1863

Events

   * January 1 - Abraham Lincoln delivers the Emancipation Proclamation
     during the second year of the American Civil War.
   * January 1 - The first claim under the Homestead Act is made for a farm
     in Nebraska
   * January 11 - American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post - General John
     McClernand and Admiral David Porter capture the Arkansas River for the
     Union.
   * January 10 - The first section of the London Underground Railway opens
     (Paddington to Farringdon Street).
   * February 10 - The world-famous midgets General Tom Thumb and Lavinia
     Warren get married in New York City.
   * February 1 - Alanson Crane patents the fire extinguisher.
   * February 24 - Arizona is organized as a United States territory.
   * February 26 - President of the United States Abraham Lincoln signs the
     National Currency Act into law.
   * March 3 - Idaho is organized as a United States territory.
   * March 10 - Marriage of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales to Princess
     Alexandra of Denmark
   * March 30 - Prince Wilhelm Georg of Denmark is chosen as King George I
     of Greece.
   * May 2 - May 4 - General Robert E. Lee defeats Union forces at the
     Battle of Chancellorsville
   * May 18 - American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins (ends July
     4).
   * May 21 - American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson - Union forces begin
     to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
   * May 28 - American Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts, the first African
     American regiment, leaves Boston, Massachusetts to fight for the Union.
   * May 31 - First running of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe horse race
   * June 20 - West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
   * July 2 - July 3 - Union forces turn back a Confederate invasion at the
     Battle of Gettysburg
   * July 4 - American Civil War: Battle of Vicksburg - Ulysses S. Grant and
     the Union army capture the Confederate city Vicksburg, Mississippi
     after the town surrendered. The siege lasted 47 days.
   * July 13 - American Civil War: In New York City, draft opponents begin
     three days of rioting which will be later regarded as the worst in
     United States history.
   * July 18 - American Civil War: The first formal African American
     military unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry,
     unsuccessfully assaults Confederate-held Fort Wagner but their valiant
     fighting still proves the worth of African American soldiers during the
     war.
   * July 26 - American Civil War: Morgan's Raid ends - At Salineville,
     Ohio, Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his
     volunteers are captured by Union forces.
   * July 30 - Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the
     Treaty of Box Elder, promising to stop harassing the emigrant trails in
     southern Idaho and northern Utah.
   * August 8 - American Civil War: Following his defeat in the Battle of
     Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to
     Confederate President Jefferson Davis (Davis will refuse the request
     upon receipt).
   * August 17 - American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union
     batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter. Bombardment
     will not end until December 31, 1863.
   * September 6 - American Civil War: Confederates evacuate Battery Wagner
     and Morris Island in South Carolina.
   * September 8 - American Civil War: Second Battle of Sabine Pass - On the
     Texas-Louisiana border at the mouth of the Sabine River, a small
     Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of Texas.
   * October 14 - American Civil War: Battle of Bristol Station -
     Confederate General Robert E. Lee forces fail to drive the Union army
     out of Virginia.
   * October 15 - American Civil War: The first successful submarine, the
     CSS Hunley sinks during a test, killing Horace Lawson Hunley (its
     inventor) and a crew of seven.
   * October 26 to October 29, the Resolutions of the Geneva International
     Confrence are signed
   * October 29 - Sixteen countries meeting in Geneva agree to form the
     International Red Cross.
   * October 29 - American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie - Forces under
     Union General Ulysses S. Grant ward-off a Confederate attack led by
     General James Longstreet. Union forces thus open a supply line into
     Chattanooga, Tennessee.
   * November 19 - Gettysburg Address
   * Thomas Nast draws the modern Santa Claus for Harper's Weekly, although
     Santa existed previously.
   * Construction begins on the First Transcontinental Railroad in
     Sacramento, California

Births

   * January 15 - Wilhelm Marx, German politician, chancellor of the Weimar
     Republic
   * January 17 - David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
   * March 12 - Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet (d. 1938)
   * March 25 - Simon Flexner, pathologist who isolated 1899 a common strain
     (Shigella dysenteriae) of dysentery bacillus (d. 1946)
   * May 24 - George Grey Barnard, American sculptor
   * July 1 - William Stairs, Victorian explorer
   * January 12 - Swami Vivekananda

Deaths

   * May 10 - Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Confederate Army general
   * August 13 - Eugene Delacroix, painter
   * September 17 - Alfred de Vigny, author

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