On This Day

January 1862 in History

Events in History

  • Jan 1 1st US income tax (3% of incomes > $600, 5% of incomes > $10,000)

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Jan 3 Romney Campaign: Stonewall Jackson moves north from Winchester

Confederate General Stonewall Jackson
Confederate General
Stonewall Jackson
  • Jan 4 Romney Campaign: Stonewall Jackson occupies Bath
  • Jan 7 Romney Campaign: Stonewall Jackson march towards Romney, WV
  • Jan 9 The first petroleum shipment (1,329 barrels) from the U.S. to Europe arrives at Victoria Docks, London, England aboard the Elizabeth Watts
  • Jan 10 Battle of Big Sandy River, KY (Middle Creek)
  • Jan 10 Romney expedition, Confederate Army military expedition begins in Romney, West Virginia (US Civil War)
  • Jan 16 Hartley Colliery disaster results in 204 deaths
  • Jan 17 -Jan 22nd) BBT Ft Henry, Tennessee by USS Lexington
  • Jan 18 Confederate Territory of Arizona forms
  • Jan 19 Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky (Fishing Creek, Logan's Crossroads)
  • Jan 22 Confederate government raises premium for volunteers from $10 to $20
  • Jan 23 Agoston Haraszthy, 1st vintner in Sonoma Valley, California imports 10,000 grape vine cuttings
  • Jan 24 Romanian principality arises under King Alexander Cuza. Bucharest proclaimed its capital.

BattleBattle of Interest

Jan 26 Lincoln issues General War Order #1, calling for a Union offensive, General George McClellan ignores order

Union General George McClellan
Union General
George McClellan
  • Jan 30 USS Monitor, the US Navy's 1st ironclad warship launched
  • Jan 31 Astronomer Alvan Graham Clark makes first observation of Sirius B (first known white dwarf star) in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts while testing his new telescope

Birthdays in History

  • Jan 3 Sir Matthew Nathan, British Governor of Queensland and other places (d. 1939)
  • Jan 8 Frank Nelson Doubleday, publisher/founder (Doubleday & Co)
  • Jan 17 John E Akkeringa, Dutch painter/etcher
  • Jan 23 David Hilbert, German mathematician (Hilbert spaces, invariant theory, axiomatization of geometry), born in Königsberg, East Prussia (d. 1943)

Person of interestEdith Wharton

Jan 24 Edith Wharton [-Jones], Pulitzer prize-winning novelist (Ethan Frome, House of Mirth), born in NYC, New York (d. 1937)

Pulitzer prize winning novelist Edith Wharton
Pulitzer prize winning novelist
Edith Wharton

Deaths in History

  • Jan 1 Mikhail Ostrogradsky, Russian physicist & mathematician, dies at 60

Person of interestSamuel Colt

Jan 10 Samuel Colt, American inventor and industrialist (Colt 6 shot revolver), dies of gout at 47

Inventor/Industrialist Samuel Colt
Inventor/Industrialist
Samuel Colt

Person of interestJohn Tyler

Jan 18 John Tyler, 10th US President (1841-45), dies in Richmond Va at 71

10th US President John Tyler
10th US President
John Tyler
  • Jan 20 Felix Zollicoffer, Gen killed after mistakenly riding into Union lines
  • Jan 24 James McIntosh, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in battle at about 33