Today in History for Year 1866

Months in Year 1866: January February March April May June July August September October November December

Historical Events

Events 1 - 93 of 93

Jan 9th - Fisk University establishes
Jan 11th - Steamship London sinks in storm off Land's End, England and kills 220
Jan 12th - The Royal Aeronautical Society is formed in London.
Jan 15th - Bedrich Smetana's opera "Branibori v Cechach," premieres in Prague
Jan 20th - Prim's Insurrection in Spain ends
Feb 4th - Mary Baker Eddy cures her injuries by opening a bible
Feb 10th - Dutch government Frans van der Putte forms
Feb 13th - Jesse James holds up his 1st bank, Liberty, Missouri ($15,000)
Feb 16th - Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes the British Secretary of State for War.
Feb 21st - Lucy B Hobbs (Taylor) becomes 1st US woman to earn a DDS degree
Feb 26th - New York Legislature forms NYC Metropolitan Board of Health
Mar 1st - Paraguayan canoes sink 2 Brazilian ironclads on Rio Parana
Mar 2nd - 1st US company to make sewing needles by machine incorporated, Conn
Mar 19th - Immigrant ship Monarch of the Seas sinks in Liverpool; 738 die
Mar 21st - Congress authorizes national soldiers' homes
Mar 27th - Andrew Rankin patents the urinal
Mar 27th - Pres Johnson vetoes civil rights bill; it later becomes 14th amend
Mar 28th - 1st ambulance goes into service
Mar 30th - Bedrich Smetana's "Verkaufte Braut" (Sold Bride), premieres
Outlaw Jesse James Mar 31st - The Spanish Navy bombs the harbor of Valparaíso, Chile.
Apr 1st - US Congress rejects presidential veto gives all equal rights in US
Apr 2nd - US President Johnson ends civil war in Ala, Ark, Fla, Ga, Miss, La, NC, SC, Tn & Va
Apr 4th - Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in the city of Kiev.
Apr 6th - G.A.R. forms
Apr 8th - Italy and Prussia ally against Austria-Hungary.
Apr 9th - Civil Rights Bill passes over Pres Andrew Johnson's veto
Apr 10th - American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) forms
Apr 16th - Karakozov attempts to assassinate Tsar Alexander II of Russia
Apr 16th - Nitroglycerine at Wells Fargo & Co office explodes
May 1st - American Equal Rights Association forms
May 2nd - Peruvian defenders fight off Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao.
May 4th - Woodward's Gardens opens to public
May 7th - German premier Otto von Bismarck seriously wounded in assassin attempt
May 16th - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer
Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck May 16th - Congress authorizes the nickel 5 cent piece (replaces silver half-dime)
May 18th - French government of De Putte resigns
May 21st - 1st-class debut of G F Grace aged 15 years 159 days
May 24th - Berkeley, California named (for George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne)
May 28th - Dutch government of Zuylen van Nijevelt/Heemskerk forms
May 30th - Opera "Die Verkaufte Braut" premieres (Prague)
Jun 1st - General Dutch Typographer Union forms
Jun 1st - Renegade Irish Fenians invade Ft Erie Ontario from US
Jun 2nd - Renegade Irish Fenians surrender to US forces
Jun 7th - Irish Fenians raid Pigeon Hill, Quebec
Jun 7th - 1,800 Fenian raiders are repelled back to the United States after they loot and plunder around Saint-Armand and Frelighsburg, Quebec.
Jun 11th - The Allahabad High Court (then Agra High Court) is established in India.
Jun 13th - House passes 14th Amendment (Civil rights for blacks)
Jun 15th - Prussia attacks Austria
Jun 20th - Italy declares war on Austria
Jun 24th - 2nd Battle at Custozza: Prussian-Austria beats Italian army
Jul 4th - Firecracker thrown in wood starts fire destroying half of Portland, Mainee, US
Jul 10th - Indelible pencil patents by Edson P Clark, Northampton, Mass
Jul 17th - Italian fleet under adm Persano capture Austrian Fort Lissa
Jul 19th - Tennessee is 1st to ratify 14th Amendment, guaranteeing civil rights
Jul 20th - Sea battle of Lissa-Austria vs Italy
Jul 21st - Cholera epidemic kills hundreds in London
Jul 23rd - Cincinnati Baseball club (Red Stockings) forms
Jul 24th - Tennessee becomes 1st Confederate state readmitted to Union
Jul 25th - 25th Postmaster General: Alexander W Randall of Wis takes office
Jul 25th - David Faragut appointed as 1st admiral of US Navy
Jul 25th - US Grant named 1st general of Army
Jul 26th - Canoe Club opens in England
Jul 27th - Atlantic telegraph cable successfully laid (1,686 miles long)
Jul 28th - Metric system becomes a legal measurement system in US
Jul 30th - New Orleans's Democratic government orders police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150.
Aug 10th - Transatlantic cable laid-Pres Buchanan spoke to Queen Victoria
Aug 11th - World's 1st roller rink opens (Newport RI)
Aug 17th - Bathe & Prussia signs peace treaty
Aug 20th - Pres Andrew Johnson formally declares Civil War over
Aug 23rd - Treaty of Prague ends Austro-Prussian war
Sep 1st - Last Navaho chief Manuelito, turns self in at Fort Wingate
Sep 4th - 1st Hawaiian daily newspaper published
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass Sep 6th - Frederick Douglass is 1st US black delegate to a national convention
Sep 22nd - Decisive battle of Curupaity in the War of the Triple Alliance.
Sep 25th - (Leonard W) Jerome Park opens in Bronx for horse racing
Oct 1st - Dutch Eindhoven-Venlo railway opens
Oct 2nd - J Osterhoudt patents tin can with key opener
Oct 6th - 1st train robbery in US (Reno Brothers take $13,000)
Oct 15th - Great fire in Quebec destroys 2,500 houses
Oct 22nd - Paraguay: Battle of Curupaytí against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
Oct 30th - Jesse James gang robs bank in Lexington Missouri ($2000)
Nov 1st - 1st Civil Rights Bill passes
Nov 4th - Kingdom of Italy annexes Venetia
Nov 10th - Gold coins from the Sydney Mint become legal tender in Canada
Nov 17th - Opera "Mignon" is produced (Paris)
Nov 20th - 1st natl convention of Grand Army of Republic (veterans' org)
Nov 20th - Howard University founded (Washington DC)
Nov 20th - Pierre Lalemont patents rotary crank bicycle
Nov 30th - Work begins on 1st US underwater highway tunnel, Chicago
Dec 3rd - Paid fire dept replaces volunteer companies
Dec 6th - Chicago water supply tunnel 3,227 m into Lake Michigan completed
Dec 11th - 1st yacht race across Atlantic Ocean
Dec 21st - Cheyennes, Arapho's, Sioux, Fetterman Massacre

Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 133

Jan 2nd - Prof Gilbert Murray, Australian classical scholar (d. 1957)
Jan 8th - William G. Conley, American politician (d. 1940)
Jan 9th - Albert Baertsoen, Flemish painter/etcher
Jan 13th - Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov, composer
Jan 15th - Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1931)
Jan 19th - Harry Davenport, NYC, actor/director (Her Unborn Child, My Sin)
Jan 20th - Richard Le Gallienne, English writer (Maker of Gainborg)
Jan 25th - Emile Vandervelde, President (1900–1918) of the International Socialist Bureau and Minister of 3 Belgian governments (d. 1938)
Jan 29th - Romain Rolland, France, writer (Jean-Christophe) (Nobel 1915)
Jan 30th - Gelett Burgess, author (Purple Cow)
Jan 31st - Emil Strauss, Germany, writer (Naked Man)
Jan 31st - Henry Forster, cricketer (Oxford blue 1887-89, later Aust Gov-General)
Feb 5th - Arthur Keith, Scottish anthropologist
Feb 5th - Henri [Hendrik J] Hall, Dutch MP/comic (Put a Lid on it)
Feb 5th - Rossetter Gleason Cole, composer
Feb 6th - Karl T Sapper, German geography/geologist (Vulkankunde)
Feb 7th - Raf[ael] Verhulst, [Koen Ravestein], Flemish writer (Jesus of Nazarus)
Feb 9th - George Ade, US, journalist/playwright/humorist (Fables in Slang)
Feb 10th - Bror Beckman, composer
Feb 10th - Rafael Altamira Crevea, Spanish lawyer/historian
Feb 15th - Bannister Fletcher, London, architect & architectural historian
Feb 16th - Johann Strauss, Austria, composer (Waltz King)
Feb 16th - Vyacheslav I Ivanov, Russian philosopher/classical/poet [NS=Feb 28]
Feb 16th - William "Sliding Billy" Hamilton, NJ, hall of fame baseball player
Feb 20th - Carl Westman, Swedish architect and designer (d. 1936)
Feb 24th - Arthur Pearson, Wookey Somerset England, newspaper proprietor
Feb 24th - Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev, Russian physicist (d. 1912)
Feb 24th - Hubert Van Innis, Belgian archer (d. 1961)
Feb 25th - Benedetto Croce, Italy, humanist/historian/editor/philosopher
Feb 26th - Herbert Henry Dow, pioneer in US chemical industry (Dow Chemical)
Feb 28th - Vyacheslav I Ivanov, Russian philosopher/classical/poet [OS=2/16]
Mar 3rd - Fred A. Busse, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1914)
Mar 7th - Paul Ernst, writer
Mar 14th - Alexey Troitsky, Russian chess problemist (d. 1942)
Mar 15th - Matthew Charlton, Australian politician (d. 1948)
Mar 15th - Johan Vaaler, Norwegian inventor (d. 1910)
Mar 17th - Pierce Butler, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1939)
Mar 18th - Dumitru Kiriac-Georgescu, composer
Mar 18th - John Loudon, Dutch minister of Foreign Affairs (1913-18)
Mar 21st - Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury, astronomer
Mar 22nd - Jack Boyle, American baseball player (d. 1913)
Mar 24th - Jack McAuliffe, US lightweight boxing champ, hall of famer
Mar 28th - Jimmy Ross, Scottish footballer (d. 1902)
Apr 1st - Ferruccio D M B Busoni, Italy, pianist/composer/conductor (Arlecchino)
Apr 1st - Sophonisba Breckenridge, scholar/teacher/social activist
Apr 3rd - James B Hertzog, South African general/premier (1914-39)
Apr 4th - George P Baker, US playwright (47 Workshop)
Apr 6th - Joseph Lincoln Steffens, muckraker/journalist (Shame of the Cities)
Apr 11th - Carla Ford, Henry's wife
Apr 11th - Bernard O'Dowd, Australian poet (d. 1953)
Apr 13th - Butch Cassidy, [Robert LeRoy Parker], American desperado (Wild Bunch Passage)
Apr 14th - Anne Mansfield Sullivan, US, educated Helen Keller
Apr 17th - Ernest Starling, British physiologist (d. 1927)
Apr 19th - Henri WA Deterding, Dutch oil magnate (Royal Oil, Shell)
Apr 20th - Victor Hollaender, composer
Apr 22nd - Hans von Seeckt, German general (Future of the Reich)
May 5th - Thomas B. Thrige, Danish industrialist (d. 1938)
May 7th - Cornelis J K van Aalst, president (Dutch Trading Company)
May 9th - Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Leader of Indian Independence Movement (d. 1915)
May 10th - Léon Bakst, Russian artist (d. 1924)
May 13th - Ottokar Eugen Novacek, composer
May 16th - Ernest Watson Burgess, US sociologist (ecological school)
May 23rd - Gustav Aschaffenburg, German psychiatrist/criminalologist
May 24th - Armando Frid, Argentina, live until July 28 1990 (124 years)
May 26th - John Eigenhuis, writer (Tough Workers)
May 31st - Vladimir Ivanovich Rebikov, composer
Jun 3rd - George Howells Broadhurst, English director (d. 1952)
Jun 4th - Miina Sillanpää, Finnish politician (d. 1952)
Jun 13th - Lambertus Zijl, sculptor (Trade scholarship)
Jun 20th - Ivans, [Jacob van Schevichaven], Dutch lawyer/detective writer
Jun 20th - Lord George ESMH Carnarvon, England, egyptologist (Tutanchamon)
Jun 26th - Josef Swickard, Coblenz Germany, actor (Lost City, Tale of 2 Cities)
Jun 29th - Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Ukrainian statesman (d. 1934)
Jul 3rd - Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter
Jul 11th - R Beer-Hofmann, writer
Jul 11th - Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (d. 1953)
Jul 23rd - Francesco Cilea, composer
Jul 25th - Frederick Frost Blackman, English botanist
Jul 26th - Francesco Cilea, composer
Children's Author Beatrix Potter (Jul 28th) Jul 28th - Beatrix Potter, England, children's author (Tale of Peter Rabbit)
Aug 5th - Alfred Holy, composer
Aug 5th - Carl Harries, German chemist (d. 1923)
Aug 5th - Harry Trott, Australian cricketer (d. 1917)
Aug 6th - Chief Thundercloud, [Scott T Williams], MT, actor (Lone Ranger)
Aug 8th - Matthew A Henson, 1st Black to reach North Pole (Jun 4 1909)
Aug 12th - Jacinto Benavente y Martínez, Spanish playwright (Nobel 1922)
Aug 13th - Giovanni Agnelli, Italian industrialist (d. 1945)
Aug 14th - Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin, Belgian mathematician (d. 1962)
Aug 17th - Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, 6th Nizam of Hyderabad (d. 1911)
Aug 17th - Julia Marlowe, English actress (d. 1950)
Aug 30th - Georges Minne, Flemish sculptor
Sep 1st - James "Gentleman Jim" Corbett, heavyweight champion boxer (1892-97)
Sep 2nd - Hiram Johnson, (Gov-Progressive-Cal)
Sep 7th - Tristan Bernard, French playwright and novelist (d. 1947)
Sep 10th - Tor Bernhard Vilhelm Aulin, composer
Sep 10th - Jeppe Aakjær, Danish writer (d. 1930)
Sep 13th - Adolf Meyer, US, psychiatrist/neurologist (pioneered mental hygiene)
Sep 20th - Gustave Doret, composer
Sep 21st - Charles Jean Henri Nicolle France, bacteriologist (Nobel-1928)
Science Fiction Writer H. G. Wells (Sep 21st) Sep 21st - H. G. Wells, Bromley, Kent, , English writer (War of the Worlds, Kipps), (d. 1946)

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Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 42 of 42

Jan 10th - Pyotr Pletnyov, Russian poet (b. 1792)
Jan 15th - M T d'Azeglio, writer, dies
Jan 23rd - Thomas Love Peacock, English satirist (b. 1785)
Jan 27th - John Gibson, sculptor, dies
Feb 3rd - François-Xavier Garneau, French Canadian poet and historian (b. 1809)
Mar 4th - Alexander Campbell, Irish/US founder Disciples of Christ, dies at 77
Mar 6th - William Whewell, English scientist, philosopher, and historian of science (b. 1794)
Mar 10th - Antonio Francesco Gaetano S Pacini, composer, dies at 87
Mar 19th - Louis Clapisson, composer, dies at 57
Mar 20th - Rikard Nordraak, composer, dies at 23
Mar 24th - Maria Amalia, of Bourbon-Sicily, wife of Louis Filips of Austria, dies
Mar 28th - Solomon Foot, American politician (b. 1802)
Mar 29th - Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, Rabbi/Chassidic leader, dies
Apr 1st - Aime Ambroise Simon Leborne, composer, dies at 98
Apr 1st - Johannes C H de Meijere, Dutch zoologist, dies
Apr 15th - William Jackson, composer, dies at 51
May 13th - Nikolai Brashman, Russian mathematician (b. 1796)
May 17th - Adolf Bernhard Marx, composer, dies at 70
May 29th - Winfield Scott, American general (b. 1786)
Jun 5th - John McDouall Stuart, Australian explorer (b. 1815)
Jun 7th - Chief Seattle, Native American leader
Jun 16th - Joseph Méry French poet (b. 1798)
Jun 18th - Jacobus T Abels, painter, dies at 62
Jun 23rd - Samuel Sarphati, Amsterdam physician/social activist, dies at 53
Jun 25th - Alexander von Nordmann, Finnish zoologist (b. 1803)
Jul 20th - Faa di Bruno, Italian captain (Er d'italia, Lissa), commits suicide
Jul 20th - G F Berhard Riemann, German mathematician (zeta-function), dies
Jul 23rd - Thomas Forbes Walmisley, composer, dies at 83
Jul 25th - Aloys Schmitt, German music theory/composer/royal pianist, dies
Aug 1st - John Ross (aka. Kooweskoowe), Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (b. 1790)
Aug 6th - John Mason Neale, English divine, scholar and hymnwriter (b. 1818)
Aug 22nd - George Shillibeer, pioneer of London's 1st bus service, dies
Sep 3rd - Konstantin Flavitsky, Russian painter (b. 1830)
Sep 9th - Gergely Czuczor, Hungarian/Czech poet/translator, dies at 65
Sep 26th - Carl Almqvist, Swedish author (Amorina), dies at 72
Oct 26th - John Kinder Labatt, Irish-Canadian brewer (Labatt Brewing Company) (b. 1803)
Nov 14th - King Miguel of Portugal (b. 1802)
Nov 26th - Adrien Francois Servais, composer, dies at 59
Nov 26th - Carl Jonas Love Almquist, composer, dies at 72
Dec 1st - George Everest, Welsh surveyor and namesake of Mt. Everest (d. 1790)
Dec 3rd - Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda, composer, dies at 65
Dec 26th - Samuel Ryan Curtis, Union general-major, dies at 49