1868

1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar.

Events

January—April

January 3 - Meiji Emperor declares "Meiji Restoration", his own restoration to full power, against the supporters of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
January 5 - War of the Triple Alliance: Brazilian Army commander Luís Alves de Lima e Silva enters Asunción, Paraguay's capital. Some days later he declares the war is over. Nevertheless, Francisco Solano López, Paraguay's president, prepares guerrillas fight in the countryside
January 6 - Asa Mercer and number of new "Mercer Girls" sail from Massachusetts for West Coast - they arrive in Seattle in May 23
January 10 - Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu declares emperor's declaration "illegal" and attacks Kyoto. Pro-Emperor forces drive his troops away. Shogun surrenders in May.
February 13 - The War Office sanctions the formation of what will become the Army Post Office Corps
February 16 - In New York City the Jolly Corks organization is renamed the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
February 24 - The first parade to have floats occurs at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana.
February 24 - After Andrew Johnson tried to dismiss United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, he becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. Johnson would later be acquitted by the United States Senate.
March 1 - The Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity is founded at the University of Virginia.
March 5 - A court of impeachment is organized in the United States Senate to hear charges against President Andrew Johnson.
March 23 - The University of California is founded in Oakland, California when the Organic Act is signed into California law.
March 24 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is formed.
March 27 - The Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in Oswego, New York.
April 1 - Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute is established in Hampton, Virginia

May—August

May 16 - President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.
May 26 - Last public hanging in Britain - Fenian bomber Michael Barrett
May 30 - Memorial Day is observed in the United States for the first time (it was proclaimed on May 5 by General John Logan).
May 31 - Thomas Spence declares himself president of the Republic of Manitoba. He soon alienates the locals
June 2 - The first Trades Union Congress is held in Manchester, England.
July 5 - Preacher William Booth establishes the Christian Mission, predecessor of the Salvation Army, in the East End of London
July 25 - Wyoming becomes a United States territory.
July 28 - The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is adopted guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.
late September - Queen Isabella II of Spain effectively deposed and goes into exile; she will formally abdicate June 25, 1870.

September—December

September 18 - First convocation of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.
September 23 - Rebels in the town of Lares declare Puerto Rico independent. Local militia defeats them a week later.
October 28 - Thomas Edison applied for his first patent, the electric vote recorder.
November - Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horatio Seymour in the U.S. presidential election.
November 2 - New Zealand officially adopts nationally observed standard time, and was perhaps the first country to do so.
December 6 - Battle of Itororó or Ytororó. Field-Marshall Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Marquis of Caxias, leads 13,000 Brazilian troops against a Paraguayan fortified position of 5,000 troops. War of the Triple Alliance
December 11 - Battle of Avahy or Battle of Avaí.Field-Marshall Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Marquis of Caxias, leads 17,000 troops (Brazilians at most) against 4,000 Paraguayans. War of the Triple Alliance
December 21 and December 27 - Battle of Lomas Valentinas.Two-days battle between Triple Alliance forces under command of Field-Marshall Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Marquis of Caxias, and Paraguayan forces under president Solano López. War of the Triple Alliance
December 25 - US President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War rebels.
November 27 - Indian Wars: Battle of Washita River - In the early morning, United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living on reservation land with Chief Black Kettle, killing 103 Cheyenne (later regarded as the first substantial US victory in the war).

Unknown dates

Thomas Henry Huxley discovers what he thinks is a primordial matter and names it bathybius haecklii (he admits his mistake in 1871)
German ophthalmologist August Rothmund defines Rothmund-Thompson's syndrome.
First edition of the World Almanac published.
Académie Julian - a major art school in Paris, France that admitted women.
The Dortmunder Actien Brauerei is founded in Germany.
Selected parts of the Finnish epic, Kalevala published for the first time in the English Language. By John Addison Porter.

Births

January

January 9 - S.P.L. Sørensen, Danish chemist (d. 1939)
January 11 - Cai Yuanpei, Chinese educator (d. 1940)
January 31 - Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)

February

February 10 - William Allen White, American journalist (d. 1944)
February 23 - W.E.B. DuBois, American civil rights leader (d. 1963)

March

March 22 - Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
March 25 - William Lockwood, English cricketer (d. 1932)
March 28 - Maxim Gorky, Russian author (d. 1936)

April

April 10 - George Arliss, English actor (d. 1946)
April 28 - Lucy Booth, the fifth daughter of William and Catherine Booth (d. 1953)

May

May 6 - Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918)
May 6 - Gaston Leroux, French writer (d. 1927)
May 29 - Abdul Mejid II, last Caliph of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1944)

June

June 7 - Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect (d. 1928)
June 14 - Karl Landsteiner, Austrian biologist and physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1943)
June 18 - Georges Lacombe, French artist (d. 1916)

July

July 12 - Stefan George, German poet (d. 1933)
July 14 - Gertrude Bell, English archaeologist, writer, spy, and administrator (d. 1926)

August

August 23 - Edgar Lee Masters, American poet, biographer and dramatist. (d. 1950)
August 26 - Charles Stewart, Premier of Alberta (d. 1946)

September

September 1 - Henri Bourassa, Canadian politician and publisher (d. 1952)
September 6 - Heinrich Häberlin, Swiss politician, member of the Federal Council (d. 1947)

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Events

January—April

May—August

September—December

Unknown dates

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Deaths