1861

Years: 1858 1859 1860 - 1861 - 1862 1863 1864

Decades: 1830s 1840s 1850s - 1860s - 1870s 1880s 1890s

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 Emmanuel 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 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 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.

Births

• March 22 - William Bell Riley, Minnesota fundamentalist minister (d. 1947)
• October 4 - Frederic S. Remington, cowboy artist and sculptor (d. 1909)