On a fine day in Philadelphia, firemen from more than a hundred fire companies, including thirty visiting from East Coast cities, paraded through the streets in a remarkable display.  In an estimated ten mile procession on a route of up to twenty miles, around twenty-thousand firemen participated in the parade that took three hours to pass any point.  (By John Osborne)

A porter at the Wyoming Hotel in Greenwich Village, New York City noticed a crate leaking smoke in the hotel's checkroom.  Fearing fire, he threw the crate into Greenwich Street where it caught fire and exploded.  The police decided it was a German salesman's stock of "Patent Blasting Oil," a new nitroglycerine compound. The porter was only slightly injured and flying glass hit around twenty people, none seriously.  (By John Osborne) 

Captain Henry Wirz, the former commandant of the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia, was hanged at the Old Capital Prison in Washington D.C.  He had been tried for murder and conspiracy to murder by a nine-man board of Army officers, led by General Lew Wallace. After seven weeks of deliberations, Wirz was found guilty on eleven counts of murder and of the allegation of conspiracy and sentenced to death. (By John Osborne)

A small vessel loaded with coal became the first to cross from the Mediterrean Sea to the Red Sea in the newly completed Suez Canal.  Much work remained to be done, however, as the passage could only take boats with a six foot draft. The canal as known today, capable of taking full-size vessels was opened under French control in November 17, 1869.  (By John Osborne)