1865
1865 is a Common year starting on Sunday .
Events January 31 - American Civil War : Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief. February - The only month in any year that might not have a Full moon . February 17 - American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina burns as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces. February 22 - Tennessee adopts a new Constitution that abolishes Slavery . March 3 - The U.S. Congress authorizes formation of the Freedmen's Bureau . March 13 - American Civil War : The Confederate States of America reluctantly agrees to the use of African American troops. March 18 - American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time. March 19 - American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle on the 21st the Confederate forces had retreated from Greenville, North Carolina . March 25 - The "Claywater Meteorite " explodes just before reaching ground level in Vernon County, Wisconsin . Fragments having a combined mass of 1.5 kg were recovered. March 25 - American Civil War: In Virginia , Confederate forces capture Fort Steadman from the Union. April 1 - American Civil War: Battle of Five Forks - In Petersburg, Virginia , Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive. April 2 - American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia which is taken the next day. April 6 - German Chemicals producer, Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik(BASF ) founded in Mannheim . April 9 - American Civil War: General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox , effectively ending the American Civil War. April 14 - US President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth . April 21 - German Chemicals producer BASF moves its headquarters and factories from Mannheim to the Hemshof District of Ludwigshafen . April 26 April 27 - The Steamboat Sultana , carrying 2,300 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River , killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville Prison . May 1 - Triple Alliance of Argentina , Brazil and Uruguay against Paraguay is formally signed - War of the Triple Alliance has already begun. May 4 - American Civil War: Confederate General Richard Taylor , commanding all Confederate forces in Alabama , Mississippi , and eastern Louisiana , surrenders his forces to Union General E.R.S. Canby at Citronelle, Alabama . May 5 - In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati ), the first Train robbery in the United States takes place. May 10 - American Civil War : Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia. May 13 - American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch - In far south Texas , more than a month after Confederate General Lee 's surrender, the last land battle of the Civil war ends with a Confederate victory. May 23 - Parade down Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, DC to celebrate the ending of the American Civil War . May 25 - Mobile magazine explosion : 300 are killed in Mobile, Alabama when an ordnance depot explodes. June 2 - American Civil War ends - Confederate forces west of the Mississippi under General Edmund Kirby Smith surrender at Galveston, Texas , becoming the last to do so. June 11 - Brazilian navy squadron defeats Paraguayan navy at Riachualo. June 19 - American Civil War: Union Major General Gordon Granger lands at Galveston, Texas and informs the people of Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation . This event is celebrated each year as Juneteenth . June 23 - American Civil War: At Fort Towson in Oklahoma Territory Confederate General Stand Watie , a Cherokee Indian, surrenders the last significant rebel Army . July 2 - Salvation Army founded in Whitechapel , London July 4 - Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland July 5 July 21 - In the market square of Springfield, Missouri , Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in what is regarded as the first true western showdown. July 27 - Welsh settlers arrive in Argentina at Chubut Valley . October 11 - Paul Bogle led hundreds of black men and women in a march in Jamaica , starting the Morant Bay rebellion . November 10 - Major Henry Wirz , the superintendent of a prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia , is hanged, becoming the only American Civil War soldier executed for war crimes . November 26 -Battle of Papudo ; Spanish ship Covadonga captured by Chileans and Peruvians. December 10 - Léopold II becomes King of Belgium. December 11 - U.S. Congress created the Appropriations Committee and the Committee on Banking and Commerce. Reducing the tasks of the Committee on Ways and Means . December 18 - Thirteenth Constitutional amendment declared ratified by three-fourths of the States of the United States . It forever abolished slavery. December 24 - Several US Civil War Confederate veterans form the Ku Klux Klan . Undated Births January 5 - Julio Garavito Armero , Colombian astronomer (d. 1920 ) January 28 - Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg , President of Finland (d. 1952 ) February 12 - Kazimierz Tetmajer , Polish writer (d. 1940 ) February 19 - Sven Hedin , Swedish scientist and explorer (d. 1952 ) February 21 - John Haden Badley , author and educator (d. 1967 ) March 15 - Edith Maude Eaton , English-born writer (d. 1914 ) March 19 - William Morton Wheeler , American entomologist (d. 1937 ) April 1 - Richard Adolf Zsigmondy , Austrian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1929 ) April 9 - Erich Ludendorff , German general (d. 1937 ) May 2 - Clyde Fitch , American dramatist (d. 1909 ) May 25 - John Mott , American YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1955 ) May 25 - Pieter Zeeman , Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1943 ) May 26 - Robert W. Chambers , American artist (d. 1933 ) June 2 - George Lohmann , English cricketer (d. 1901 ) June 3 - King George V of the United Kingdom (d. 1936 ) June 9 - Albéric Magnard , French composer (d. 1914 ) June 13 - William Butler Yeats , Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1939 ) July 23 - Max Heindel , Danish-born Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic (d. 1919 ) July 29 - Alexander Glazunov , Russian composer (d. 1936 ) August 2 - Irving Babbitt , American literary critic (d. 1933 ) August 24 - King Ferdinand of Romania (d. 1927 ) August 27 - James Henry Breasted , American Egyptologist (d. 1935 ) August 27 - Charles G. Dawes , Vice President of the United States , recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1951 ) September 11 - Rainis , Latvian poet and playwright (d. 1929 ) October 1 - Paul Dukas , French composer (d. 1935 ) October 12 - Arthur Harden , English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940 ) October 17 - James Rudolph Garfield , U.S. politician (d. 1950 ) October 26 - Benjamin Guggenheim , American businessman (d. 1912 ) October 27 - Tinsley Lindley , English footballer (d. 1940 ) November 2 - Warren G. Harding , 29th President of the United States (d. 1923 ) December 8 - Jean Sibelius , Finnish composer (d. 1957 ) December 30 - Rudyard Kipling , British writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1936 ) Deaths April 1 - John Milton , Governor of Florida (b. 1807 ) April 2 - A.P. Hill , American Confederate general (b. 1825 ) April 15 - Abraham Lincoln , 16th President of the United States (b. 1809 ) April 26 - John Wilkes Booth , American actor and assassin of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1838 ) August 12 - William Jackson Hooker , English botanist (b. 1785 ) September 2 - William Rowan Hamilton , Irish mathematician (b. 1805 ) October 16 - Andrés Bello , Venezuelan poet, lawmaker, teacher, philosopher and sociologist (b. 1781 ) October 18 - Lord Palmerston , Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1784 ) November 12 - Elizabeth Gaskell , British novelist and biographer (b. 1810 ) November 28 - William Machin Stairs , Canadian businessman and statesman (b. 1789 ) December 10 - Léopold I of Belgium (b. 1790 James Barry , British military surgeon