An evening brawl between Yale students of the Crocodile Club and New Haven's Fountain Volunteer Fire Company resulted in 19 year-old fireman William Miles being shot and fatally wounded.  The students swore each other to secrecy and invoked their Fifth Amendment rights. No indictments were able to be made. One of these young men was Joseph Hopkins Twitchell, who later became a clergyman and the best friend of Samuel Clemens. (By John Osborne)

A federal grand jury in the District Court of New Orleans indicts William Walker and several of his companions for violation of the Neutrality Laws. The group had recently been returned to the United States after their latest effort to filibuster in central America ended with them under U.S. Navy arrest. Walker was bound over to appear in April but the Government did not pursue the indictments. (By John Osborne)

In the fall of 1857 most banks in the country were forced to suspend specie payments. Many resumed payments within months but Philadelphia and Baltimore banks had some difficulty. On February 3, 1858, the Philadelphia banks resumed payments and the Baltimore institutions followed two days later. (By John Osborne)

Seven hundred children were in attendance at a public school in Brooklyn when a fire breaks out. In the race to evacuate the building down a series of staircases, six small boys were either suffocated or trampled to death. (By John Osborne)

At two o'clock in the afternoon a tornado, accompanied by a massive down pouring of rain, hit the downtown and the port of New Orleans, Louisiana. Initial reports had at least three deaths along the docks and there was significant damage to the building of the city. (By John Osborne)

"An earthquake is felt in Moravia, Silesia, Hungary, and Galicia. The most violent shocks are felt in the north of Hungary."

"The annual statement of the New York Commercial Agency shows that from Dec. 26, 1856 to Dec. 25, 1857, there occurred in the United States 5,123 failures, involving liabilities to the amount of $291,750,000."