The United States warship Niagara, with around 300 Africans freed from the slave ship Echo aboard, sailed for Liberia from Charleston, South Carolina. The Echo, bound for Cuba with its human cargo, had been intercepted and seized by the U.S. Navy in August. (By John Osborne)

After four years of impressive growth since its founding in 1854, the Boston Public Library moved into its new building on Boylston Street. The Library outgrew this building within thirty years and moved again, on its way to becoming the largest municipal library system in the United States. (By John Osborne)

Regular overland mail service began from the east coast to California when the first letters and packages departed St. Louis, Missouri. Twenty-four days later, on October 16, the mail arrived in San Francisco, cutting substantially the time the previous sea route had taken for delivery. (By John Osborne)

The Board of Health of Mobile on the Alabama coast declared officially that a Yellow Fever epidemic existed in the city. (By John Osborne)

The Deputy United States Marshal for Ohio arrested the escaped slave John Price, known as "Little John," in Oberlin, Ohio under the federal Fugitive Slave Law. He had been living in the town for two years since his escape and was well known there. Hundreds of black and white citizens of Oberlin gathered and marched the eight miles to Wellington, Ohio where the slave catchers awaited the train with White and freed him. He was then aided in his escape to Canada. In December, 37 of the "rescuers," including four Oberlin College students and one of their professors, were indicted under the federal slave statute. (By John Osborne)

The German steamship Austria of the Hamburg-America Line bound for New York from Hamburg and Southampton, caught fire in the Atlantic and was completely destroyed. The vessel carried more than five hundred passengers and crew, mostly German-Americans returning from visits to relatives but also many new immigrants. Two passing ships rescued several dozen of the passengers and crew but 470 lives were lost. This was largest loss of life on a steamship on the Atlantic trade up to this time. (By John Osborne)