1861

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Year 1861 (MDCCCLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar.

1 Events of 1861
2 Births
- 2.1 January - June
- 2.2 July - December
3 Deaths
- 3.1 January - June
- 3.2 July - December

[edit] Events of 1861

[edit] 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).

[edit] 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).

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.