismith , Canadian inventor of basketball (d. 1939 )
November 14
November 16 – Georgina Febres-Cordero , Venezuelan nun (d. 1925 )
November 23 – Clara H. Hazelrigg , American author, educator and reformer (d. 1937 )
November 24 – August Bier , German surgeon (d. 1949 )
December 4
December 5 – Armando Diaz , Italian general, Marshal of Italy (d. 1928 )
December 7 – Henri Mathias Berthelot , French general (d. 1931 )
December 8
December 15 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud , Prime Minister and President of Finland (d. 1944 )
December 16 – Antonio de La Gándara , French painter (d. 1917 )
December 20 – Ivana Kobilca , Slovenian painter (d. 1926 )
December 29 – Kurt Hensel , German mathematician (d. 1941 )
Deaths
January– June
Frederick William IV of Prussia
Abdülmecid I
January 2 – King Frederick William IV of Prussia (b. 1795 )
January 17 – Lola Montez , Irish-born dancer, mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1821 )
January 19 – Albert Niemann , German chemist (b. 1834 )
February 5 – Pierre Bosquet , French general, Marshal of France (b. 1810 )
February 26 – Wojciech Chrzanowski , Polish general (b. 1793 )
March 10 – Taras Shevchenko , Ukrainian poet (b. 1814 )
March 16 – Princess Victoria, Duchess of Kent and Strathearn , mother of Queen Victoria (b. 1786 )
April 8 – Elisha Otis , American engineer, Founder of Otis (b. 1811 )
April 15 – Isaiah Stillman , U.S. Army Major in the Black Hawk War (b. 1793 )
May 29 – Joachim Lelewel , Polish nationalist historian (b. 1786 )
June 3 – Stephen A. Douglas , American senator from Illinois, Democratic presidential candidate (b. 1813 )
June 6 – Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour , 1st prime minister of Italy (b. 1810 )
June 13 – Richard Lawrence , failed assassin of Andrew Jackson (b. 1800 )
June 25 – Abdülmecid I , Ottoman sultan (b. 1823 )
June 26 – Pavel Jozef Šafárik , Slovak philologist (b. 1795 )
June 29 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning , English poet (b. 1806 )
July– December
Xianfeng Emperor
Ernst Anschütz
July 22 – Barnard Elliott Bee Jr. , Confederate general (b. 1824 )
July 25 – Jonas Furrer , member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1805 )
August 10 – Nathaniel Lyon , first Union Army General to die in combat in the American Civil War (b. 1818 )
August 12 – Eliphalet Remington , American gunsmith, founder of Remington Arms (b. 1793 )
August 17 – Alcée Louis la Branche , American politician (b. 1806 )
August 22 – Xianfeng Emperor , 9th emperor of the Qing dynasty (b. 1831 )
August 24 – Pierre Berthier , French geologist (b. 1782 )
August 28 – William Lyon Mackenzie , Scottish journalist, 1st Mayor of Toronto (b. 1795 )
September 7 – Willie Person Mangum , American politician (b. 1792 )
October 4 – Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton , British politician (b. 1812 )
October 5 – Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski , Polish bishop (b. 1778 )
October 10 – Phoebe Hinsdale Brown , American hymnwriter (b. 1783 )
October 26 – Edward "Ned" Kendall , American bandleader, instrumentalist (keyed bugle) (b. 1808 )
October 31 – Guillermo (William) Miller , English-born military leader in Peru (b. 1795 )
November 7 – Isobel Gunn , Scottish business person (b. 1780 )
November 11 – King Pedro V of Portugal (b. 1837 )
November 13 – Arthur Hugh Clough , English poet (b. 1819 )
November 25 – Rahimullah , Bengali rebel leader
December 14 – Prince Albert , husband of Queen Victoria (b. 1819 )
December 18 – Ernst Anschütz , German teacher, organist, poet and composer (b. 1780 )
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