Birthdays
Joseph Randolph Cockerill
Turns 48 on this date
Isaac Cole
Turns 42 on this date
Augustus Caesar Dodge
Turns 54 on this date
Napoleon Bonaparte Giddings
Turns 50 on this date
Aaron Harding
Turns 61 on this date
William Shorten Henerey
Turns 39 on this date
William Brown McIlvaine
Turns 59 on this date
Shadrach Minkins
Turns 52 on this date
William Winter Payne
Turns 59 on this date
Events
| Crime/Disasters | In New Orleans, two French-language newspaper editors, about to duel with swords, are arrested | 01/02/1866 |
| Crime/Disasters | In Philadelphia, a large early-morning fire destroys several buildings on Chestnut Street | 01/02/1866 |
| Crime/Disasters | London's new Metropolitan Fire Brigade has its first test in a massive fire on the city's docks |
01/01/1866 to 01/02/1866 |
| Legal/Political | The first session of the 39th Congress is in a two-week holiday recess until January 5, 1866 |
12/22/1865 to 01/04/1866 |
| Personal | The Radical Republican former Congressman Henry Winter Davis is buried in Baltimore, Maryland | 01/02/1866 |