| January 3 | Con Orem and Hugh O'Neill box 193 rounds before darkness ends match |
| January 11 | Battle of Beverly, WV |
| January 12 | Union fleet bombs Fort Fisher NC |
| January 15 | Ft. Fisher, North Carolina falls to Union troops |
| January 16 | Confederate Brigadier General John Pegram marries Hetty Cary |
| January 16 | Drunken sailor attacks munitions at Ft. Fisher NC, 40 die |
| January 16 | General Wm Sherman issues Field Order #15 (land for blacks) |
| January 16 | SF Dramatic Chronicle started |
| January 18 | Battle of Ft. Moultrie, SC |
| January 19 | NV Suriname Bank established |
| January 19 | Union occupies Fort Anderson, NC |
| January 25 | CSS Shenandoah arrives in Melbourne, Australia |
| January 28 | President Jefferson Davis names 3 peace commissioners |
| January 31 | Congress passes 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America (121-24) |
| January 31 | General Robert E Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies |
| February 1 | 13th amendment approved (National Freedom Day) |
| February 1 | General Sherman's march through South Carolina begins |
| February 1 | J. S. Rock, 1st black lawyer to practice in Supreme Court, admitted to bar |
| February 3 | Hampton Roads Peace Conference, Lincoln and Stephens reach an impasse |
| February 4 | Hawaiian Board of Education formed |
| February 4 | Robert E. Lee is named commander-in-chief of Confederate Army |
| February 5 | Battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia (Armstrong's Mill, Dabney's Mill) |
| February 6 | 2nd day of battle at Dabney's Mills (Hatcher's Run) |
| February 6 | Robert E. Lee appointed Confederate General in Chief |
| February 8 | 1st black major in U.S. Army, Martin Robinson Delany |
| February 12 | Henry Highland Garnet, is 1st black to speak in U.S. House of Reps |
| February 17 | Battle of Charleston South Carolina |
| February 17 | Columbia South Carolina burns down during Civil War |
| February 18 | Battle of Ft. Moultrie, South Carolina occupied by Federals |
| February 18 | Evacuation of Charleston, South Carolina; Sherman's troops burn city |
| February 18 | Union troops force Confederates to abandon Ft. Anderson, North Carolina |
| February 20 | MIT forms 1st U.S. collegiate architectural school |
| February 22 | Battle of Wilmington, North Carolina (Fort Anderson) occupied by Federals |
| February 22 | Tennessee adopts a new constitution abolishing slavery |
| February 27 | Civil War skirmish near Sturgeon, Missouri |
| March 2 | British newspaper "Morning Chronicle" begins publishing |
| March 2 | Freedman's Bureau founded for Black Education, 1865 |
| March 2 | General Early's army is defeated at Waynesborough |
| March 3 | Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands established |
| March 3 | Freedmen's Bureau is created to help destitute free blacks |
| March 4 | Confederate congress approves final design of "official flag" |
| March 4 | President Lincoln inaugurated for his 2nd term as president |
| March 6 | Battle of Natural Bridge, Florida |
| March 6 | President Lincolns 2nd Inaugural Ball |
| March 7 | Battles round Kinston North Carolina |
| March 8 | Battle of Kingston, North Carolina (Wilcox's ridge, Wise's Forks) |
| March 10 | Battle of Monroe's Crossroads, North Carolina |
| March 11 | General Sherman's Union forces occupies Fayetteville, North Carolina |
| March 12 | Affair near Lone Jack, Missouri |
| March 13 | U.S. Confederate Congress calls on black slaves for field service |
| March 16 | Battle of Averasboro North Carolina (1,500 casualities) |
| March 18 | Battle of Wilson's raid to Selma, Alabama |
| March 18 | Congress of Confederate States of American adjourns for last time |
| March 19 | Battle of Bentonville-Confederates retreat from Greenville NC |
| March 20 | 2nd day of Battle of Bentonville North Carolina |
| March 20 | Michigan authorizes workers' cooperatives |
| March 21 | Battle of Bentonville ends, last Confederate effort to stop Sherman |
| March 22 | Raid at Wilson's: Chickaswas, Alabama to Macon, Georgia |
| March 23 | General Sherman/Cox' troops reach Goldsboro North Carolina |
| March 25 | Battle of Bluff Spring, Florida |
| March 25 | Battle of Fort Stedman, Virginia - in front of Petersburg |
| March 25 | Battle of Mobile, Alabama (Spanish Fort, Fort Morgan, Fort Blakely) |
| March 25 | SS General Lyon at Cape Hatteras catches fire and sinks, killing 400 |
| March 27 | Siege of Spanish Fort, AL-captured by Federals |
| March 29 | Battle of Quaker Road, VA |
| March 30 | Battle at 5 Forks Virginia |
| March 31 | Battle of Boydton, Virginia (White Oaks Roads, Dinwiddie C H) |
| March 31 | General Pickette moves to 5 Forks, abandoning the defense of Peterburg |
| April 1 | Battle of 5 Forks Virginia, signalling end of Lee's army |
| April 2 | Battle of Ft. Blakely AL and Selma AL |
| April 2 | Battle of Petersburg, Virginia (Ft. Gregg, Sutherland's Station) |
| April 2 | CSA President Jefferson Davis flees Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia |
| April 3 | Battle at Namozine Church, Virginia (Appomattox Campaign) |
| April 3 | Union forces occupy Confederate capital of Richmond Virginia and Petersberg |
| April 4 | Lee's army arrives at Amelia Courthouse |
| April 5 | Battle at Amelia Springs/Jetersville Virginia (Appomattox Campaign) |
| April 6 | Battle of Sayler's Creek, 1/3rd of Lee's army cut off |
| April 7 | Battle of Farmville, Virginia |
| April 9 | Federals capture Ft. Blakely, Alabama |
| April 9 | Robert E. Lee and 26,765 troops, surrender to U.S. Grant at Appomattox |
| April 10 | At Appomattox, General Lee issues General Order #9, his last |
| April 11 | Battle of Mobile, Alabama - evacuated by Confederates |
| April 11 | Lincoln urges a spirit of generous conciliation during reconstruction |
| April 13 | Battle of Raleigh, North Carolina |
| April 13 | Sherman's march through Georgia begins |
| April 14 | Mobile, Alabama is captured |
| April 14 | President Abraham Lincoln shot in Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth |
| April 15 | Otto von Bismarck elevated to earl |
| April 16 | Battle of Columbus and West Point, Georgia (Ft. Tyler) |
| April 17 | Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in Lincoln's assassination |
| April 18 | Confederate General Johnson surrendered to General Sherman in North Carolina |
| April 20 | Chicago's Crosby Opera House opens |
| April 21 | Abraham Lincoln's funeral train leaves Washington |
| April 24 | Fire alarm and police telegraph system put into operation in San Francisco |
| April 26 | Battle of Durham Station, North Carolina (Greensboro) |
| April 26 | Battle of Ft. Tobacco, Virginia |
| April 26 | Confederate General J E Johnston surrenders Army of Tennessee, at Durham North Carolina |
| April 27 | Cornell University in Ithaca,New York is chartered |
| April 27 | Steamboat "Sultana" explodes in Mississippi River, kills up to 1,547. 1450 of 2000 paroled Union POWs on their way home are killed when river steamer "Sultana" blows up |
| April 28 | Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera "L'Africaine," premieres in Paris |
| April 28 | Opera "L'Africaine" is produced (Paris) |
| April 30 | General Shermans "Haines's Bluff" at Snyder's Mill, Virginia |
| May 2 | President Johnson offers $100,000 reward for capture of Jefferson Davis |
| May 4 | Battle of Citronville, Alabama; Richard Taylor surrenders |
| May 4 | Battle of Mobile, Alabama |
| May 5 | 1st U.S. train robbery (North Bend Ohio) |
| May 10 | Jefferson Davis captured at Irwinsville, Georgia |
| May 10 | Surrender of Sam Jones |
| May 12 | Last land action of Civil war at Palmito Ranch, Texas |
| May 13 | S Brownsville, Texas (Palmito Ranch) Final engagement of Civil War PVT John J Williams of 34th Indiana is last man killed |
| May 19 | President Jefferson Davis is captured by Union Cavalry in Georgia |
| May 23 | Flag flown at full staff over White House, 1st time since Lincoln shot |
| May 23 | Grand Review begins in Washington D.C. |
| May 26 | Battle of Galveston, Texas, surrender of Edmund Kirby Smith |
| June 2 | At Galveston, Kirby-Smith surrenders Trans-Mississippi Dept |
| June 8 | Tristanderl und Zusholde, premieres |
| June 9 | Battle of Grand Gulf, Mississippi |
| June 10 | Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" 1st performance Munich Germany |
| June 13 | President Johnson proclaims reconstruction confederate states |
| June 19 | Siege of Richmond, Virginia |
| June 19 | Union General Granger declares slaves are free in Texas |
| June 22 | 1st class cricket debut of Dr. W. G. Grace |
| June 23 | At Ft. Towson, General Stand Watie surrenders last sizeable Confederate army |
| June 30 | 8 alleged conspirators in assassination of Lincoln are found guilty |
| July 2 | William Booth founds Salvation Army (Army of the Salvation) |
| July 4 | 1st edition of "Alice in Wonderland" is published |
| July 5 | Great Britain delegate's world 1st maximum speed laws |
| July 5 | Secret Service began operating under the Treasury Department |
| July 13 | Horace Greeley advises his readers to "Go west young man" |
| July 13 | P. T. Barnum's museum burns down |
| July 14 | 1st ascent of Matterhorn |
| July 14 | Whymper, Hudson, Croz, Douglas and Hadow 1st to climb Matterhorn |
| July 22 | V E Walker takes 10-104 in an innings for Middlesex vs. Lancs |
| July 26 | Patrick Francis Healy is 1st black awarded PhD (Louvain Belgium) |
| July 30 | Pope Pius IX visits Suriname |
| August 2 | Lewis Carroll publishes "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" |
| August 2 | Trans Atlantic Cable being laid by SS Great Eastern snaps and is lost |
| August 20 | President Johnson proclaims an end to "insurrection" in Tx |
| September 3 | Army commander in South Carolina orders Freedmen's Bureau to stop seizing land |
| September 19 | Atlanta University forms |
| September 24 | James Cooke walks tightrope from Cliff House to Seal Rocks, SF |
| October 8 | Earthquake in Santa Cruz Mountains |
| October 9 | 1st U.S. underground pipeline for carrying oil is laid in Pennsylvania |
| October 10 | John Hyatts patents billard ball |
| October 11 | President Johnson paroles CSA Vice President Alexander Stephens |
| October 14 | Cheyennes and Arapaho's sign "peaces treaty" then chased out Colorado |
| November 1 | Zutphen-Fishing Dutch railway opens |
| November 6 | Maastricht-Venlo railway in Netherlands opens |
| November 7 | London Gazette, oldest surviving journal, is founded |
| November 11 | Mary Edward Walker, 1st Army female surgeon, awarded Medal of Honor |
| November 11 | Thomas Robertsons "Society," premieres in London |
| November 13 | 1st U.S. gold certificates issued |
| November 13 | PT Barnum's New American museum opens in Bridgeport |
| November 13 | U.S. issues 1st gold certificates |
| November 18 | Mark Twain publishes "Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" |
| November 20 | Howard University forms in Washington D.C. |
| November 21 | Shaw University forms in Raleigh NC |
| November 26 | "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll published in US |
| December 6 | 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery |
| December 17 | Franz Schubert's "Unvolendete" Symphony," premieres |
| December 18 | 13th Amendment ratified, slavery abolished |
| December 18 | 1st U.S. cattle importation law passed |
| December 20 | De Clear-Alkmaar railway opens |
| December 24 | Several Confederate veterans form Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tn |
| December 26 | James H Mason (Mass) patents 1st U.S. coffee percolator |
