Cinquantamila.it La storia raccontata da Giorgio Dell'Arti

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 Davis is 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
o American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional president of the Confederate States of America.
o 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
o President Abraham Lincoln takes office, succeeding James Buchanan.
o 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
o An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, Argentina.
o 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.
[edit] 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:
o President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in the United States.
o 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
o American Civil War: Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
o 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.
[edit] 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
o 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).
o 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.
[edit] 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
o The Missouri’s secession from the Union bill is signed by Governor Jackson.
o 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 Davis appoints 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Ongoing events

* American Civil War (1861’1865)
* Taiping Rebellion (1851’1864)