The University of Toronto claims the contesting of the first documented game of North American football, played at University College in the city.  Rules were not codified, however, until 1874 at McGill University in Toronto for use in a game against Harvard.  These became the basis of both the Canadian and American versions of the game. (By John Osborne)  

Massachusetts-born, a distinguished lawyer, and famous western explorer, Albert Pike had already negotiated with the Cherokee and other Indian nations after the advent of the Confederacy.  He was commissioned a brigadier general and given command of the Indian Territory where he began recruiting and training Cherokee troops allied with the South. He served in this post until July 1862 when he was forced to resign over charges of malfeasance and of allowing his men to scalp Union soldiers.  (By John Osborne)

The Executive Council of the Cherokee Nation issued its long official statement giving the reasons why they had made their recent alliance with the Confederate States. These included an affinity with the South and a conviction that the North had violated theU.S.  Constitution in invading the Confederacy.  The tribes concluded that "Menaced by a great danger, they exercise the inalienable right of self-defense, and declare themselves a free people, independent of the Northern States of America, and at war with them by their own act."  (By John Osborne)

Confederate commissioners James Murray Mason and John Slidell had left Charleston on October 16, 1861 but had been taken, with their secretaries, by force from the British mail ship Trent off Cuba on November 8, 1861.  While the international incident this precipitated played out, the four had been held at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. On January 1, 1862 they were released to the the British warship Rinaldo.  They resumed their journey at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands and arrived in Southampton where they were reunited with their families.  (By John Osborne) 

On November 30, 1861, Lord Russell, British Foreign Secretary, authorized Lord Lyons, the British ambassador to Washington, to demand the release of the Confederate commissioners taken by force from the British mailship Trent off Cuba three weeks before.  For a month following the seizure Britain and the United States seemed to be approaching war but cooler heads prevailed.  The Confederate diplomats were "cheerfully liberated" from Fort Warren in Boston to the British warship Rinaldo, ending a dangerous international incident.  (By John Osborne)