The second annual meeting of the National Unitarian Churches of the United States was held over three days in Syracuse, New York. Approximately 430 delegates represented 176 churches and twelve missionary associations.  The liberal denomination passed unanimously resolutions urging that the national government be "intrusted to the supreme control of those who have proved themselves true to the cause of the Government and the interests of freedom," that black suffrage and human rights be secured, and that the church work so that freed slaves be lifted up "to a higher level of civilized life and spiritual progress."  (By John Osborne)

Following an altercation in the town of Brenham, Texas between local civilians and off duty soldiers of the Seventeenth Infantry, Regular U.S. Army, shots were fired and several soldiers injured.  Officers sought to arrest those responsible but reportedly, after those in charge had returned to camp, vengeful soldiers fired a store in the center of town belonging to one of the accused locals and a large portion of the business district in the town were destroyed overnight.  Brenham was the hub of a troublesome mix of white regular federal soldiers occupying the town, Freemen's Bureau blacks, and a resentful and still-rebellious local white population. Trouble persisted there throughout the Reconstruction period.  (By John Osborne)  

The Nebraska Territory was on the verge of becoming the thirty-seventh state of the Union and elections were held for its first representative to the United States Congress.  Republican Union Army veteran John Taffe was elected in a relatively close election by 4,820 votes to 4,072.  Nebraska became a state, over President Johnson's veto, on February 9, 1867, and Taffe was duly seated as a full member.  He served in the next three Congresses, retiring in March 1873.  (By John Osborne) 

Republican Coles Bashford was a disgraced former governor of Wisconsin who had arrived in the newly formed Arizona Territory in 1863..  He had served as the first territorial attorney-general and then president of the territorial legislature before he was elected as the territory's non-voting delegate to the Fortieth Congress. He served until early 1869 when President Grant appointed him Arizona Territory's Secretary of State.  (By John Osborne)

Robert Field Stockton, son of a U.S. Senator and grandson of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a famous naval officer and politician in his own right.  His naval fame was won in the conquest of Spanish California during the Mexican- American War. He later represented his home state of New Jersey as a Democratic United States Senator and turned down calls from Democrats for his nomination as President.  He died at his home in Princeton, New Jersey.  He was seventy-one years old.  (By John Osborne) 

Queen Isabella II of Spain and the Republic of Honduras signed a treaty that confimed officially and finally the independence of the central American nation from the Spanish Empire.  In reality, Honduras had gained their independence in 1821, but with this agreement, Spain gave up all claims to its former colony.  (By John Osborne)

Warnings of the growing discontent with the reign of Queen Isabella II of Spain were amplified with the violent mutiny of the enlisted men of the Spanish Army artillery's San Gil barracks just a hundred yards from the royal palace.  Led by their non-commissioned officers, the mutineers shot many of their officers and mounted an attack, with cannon, on the Ministry of the Interior.  They were driven back and the uprising put down.  Around sixty executions followed.  Queen Isabella was overthrown in September 1868. (By John Osborne)

United States Secretary of State William Seward made an official visit to the Dominican Republic, meeting with Dominican president Buenaventura Báez in Santo Domingo.  Báez had returned to power the month before following the Spanish abandonment of the island following the Restoration War. For the next four years, he would advocate United States annexation of his country, notably during the Grant Administration.  Secretary Seward promised recognition, closer links, and friendship during this 1866 visit.  (By John Osborne)