Events of 1861

January - March

• 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 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
• 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

• 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 - 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 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
• 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).

This is Shit!

July - September

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

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 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.

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.

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 26 - King Ferdinand of Bulgaria (d. 1948)
• February 27 - Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher (d. 1925)
• April 8 - Son, Byong-Hi, Korean nationalist (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)
• December 4 - Lillian Russell, American singer and vaudeville star (d. 1922)
• November 6 - James Naismith, Canadian inventor of basketball (d. 1939)
• 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)
• 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 - Frances Longfellow, second wife of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• 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 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)