1865

Years: 1862 1863 1864 - 1865 - 1866 1867 1868

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

Events of 1865

January–March

• January 13 – American Civil War: The Second Battle of Fort Fisher begins when United States forces launch a major amphibious assault against the Confederate stronghold of Fort Fisher, North Carolina.
• January 15 – American Civil War: United States forces capture Fort Fisher.
• January 31 – American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.
• February 17 – American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina burns as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
• February 22 – Tennessee adopts a new constitution that abolishes slavery.
• March 3 – The U.S. Congress authorizes formation of the Freedmen's Bureau.
• March 4 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated for a second term; Andrew Johnson becomes Vice President.
• March 13 – American Civil War: The Confederate States of America agrees to the use of African American troops.
• March 18 – American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time.
• March 19 – American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins; by the end of the battle on March 21 the Confederate forces retreat from Four Oaks, North Carolina.
• March 25
  • The "Claywater Meteorite" explodes just before reaching ground level in Vernon County, Wisconsin; fragments having a combined mass of 1.5 kg are recovered.
  • American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces capture Fort Steadman from the Union. Lee's army suffers heavy casualties during the battle of Fort Stedman—about 2,900, including 1,000 captured in the Union counterattack. Confederate positions are weakened. After the battle, Lee's defeat is only a matter of time.

April–June

• April 1 – American Civil War – Battle of Five Forks: In Petersburg, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.
• April 2 – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, which is taken by Union troops the next day.
• April 6 – German chemicals producer Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik(BASF) is founded in Mannheim.
• April 9 – American Civil War: General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the American Civil War.
• April 14
  • U. S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. by John Wilkes Booth.
  • U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell.
• April 15 – Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th President of the United States, upon the death of President Abraham Lincoln.
• April 18 – Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his entire cabinet arrive in Charlotte with a contingent of 1,000 soldiers.
• April 21 – German Chemicals producer BASF moves its headquarters and factories from Mannheim to the Hemshof District of Ludwigshafen.
• April 26
  • Union cavalry corner John Wilkes Booth in a barn, and cavalryman Boston Corbett shoots the assassin dead.
  • American Civil War: General Joseph Johnston surrenders his army to Major General William Tecumseh Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina.
• April 27
  • The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,300 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville Prison.
  • Governor of New York Reuben Fenton signs a bill formally creating Cornell University in the U.S.
• May 1 – The Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay against Paraguay is formally signed; the War of the Triple Alliance has already begun.
• May 4 – American Civil War: Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, commanding all Confederate forces in Alabama, Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana, surrenders his forces to Union General E.R.S. Canby at Citronelle, Alabama, effectively ending all Confederate resistance east of the Mississippi.
• May 5
  • In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), the first train robbery in the United States takes place.
  • Jefferson Davis meets with his Confederate Cabinet (14 officials) for the last time, in Washington, Georgia, and the Confederate Government is officially dissolved.
• May 10 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.
• May 13 – American Civil War – Battle of Palmito Ranch: In far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the civil war ends with a Confederate victory.
• May 17 – International Telegraph Union founded.
• May 23 – Union troops parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC to celebrate the end of the American Civil War.
• May 25 – Mobile magazine explosion: 300 are killed in Mobile, Alabama when an ordnance depot explodes.
• May 29 – American Civil War: U. S. President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation of general amnesty for most citizens of the former Confederacy.
• June 2 – American Civil War: Confederate forces west of the Mississippi under General Edmund Kirby Smith surrender at Galveston, Texas, becoming the last to do so.
• June 11 – Battle of Riachuelo: The Brazilian Navy squadron defeats the Paraguayan Navy.
• June 19 – American Civil War: Union Major General Gordon Granger lands at Galveston, Texas and informs the people of Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation.
• June 23 – American Civil War: At Fort Towson in Oklahoma Territory, Confederate General Stand Watie, a Cherokee Indian, surrenders the last significant Rebel army.
• June 25 – James Hudson Taylor founds the China Inland Mission at Brighton. England.

July–September

• July 4 – Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
• July 5
  • The U.S. Secret Service is founded.
  • The first speed limit is introduced in Britain: 2 mph in town and 4 mph in the country.
• July 7 – Following Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 14, the 4 conspirators condemned to death during the trial are hanged, including David Herold, George Atzerodt, Lewis Payne and Mary Surratt. Her son, John Surratt, escapes execution by fleeing to Canada, and ultimately to Egypt.
• July 14 – The summit of the Matterhorn in the Alps is reached for the first time; 4 of the party of 7 die in a fall during the descent.
• July 21 – In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in what is regarded as the first true western showdown.
• July 27 – Welsh settlers arrive in Argentina at Chubut Valley.
• July 30 – The steamer Brother Jonathan sinks off the California coast, killing 225.
• July 31 – The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia.
• August 25 – The Shergotty meteorite Mars meteorite falls in Sherghati, Gaya, Bihar, India.

October–December

• October 11 – Paul Bogle leads hundreds of black men and women in a march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion.
• October 25 – The paddlewheel steamer SS Republic sinks off the Georgia coast, with a cargo of $400,000 in coins.
• November 10 – Major Henry Wirz, the superintendent of a prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia, is hanged, becoming the only American Civil War soldier to be executed for war crimes.
• November 26 – Battle of Papudo: The Spanish ship Covadonga is captured by the Chileans and the Peruvians, north of Valparaiso, Chile.
• December 10 – Léopold II becomes King of the Belgians.
• December 11 – The U.S. Congress creates the House Appropriations Committee and the Committee on Banking and Commerce, reducing the tasks of the Committee on Ways and Means.
• December 18 – The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (which forever abolishes slavery) is declared ratified by 3/4 of the states of the United States.
• December 21 – The Kappa Alpha Order is founded at Washington College.

Births

• 9 April - Erich Ludendorff, German general (d. 1937)
• November 2 - Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States (d. 1923)
• November 19 - Madison Grant, American lawyer and eugenicist (d. 1937)

Deaths

• January 19 - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French philosopher and politician (b. 1809)