| Campaigns/Elections |
|
Whig Frederick Walker Lincoln, Jr. re-elected Mayor of Boston |
| Slavery/Abolition |
|
Dion Boucicault's controversial play about slavery opens at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
Senator Gwin of California hints in the Senate that his state could join the South if the Union breaks up |
| Personal |
|
Clara Wilson, 125 year old former slave, dies near Alton, Illinois |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
U.S. Senate votes unanimously for a committee to investigate the Harpers Ferry Raid |
| Legal/Political |
|
Abolitionist lecture delivered successfully in Philadelphia as police and rioters battle outside the hall |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
The Legislature of the unorganized territory of Nevada meets for the first and last time in Genoa |
| Foreign |
|
Lazar Ludwik Zamenhof, the inventor of Esperanto, born in Poland |
| Slavery/Abolition |
|
John Rogers finds no New York art dealer will display his new sculpture on slavery |
| Legal/Political |
|
Four Harpers Ferry raiders hanged in Charlestown, Virginia |
| Education/Culture |
|
Wilhelm Grimm, of Grimm's Fairytales, dies in Berlin |
| Crime/Disasters |
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|
Danish Royal Palace at Frederiksborg gutted by fire |
| Slavery/Abolition |
|
Georgia legislature passes law enabling the sale into slavery of free blacks indicted for vagrancy |
| Slavery/Abolition |
|
William Lloyd Garrison writes to a friend about the impact of John Brown's death. |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
In the hotly contested election for Speaker of the House, Thomas Bocock withdraws |
| Personal |
|
Mirabeau Lamar, the second President of the Texas Republic, dies in Richmond, Texas |
| Legal/Political |
|
Southern students from Philadelphia's medical schools meet and vote to leave for the South |
| Crime/Disasters |
|
Fuse cord factory blows up in Simsbury, Connecticut and eight die |
| Legal/Political |
|
Southern students make a mass exodus from Philadelphia's medical schools |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
In the hotly contested Speaker's election, Democrat John Millson of Virginia comes to within eighteen votes of success |
| Legal/Political |
|
Governor Wise of Virginia meets with southern medical students returned from Philadelphia |
| US/the World |
|
Australian Thomas Austin hosts his first rabbit hunt with twenty-five wild rabbits imported from England |
| Religious |
|
Christmas Day |
| Crime/Disasters |
|
Australia-bound ship wrecked in the English Channel soon after sailing and all aboard are lost |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
President Buchanan sends his annual message to the United States Senate |
| Legal/Political |
|
Senator Seward of New York returns to the United States from Europe |
| Personal |
|
Thomas Babington Macaulay, British statesman and historian, dies in London |
| Campaigns/Elections |
|
The returned Senator Seward meets his New York City contituents |
| Crime/Disasters |
|
Fire causes heavy damage in lower New York City |
| Crime/Disasters |
|
Ten below cold brings collapse of portions of the Union Railroad Depot in Troy, New York |
