The opening of the extension of the Big Mine Run branch railroad, over difficult terrain to join with the Shamokin Valley and Pottsville Railroad, directly connected large areas of the Pennsylvania coalfields with Philadelphia and so on to the West and the South for the first time. Notable engineering on the line included the traversing of a three hundred foot ascent over the hills by means of a long switchback.  (By John Osborne)  

Around four o'clock in the morning, a portion of an early mail train on the Fall River Railroad derailed near Myricks, Massachusetts.  Breaking a rail, the rear carriage was thrown down an embankment and many of the thirty-five passengers aboard injured, three of them seriously. (By John Osborne) 

William L. Yancey, the Alabama "fire-eater" spoke to a crowd of several thousand during the afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky.  He urged the state to vote for Breckinridge as the only chance to stave off an all-out attack upon the institution of slavery.  Slavery would not go away, he argued, especially since the four million slaves in the South were worth 2.8 billion dollars. (By John Osborne) 

The five year old United States Court of Claims began its latest session after a long recess with little business on its docket.  Founded in 1855, this court heard small claims against the Government and operated until its abolition in 1982.  (By John Osborne) 

The New York Health Inspector reported the figures for mortality for the previous week in the city as 390 of which 95 men, 78 women, 112 boys, and 105 girls.  Almost two hundred of the deceased were children under five years old. Most people suffered from various diseases, including scarlet fever, cholera, and smallpox, while five were determined to have "died of old age," three drowned, and six died in violent accidents. Figures were a little higher than normal.  (By John Osborne)