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 Events in the Year 1861

January - March

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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 delegates 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 Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
* February 11 - American Civil War: US House unanimously passes resolution guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any state.

* February 13 - End of the Siege of Gaeta,Italy, last stronghold of the Neapolitan King Francis II, by Piedmontese forces. Francis goes into exile.
* February 18
o American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional president of the Confederate States of America.

o Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont-Sardinia becomes King of Italy.

March 4: Lincoln inaugurated.
March 4: Lincoln inaugurated.
March 4: Confederate flag.

* February 19 - Serfdom is abolished in Russia.
* February 23 - President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, DC after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.
* February 27 - A crowd in Warsaw protesting Russian rule over Poland is fired upon by Russian troops killing five protesters.
* February 28 - Colorado is organized as a United States territory.
* March 2 - Nevada is organized as a United States territory.
* March 3 - Formal emancipation of the serfs in Imperial Russia.
* March 4
o President Abraham Lincoln takes office, succeeding James Buchanan.
o 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 - Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy with Victor Emmanuel II as its king.

* March 19 - First Taranaki War (  March 17, 1860 to March 18, 1861 ) between the  Maori and the New Zealand Government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand's North Island ends in New Zealand ends
* March 20
o An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, a city on western Argentina.
o Surrender of Civitella del Tronto. End of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
* March 30 - Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of Thallium (see Discovery of the chemical elements).

* April 12 - 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:
o President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in the United States.
o 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.
o American Civil War: Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
o May 13 - Comet C/1861 J1 (the "Great Comet of 1861") discovered in Australia.
* May 14 - The Canellas meteorite, an 859 gram chondrite type meteorite struck earth near Barcelona, Spain.
* May 20 - American Civil War: Kentucky proclaims its neutrality which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state. North Carolina secedes from the Union.
* June 9 - Lebanon separated from Syrian administration and reunited under Ottoman governor with the approval of European powers.

* June 15 - Benito Juárez 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).
* July 1 - First issue of Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano was published.
* July 2 - Ivan Kasatkin lands on Hakodate and introduces the Eastern Orthodox church into Japan.
* July 13 - American Civil War: 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 begins (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
o 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).
o US Army abolishes flogging.
* August 27 - Last execution in Britain for attempted murder - Martin Doyle in Chester.
* 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 9 - American Civil War: the Battle of Santa Rosa 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 was completed and commissioned.
* October 28 -The Missouri legislature took up a bill for Missouri's secession from the Union.
* October 30 -The bill was passed for Missouri's secession from Union.
* October 31
o The Missouri's secession from the Union bill is signed by Governor Jackson
o American Civil War: Citing failing health, Union General Winfield Scott resigns as Commander of the United States Army.
* November 1 - American Civil War: US 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 - First Racing of the Australian Melbourne Cup horse race.
* 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: The "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 UK and US.
* 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 admitted Missouri as the 12th confederate state.
* December 10 - American Civil War: Kentucky is accepted into the Confederate States of America.