French forces under Admiral de Genonilly had occupied Saigon in Indo-China during 1859 but Vietnamese resistance continued to harass the occupation and set up a virtual blockade on the port city.  French and Spanish land and naval units began operations on February 19, 1861. Six days later, through a series of assaults on insurgent fortifications in heavy fighting that cost the French and Spanish three hundred men killed and wounded, all pressure on Saigon was relieved.  (By John Osborne) 

President Buchanan signed into law the legislation organizing the Colorado Territory.  The bill had been introduced earlier in the month and helped through congress both by the absence of many southern members and its silence on slavery. It was named for its main river after proposals for "Jefferson" and "Idaho" were rejected.  Abraham Lincoln later appointed Philadelphian William Gilpin as the new territory's first governor. (By John Osborne)

On this day (February 19  in the Russian calendar), Alexander II signed into law the four hundred pages of legislation that his ministers, led by Nikolai Miliutin, had drafted over many months.  It ended "the right of bondage" in Russian and planned to work out new relationships on the land. The law effected the forty percent of Russians who were serfs as well as their previous masters.  The country then embarked on a difficult period of transition that included over a thousand serious disturbances around the empire before the end of the year.  (By John Osborne)

In Poland, Russian troops fired on a Warsaw crowd refusing to disperse, killing five and injuring many others.  Street demonstrations had begun after the earlier funeral of the widow of Polish 1830 hero General Sobinski.  The protesters then had organized a "provincial government" and continued in the streets with "unarmed agitation" reportedly designed to provoke violence from troops and raise international awareness of Poland's plight under the Russian Empire.  A larger, wider-scale armed uprising broke out in 1863.  (By John Osborne)

Francis Wilkinson Pickens was elected on the seventh ballot of the South Carolina Legislature as the 69th governor of the state.  He replaced W. H. Gist, who was finishing his term. Pickens was a former congressman who had made his name with a forceful speech in the House denying the right of the federal government to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.  He had recently returned from the post of ambassador to Russia.  Within days he would be the head of the newly independent South Carolina.  He served until 1862.  (By John Osborne)

Adelina Patti, born in Spain to Italian singers, made her operatic debut at New York's Academy of Music at age sixteen in November 1859.  She was invited to London's Covent Garden and made her European debut there as Amina in Bellini's opera La Sonnambula to great acclaim.  She emeged as one of Europe's leading opera stars, commanding at one point $5000 per night, in gold.  She sang for the Lincolns at the White House in 1862.  She retired to a castle in Wales, sang in public for the last time at the outbreak of the WWI, and died in 1919.  (By John Osborne)

Eighteen-year old Clara Louise Kellogg made her operatic debut as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto at the New York Academy of Arts in New York City.  Born in South Carolina but educated in the music schools of New England, she went on to become the preeminent American soprano for the next two decades.  She performed extensively in Italian opera in Europe and founded her own touring opera company in 1874.  She retired and married Carl Strokosch in 1886.  She died in New Hartford, Connecticut in May 1916.  (By John Osborne)