1864

Events

January

• January 13 - American songwriter Stephen Foster 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.
• January 16 - Denmark rejects an Austrian-Prussian ultimatum to repeal the Danish Constitution, which says that Schleswig-Holstein is part of Denmark.
• January 21 - New Zealand Wars: The Tauranga campaign begins.
• January 22 - the Stifone powder-magazine explosion near Narni, Italy, destroys much of the village of Stifone and kills 12 people.

  February

• 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.
• February 1 - Danish-Prussian War : 57,000 Austrian and Prussian troops cross the Eider River into Denmark.
• February 15 - Heineken Brewery is founded in the Netherlands.
• American Civil War:
• * 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.
• * February 20 - The Union suffers one of its costliest defeats at the Battle of Olustee near Lake City, Florida.
• * February 25 - The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.

  March

• March 1 - Alejandro Mon y Menéndez takes office as Prime Minister of Spain.
• American Civil War:
• * March 9 - Abraham Lincoln appoints Ulysses S. Grant commander in chief of all Union armies.
• * March 10 - The Red River Campaign begins, as Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
• March 11 - Great Sheffield Flood: A reservoir near Sheffield, England, bursts; 250 die.
• March 14 - Rossini's Petite messe solennelle is first performed, by twelve singers, two pianists and a harmonium player in a mansion in Paris.

  April

• April 8 - Gallaudet University is founded in Washington, D.C., as the first university for the deaf and hard of hearing.
• April 12 - American Civil War: Battle of Fort Pillow - Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers who surrender at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
• April 15 - Choe Je-u, founder of the Donghak Movement, is executed by beheading for sedition, at Daegu, Korea.
• April 18 - Danish-Prussian 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.
• 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.
• *The phrase "In God We Trust" appears for the first time on the newly created two-cent piece.
• April 30 - American Civil War: Confederate forces led by General E. Kirby Smith attack federal troops retreating across the Saline at Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas.

  May

• 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.
• May 4 - Société Générale, a major financial group in France, is founded.
• May 5 - American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.

• 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.
• * 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.
• May 8-21 - American Civil War: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House - Some 4,000 troops on both sides die in an inconclusive engagement.
• May 9
• * Danish-Prussian War : Battle of Heligoland - The Danish navy gains a tactical victory over those of Austria and Prussia, near the island of Heligoland. It is the last significant naval battle fought by squadrons of wooden ships, and also the last involving Denmark.
• * American general John Sedgwick is shot dead during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, shortly after uttering the famous last words: "They couldn't hit an elephant from this distance!"
• American Civil War:
• * May 11 - Battle of Yellow Tavern - Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia.
• * May 13 - Battle of Resaca - The battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.
• & 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.
• May 18 - Civil War gold hoax: The New York World and the New York Journal of Commerce publish a fake proclamation that President Abraham Lincoln has issued a draft of 400,000 more soldiers.
• May 20
• * American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church - In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.
• * 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.
• 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.
• May 26 - Montana Territory is organized out of parts of Washington Territory and Dakota Territory.

June

• June 5
• * In Marseille, Notre-Dame de la Garde, the city's most famous landmark, is consecrated.
• * American Civil War: Battle of Piedmont - Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, West Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners.
• American Civil War:
• * June 9 - First Battle of Petersburg
• * June 10
• ** Battle of Noonday Creek - Confederate troops defeat Union forces, near Kennesaw, Georgia.
• ** 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.
• * June 12 - Battle of Cold Harbor - General Ulysses S. Grant pulls his troops from their positions at Cold Harbor, Virginia, and moves south.
• June 15 - Arlington National Cemetery is established in the United States, when of the grounds of Robert E. Lee's home are officially set aside as a military cemetery, by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
• June 18
• * The Decree of Extended Freedom of Trade introduces complete freedom of trade in Sweden.
• * The January Uprising ends in the defeat of Polish forces.
• 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.
• June 21 - New Zealand Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.
• June 27 - American Civil War: Battle of Kennesaw Mountain - Confederate troops defeat Union forces near Kennesaw, Georgia.
• June 29
• * Second Schleswig War: The Battle of Als is won by the Prussians under General Herwarth von Bittenfeld, who occupy the island of Als after crossing the Alssund, between the village of Sottrupskov and the Sandbjerg Estate, by night. Of 9,000 Danish troops stationed there, a third are killed, wounded or captured.
• * 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.
• June - The United States Sanitary Commission's Sanitary Fair in Philadelphia takes place.

  July

• July 2 - Dimitri Atanasescu founds the first Romanian school in the Balkans for Aromanians in Trnovo, in the Ottoman Empire. By the early 20th century, the number of these schools will have risen to 106.
• July 4 - The University of Bucharest in Romania is founded.
• July 18 - President Lincoln issues a true proclamation of conscription of 500,000 men, for the U.S. Civil War.
• July 19 - The Third Battle of Nanking climaxes, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom capital of Nanking falls to an assault by Imperial Qing dynasty forces, in the last major action of the Taiping Rebellion in China. There are probably more than a million troops in the battle, and the Taiping army sustains at least 100,000 dead.
• American Civil War:
• * 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.
• * July 22 - Battle of Atlanta - Outside of Atlanta, Confederate General Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General Sherman, on Bald Hill.
• * July 24 - Second Battle of Kernstown - Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep the Yankees out of the Shenandoah Valley.
• * July 28 - Battle of Ezra Church - Confederate troops, led by General Hood, make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces under General Sherman from Atlanta.
• * July 29 - Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops, and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.
• * July 30 - Battle of the Crater - Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines, by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.