List of 1864 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 1864
Date | Event |
---|---|
February 1, 1864 | Second Schleswig War: Prussian forces crossed the border into Schleswig, starting the war. |
February 17, 1864 | American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic. |
February 20, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Olustee: The largest battle fought in Florida during the war. |
February 27, 1864 | American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia. |
March 11, 1864 | The Great Sheffield Flood kills 238 people in Sheffield, England. |
April 10, 1864 | Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg is proclaimed emperor of Mexico during the French intervention in Mexico. |
April 12, 1864 | American Civil War: The Battle of Fort Pillow: Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers that surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. |
April 17, 1864 | American Civil War: The Battle of Plymouth begins: Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina. |
April 18, 1864 | Battle of Dybbøl: A Prussian-Austrian army defeats Denmark and gains control of Schleswig. Denmark surrenders the province in the following peace settlement. |
April 22, 1864 | The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency. |
April 25, 1864 | American Civil War: In the Battle of Marks' Mills, a force of 8,000 Confederate soldiers attacks 1,800 Union soldiers and a large number of wagon teamsters, killing or wounding 1,500 Union combatants. |
April 29, 1864 | Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the only fraternity to be founded during the American Civil War. |
May 5, 1864 | American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County. |
May 7, 1864 | American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards. |
May 7, 1864 | The world's oldest surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide is launched by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, for transporting passengers and goods between Britain and Australia. |
May 9, 1864 | Second Schleswig War: The Danish navy defeats the Austrian and Prussian fleets in the Battle of Heligoland. |
May 12, 1864 | American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Union troops assault a Confederate salient known as the "Mule Shoe", with some of the fiercest fighting of the war, much of it hand-to-hand combat, occurring at "the Bloody Angle" on the northwest. |
May 15, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia: Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley. |
May 20, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church: In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory. |
May 21, 1864 | Russia declares an end to the Russo-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning. |
May 21, 1864 | American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends. |
May 21, 1864 | The Ionian Islands reunite with Greece. |
May 22, 1864 | American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army's Red River Campaign ends in failure. |
May 26, 1864 | Montana is organized as a United States territory. |
May 29, 1864 | Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico arrives in Mexico for the first time. |
May 31, 1864 | American Civil War: Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor: The Army of Northern Virginia engages the Army of the Potomac. |
June 3, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor: Union forces attack Confederate troops in Hanover County, Virginia. |
June 5, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Piedmont: Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners. |
June 10, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Brice's Crossroads: Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi. |
June 12, 1864 | American Civil War, Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor: Ulysses S. Grant gives the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee a victory when he pulls his Union troops from their position at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south. |
June 15, 1864 | American Civil War: The Second Battle of Petersburg begins. |
June 15, 1864 | Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.81 km2) of the Arlington estate (formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee) are officially set aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. |
June 21, 1864 | American Civil War: The Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road begins. |
June 27, 1864 | American Civil War: Confederate forces defeat Union forces during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain during the Atlanta Campaign. |
June 29, 1864 | At least 99 people, mostly German and Polish immigrants, are killed in Canada's worst railway disaster after a train fails to stop for an open drawbridge and plunges into the Rivière Richelieu near St-Hilaire, Quebec. |
June 30, 1864 | U.S. President Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation". |
July 2, 1864 | Dimitri Atanasescu founds the first Romanian school in the Balkans for the Aromanians in Trnovo, in the Ottoman Empire (now in North Macedonia). |
July 8, 1864 | Ikedaya Incident: The Choshu Han shishi's planned Shinsengumi sabotage on Kyoto, Japan at Ikedaya. |
July 11, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C. |
July 19, 1864 | Taiping Rebellion: Third Battle of Nanking: The Qing dynasty finally defeats the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. |
July 20, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek: Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman. |
July 22, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta: Outside Atlanta, Confederate General John Bell Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill. |
July 24, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown: Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley. |
July 28, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church: Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia. |
July 30, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches. |
August 5, 1864 | American Civil War: The Battle of Mobile Bay begins at Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports. |
August 10, 1864 | After Uruguay's governing Blanco Party refuses Brazil's demands, José Antônio Saraiva announces that the Brazilian military will begin reprisals, beginning the Uruguayan War. |
August 17, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville: Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida. |
August 18, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Globe Tavern: Union forces try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. |
August 20, 1864 | Bakumatsu: Kinmon incident: Three columns of jōi shishi from the Chōshū Domain led by Kijima Matabei and Kusaka Genzui assault and set fire to the Japanese imperial capital of Kyoto in an attempt to expel the Satsuma and Aizu Domains from the imperial court. Their defeat prompts the Tokugawa shogunate to rally all daimyos across the nation to launch a collective retaliatory expedition against the |
August 22, 1864 | Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention, establishing the rules of protection of the victims of armed conflicts. |
August 23, 1864 | American Civil War: The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico except Galveston, Texas. |
August 31, 1864 | During the American Civil War, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta. |
September 1, 1864 | American Civil War: The Confederate Army General John Bell Hood orders the evacuation of Atlanta, ending a four-month siege by General William Tecumseh Sherman. |
September 2, 1864 | American Civil War: Union forces enter Atlanta, a day after the Confederate defenders flee the city, ending the Atlanta Campaign. |
September 7, 1864 | American Civil War: Atlanta is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. |
September 18, 1864 | American Civil War: John Bell Hood begins the Franklin–Nashville Campaign in an unsuccessful attempt to draw William Tecumseh Sherman back out of Georgia. |
September 19, 1864 | American Civil War: Union troops under Philip Sheridan defeat a Confederate force commanded by Jubal Early. With over 50,000 troops engaged, it was the largest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley. |
September 29, 1864 | The Battle of Chaffin's Farm is fought in the American Civil War. |
September 29, 1864 | The Treaty of Lisbon defines the boundaries between Spain and Portugal and abolishes the Couto Misto microstate. |
October 2, 1864 | American Civil War: Confederates defeat a Union attack on Saltville, Virginia. A massacre of wounded Union prisoners ensues. |
October 7, 1864 | American Civil War: A US Navy ship captures a Confederate raider in a Brazilian seaport. |
October 9, 1864 | American Civil War: Union cavalrymen defeat Confederate forces at Toms Brook, Virginia. |
October 15, 1864 | American Civil War: The Union garrison of Glasgow, Missouri surrenders to Confederate forces. |
October 19, 1864 | American Civil War: The Battle of Cedar Creek ends the last Confederate threat to Washington, DC. |
October 19, 1864 | American Civil War: Confederate agents based in Canada rob three banks in Saint Albans, Vermont. |
October 23, 1864 | American Civil War: The Battle of Westport is the last significant engagement west of the Mississippi River, ending in a Union victory. |
October 28, 1864 | American Civil War: A Union attack on the Confederate capital of Richmond is repulsed. |
October 30, 1864 | The Treaty of Vienna is signed, by which Denmark relinquishes one province each to Prussia and Austria. |
October 31, 1864 | Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state. |
November 4, 1864 | American Civil War: Confederate troops bombard a Union supply base and destroy millions of dollars in materiel at the Battle of Johnsonville. |
November 13, 1864 | American Civil War: The three-day Battle of Bull's Gap ends in a Union rout as Confederates under Major General John C. Breckinridge pursue them to Strawberry Plains, Tennessee. |
November 15, 1864 | American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins his March to the Sea. |
November 25, 1864 | American Civil War: A group of Confederate operatives calling themselves the Confederate Army of Manhattan starts fires in more than 20 locations in an unsuccessful attempt to burn down New York City. |
November 29, 1864 | Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants inside Colorado Territory. |
November 29, 1864 | The Confederate Army of Tennessee misses an opportunity to crush the Army of the Ohio in the Battle of Spring Hill. |
November 30, 1864 | American Civil War: The Confederate Army of Tennessee suffers heavy losses in an attack on the Union Army of the Ohio in the Battle of Franklin. |
December 4, 1864 | American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General William T. Sherman's campaign destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to the Atlantic Ocean from Atlanta. |
December 8, 1864 | Pope Pius IX promulgates the encyclical Quanta cura and its appendix, the Syllabus of Errors, outlining the authority of the Catholic Church and condemning various liberal ideas. |
December 10, 1864 | American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia. |
December 15, 1864 | American Civil War: The Battle of Nashville begins at Nashville, Tennessee, and ends the following day with the destruction of the Confederate Army of Tennessee as a fighting force by the Union Army of the Cumberland. |
December 16, 1864 | American Civil War: Battle of Nashville: The Union's Army of the Cumberland routs and destroys the Confederacy's Army of Tennessee, ending its effectiveness as a combat unit. |
December 22, 1864 | American Civil War: Savannah, Georgia, falls to the Union's Army of the Tennessee, and General Sherman tells President Abraham Lincoln: "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah". |