Widely reported in the press was an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen J. Field through the delivery of a letter bomb to his offices in the Capitol. Field, a veteran of the rough and dangerous politics of California, suspected the San Francisco postmark and on closer examination a sophisticated explosive device was discovered.  The note inside mentioned the Puebla Case which Field had decided.  (By John Osborne) 

Dubbed the "American Borgia" in the national press, Mrs Martha Grinder was executed for murder in Pittsburgh in the early afternoon, the third woman hanged in Pennsylvania history.  Grinder had been convicted in October 1865 of poisoning two women in seperate and curious cases without clear motives. She confessed to these but denied guilt in other cases in which she was suspected.  (By John Osborne) 

At the state capitol in Columbus, the Ohio Legislature re-elected John Sherman to his second term as United States Senator by a vote of 94 to 41.  Sherman, brother of William T. Sherman, had succeeded Senator Chase in 1861 when Chase joined the Cabinet. He quickly became an influential Republican senator and would serve in the Senate till 1877 and then again between 1881 and 1897.  (By John Osborne) 

The forty-ninth annual meeting of the American Colonization Society was held in the evening in Washington, D.C.. Officials reported that 527 African-Americans had emigrated to Liberia during the last year, the most since 1856. The sparsely attended meeting maintained an optimism that their services would be required much more in the future but reported only around $5000 cash in hand to do the work.  (By John Osborne)

Governor William M. Stone was inaugurated for his second term as governor of Iowa.  The former prisoner-of-war and Union colonel had become governor in 1863 and overseen much of Iowa's work during the war.  On beginning his second term he stated that he supported President Johnson for now but also strongly endorsed the idea of African-American suffrage and recommended a state Constitutional Amendment to make it so.  (By John Osborne)

With the inauguration of Republican Marcus L. Ward and the installation of a Republican majority in the state legislature, the New York Times headline facetiously announced on its front page "Reconstruction - Formal Restoration of New Jersey to the Union." The state had been in Democratic hands for much of the war and had been the only state in the North to vote against President Lincoln in the 1864 election.  (By John Osborne)

Republican Marcus Lawrence Ward was inaugurated as governor of New Jersey at the State House in Trenton in an afternoon ceremony.  In his inaugural remarks, he made clear that his first priority was the state's ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  While governor, Ward also served as chair of the Republican National Committee.  He held office till 1869.  (By John Osborne)