- Jan 1 Slavery ends of in Neth Indies
- Jan 20 Dutch troops conquer Watampone in Celebes
- Jan 28 Britain formally returns Mosquito Coast to Nicaragua
- Jan 29 American College established in Rome by Pope Pius IX
- Feb 1 1st rabbi to open House of Representatives, Morris Raphall of NYC
- Feb 3 Thomas Clemson takes office as 1st US superintendent of agriculture
- Feb 10 John Brahms' 2nd Serenade in A, premieres
- Feb 13 King Basse Kajuara departs Boni South-Celebes
- Feb 16 Dutch Rochussen/Van Bosse government resigns
- Feb 22 Shoe-making workers of Lynn, Massachusetts, strike successfully for higher wages
Event of Interest
Feb 27 Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency
Abraham Lincoln
- Mar 5 Parma, Tuscany, Modena and Romagna vote in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia
- Mar 9 1st Japanese ambassador arrives in San Francisco en route to Washington
- Mar 12 Congress accepts Pre-emption Bill: free land in West for colonists
- Mar 17 Japanese embassy arrives aboard Candinmarruh [sic]
- Mar 21 US extradition treaty with Sweden
- Mar 24 Clipper Andrew Jackson arrives in San Francisco, 89 days out of New York
- Mar 27 M L Byrn patents "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" (corkscrew)
- Mar 28 First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins (New Zealand).
- Mar 29 Dion Boucicault's "Colleen Bawn" premieres in NYC
- Apr 2 1st Italian Parliament meets at Turin
- Apr 3 Pony Express began between St Joseph Mo & Sacramento, California
- Apr 6 Joseph Smith III, creates the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by reorganizing the previous church organized by his father, Joseph Smith, Jr.
- Apr 7 Grand duke Frederik I liberalizes laws in Bathe
- Apr 9 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville uses his phonautograph to make a 10-second recording of "Au Clair de la Lune"
- Apr 13 1st Pony Express reaches Sacramento, California
- Apr 14 1st Pony Express rider arrives in San Francisco from St Joseph, Missouri
- Apr 17 Champion of England Tom Sayers and American John Heenan fight out brutal 2 hour, 27 minute draw near Farnborough, England; police stop fight acknowledged as first world title bout
- Apr 23 Democratic convention in Charleston, South Carolina divided over slavery
Event of Interest
Apr 27 Thomas Jackson is assigned to command Harpers Ferry
Stonewall Jackson
Event of Interest
May 6 Giuseppe Garibaldi's Mille sets sail from Genoa to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Giuseppe Garibaldi
- May 16 -18] Chicago: Republican convention selects Abraham Lincoln as candidate
- May 18 Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for president
- May 26 Giuseppe Garibaldi occupies Palermo, Italy
- Jun 3 Comanche, Iowa, completely destroyed by one of a series of tornadoes
- Jun 7 Workmen start laying track for Market Street Railroad, San Francisco
- Jun 9 1st US "dime novel" published: "Malaseka, The Indian Wife of the White Hunter," by Mrs Ann Stevens
- Jun 12 The State Bank of the Russian Empire is established.
- Jun 15 1st White settlement in Idaho (Franklin)
- Jun 23 US Congress establishes Government Printing Office
Event of Interest
Jun 30 Famous debate on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution held at the Oxford University Museum and dominated by arguments between Thomas Henry Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce
Charles Darwin
- Jul 9 Temperature hits 115°F in Fort Scott and 112°F in Topeka, Kansas
- Jul 19 1st railroad reaches Kansas
- Jul 25 1st US intercollegiate billiard match (Harvard vs Yale)
- Aug 3 The Second Maori War begins in New Zealand
- Aug 5 Carl IV of Sweden-Norway is crowned King of Norway in Trondheim
- Aug 8 Queen of Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) arrives in NYC
- Aug 11 US's 1st successful silver mill (Virginia City, Nev)
- Aug 30 1st British tram opens (Birkenhead)
- Sep 7 Excursion steamer "Lady Elgin" drowns 340 in Lake Michigan
- Sep 8 Loss of paddle steamer "Lady Elgin" on Lake Michigan approximately 300 people drowned
- Sep 20 First British royalty to visit US, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII)
- Sep 21 In the Second Opium War, an Anglo-French force defeats Chinese troops at the Battle of Baliqiao
- Oct 8 Telegraph line between LA & SF opens
- Oct 12 British & French troops capture Beijing
- Oct 13 1st aerial photo taken in US (from a balloon), Boston
- Oct 15 11-year-old Grace Bedell writes to Abraham Lincoln telling him to grow a beard
- Oct 18 The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.
- Nov 6 Abraham Lincoln (Rep-R-Ill) elected 16th American President
- Dec 17 Anaheim Township created in Los Angeles County
- Dec 18 South Carolina declared an "independent commonwealth"
- Dec 20 South Carolina secedes from the Union (US Civil War)
- Dec 24 Joseph Jefferson's "Rip Van Winkle" premieres in NYC
- Dec 26 Maiden voyage of 1st steamship owned by 1 man (C Vanderbilt)
- Dec 26 Major Robert Anderson, under cover of darkness, concentrates his small force at Ft Sumter
Event of Interest
Dec 28 Harriet Tubman arrives in Auburn, New York, on her last mission to free slaves, having evaded capture for 8 years on the Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman
- Dec 29 The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, HMS Warrior is launched