United States Navy units under Commander Thomas T. Craven secured all the Florida Keys military installations against any attempted seizure by Florida or other Southern authorities.  Craven in U.S.S. Mohawk controlled the new 1,500 men and 450 gun Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, sixty-eight miles off Key West, while Lieutenant Fabius Stanly in the U.S.S. Wyandotte guarded Fort Taylor which protected Key West itself.  (By John Osborne)

George William Curtis, the New York writer and journalist, was scheduled to give a lecture on abolition to the People's Institute in Philadelphia on this day.  Rumors of violence against the gathering were such that, with tensions running high in the streets, Philadelphia Mayor Henry asked for a postponement.  The issue was decided when the owner of the Concert Hall, where the event was scheduled, withdrew its use and the talk was cancelled.  (By John Osborne)

H.M. S. Warrior was the first all-iron hulled armored ocean-going steam screw-driven warship. Built at the Thames Ironworks at Blackwall in east London, she weighed 6,109 tons, measured 380 feet in length, carried thirty-two of the heaviest guns afloat, and 705 men.  The Warrior served for forty years, and was retired in March 1900 with the same 1,250 horse power engines with which she was built.  The day of the launch was so cold the iron ship froze for a time to the launching slips. (By John Osborne)