- Jan 1 1st US public bath opens in New York City
- Jan 1 National debt of Britain & Ireland is 765,126,582 pounds
- Jan 1 Netherlands begins issuing postage stamps
Event of Interest
Feb 5 The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg first opens to the public with Catherine the Great's collection of 4,000 paintings forming its core collection
- Feb 11 First British public female toilet opens (Bedford Street, London)
- Feb 15 Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits 1st patient
- Feb 16 Studebaker Brothers wagon company established - precursor of the automobile manufacturer
- Feb 19 The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
American Geographical Society
Feb 21 George Bancroft becomes the American Geographical Society's first president
- Feb 26 British troopship Birkenhead sinks off South Africa, 458 die, 193 survive
- Mar 1 Archibald William Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
- Mar 3 14th Grand National: Alec Goodman wins first of 2 GN victories (1866) aboard Miss Mowbray
- Mar 7 Dutch telegraph traffic regulated by law
- Mar 13 Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the New York Lantern weekly
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Mar 20 Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is published in Boston
Dmitri Donskoi
Apr 30 Anton Rubinstein's opera "Dmitri Donskoi" premieres in St Petersburg, Russia
Deutsches Wörterbuch
May 1 Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm publish the first part of their German Dictionary "Deutsches Wörterbuch" (fully completed 1961)
- May 1 The Philippine peso is introduced into circulation
- May 8 Second London protocol signed reaffirming Danish federation control of independent Duchies of Holstein, Lauenburg and Schleswig
- May 18 Massachusetts rules all school-age children must attend school
- Jul 3 Congress authorizes US's 2nd mint (San Francisco, California)
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
Jul 5 Fugitive slave Frederick Douglass delivers his 'What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?' speech to the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, condemns the celebration as hypocritical sham
- Jul 9 Fire destroys 1,100 construction sites in Montreal, Canada
- Jul 23 Private John Brown becomes the 1st interment in the National Cemetery at the Presidio in San Francisco, California
- Jul 31 Hottest July in Netherlands since at least 1783 (68.4°F (20.2°C) avg)
- Aug 1 San Francisco Methodists establish 1st black church, Zion Methodist
- Aug 3 America's first intercollegiate sporting event takes place as the Harvard heavyweight rowing crew beats Yale by 2 lengths over 2 miles on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire
- Aug 13 Steamer "Atlantic" crossing Lake Erie from Buffalo to Detroit collides with a fishing boat, sinks with 250 aboard
- Aug 21 Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory.
- Sep 3 Anti-Jewish riots break out in Stockholm, Sweden
- Sep 11 Olympia Columbian is 1st newspaper published north of Columbia River
- Sep 14 Samuel D Hubbard of Conn takes office as 18th US Postmaster General
- Sep 24 Henri Giffard, a French engineer, makes 1st engine powered dirigible/airship flight with steam power
- Sep 27 George Aiken's play "Uncle Tom's Cabin" an adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous anti-slavery novel premieres in Troy, New York
Alfred Russel Wallace Returns
Oct 1 Alfred Russel Wallace returns to the U.K. after four years of travel, collecting, and research in South America
Franklin Pierce Elected
Nov 2 Democrat Franklin Pierce elected 14th President of the United States
- Nov 4 Count Camillo Benso di Cavour becomes the prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, which soon expands to become Italy
- Nov 18 Rose Philippine Duchesne dies in St. Charles, Missouri. She would be canonized on July 3, 1988 by Pope John Paul II.
- Nov 18 State funeral of Duke of Wellington (St Paul's Cathedral, London)
- Nov 20 Charles Reade and Tom Taylor's historical comedy play "Masks & Faces" premieres in London
- Nov 21 Duke University founded in 1838 as Union Institute, chartered as Normal College
- Nov 23 Just past midnight, a sharp jolt likely caused by heavy rains causes Lake Merced, California, to drop 30 feet (9m)
- Dec 1 Telegraph company opens throughout Netherlands
- Dec 8 Gustav Freytag's comedy play "The Journalists" premieres in Breslau
- Dec 17 1st Hawaiian cavalry organized
George Hamilton-Gordon Prime Minister
Dec 18 George Hamilton-Gordon (Peelite party) becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after the downfall of the Conservative government of Edward Smith-Stanley
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists