A lunar eclipse of the Sun was visible over much of the eastern United States, despite the region enduring clouded skies.  The eclipse was at its greatest in mid-morning and in Chicago, Illinois across to Richmond, Virginia was almost annular, or centrally covering much of the Sun.  In New York City, seventy-five percent of the Sun's light was blocked in a partial eclipse watched by hundreds of interested citizens.  (By John Osborne) 

Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston died at his Hertfordshire country home two days before his eighty-first birthday. In his more than a dozen years as Foreign Secretary and two terms as Prime Minister of Great Britain, Palmerston had played a vital role in often strained Anglo-American relations over a long period and his death was widely remarked upon in the American press. (By John Osborne)  

A gathering of a reported six hundred delegates attended the opening of a convention of the Fenian Brotherhood at the Assembly Building on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia.  The Fenians were an Irish republican group dedicated to the overthrow of British control of their homeland, by any means necessary. Emotions were running high at the time, since in Ireland authorities were cracking down on a failed Fenian plot to raise an insurgency.  (By John Osborne) 

A small fire broke out in a boat shop along the wharves of Belfast, Maine just before midnight and quickly spread across a wide section of the Penobscot Bay town.  By the time it was extinguished around 11 a.m. the next morning, at least 130 buildings had been destroyed.  Press reports stated that a hundred families were homeless and the total financial losses would top $300,000.  No serious injuries were reported, however. (By John Osborne)