The president of the Mexican Republic, Benito Juarez, made his triumphant return to the capital of Mexico City on this day, amid great celebrations.  He had been elected in 1861 but on the French intervention, Juarez and his government had been forced to flee the city in 1863 and remain in exile and revolt for the following four years of the Empire of Maximilian I. On Maximilian's defeat and execution, Juarez oversaw the restoration of the Republic and sat as president until his death on July 18, 1872.  (By John Osborne)

The British based Evangelical Alliance had been founded in 1849 to advance evangelical protestant ideas amongst churches and individuals from around the world. Its fifth annual conference met at Amsterdam in the Netherlands and had opened the week before with an address from Reverend Professor J.J. van Oosterzee of the University of Utrecht.  The Alliance remains active to this day, with 3,500 churches and 700 organizations as members.  (By John Osborne)

The British based Evangelical Alliance had been founded in 1849 to advance evangelical protestant ideas amongst churches and individuals from around the world. Its fifth annual conference met at Amsterdam in the Netherlands and opened on this date with an address from Reverend Professor J.J. van Oosterzee of the University of Utrecht.  The conference lasted a week and closed on August 27, 1867. The Alliance remains active to this day, with 3,500 churches as members.  (By John Osborne)

The highly successful twenty-fifth annual exhibition of the Queens County Agriculatural Society comes to an end on its forty acre site at Hempstead Plains on Long Island, New York.

The newly completed Antietam National Cemetery near Sharpsburg, Maryland was officially dedicated on the fifth anniversary of the great battle.  President Johnson attended, as did former and sitting governors of the state.  Remarkable efforts at finding, identifying, and reinterring the Union dead had been underway for many months and the cemetery contained the remains of 3,580 officers and men of the Union Army.  Burial of remains from both sides had been in the original plan but Confederate dead were removed to other cemeteries in Hagerstown, Frederick, and Shepherdstown, Maryland since, according to the National Park Service, embittered feelings in the still divided state had precluded Maryland's willingness or fiscal ability to participate.  (By John Osborne) 

The United States Congress had authorized in July 1867 the formation of an Indian Peace Commission to negotiate treaties with the Sioux, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and their allied tribes.  The commission met on August 6, 1867 in St. Louis, Missouri and named the sitting Commisioner of Indian Affairs, former Congressman Nathaniel Green Taylor, as its chair. On this day, in preliminary fact finding, members met with Oglala, Brule, Yankton and Santee Sioux leaders aboard the riverboat St. John on the banks of the Missouri near Fort Thompson in present-day Buffalo County, South Dakota. Later official negotiations with prominent Plains Indian leaders resulted in the Medicine Lodge Treaty of October 1867. (By John Osborne)

The Hancock-Custer Campaign against the Native Americans of the northern plains obstructing the construction of the transcontinental railroad and emigration west had been an ineffective failure. Changing tactics, the United States Congress had authorized the formation of an Indian Peace Commission to negotiate treaties with the Sioux, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and their allied tribes.  The commission met on this day in St. Louis, Missouri and named the sitting Commisioner of Indian Affairs, former Congressman Nathaniel Green Taylor, as its chair.  Most of the rest of the commission was comprised of active and retired military men, including Generals W.T. Sherman, W.S. Harney, A. H. Terry, and J. B. Sanborn. along with a sitting senator, John B. Henderson of Missouri.  Their efforts resulted in the Medicine Lodge Treaty of October 1867 which set up tribal reservations in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) designed to remove hostile tribes from the path of western expansion.  (By John Osborne)

The Hancock-Custer Campaign against the Native Americans of the northern plains obstructing the construction of the transcontinental railroad and emigration west had been an ineffective failure. Changing tactics, the United States Congress authorized the formation of an Indian Peace Commission to negotiate treaties with the Sioux, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and their allied tribes.  The commission met on August 6, 1867 in St. Louis, Missouri and named the sitting Commisioner of Indian Affairs, former Congressman Nathaniel Green Taylor, as its chair.  Most of the rest of the commission was comprised of active and retired military men, including Generals W.T. Sherman, W.S. Harney, A. H. Terry, and J. B. Sanborn. along with a sitting U.S. senator, John B. Henderson of Missouri.  Their efforts resulted in the Medicine Lodge Treaty of October 1867 which set up tribal reservations in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) designed to remove hostile tribes from the path of western expansion.  (By John Osborne)

Paiwan aboriginal tribes had massacred survivors of the American bark Rover, wrecked March 13 , 1867 on the extreme southern tip of the island of Taiwan, then termed Formosa.  An earlier and more immediate British naval search had been too small to properly search for survivors and after delays, a powerful U.S. Navy expedition was landed on this day.  One hundred and eight-one sailors and marines from U.S.S. Hartford and U.S. Wyoming under Commander George Belknapp landed where the massacre took place with orders to search for Americans and punish those responsible. The force advanced only a mile into thick jungle and came under heavy attack, losing the expedition's second-in-command, Lieutenant-Commander Alexander S. MacKenzie, shot fatally through the chest.  Further progress was deemed impossible and the landing party, carrying a number of wounded and men suffering from heatstroke, withdrew to its ships and did not return.  (By John Osborne) 

The American bark Rover had sailed from Swatow, carrying cargo along the Chinese coast to the northern port of Newchwang, present-day Yingkou.  Encountering bad weather, the vessel was driven onto rocks and sunk on March 13, 1867 at the extreme southern tip of the island of Taiwan, then termed Formosa.  The captain, his wife, and his crew escaped by boat but on landing were immediately attacked and killed by the area's Paiwan aboriginal inhabitants. An immediate British naval effort from H.M.S. Cormorant to come to the aid of the Rover survivors took place on this day but was too small to resist attacks from locals and withdrew with one man wounded, shelling the natives as they went.  A later and larger  U.S. Navy attempt in June 1867 to punish those responsible was similarly repulsed.  (By John Osborne)