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1864
1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).
Events
January - March
April - June
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April 22 - The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 which mandates that the inscription "In God We Trust" be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.
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May 7 - American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.
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May 11 - American Civil War: Battle of Yellow Tavern - Confederate General JEB Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia .
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May 12 - American Civil War: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: The "Bloody Angle" - thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die.
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May 13 - American Civil War: Battle of Resaca - the battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.
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May 15 - 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.
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May 18 – Civil War gold hoax - New York World and the New York Journal of Commerce publish a fake proclamation that president Abraham Lincoln has issued a draft of 400.000 more soldiers
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May 20 - American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church - In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory
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May 26 - Montana is organized as a United States territory.
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June 5 - American Civil War: Battle of Piedmont - Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, West Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners.
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June 10 - 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.
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June 12 - American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor: - General Ulysses S. Grant pulls his troops from their positions at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.
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June 15 - Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.8 km²) of Arlington Mansion are officially set-aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
- June 15 - American Civil War: Battle of Petersburg begins - Union forces under General Grant and troops led by Confederate General Robert E. Lee battle for the last time.
July - September
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July 18 - President Lincoln issues a true proclamation of conscription of 500.000 men for the US Civil War
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July 20 - 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.
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June 21 - Maori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.
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July 22 - American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta - Outside of Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate General Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General Sherman on Bald Hill.
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July 24 - American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown - Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep the Yankees out of the Shenandoah Valley.
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July 28 - American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church begins - Confederate troops led by General Hood make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces under General Sherman from Atlanta, Georgia.
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July 29 - American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC.
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July 30 - American Civil War: Battle of the Crater - Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
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August 1 - foundation of Elgin Watch Company in Elgin, Illinois
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August 5 - American Civil War: 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.
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August 18 - American Civil War: Battle of Weldon Railroad - Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Weldon Railroad forcing the Confederates to use wagons.
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August 22 - International Red Cross founded in Geneva, Switzerland.
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September 1 - American Civil War: Confederate General Hood evacuates Atlanta after a four month siege mounted by Union General Sherman.
- September 1 - 8 - Delegates from the Canadian colonies meet at the Charlottetown Conference to discuss Canadian Confederation.
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September 2 - American Civil War: Union forces under General Sherman enter Atlanta a day after the Confederate defenders fled the city.
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September 7 - American Civil War: Atlanta, Georgia is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.
October - December
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October 2 - American Civil War: Battle of Saltville - Union forces attack Saltville, Virginia but are defeated by Confederate troops.
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October 5 – Cyclone kills 70.000 in Calcutta, India
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October 9 - American Civil War: Battle of Tom's Brook - Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at Tom's Brook, Virginia.
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October 28 - American Civil War: Second Battle of Fair Oaks ends - Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from Fair Oaks, Virginia , after failing to breach the Confederate defenses around Richmond, Virginia.
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October 30 - Second war of Schleswig concluded. Duke Frederick and the Danish Crown recognize Prussia's and Austria's annexation of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg.
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October 30 - Helena, Montana is founded after four prospectors discover gold at "Last Chance Gulch."
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October 31 - Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state
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November 4 - American Civil War: Battle of Johnsonville - At Johnsonville, Tennessee , troops under the command of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest bombard a Union supply base with artillery and destroy millions of dollars in materiel.
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November 8 - U.S. presidential election, 1864: Abraham Lincoln is reelected in an overwhelming victory over George McClellan.
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November 15 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea begins - Union General Sherman burns Atlanta and starts to move south, destroying everything in his path in order to punish the Confederates for starting the war.
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November 22 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: Confederate General John Bell Hood invades Tennessee in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Union General Sherman from Georgia.
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November 29 - Indian Wars: Sand Creek Massacre - Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 400 Cheyenne and Arapahoe noncombatants at Sand Creek, Colorado (where they had been given permission to camp).
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November 30 - American Civil War: Battle of Franklin - The Army of Tennessee led by General Hood mounts a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions around Franklin, Tennessee (Hood lost six generals and almost a third of his troops).
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December 4 - 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 Sherman's campaign of destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to the Gulf of Mexico (Union forces did suffer more than three times the casualties as the Confederates, however).
Births
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January 1 - Alfred Stieglitz, photographer (d. 1946)
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January 8 - Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, second in line to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
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January 13 - Wilhelm Wien, German physicist (d. 1928)
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January 24 - Marguerite Durand, French actress, journalist, and feminist leader (d. 1936)
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March 13 - Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian impressionist painter (d. 1941)
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March 15 - Johan Halvorsen, Norwegian composer (d. 1935)
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March 19 - Charles Marion Russell, American artist (d. 1926)
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April 21 - Max Weber, German sociologist (d. 1920)
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May 10 - Léon Gaumont, French film pioneer (d. 1946)
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July 13 - John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman, inventor (d. 1912)
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October 25 - Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (d. 1956)
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November 24 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (d. 1901)
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December 6 - William S. Hart, American silent film star (d. 1946)
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Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1945)
Deaths
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