1863

Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

Decades: 1810s 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s - 1860s - 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s

Years: 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 - 1863 - 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868

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Events

• January 1 - Abraham Lincoln delivers the Emancipation Proclamation during the second year of the American Civil War.
• January 1 - The first claim under the Homestead Act is made for a farm in Nebraska
• January 11 - American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post[?] - General John McClernand[?] and Admiral David Porter[?] capture the Arkansas River[?] for the Union.
• January 10 - The first section of the London Underground Railway opens (Paddington to Farringdon Street).
• February 10 - The world-famous midgets General Tom Thumb[?] and Lavinia Warren[?] get married in New York City.
• February 1 - Alanson Crane[?] patents the fire extinguisher[?].
• February 24 - Arizona is organized as a United States territory[?].
• February 26 - President of the United States Abraham Lincoln signs the National Currency Act[?] into law.
• March 3 - Idaho is organized as a United States territory[?].
• March 10 - Marriage of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales to Princess Alexandra of Denmark
• March 30 - Prince Wilhelm Georg of Denmark is chosen as King George I of Greece.
• May 2 - May 4 - General Robert E. Lee defeats Union[?] forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville
• May 18 - American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins (ends July 4).
• May 21 - American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson[?] - Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana[?].
• May 28 - American Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts, the first African American regiment, leaves Boston, Massachusetts to fight for the Union.
• May 31 - First running of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe horse race
• June 20 - West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
• July 2 - July 3 - Union forces turn back a Confederate invasion at the Battle of Gettysburg
• July 4 - American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg[?] - Ulysses S. Grant and the Union army capture the Confederate city Vicksburg, Mississippi after the town surrendered. The siege lasted 47 days.
• November 19 - Gettysburg Address
• Thomas Nast draws the modern Santa Claus for Harper's Weekly[?], although Santa existed previously.
• Construction begins on the First Transcontinental Railroad in Sacramento, California

Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy

• 1863 in literature:

Births

• January 15 - Wilhelm Marx[?], German politician, chancellor of the Weimar Republic
• January 17 - David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• March 12 - Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet (+ 1938)
• March 25 - Simon Flexner, pathologist who isolated 1899 a common strain (Shigella dysenteriae[?]) of dysentery bacillus[?] (+ 1946)
• July 1 - William Stairs, Victorian explorer
• January 12 - Swami Vivekananda

Deaths

• May 10 - Thomas Stonewall Jackson, Confederate Army general
• August 13 - Eugene Delacroix, painter
• September 17 - Alfred de Vigny, author