1864

Year 1864 (MDCCCLXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1864

January - March

* January 16 - Denmark rejects a Prussian-Austrian ultimatum to repeal the Danish Constitution. [Claus Bjørn & Carsten Due-Nielsen, "Dansk Udenrigspolitiks Historie", 2nd edition, vol. III "Fra Helstat til Nationalstat" 1814-1914, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2006, pages 238-39 da icon] [Meyers Konversationslexikon, 4th edition, entry: " [http://susi.e-technik.uni-ulm.de:8080/Meyers2/seite/werk/brockhaus/band/53/seite/0995/brockhaus_b53_s0995.html Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg von 1864] " de icon]
* 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

* 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.
* 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 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.

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.
* 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.

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).
* 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)
* 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 19 - Charles Marion Russell, American artist (d. 1926)
* 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 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 - June

* 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)
* 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
* May 19 - Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author (b. 1804)
* June 1 - Hong Xiuquan, Chinese rebel (b. 1812)
* June 13 - Henryk Dembiński, Polish engineer (b. 1791)
* June 14 - Patrick Kelly, US Army officer (in battle)
* June 15 - William E. Jones, Confederate general (in battle) (b. 1824)

July - December

* July - Dimitris Plapoutas, Greek military leader (b. 1786)
* August 4 - David Hansemann, Prussian politician (b. 1790)
* August 19 - Truong Dinh, Vietnamese leader (b. 1820) (suicide)
* September 3 - Emil Nobel, younger brother of Alfred Nobel (killed in an explosion)
* 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) (born 1825)
* December 1 - William L. Dayton - United States Minister to France (b.1807)
* December 8 - George Boole, English mathematician and philosopher (b. Nov. 2 1815)
* December 21 - Archduke Louis of Austria (born 1784)
* Jakob Walter, stonemason and common draftee (b. 1788).

References