Events of 1864

January–March

February 17: submarine Hunley

• January 16 – Denmark rejects a Prussian-Austrian ultimatum to repeal the Danish Constitution.

• January 21 – Māori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign starts.

• February 1 – Danish-Prussian War (Second war of Schleswig): 57,000 Austrian and Prussian troops cross the Eider River into Denmark.

• February 17 – American Civil War: The tiny Confederate submarine Hunley torpedoes the USS Housatonic, becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy ship (the sub and her crew of 8 are also lost).

• February 25 – American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia (the 500 prisoners had left Richmond, Virginia 7 days before).

• March 1- Alejandro Mon Menéndez takes office as Prime Minister of Spain.

• March 9- American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln appoints Ulysses S. Grant commander in chief of all Union armies.

• March 10 – American Civil War: The Red River Campaign begins as Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.

• March 11 – A reservoir near Sheffield, England bursts; 250 die.

April–June

American Civil War in 1864

• April 18 – Danish-Prussian War (Second War of Schleswig) – Battle of Dybbøl: The Prussian army fielding 10,000 men defeats the Danish defending army of 9,200 at Dybbøl Mill, after an artillery bombardment from April 7 to April 18.

• April 22 – The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 which mandates that the inscription "In God We Trust" be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.

• May 5 – American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.

• May 7 – American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.

• May 11 – American Civil War – Battle of Yellow Tavern: Confederate General JEB Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia.

• May 12 – American Civil War – Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: The "Bloody Angle" – thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die.

• May 13 – American Civil War – Battle of Resaca: The battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.

• May 18 – Civil War gold hoax: The New York World and the New York Journal of Commerce publish a fake proclamation that President Abraham Lincoln has issued a draft of 400,000 more soldiers.

• May 20 – American Civil War – Battle of Ware Bottom Church: In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.

• May 21 – Circassian leaders sign Russian loyalty oaths, ending the Russian-Circassian War.

• May 28 – Montana is organized as a United States territory out of parts of Washington Territory and Dakota Territory, and is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

May 13: Battle of Resaca.

• June 5 – American Civil War – Battle of Piedmont: Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, West Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners.

• June 10 – American Civil War: Battle of Noonday Creek near Kennesaw, Georgia.

• June 10 – American Civil War – Battle of Brice's Crossroads: Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi.

• June 12 – American Civil War – Battle of Cold Harbor: General Ulysses S. Grant pulls his troops from their positions at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.

• June 15 – Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.8 km²) of the grounds of Robert E. Lee's home Arlington House are officially set-aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

• American Civil War – Battle of Petersburg: Union forces under General Grant and troops led by Confederate General Robert E. Lee battle for the last time.

• June 21 – Māori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.

• June 27 – American Civil War: Battle of Kennesaw Mountain near Kennesaw, Georgia.

August 5: Battle of Mobile Bay.

July–September

• July 18 – President Lincoln issues a true proclamation of conscription of 500,000 men for the U.S. Civil War.

• July 20 – American Civil War – Battle of Peachtree Creek: Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.

• July 22 – American Civil War – Battle of Atlanta: Outside of Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate General Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General Sherman on Bald Hill.

• July 24 – American Civil War – Battle of Kernstown: Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep the Yankees out of the Shenandoah Valley.

• July 28 – American Civil War – Battle of Ezra Church: Confederate troops led by General Hood make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces under General Sherman from Atlanta, Georgia.

• July 29 – American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC.

• July 30 – American Civil War – Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.

• August 1 – The Elgin Watch Company is founded in Elgin, Illinois.

• August 5 – American Civil War – Battle of Mobile Bay: At Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.

• August 13 – The first fish and chips shop opens in London.

• August 18 – American Civil War – Battle of Globe Tavern: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Weldon Railroad, forcing the Confederates to use wagons.

• August 22 – First Geneva Convention: The International Red Cross is founded.

• August 31 – American Civil War: Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.

Aug. 22: Red Cross

• September 1 -American Civil War: Confederate General Hood evacuates Atlanta after a 4-month siege mounted by Union General Sherman.

• September 2 – American Civil War: Union forces under General Sherman enter Atlanta a day after the Confederate defenders fled the city.

• September 7 – American Civil War: Atlanta, Georgia is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.

• September 8 – Delegates from the Canadian colonies meet at the Charlottetown Conference to discuss the Canadian Confederation.

• September 28 – The International Workingmen's Association was founded in London.

October–December

• October 2 – American Civil War – Battle of Saltville: Union forces attack Saltville, Virginia but are defeated by Confederate troops.

• October 5 – A cyclone kills 70,000 in Calcutta, India.

• October 9 – American Civil War – Battle of Tom's Brook: Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at Tom's Brook, Virginia.

• October 28 – American Civil War – Second Battle of Fair Oaks: Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from Fair Oaks, Virginia, after failing to breach the Confederate defenses around Richmond, Virginia.

• October 30

• *The Second war of Schleswig is concluded. Denmark renounces all claim to Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, which come under Prussian and Austrian administration.

• *Helena, Montana is founded after four prospectors (the so-called Four Georgians) discover gold at Last Chance Gulch; it is their last and agreed final attempt at weeks of trying to find gold in the northern Rockies.

• October 31 – Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state.

• November 4 – American Civil War – Battle of Johnsonville: At Johnsonville, Tennessee, troops under the command of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest bombard a Union supply base with artillery and destroy millions of dollars in material.

• November 7 – The capital of Idaho Territory is moved from Lewiston to Boise; North Idaho declares the move illegal and proposes secession.

• November 8 – U.S. presidential election, 1864: Abraham Lincoln is reelected in an overwhelming victory over George B. McClellan.

• November 15 – American Civil War – Sherman's March to the Sea begins: Union General Sherman burns Atlanta and starts to move south, causing extensive devastation to crops and mills and living off the land.

• November 20 – The Judicial reform of Alexander II is launched in Imperial Russia.

• November 22 – American Civil War – Sherman's March to the Sea: Confederate General John Bell Hood invades Tennessee in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Union General Sherman from Georgia.

• November 25 – American Civil War: A group of Confederate operatives calling themselves the Confederate Army of Manhattan starts fires in more than 20 locations in an unsuccessful attempt to burn down New York City.

• November 29 – Indian Wars – Sand Creek Massacre: Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 400 Cheyenne and Arapahoe noncombatants at Sand Creek, Colorado (where they had been given permission to camp).

Nov.15: Sherman's March to the Sea.

• November 30 – American Civil War – Second Battle of Franklin: The Army of Tennessee led by General Hood mounts a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions around Franklin, Tennessee (Hood loses 6 generals and almost a third of his troops).

• December 4 – American Civil War – Sherman's March to the Sea: At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General Sherman's campaign of destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to Savannah, GA (Union forces suffer more than 3 times the casualties as the Confederates, however).

• December 8 – Syllabus errorum: Pope Pius IX condemns theological liberalism as an error and claims for the supremacy of Roman Catholic Church authority over the civil society. He also condemns rationalism and socialism.

• December 15–16 – American Civil War – Battle of Nashville: Union forces decisively defeat the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

Undated

• Imperial forces assault the Taiping capital of Nanking in the last great battle of the civil war.

• James Clerk Maxwell establishes the basis of modern electromagnetism and discovers microwaves.

• Haiti declares independence.

• Brazil invades Uruguay in support of Venancio Flores. Paraguay attacks Brazil.

• John Wisden publishes the first edition of Wisden Cricketer's Almanack. It goes on to become the major annual cricket publication.

• Asa Shinn Mercer travels from Seattle to the U.S. East Coast and recruits 11 Mercer Girls, potential wives for men on the West Coast.

• First International of socialists: The International Working Men's Association is founded.

• The Korean government executes the founder of the Tonghak movement.

• The Dutch conquer southern Sumatra.

Ongoing events

• American Civil War (1861–1865)

• Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864)

Births

January–June

• January 1

• *Alfred Stieglitz, American photographer (d. 1946)

• *Qi Baishi, Chinese painter (d. 1957)

• January 8 – Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence (d. 1892)

• January 13 – Wilhelm Wien, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)

• January 24 – Marguerite Durand, French actress, journalist, and feminist leader (d. 1936)

• January 26 – József Pusztai slovene writer, poet, journalist in Hungary (d. 1934)

• February 7 – Arthur Collins, American singer who recorded many early songs (d. 1933)

• March 4 – David W. Taylor, U.S. Navy architect (d. 1940)

• March 12 – William Halse Rivers Rivers, English doctor (d. 1922)

• March 13 – Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian expressionist painter (d. 1941)

• March 14 – Casey Jones, American railway engineer (d. 1900)

• March 15 – Johan Halvorsen, Norwegian composer (d. 1935)

• March 17 – Joseph Baptista, Indian Home Rule Movement founder (d. 1930)

• March 19 – Charles Marion Russell, American artist (d. 1926)

• April 19 – Mahatma Hansraj, Indian educationist, and Arya Samaj leader ( d. 1938)

• April 21 – Max Weber, German sociologist (d. 1920)

• May 4 – Marie Booth, the third daughter of William and Catherine Booth (d. 1937)

• May 10 – Léon Gaumont, French film pioneer (d. 1946)

• May 15 – Vilhelm Hammershøi, Danish painter (d. 1916)

• June 3 – Ransom E. Olds, automotive pioneer (d. 1950)

• June 11 – Richard Strauss, German composer (d. 1949)

• June 13 – Dwight B. Waldo, American educator and historian (d. 1939)

• June 25 – Walther Nernst, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)

July–December

• July 11 – Petar Danov, Bulgarian spiritual teacher (d. 1944)

• July 12 – George Washington Carver, American botanist (d. 1943)

• July 13 – John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman and inventor (d. 1912)

• July 15 – Marie Tempest, English stage & film actress (d. 1942)

• July 20 – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)

• July 23 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician and Prime Minister (d. 1903)

• August 9 – Roman Dmowski, Polish politician (d. 1939)

• September 14 – Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English politician and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1958)

• October 10 – T. Frank Appleby, United States Congressman from New Jersey (d. 1924)

• October 25 – Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (d. 1956)

• October 31 – Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1945)

• November 11 – Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1921)

• November 13 – Bishop James Cannon Jr., American religious and temperance movement leader (d. 1944)

• November 16 – Stephane Javelle, French astronomer (d. 1917)

• November 23 – Henry Bourne Joy, American business leader (d. 1936)

• November 24 – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (d. 1901)

• November 26 – Edward Higgins, 3rd General of The Salvation Army (d. 1947)

• December 6 – William S. Hart, American film actor (d. 1946)

• December 12 – Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (d. 1937)

• December 25 – Thomas Cahill, American soccer coach (d. 1951)

Deaths

• January 13 – Stephen Foster, American composer (b. 1826)

• March 28 – Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark (b. 1789)

• April 4 – Joseph Pitty Couthouy, American naval officer (b. 1808)

• April 14 – Charles Lot Church, Nova Scotia politician (b. 1777)

• May 2 – Giacomo Meyerbeer, German composer (b. 1791)

• May 9 – John Sedgwick, Union General, American Civil War (b. 1813)

• May 12 – J.E.B. Stuart, Confederate Cavalry General, American Civil War (b. 1833)

• May 19 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author (b. 1804)

• June 1 – Hong Xiuquan, Chinese rebel (b. 1813)

• June 13 – Henryk Dembiński, Polish engineer (b. 1791)

• June 14 – Patrick Kelly, US Army officer (in battle) (b. ca. 1822)

• June 15 – William E. Jones, Confederate general (in battle) (b. 1824)

• July – Dimitris Plapoutas, Greek military leader (b. 1786)

• August 3 – Jakob Walter, stonemason and common draftee (b. 1788)

• August 4 – David Hansemann, Prussian politician (b. 1790)

• August 19 – Truong Dinh, Vietnamese leader (suicide) (b. 1820)

• September 3 – Emil Oskar Nobel, younger brother of Alfred Nobel (killed in an explosion) (b. 1843)

• October 12 – Roger Taney, United States Supreme Court Justice (b. 1777)

• November 6 – Tuanku Imam Bonjol, Indonesian religious and military leader (b. 1772)

• November 30 – John Adams, Confederate Army officer (in battle) (b. 1825)

• December 1 – William L. Dayton – United States Minister to France (b. 1807)

• December 8 – George Boole, English mathematician and philosopher (b. 1815)

• December 21 – Archduke Louis of Austria (b. 1784)