Military commanders administering reconstruction in the former Confederate states had been voicing frustration that their efforts mandated under the Military Reconstruction Act, especially where elections and registration for the vote were concerned.  The increasingly radical United States Congress responded with a supplemental to the original bill that among other things, made it easier for commanders to remove as ineligible the former Confederates who were making their efforts impossible.  The measure also appropriated a further million dollars to assist in reconstruction in the five military districts.  President Johnson vetoed the measure but the Congress easily re-passed the bill on the same day and it became law.  (By John Osborne)

Following the over-riding of his veto of the Military Reconstruction Act in the Congress just over a week before, President Johnson, as required, named the commanders of the five military districts laid out under the measure.  Major General John Schofield was to command the First District, made up of Virginia; Major General Daniel Sickles to oversee the Second containing North and South Carolina; Major General John Pope was placed in charge of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia in the Third; Major General E.O.C. Ord was given the Fourth District of Arkansas and Mississippi; and Major General Philip Sheridan was placed in command of the Fifth, comprising Louisiana and Texas.  All appointments did not end well and changes were made during the course of the year.  (By John Osborne)

Federal troops were called in to keep order during a fiercely controversial election day in Nashville, Tennessee.  The mayor of the city and the governor of the state were in a political contest over whose judges would carry out the balloting with the governor threatening to use the state militia to ensure he would prevail.  Although Tennessee was not subject to the Military Reconstruction Acts, federal troops under General George H. Thomas did patrol the streets and polling places and no confrontation took place. The mayor gave in to the state authorities, under protest, and the election went off peacefully.  (By John Osborne)

In Franklin, Tennessee, another riot in the state following the Memphis upheaval, was touched off when rival political meetings brought groups of former Confederate soldiers and discharged black Union veterans to the streets. Shots were exchanged in the city center for several hours in the evening with one white veteran killed and around a score others wounded on both sides.  The confrontation abated overnight and troops arriving hastily from Nashville the next morning found order restored and withdrew at the request of the local government.  (By John Osborne)

The day before, the Dominion of Canada had come into being under the terms of the British North America Act of 1867.  From then on the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick would be organized as a united and semi-independent federal state under the British Crown.  Lord Monck had also announced his appointment as the first Governor-General of the new Dominion and on this following day was sworn in officially.  Monck then invited Sir John A. MacDonald, one of the leaders of the push towards confederation, to form a coalition government. The new Parliament would meet on November 7, 1867 in Ottawa.  (By John Osborne)

On this day, the Dominion of Canada came into being under the terms of the British North America Act of 1867.  From then on the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick would be organized as a united and semi-independent federal state under the British Crown.  Lord Monck announced his appointment as the first Governor-General of the new Dominion and one of his first acts was confer a knighthood on John A. MacDonald, one of the leaders of the push towards confederation, who would lead Canada's first Parliament. The date had been celebrated since as Canada Day, the official national day.  (By John Osborne)

In February 1867, the Confederation Bill to unite the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick in a federal dominion had been introduced into the British Parliament, passed as the British North American Act on March 8, 1867, and received the royal assent on March 29, 1867. On this day, a royal proclamation from WIndsor Castle announced that the measure would take effect on the upcoming July 1, 1867. (By John Osborne)

Charles Dickens had sailed from Liverpool aboard the Cunard liner Cuba for his second visit to the United States and arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on November 19, 1867.  He began a series of scores of live readings in New York, Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia with the first in Boston, on December 2, reading "The Trial, from the Pickwick Papers."  When the second series in Boston went on sale on this day, hundreds of patrons were reported to have queued overnight with five hundred in line when the box office opened. After almost five months in which he earned around $19,000, although at the cost of his health, Dickens sailed for home on April 23, 1868. (By John Osborne)

Charles Dickens had sailed from Liverpool aboard the Cunard liner Cuba for his second visit to the United States and arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on November 19, 1867.  He began a series of scores of live readings in New York, Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia with the first in Boston, on this day, reading "The Trial, from the Pickwick Papers."  After almost five months in which he earned around $19,000, although at the cost of his health, Dickens sailed for home on April 23, 1868. (By John Osborne)