Elijah Hise, a sitting member of Congress for Kentucky's Third District, shot himself in the head at his home in Russellville, Kentucky on this day.  Born in Pennyslvania, he had risen to become one of Kentucky's leading jurists and had also served as a diplomat under President Polk.  He had been appointed to the Thirty-Ninth Congress to fill a vacancy and was elected in his own right to the next.  The immediate reasons for his suicide are unclear but he had fallen into a deep depression of some duration. He is buried in Russellville.  He was sixty-four years old. (By John Osborne)

George Luther Stearns, tireless abolitionist and a former member of the "Secret Six" who supported and financed John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, died of pneumonia at his home in New York City on this day. A successful Massachusetts industrialist, for two decades he was at the center of most American efforts in aid of abolition and his efforts ran from establishing an Underground Railroad station, funding free soil immigration to Kansas, support for Brown, the early enlistment of black troops in Massachusetts, and the foundation of the Freedmens' Bureau.  He was also the founder of The Nation magazine.  He was fifty-eight years old.  (By John Osborne) 

John Selden Roane, the fourth governor of Arkansas and a Confederate general during the Civil War, died on this day at his home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.  Born to a prominent Tennessee family, Roane had been educated at Cumberland College and moved to Arkansas in 1837 when he was twenty.  He began a law practice and was elected to the state assembly before enlisting for service in the Mexican War.  A Democrat, he was narrowly elected state governor and was in office from 1850 to 1852.  Never a popular figure, he served indifferently as a Confederate officer.  He is buried in Pine Bluff.  He was fifty years old.  (By John Osborne) 

George Wythe Randolph, the youngest grandson of Thomas Jefferson and a Confederate general officer and Secretary of War, died of tuberculosis on his plantation near Charlottesville, Virginia. Related to the most prominent families of the Commonwealth, he had been born at Monticello, named after his grandfather's university professor, and studied himself at the University of Virginia. He practiced law and then went into service with Confederacy.  He served briefly as Jefferson Davis' Secretary of War in 1862 before his declining health saw his resignation and an extended stay with his wife in Europe between 1864 and 1866.  He returned home to die and is buried in the Jefferson family cemetery at Monticello.  He was forty-nine years old. (By John Osborne)

George R. Riddle, one of Delaware's sitting U.S. Senators in the Thirty-Ninth Congress, died on this day in Washington, D.C. at the relatively young age of fifty.  A Democrat and a slaveholder, he was born in New Castle, Delaware and educated at Delaware College.  He became a leading civil engineer in the region before serving two terms during the eighteen fifties in the U.S. House of Representatives. He had been named to the Senate in 1864.  He is buried in the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware, a burial place he helped design and lay out as a young engineer in 1844.  (By John Osborne)

Philip Johnson, a Democratic member of Congress representing Pennsylvania's 11th District in the Thirty-Ninth Congress, died in Washington, D.C. on this day.  Born in New Jersey and educated at Lafayette College in Easton, he had taught for a time in Mississippi before taking up a legal career in Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania.  He served in the state legislature and then was first elected for three terms to the U.S. Congress in late 1862.  His funeral was held at the U.S. Capitol and he is buried in Easton but has a monument in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington.  He was forty-nine years old.  (By John Osborne)

Emperor of Abyssinia Téwodros II, angered by the failure of the British to provide him aid had taken most British diplomats, missionaries, and businessmen in his kingdom as hostages the year before. After all diplomatic attempts had failed and a final ultimatum was ignored, Queen Victoria's government prepared for military action.  On this day, the first 1,400-man contingent of British troops departed India for Africa from Bombay.  The eventual 12,000 strong force, under General Sir Robert Napier, defeated the Emperor's army and on April 13, 1868 stormed his capital at Magdala as he committed suicide by pistol shot. (By John Osborne)