The third disaster in six days on American waterways shocked the nation when the steamboat W.R. Carter exploded in the early hours of the morning around thirty-five miles above Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. Carrying a full cargo and 200 passengers, the vessel was completely destroyed by fire and a reported 125 people lost their lives. This brought the total killed on U.S. rivers in a week to at least 365. (By John Osborne)

In the second such disaster on American waterways in three days, the steamboat Missouri exploded just after two in the morning on the Ohio River, near Evansville, Indiana. The steamboat Dictator, with which the Missouri was rumored to be racing, rescued many of the passengers but at least one hundred were reported to have died.  (By John Osborne)

The steamboat Miami, bound for Little Rock, Arkansas from Memphis, Tennessee with a full load of goods and passengers, including thirty regular army troops, exploded one of its boilers and caught fire on the Arkansas River at around seven o'clock in the evening. Despite the help of the steamboat Henry Ames, which arrived a few hours later, at least 130 people lost their lives in the disaster.  (By John Osborne)  

At around two o'clock in the afternoon a small building at the Washington Arsenal where ammunition was being sorted was completely destroyed in a sudden explosion.  Seven men were killed outright and several others suffered varying injuries. Fire fighters were able to control the flames and avoid any further disasters involving neighboring buildings housing ammunition.  (By John Osborne) 

Patrick Fleming and William Corbett had been convicted of the murder-for-hire of Patrick Maloney of Cicero, Illinois. They were hanged together in Chicago in the County Jail in a private execution at three in the afternoon.  Both men confessed their crime to their priest before the sentence was carried out.  (By John Osborne) 

The American multi-millionaire inventor Ross Winans launched the last of his innovative "cigar boats," named after himself, at the Millwall Docks in East London.  The 400-ton steam yacht was 256 feet long and had an 18 foot diameter circular hull powered by engineroon driving two large propellers, one at each end of the vessel. The life of the Ross Winans was limited, and she was broken up for scrap around 1897.  (By John Osborne)

In the preceding days, hundreds of New York based Irish nationalists had gathered around the northern coast of Maine with the intent to seize Campobello Island in British Canada to create a diversion to aid a Fenian uprising in Ireland.  U.S. officials intercepted the Fenian arms shipment and when H.M.S. Duncan arrived with 700 British regular troops aboard, the poorly conceived and executed endeavor faded out.  (By John Osborne)