In Oxford University Museum, during the week-long meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the first since the publication of Darwin's Origin of the Species, Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, Thomas Henry Huxley and others met in a famous debate on the theory of evolution.  The debate established Huxley as the leading defender of Darwinian theory and launched his own career as a writer on evolution.  (By John Osborne) 

In mid-afternoon at East Williamsburg in Brooklyn an explosion took place in the packing department of J.W. Hadfield and Sons, makers of fireworks.  One of the owners, Charles Hadfield, and one of his employees were killed instantly in the blast and several others were seriously injured.  Fifty other workers in the 200 foot square factory were fortunate that the explosion was limited to only one of the several buildings making up the complex. (By John Osborne)

The string of deadly storms of the past month over the middle west continued when a tornado touched down at three o'clock in the morning in Lykins County (renamed Miami County in 1861) in eastern Kansas, across from the Missouri border.  At least one person was killed near Osawatomie and three more in other parts of the county.  Damage was significant.  (By John Osborne)

The New York Yacht Club held its sixteenth annual regatta in the waters off the city.  A dull day with drizzle and almost no wind threatened proceedings but the skies and the wind freshened as the day went on and scores of sailing boats competed in a series of races with as many as thirteen steamboats carrying spectators tracking their progress.  (By John Osborne)  

The Michigan Republican Convention met in Detroit and ratified the platform and nominations from the national convention in Chicago.  They also nominated Austin Blair of Jackson County as their gubernatorial candidate for November.  Blair was elected over the Democratic standard-bearer, former governor John Steward Barry, and served throughout the Civil War as an energetic "war governor."  (By John Osborne)