Britain's Reform League organized a massive afternoon parade through the streets of central London, together with an evening public meeting, in support of the growing consensus of an extension of the nation's franchise.  The procession, numbering a reported 20,000 people, was watched and cheered by thousands more, and in the evening speakers, including a large number of Liberal members of Parliament, spoke in favor of reform in the packed Agricultural Hall.  Later in the year Lord Derby's Conservative government would indeed extend the vote to hundreds of thousands of working men in the Reform Bill of 1867.  (By John Osborne)

Nelson's Column in cenral London's Trafalgar Square, commemorating the life and victories of Admiral Horatio Nelson, had been completed in 1843.  Further plans for a decoration of the large pedestal of the structure were not completed until this day when the four large and impressive bronze lions were installed, one at each corner.  The design of Sir Edwin Landseer, they had been commissioned in 1858. (By John Osborne)

Distressed shipyard workers in Greenwich and Deptford on the Thames in east London, unemployed due to the sharp downturn in the manufacturing economy, took to the streets when a scheduled distribution of tickets for a bread ration ran short.  In cold and wet weather, angry workers attacked and looted several baker shops in Deptford and Greenwich high streets.  There was little violence other than broken windows and the disturbances were not repeated.  (By John Osborne)

In North Wales, heavy snow and significant drifting had closed much of the railway lines in the area.  After some clearing an attempt to force through the evening mail train from Holyhead to Bangor on the Chester and Holyhead Railway line that ran mostly along the coast.  Unfortunately, the attempt was struck with a massive gale that literally blew the mail car off the rails and derailed several of the passenger cars. No serious injuries were reported, however. (By John Osborne) 

The 24th edition of the University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge took place on the Thames in west London starting just before nine in the morning after some wet and windy weather.  In one of the fastest and closest contests that saw the lead change hands several time, the title holding Oxford eight were winners by less than a length.  The time taken over the four and a half mile course from Putney to Mortlake was twenty-two minutes and 39 seconds, more than three minutes faster than the 1866 race.  (By John Osborne) 

Carrying a dispatch to the Seventh Cavalry, then patrolling south of Fort Sedgwick in Kansas, Second Lieutenant Lyman S. Kidder and a detail of ten other soldiers, together with a Sioux scout named Red Bead were intercepted and killed in a short fight in present-day Sherman County, Kansas.  Their attackers were a small combined force of Cheyenne Dog Soldiers and Oglala Sioux. Their decomposing and mutilated remains were discovered by the Seventh two weeks later. (By John Osborne) 

In his continued heavy-handed negotiations with the Plains Indian tribes aimed at securing the Santa Fe Trail, General W.S. Hancock met with Kiowa leaders near Fort Dodge, among whom were Kicking Bird and Satanta, also known as White Bear.  Hancock famously gave Satanta one of his major-general's uniform tunics after the meeting but the negotiations did little to halt the increasing hostilities along the Trail.  General William S. Sherman replaced Hancock as department commander soon after.  (By John Osborne)