Palm Sunday was celebrated on this day in 1864 across the United States. (By John Osborne) 

Catholic churches across the United States and the world celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on this Sunday. (By John Osborne) 

The first Sunday of Advent, long considered the beginning of the Christian year, was celebrated in churches across the United States on this day. (By John OSborne) 

The holy days of Chanukah, or the Festival of Lights, were celebrated in the United States between December 6 and December 13. (By John Osborne)

The holy days of Chanukah or the Festival of Lights were celebrated in the United States between December 6 and December 13. (By John Osborne)

Beginning at sunset on December 5, the holy days of Chanukah or the Festival of Lights were celebrated in the United States between December 6 and December 13. (By John Osborne)

The Passaic-class monitor U.S.S. Weehawken was part of the Federal fleet operating against Charleston, South Carolina. She was moored off Morris Island during heavy weather when she suddenly began taking on water by the bow, foundered, and sank in thirty feet of water.  More than thirty officers and men of the crew of seventy-five caught below had no time to escape and were drowned. (By John Osborne) 

In the early afternoon on New York City's North River, a fire broke out on the barge Cora Campbell loaded with hay. A strong wind was blowing and quickly many other vessels nearby, many of them also loaded, were burning. Eventually, as many as thirty vessels, with an estimated value of  $300,000, were destroyed or badly damaged along with four piers.  No serious injuries were reported, however.  (By John Osborne)

The 460-ton steamer Chesapeake sailed from New York to Portland, Maine the day before and was seized in the early morning hours.  At least sixteen Confederate sympathizers, largely from Nova Scotia, and led by Vernon Locke and John Brain, had posed posed as passengers and seized the ship, killing the second engineer.  The vessel was sailed to St. Johns in New Brunswick with U.S. Navy units in pursuit.  The incident precipitated a short-lived international crisis.  (By John Osborne)