1865 - What happened in 1865 ?

January 1865

Tuesday 31:

American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.

February 1865

Friday 17:

American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina burns as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.

Saturday 18:

In the U.S., Delaware voters reject the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment on February 12, 1901.)

Wednesday 22:

Tennessee adopts a new constitution that abolishes slavery.

March 1865

Friday 03:

The U.S. Congress authorizes formation of the Freedmen's Bureau.

Monday 13:

American Civil War: The Confederate States of America reluctantly agrees to the use of African American troops.

Saturday 18:

American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time.

Saturday 25:

American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces capture Fort Stedman from the Union.

Wednesday 29:

American Civil War: Battle of Appomattox Court House begins

April 1865

Saturday 01:

In Petersburg, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.

Wednesday 12:

American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama falls to the Union Army

Friday 14:

Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth; he dies the next day.

Saturday 15:

Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th President of the United States.

Thursday 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 1865

Friday 05:

In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), the first train robbery in the United States takes place.

Wednesday 10:

American Civil War: Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill in Kentucky (he lingered until his death on June 6).

Saturday 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.

Wednesday 17:

The International Telegraph Union (the later International Telecommunication Union) is established.

Thursday 25:

In Mobile, Alabama, 300 are killed when an ordnance depot explodes.

June 1865

Friday 02:

Forces under Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith surrender at Galveston, Texas, becoming the last to do so.

Monday 19:

Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is henceforth unofficially celebrated as Juneteenth.

Friday 23:

American Civil War: At Fort Towson in Oklahoma Territory Confederate General Stand Watie surrenders the last significant rebel army.

July 1865

Tuesday 04:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published.

Wednesday 05:

1865 - The world's first maximum speed law is enacted in England.

Friday 07:

American Civil War: Four conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln are hanged.

Friday 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.

Thursday 27:

Welsh settlers arrive in Argentina at Chubut Valley.

October 1865

Saturday 07:

The Morant Bay Rebellion starts in Jamaica.

Wednesday 11:

Paul Bogle led hundreds of black men and women in a march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion.

Saturday 14:

The Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes signed a treaty with the U.S. at a camp on the Little Arkansas River in Kansas. However, none of the parties to the treaty abided by it.

November 1865

Friday 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.

Saturday 11:

Treaty of Sinchula is signed in which Bhutan ceded the areas east of the Teesta River to the British East India Company.

Saturday 18:

Mark Twain's story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press.

Sunday 26:

1865 -The Battle of Papudo between Spain and a combined Peruvian-Chilean fleet.

December 1865

Wednesday 06:

Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, banning slavery.

Monday 18:

Slavery is abolished in the United States, with the passing of the 13th Amendment

Sunday 24:

Several US Civil War Confederate veterans form the Ku Klux Klan