Decades: 1810s1820s1830s1840s1850s - 1860s - 1870s1880s1890s1900s1910s
Years: 18561857185818591860 - 1861 - 18621863186418651866
Events
- January 1 - Benito Juarez captures Mexico City
- January 3 - American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States
- January 9 - Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union, preceding the American Civil War.
- January 10 - Florida secedes from the United States
- January 11 - Alabama secedes from the United States
- January 14 - Mehmed VI, future Ottoman sultan.
- January 18 - Georgia joins the Confederacy
- January 21 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate
- January 26 - American Civil War: Louisiana secedes from the Union.
- January 29 - Kansas becomes the 34th U.S. state.
- February 1 - American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
- February 4 - American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama the Confederate States of America is formed by delegates from six break-away United States.
- February 8 - American Civil War: The Confederate States of America are formed.
- February 9 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
- February 11 - American Civil War: US House unanimously passes resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.
- February 18 - In Montgomery, Alabama Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the first and only President of the Confederate States of America.
- February 18 - Victor Emmanuel of Savoy becomes King of Italy
- February 19 - Serfdom is abolished in Russia.
- February 23 - President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, DC after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.
- February 27 - A crowd in Warsaw protesting Russian rule over Poland is fired upon by Russian troops killing five protesters.
- February 28 - Colorado is organized as a United Sates territory.
- March 2 - Nevada is organized as a United States territory.
- March 4 - The "Stars and Bars" is adopted as the flag of the Confederate States of America.
- March 11 - The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted.
- March 17 - Proclamation of the kingdom of Italy.
- March 19 Maori War ends in New Zealand
- April 12 - United States Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, South Carolina
- Abraham Lincoln succeeds James Buchanan as President of the United States of America
- Kansas becomes 34th state in the United States
- Victor Emmanuel becomes first king of Italy
- Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Abd-ul-Mejid (1839-1861) to Abd-ul-Aziz (1861-1876)
- Sir William Crookes discovers Thallium (see Discovery of the chemical elements)
- January 14 - Sultan Mehmed VI of the Ottoman Empire (+ 1926)
- February 12 - Lou Andreas-Salome, author (+ 1937)
- February 26 - King Ferdinand of Bulgaria (+ 1948)
- February 27 - Rudolf Steiner, anthroposoph (+ 1925)
- April 15 - Bliss Carman, poet
- May 6 - Rabindranath Tagore
- October 30 - Antoine Bourdelle, sculptor
- November 6 - James Naismith, inventor of basketball
- December 8 - Georges Méliès , French film director, allegedly the first.
- December 16 - Antonio de La Gandara, painter
- December 14 - Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Consort to Queen Victoria
- January 17 - Lola Montez (adventurer)
- June 25 - Abd-ul-Mejid, Ottoman sultan