Events of 1861

January–March

American Civil War: in 1861

• 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 12 – Major Robert Anderson sends dispatches to Washington.

• 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 representatives from six break-away United States.

• February 8 – American Civil War: The Confederate States of America are formed.

• February 9 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davisis elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Weed Convention at Montgomery, Alabama.

• February 11 – American Civil War: The U.S. House unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any state.

• February 13 – The Siege of Gaeta, last 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.

• *Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont-Sardinia becomes King of Italy. See: Italian unification

March 4: Lincoln inaugurated.

March 4: Confederate flag.

• February 19 – Serfdom is abolished in Russia.

• February 23 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C. after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.

• 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 – Nevada is organized as a United States territory.

• March 3 – The emancipation of the serfs is formalized 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 – The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed, with Victor Emmanuel II as its king.

• March 19 – The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.

• March 20

• * An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, Argentina.

• *The surrender of Civitella del Tronto ends the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

• March 30 – Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of Thallium (see Discovery of the chemical elements).

April 12–13: Fort Sumter.

April–June

• April 12 – The 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 26 – Giovanni Schiaparelli discovered the asteroid 69 Hesperia.

• 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: Great Comet.

• May 13

• *American Civil War: Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.

• *Comet C/1861 J1 (the "Great Comet of 1861") is discovered in Australia.

• May 14 – The Canellas meteorite, an 859 gram chondrite type meteorite, strikes Earth near Barcelona, Spain.

• May 20 – American Civil War: Kentucky proclaims its neutrality which lasts until September 3, when Confederate forces enter the state. North Carolina secedes from the Union.

• June 9 – Lebanon is separated from Syrian administration and reunited under an Ottoman governor with the approval of the European powers.

• June 15 – Benito Juárez is 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).

June 25: Abdülaziz.

July–September

• July 1 – The first issue of the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano is published.

• July 1 – Battle of Shanghai (1861), China civil war

• July 2 – Ivan Kasatkin lands on Hakodate and introduces the Eastern Orthodox Church into Japan.

• July 13 – American Civil War: The 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 ends in a 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).

• *The U.S. Army abolishes flogging.

• August 19 – First ascent of Weisshorn, fifth highest summit in the Alps.

• August 27 – Martin Doyle's is the last execution in Britain for attempted murder.

• 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.

Battle of Santa Rosa Island.

October–December

• October 9 – American Civil War – Battle of Santa Rosa Island: Confederate forces are defeated in their effort to take the 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, is completed and commissioned.

• October 28 – The Missouri legislature takes up a bill for Missouri's secession from the Union.

• October 30 – The bill is passed for Missouri's secession from the 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: U.S. 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 – The first Australian Melbourne Cup horse race is held.

• 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 – 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 U.K. and U.S.

• November 21 – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davisappoints 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 admits 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 is 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.

• The British Empire establishes bases in Lagos to stop the slave trade.

• France captures Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico.

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 17 – Princess Helena, Duchess of Albany, (d. 1922)

• February 26 – King Ferdinand of Bulgaria (d. 1948)

• February 27 – Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher (d. 1925)

• April 8 – Son Byong-Hi, Korean independence activist (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 the international scouting movement (d. 1947)

• May 14 – Harro Magnussen, German sculptor (d. 1908)

• 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)

• November 6 – James Naismith, Canadian inventor of basketball (d. 1939)

• December 4 – Lillian Russell, American singer and vaudeville star (d. 1922)

• December 4 – Hannes Hafstein, 1st Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1922)

• 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)

• *Charles Duryea, manufacturer of motor vehicles (d. 1938)

• 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)

Deaths

January–June

• January 2 – King Frederick William IV 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, U.S. Army 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 25 – Jonas Furrer, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1805)

• August 12 – Eliphalet Remington, gunsmith and founder of Remington Arms (b. 1793)

• August 17 – Alcée Louis la Branche, American politician (b. 1806)

• August 22 – Xianfeng Emperor, Qing Dynasty the 9th emperor (b. 1831)

• 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)

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