A hurricane struck the port city of Calcutta in India causing widespead damage and at least fifty deaths in the city alone.  The damage to the two hundred vessels crowded at the port was even heavier, with large ships sunk or thrown up on shore, and several hundred lives lost. The storm struck around eleven in the morning and continued for three hours, destroying thousands of homes, churches, mosques, and gardens. (By John Osborne)

Just before seven o'clock in the morning, a massive explosion took place on the banks of the Thames fifteen miles downriver from central London when the stores of two neighboring private gunpowder storage and shipping depots ignited.  More than 46 tons of powder were believed to have gone up while loading was underway at a jetty, leading some as far away as the capital to fear an earthquake.  The area was mostly marshland and so wider casualties were limited to workers and their families but thirteen lives were lost. (By John Osborne) 

The Niagara had seized the former Confederate raider Georgia outside Lisbon as she set about her first charter, with the Portuguese government, after the Confederacy had sold her to a Liverpool shipping company. Captured with their ship, her captain and thirty-three man British crew were well-treated and dropped off at the English Channel port of Dover. The Georgia herself was already sailing with a prize crew to Boston.  (By John Osborne)

Confederate agents had purchased the 600-ton former merchant ship the year before and renamed her the C.S.S. Georgia. She had successful cruises as a commerce raider and then was sold to a British company in Liverpool.  Chartered to the Portuguese government, she was four days into her assignment when the USS Niagara captured her. Her British crew was returned to Dover and the prize sailed to Boston.  (By John Osborne)

An Australian merchant ship with the ironic name All Serene was bound for Sydney from Hawaii when it ran into one of the many gales sweeping the Pacific during the month.  Shifting cargo caused the 1000 ton vessel to founder and survivors took to a boat.  After weeks at sea, those still alive reached one of the Fijian Islands on March 17, 1864, where they were rescued by natives and Methodist missionaries.  (By John Osborne)

The dedication of a statue to the Catholic politician Daniel O'Connell in Dublin several days earlier had sent Protestant crowds to the Belfast streets to attack Catholics.  The encounters escalated when Catholic laborers retaliated by burning Protestant buildings and a school. The two opposing sectarian mobs fought till seperated by armed police.  Serious rioting went on over the next two days with deaths and scores of injuries on both sides. The disturbances were not brought under control for another week.  (By John Osborne)  

Following the dedication of a statue to the Catholic politician Daniel O'Connell in Dublin, Protestant crowds in Belfast made a counter-demonstration, burned O'Connell in effigy, and assaulted people in the streets.  These disturbances would erupt into full-scale rioting in Belfast with Protestants attacking Catholics and Catholics responding in kind.  The riots were not brought under control for two weeks and there were multiple deaths and scores of injuries on both sides.  (By John Osborne)