1866 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Andrew Johnson
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Salmon P. Chase
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Schuyler Colfax
• Congress: 39th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March 5

• January - The second United States Capitol dome is completed in Washington, D.C. after 11 years of work; it survives to the modern day.
• January 1
• * Fisk University, a historically black university, is established in Nashville, Tennessee.
• * The last issue of the abolitionist magazine The Liberator is published in Boston.
• February 13 - The first daylight bank robbery in United States history during peacetime takes place in Liberty, Missouri. This is considered to be the first robbery committed by Jesse James and his gang, although James's role is disputed.
• February 26 - The Calaveras Skull is discovered in California. Purported to be evidence of humans in North America during the Pliocene epoch, it turns out to be a hoax.
• March 13 - The United States Congress overwhelmingly passes the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the first federal legislation to protect the rights of African-Americans; U.S. President Andrew Johnson vetoes the bill on March 27, and Congress overrides the veto on April 9.

  April–June

• April 10 - The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.
• May 1–3 – Memphis riots of 1866
• May 16 - The U.S. Congress approves the minting of a nickel 5-cent coin, eliminating its predecessor, the half dime.
• June - Red Cloud's War opens.

  July–September

• July 4 - The Great Fire of Portland, Maine kills two and leaves 10,000 homeless in the worst fire in an American city at this time.
• July 23 - The Judicial Circuits Act reduces the number of United States circuit courts to nine and the number of Supreme Court justices to seven.
• July 24 - Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.
• July 25 - The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army ; Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank.
• July 28 - The Metric Act of 1866 becomes law and legalizes the use of the metric system for weights and measures in the United States.
• August 11 - First Roller rink in the Unites States opens to the public in Newport, Rhode Island.
• August 14–16 - The National Union Convention is held in Philadelphia with hopes to reconcile the Radical Republicans in Congress with the Reconstructionist policies of President Andrew Johnson.
• August 20 - President Johnson formally declares Civil War over.
• August 27–September 15 - President Andrew Johnson goes on his Swing Around the Circle speaking tour to gain support for his Reconstructionist policies and Democratic Party candidates in the upcoming elections.
• September 24 - Western Union Telegraph Expedition to Alaska begins its second season, the first after the death of Robert Kennicott

  October–December

• October 6 - The Reno Gang commits the first train robbery in the United States, taking a total of $13,000.
• October 7–21 - The Second Plenary Council of American Roman Catholic bishops is held in Baltimore.
• November 5 - House of Representatives elections: Despite President Andrew Johnson's Swing Around the Circle tour, the Republican Party wins in a landslide.
• December 18 - The College of Wooster is founded in Ohio.

  Undated

• The dime novel The Dead Letter, an American Romance by 'Seeley Regester' is published in New York City as the first full-length American work of crime fiction, having begun to appear serially in the January Beadle’s Monthly.
• The Minneapolis Milling Company, predecessor of General Mills, builds its own mills.

  Ongoing

• Reconstruction Era

  Births

• January 5 - William B. Hanna, sportswriter
• January 6 - Caro Dawes, wife of Charles G. Dawes, Second Lady of the United States
• January 15 - Horatio Dresser, New Thought religious leader and writer
• January 23 - Lydia Field Emmet, painter and designer
• January 30 - Gelett Burgess, humorist
• February 9 - George Ade, writer, newspaper columnist and playwright
• February 23 - Joseph Miller Huston, architect working in Pennsylvania
• March 3 - William Marmaduke Kavanaugh, U.S. Senator from Arkansas in 1913
• March 30 - George Van Haltren, baseball player
• April 13 - Butch Cassidy, born Robert Leroy Parker, outlaw
• April 14 - Anne Sullivan, tutor of Helen Keller
• May 22 - Charles F. Haanel, New Thought author and businessman
• May 23 - Edgar J. Banks, antiquarian
• August 1 - Claude Fayette Bragdon, architect
• August 8 - Matthew Henson, African-American explorer
• September 1 - James J. Corbett, heavyweight boxer
• September 2 - Hiram Johnson, U.S. Senator from California from 1917 to 1945
• September 16 - Joe Vila, sportswriter
• September 22
• * Claude C. Hopkins, advertising executive
• * Witmer Stone, ornithologist and botanist
• September 25 - Thomas Hunt Morgan, geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933
• November 27 - George H. Reed, African-American screen actor
• November 28
• * Henry Bacon, Beaux-Arts architect
• * Sy Sanborn, sportswriter
• * David Warfield, stage actor

  Deaths

• January 16 - Phineas Quimby, physician
• January 31 - Thomas B. Marsh, leader of the Latter Day Saint movement
• February 13 - John Bernard Fitzpatrick, Catholic Bishop of Boston
• February 21 - Stephen Elliott Jr., Confederate brigadier general
• March 4 - Alexander Campbell, Scotch-Irish American founder of the Disciples of Christ
• March 9 - James F. Trotter, U.S. Senator from Mississippi in 1838
• March 28 - Solomon Foot, politician
• April 1 - Chester Harding, portrait painter
• May 11 - George Edmund Badger, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1846 to 1855
• May 16 - Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, son of Sacagawea, American explorer, guide, fur trapper, trader, and Military Scout.
• May 26 - Henry Darwin Rogers, geologist
• May 29 - Winfield Scott, Presidential candidate in 1853, Union Civil War General
• June 7 - Chief Seattle, Native American leader
• June 17 - Lewis Cass, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1845 to 1848 and from 1849 to 1857
• July 11 - James H. Lane, Union Civil War General and U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1861 to 1866
• July 25 - Floride Calhoun, wife of John C. Calhoun, Second Lady of the U.S.
• August 1 - John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee
• August 5 - William Burton, 39th Governor of Delaware from 1859 to 1863
• September 7 - Clement Comer Clay, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1837 to 1841
• October 13 - Celadon Leeds Daboll, merchant and inventor
• December 20 - James Semple, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1843 till 1847