Engineer John A. Roebling's brand new suspension bridge, then the longest in the world, was opened officially to the public on this day.  Spanning the Ohio River and linking Covington, Kentucky with Cincinnati, Ohio, the structure had been begun in September 1856 and when complete measured 2,252 feet in overall length, with the section suspended between the towers 1,057 feet long, and rising more than a hundred feet above the river's low water mark.  The structure, well maintained and restored, remains today an important area transportation route.  (By John Osborne)

A sudden thaw saw the breaking up of the ice that had blocked the Potomac around Washington, D.C..  With thousands of local residents watching from the shore, the resulting "freshet" carried away large portions of the old Long Bridge together with the new bridge alongside it that carried the Orange and Alexandria Railroad.  Virtually all travel south from the capital into Virginia was halted for days and extensive reconstruction was required.  (By John Osborne)

Famous actor Edwin Booth received a commemorative medal on stage at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City to mark his "unprecedented" one hundred consecutive nights portraying Hamlet in that Shakespearean play in the city. (By John Osborne)

In London, the South Eastern Railway Company opened its brand-new Cannon Street Station as its terminus in London.  The platforms in the new station were covered with a massive single arch semi-circular roof, more than a hundred feet high and 680 feet long. Two supporting arches faced the Thames and the railway bridge bringing thousands of commuters from the south-eat suburbs.  Heavily remodeled over the years, the riverside towers remain and the station still receives tens of thousands of commuters to this day.  (By John Osborne)

The largest and oldest church in the present-day south London borough of Croydon was completely burned out when newly installed stoves were believed to have overheated.  Croydon was then in Surrey, about twelve miles south of the capital. Dating from the medieval period, the church, now termed Croydon Minster, was rebuilt using the designs of famed architect George Gilbert Scott and remains today the primary church in the borough.  (By John Osborne)

During heavy squalls in the English Channel, the Danish barque Aurora Borealis ran aground on the treacherous Goodwin Sands.  The Ramsgate Lifeboat was launched from the Kent coast and Coxswain Isaac Jarman and his crew were able to fight heavy seas to rescue the ten-man Danish crew.  The feat was featured on the cover of the January 19, 1867 cover of the Illustrated London News.  (By John Osborne)

Heavy winter snowfall stuck upstate New York, causing significant disruptions and isolating large parts of the region.  Albany had twenty inches of snow and Troy, New York had two a fall of two feet in a few hours in a storm local residents said was the worst since 1836.  Troy was cut off for a time with all roads and railroads blocked.  Rail travel was particularly hit, with hundreds of passengers forced to spend the night stranded in their carriages.  (By John Osborne)