Jan 1st Abraham Lincoln issues the 2nd executive order of the Emancipation Proclamation, specifying 10 Confederate states in which slaves are to be freed
Jan 8th Ground is broken in Sacramento, CA for the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad
January Col Kit Carson accepts the surrender of most of the Navajo nation during the last 2 years of the Navajo Wars
Feb 2nd Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name "Mark Twain" in an article for the Territorial Enterprise (newspaper)
Feb 10th Midgets Tom Thumb & Lavinia Warren get married; P.T. Barnum takes an entrance fee
Feb 24th Arizona becomes a United States Territory
Mar 3rd Idaho becomes a U.S. Territory
Mar 3rd Congress authorizes a mint in Nevada
Mar 4th John Gurley becomes Arizona's first territorial Governor
May 4th Civil War: Battle of Chancellorsville - Robert E. Lee defeats Union forces but loses Stonewall Jackson in the process
Jun 20th West Virginia is admitted as the 35th state
Jul 4th Civil War: U.S. Grant demands "unconditional surrender" with a siege & battle win in Vicksburg, Mississippi
Oct 3rd President Lincoln declares the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day
Nov 19th President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address
Dec 29th John Goodwin becomes the first territorial Governor of AZ, after Gurley died in August
Other
Civil War continues (1861-1865)
America remains coinless due to hoarding
When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again is a popular song
Births
Apr 29th William Randolph Hearst (Newspaper Publisher)
Jul 30th Henry Ford (Industrialist/Founder, Ford Motor Co.)
Dec 2nd Charles Ringling (Entrepreneur/Co-Owner Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus)
Deaths
May 10th Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (Confederate General, American Civil War)
Jul 26th Sam Houston (Politician/General, Battle of San Jacinto)
Aug 19th John Gurley (First Governor, Arizona Territory)
