Directory

1864 CE

The Russian Empire begins the Circassian genocide. More than 1.5 million Circassians are driven from their homeland to the Ottoman Empire, ending the Russo-Circassian 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. 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' worth of material.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 16 – Denmark rejects an Austrian-Prussian ultimatum to repeal the Danish Constitution, which says that Schleswig-Holstein is part of Denmark.source
  • February 25 – The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia (the 500 prisoners had left Richmond, Virginia, seven days before).source
  • March 1 – Alejandro Mon y Menéndez takes office as Prime Minister of Spain.source
  • May 2 – Under terms of the Treaty of London, the United Kingdom voluntarily cedes control of the United States of the Ionian Islands to the Kingdom of Greece.source
  • May 26 – Montana Territory is organized out of parts of Washington Territory and Dakota Territory.source
  • August 22 – The First Geneva Convention, for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, is signed in Geneva by 12 European states, under the auspices of the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded (predecessor of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement).source
  • September 1 – Charlottetown Conference: Delegates from the Canadian colonies meet, to discuss Canadian Confederation.source
  • October 10 – The Quebec Conference begins, to discuss plans for the creation of a Dominion of Canada.source
  • October 31 – Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state.source
  • November 7 – The capital of Idaho Territory is moved from Lewiston to Boise; North Idaho declares the move illegal, and proposes secession.source
  • November 8 – 1864 United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln is reelected, in an overwhelming victory over George B. McClellan.source
  • November 20 – The judicial reform of Alexander II is launched in the Russian Empire.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 1 – Danish-Prussian War (Second Schleswig War): 57,000 Austrian and Prussian troops cross the Eider River into Denmark.source
  • April 12 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Pillow – Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers who surrender at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.source
  • April 15 – Choe Je-u, founder of the Donghak Movement, is executed by beheading for sedition, at Daegu, Korea.source
  • April 18 – Danish-Prussian War (Second Schleswig War) – 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 7–18.source
  • May 5 – American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.source
  • 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.source
  • May 11 – Battle of Yellow Tavern – Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia.source
  • May 21 – The Russian Empire begins the Circassian genocide. More than 1.5 million Circassians are driven from their homeland to the Ottoman Empire, ending the Russo-Circassian War.source
  • & May 15 – Battle of New Market – Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate Army, forcing Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.source
  • June 19 – American Civil War: Battle of Cherbourg – Confederate States Navy CSS Alabama is sunk in a single-ship action with USS Kearsarge, in the English Channel off the coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, France.source
  • 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.source
  • July 20 – Battle of Peachtree Creek – Near Atlanta, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.source
  • 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.source
  • August 10 – An undeclared Uruguayan War begins, when Uruguay refuses an ultimatum from the Empire of Brazil.source
  • 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 Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, forcing the Confederates to use wagons.source
  • August 31 – American Civil War: Union forces, led by General William T. Sherman, launch an assault on Atlanta.source
  • September 5–6 – Bombardment of Shimonoseki: An American, British, Dutch and French alliance engages the powerful feudal Japanese warlord or daimyō Lord Mōri Takachika, of the Chōshū clan, based in Shimonoseki, Japan.source
  • September 17 – American Civil War: The Second Battle of Cabin Creek is fought in Indian Territory.source
  • October 1 – A calamity is narrowly averted in London at the Erith explosionsource
  • October 12 – Uruguayan War: Forces of the Empire of Brazil invade Uruguay, in support of Venancio Flores' Colorado Party.source
  • October 30 – The Second Schleswig War is concluded. Denmark renounces all claim to Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, which come under Prussian and Austrian administration.source
  • 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' worth of material.source
  • November 22 – Sherman's March to the Sea – Confederate General John Bell Hood invades Tennessee, in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Union General Sherman from Georgia.source
  • December 15–16 – American Civil War: Battle of Nashville – Union forces decisively defeat the Confederate Army of Tennessee.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • June 18 – The Decree of Extended Freedom of Trade introduces complete freedom of trade in Sweden.source
  • August 13 – The first fish and chips shop perhaps opens in London.source
  • October 30 – 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 for weeks, of trying to find gold in the northern Rockies.source
  • Asa Mercer travels from Seattle to the U.S. East Coast, and recruits 11 Mercer Girls, potential wives for men on the West Coast.source
  • The Dutch conquer southern Sumatra.source
  • The first Quanjude Peking Roast Duck restaurant opens on Qianmen Street in Peking, China.source

Religion & Belief

  • April 22 – The phrase "In God We Trust" appears for the first time on the newly created two-cent piece.source
  • June 5 – In Marseille, Notre-Dame de la Garde, the city's most famous landmark, is consecrated.source
  • September 16 – Pope Pius IX establishes the Diocese of Gozo.source
  • December 8 – Syllabus errorum: Pope Pius IX condemns theological liberalism as an error, and claims the supremacy of Roman Catholic Church authority over civil society. He also condemns rationalism and socialism.source

Economy & Finance

  • February 15 – Heineken Brewery is founded in the Netherlands.source
  • April 22 – The United States Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864, which makes privately issued Civil War tokens illegal. An additional law is passed on June 8 to include all private coinage.source
  • May 4 – Société Générale, a major financial group in France, is founded.source
  • Yasudaya Currency Exchange Bank, as predecessor of Mizuho Financial Group, is founded in Edo (modern-day Tokyo), Japan.source
  • Merchants Bank of Halifax, as predecessor of Royal Bank of Canada, founded in Nova Scotia.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • August 1 – The Elgin Watch Company is founded in Elgin, Illinois.source
  • December 8 – The Clifton Suspension Bridge across the River Avon (Bristol) in England, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and completed as a memorial to him, opens to traffic.source

Science & Discovery

  • February – John Wisden publishes The Cricketer's Almanack for the year 1864 in England; it will go on to become the major annual cricket reference publication.source
  • May 7 – The clipper ship City of Adelaide is launched in Sunderland, England. By the 21st century, she will be the world's oldest surviving clipper of only two (Cutty Sark being the other).source
  • October 30 – An annular solar eclipse occurs, the 42nd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 131.source
  • December 8 – James Clerk Maxwell presents his paper, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field, to the Royal Society in London, treating light as an electromagnetic wave.source

Health & Medicine

  • June – The United States Sanitary Commission's Sanitary Fair in Philadelphia takes place.source

Crime & Justice

  • May 20 – Australian bushranger Ben Hall and his gang escape from a shootout with police, after attempting to rob the Bang Bang Hotel in Koorawatha, New South Wales.source
  • July 29 – Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops, and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 22 – the Stifone powder-magazine explosion near Narni, Italy, destroys much of the village of Stifone and kills 12 people.source
  • February 17 – The tiny Confederate hand-propelled submarine H. L. Hunley sinks the , using a spar torpedo in Charleston Harbor, becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, although the submarine and her crew of eight are also lost.source
  • June 29 – St-Hilaire train disaster, a passenger train operated by Grand Trunk Railway and travelling from Quebec City to Montreal is derailed at a swung open bridge after a signal passed at danger. The train also collapses onto a ship, sinking both ship and train. 99 people are killed and 100 injured making this the deadliest train accident in Canada's history.source
  • December 1 – The Great Fire of Brisbane breaks out in Australia.source

Climate & Environment

  • March 11 – Great Sheffield Flood: A reservoir near Sheffield, England, bursts; 250 die.source
  • October 5 – A cyclone kills 70,000 people in and around Calcutta in India.source

Culture & Society

  • March 14 – Rossini's Petite messe solennelle is first performed, by twelve singers, two pianists and a harmonium player in a mansion in Paris.source
  • April 8 – Gallaudet University is founded in Washington, D.C., as the first university for the deaf and hard of hearing.source
  • June 15 – Arlington National Cemetery is established in the United States, when 200 acre 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.source
  • July 2 – Dimitri Atanasescu founds the first Romanian school in the Balkans for Aromanians in Trnovo, in the Ottoman Empire (modern-day North Macedonia). By the early 20th century, the number of these schools will have risen to 106.source
  • July 4 – The University of Bucharest in Romania is founded.source
  • September 28 – The International Workingmen's Association is founded in London.source

Births

  • January 8 – Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (d. 1892)source
  • February 20 – Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson, British general (d. 1925)source
  • March 12 – W. H. R. Rivers, English psychiatrist (d. 1922)source
  • April 21 – Max Weber, German sociologist (d. 1920)source
  • May 5 – Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet, British field marshal, politician (d. 1922)source
  • June 25 – Walther Nernst, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)source
  • July 12 – George Washington Carver, African-American botanist (d. 1943)source
  • July 21 – Frances Cleveland, First Lady of the United States (d. 1947)source
  • July 23 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician, Prime Minister (d. 1903)source
  • August 23 – Eleftherios Venizelos, 7-time prime minister of Greece (d. 1936)source
  • September 14 – Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English politician, diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1958)source
  • October 9 – Reginald Dyer, British army officer, perpetrator of Jallianwala Bagh massacre (d. 1927)source
  • October 31 – Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1945)source
  • December 9 – Breaker Morant, Australian soldier (d. 1902)source

Deaths

  • January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song "Beautiful Dreamer" is published in March.source
  • January 24 – Vedanayagam Sastriar, Tamil Lutheran hymnwriter and court poet in the palace of Serfoji II, the last Maratha King of Thanjavur (b. 1774)source
  • February 7 – Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Serbian linguist, major reformer of the Serbian language (b. 1787)source
  • February 25 – Anna Harrison, First Lady of the United States (b. 1775)source
  • May 2 – Giacomo Meyerbeer, German composer (b. 1791)source
  • May 12 – J. E. B. Stuart, Confederate general (in battle) (b. 1833)source
  • May 20 – John Clare, Northamptonshire peasant poet (b. 1793)source
  • June 4 – Matías Ramón Mella, Dominican general (b. 1816)source
  • August 31 – Ferdinand Lassalle, Prussian-German philosopher, socialist and politician (b. 1825)source
  • October 12 – Roger Taney, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (b. 1777)source
  • November 30 – States Rights Gist, Confederate general (in battle) (b. 1831)source
  • November 30 – Patrick Cleburne, Confederate general (in battle) (b. 1828)source
  • December 8 – George Boole, English mathematician, philosopher (b. 1815)source
  • December 31 – George M. Dallas, U.S. Senator, 11th Vice President of the United States (b. 1792)source