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
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
Births
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Deaths
- February 11 - Léon Foucault, French astronomer (b. 1819)
- February 29 - King Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1786)
- March 4 - Jesse Chisholm, American pioneer (b. 1805)
- March 28 - James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, British military leader (b. 1797)
- April 3 - Franz Berwald, Swedish composer (b. 1796)
- April 7 - Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Irish-Canadian journalist, politician and Canadian father of confederation (assassinated) (b. 1825)
- May 7 - Henry Peter Brougham, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1778)
- May 17 - Isami Kondo, Commander of the Shinsengumi (b. 1834)
- May 23 - Kit Carson, American trapper, scout, and Indian agent (b. 1809)
- June 1 - James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States (b. 1791)
- June 22 - Heber C. Kimball, Mormon church leader (b. 1801)
- July 6 - Sanosuke Harada, Shinsengumi Captain (b. 1840)
- July 19 - Soji Okita, Shinsengumi Captain (b. 1842 or 1844)
- September 26 - August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1790)
- October 17 - Laura Secord, Canadian patriot (b. 1775)
- October 18 - Mongkut, Rama IV, King of Thailand (b. 1804)
- November 13 - Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer (b. 1792)
- November 15 - James Mayer Rothschild, German-born banker (b. 1792)
- December 6 - August Schleicher, German linguist (b. 1821)
- Charles Thomas Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1794)
- August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and theoretical astronomer (b. 1790)
1868
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