1866

1866 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1866; MDCCCLXVI
Ab urbe condita	2619
Armenian calendar	1315; ԹՎ ՌՅԺԵ
Assyrian calendar	6616
Bahá'í calendar	22–23
Balinese saka calendar	1787–1788
Bengali calendar	1273
Berber calendar	2816
British Regnal year	29 Vict. 1 – 30 Vict. 1
Buddhist calendar	2410
Burmese calendar	1228
Byzantine calendar	7374–7375
Chinese calendar	乙丑年 (Wood Ox); 4562 or 4502; — to —; 丙寅年 (Fire Tiger); 4563 or 4503
Coptic calendar	1582–1583
Discordian calendar	3032
Ethiopian calendar	1858–1859
Hebrew calendar	5626–5627
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1922–1923
- Shaka Samvat	1787–1788
- Kali Yuga	4966–4967
Holocene calendar	11866
Igbo calendar	866–867
Iranian calendar	1244–1245
Islamic calendar	1282–1283
Japanese calendar	Keiō 2; (慶応２年)
Javanese calendar	1794–1795
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 12 days
Korean calendar	4199
Minguo calendar	46 before ROC ; 民前46年
Nanakshahi calendar	398
Thai solar calendar	2408–2409
Tibetan calendar	阴木牛年; (female Wood-Ox); 1992 or 1611 or 839; — to —; 阳火虎年; (male Fire-Tiger); 1993 or 1612 or 840

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century ; 19th century ; 20th century ;
Decades:	1840s ; 1850s ; 1860s ; 1870s ; 1880s ;
Years:	1863 ; 1864 ; 1865 ; 1866 ; 1867 ; 1868 ; 1869 ;

Last updated August 13, 2019

1866 ( MDCCCLXVI ) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar , the 1866th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 866th year of the 2nd millennium , the 66th year of the 19th century , and the 7th year of the 1860s decade. As of the start of 1866, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Roman numerals Numbers in the Roman numeral system

Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers in this system are represented by combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet. Modern usage employs seven symbols, each with a fixed integer value:

A common year is a calendar year with 365 days, as distinguished from a leap year, which has 366. More generally, a common year is one without intercalation. The Gregorian calendar,, employs both common years and leap years to keep the calendar aligned with the tropical year, which does not contain an exact number of days.

A common year starting on Monday is any non-leap year that begins on Monday, 1 January, and ends on Monday, 31 December. Its dominical letter hence is G. The most recent year of such kind was 2018 and the next one will be 2029 in the Gregorian calendar, or likewise, 2013, 2019, and 2030 in the obsolete Julian calendar. The century year, 1900, was also a common year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar. See below for more. Any common year that starts on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday has two Friday the 13ths. This common year of this type contains two Friday the 13ths in April and July. Leap years starting on Sunday share this characteristic, but also have another in January.

Events

January–March

January 1
- Fisk University, a historically black university, is established in Nashville, Tennessee.
- The last issue of the abolitionist magazine The Liberator was published.
Nashville is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The city is the county seat of Davidson County and is located on the Cumberland River. The city's population ranks 24th in the U.S. According to 2018 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the total consolidated city-county population stood at 692,587. The "balance" population, which excludes semi-independent municipalities within Davidson County, was 669,053 in 2018.
January 6 – Ottoman troops clash with supporters of Maronite leader Youssef Bey Karam,^[1] at St. Doumit in Lebanon; the Ottomans are defeated.
January 12
- The Royal Aeronautical Society is formed as The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain in London, the world's oldest such society.
- British auxiliary steamer SS London (1864) sinks in a storm in the Bay of Biscay, on passage from the Thames to Australia, with the loss of 244 people, and only 19 survivors.
The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Fellows and Companions of the society can use the post-nominal letters FRAeS or CRAeS, respectively.
London is the capital of and largest city in England and the United Kingdom, with the largest municipal population in the European Union. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile (80 km) estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles (2.9 km²) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow closely its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
SS London was a British steamship which sank in the Bay of Biscay on 11 January 1866. The ship was travelling from Gravesend in England to Melbourne, Australia, when she began taking in water on 10 January, with 239 persons aboard. The ship was overloaded with cargo, and thus unseaworthy, and only 19 survivors were able to escape the foundering ship by lifeboat, leaving a death toll of 220.
January 18 – Wesley College, Melbourne is established.
January 26 – Volcanic eruption in the Santorini caldera begins.
February 7 – Battle of Abtao: A Spanish naval squadron fights a combined Peruvian-Chilean fleet, at the island of Abtao, in the Chiloé Archipelago of central Chile.
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.
February 28 – The month concludes without having a full moon.
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.^[2]
March 31 – A total lunar eclipse occurs.

January 1 is the first day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 364 days remaining until the end of the year. This day is known as New Year's Day since the day marks the beginning of the year. It is also the first day of the first quarter of the year and the first half of the year.

Fisk University United States national historic site

Fisk University is a private historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee. The university was founded in 1866 and its 40-acre (160,000 m²) campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. During the period of segregation in the United States prior to the Civil Rights Act, the overwhelming majority of higher education institutions were predominantly white and disqualified African Americans from enrollment. For a century after the end of slavery in the United States in 1865, most colleges and universities in the Southern United States prohibited all African Americans from attending, while institutions in other parts of the country regularly employed quotas to limit admissions of blacks.

April–June

April 4 – Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in the city of St Petersburg.
April 8 – The kingdoms of Italy and Prussia form an alliance against the Austrian Empire.
April 10 – The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.
May 2 – Battle of Callao: Peruvian defenders fight the Spanish fleet.
May 7 – Student Ferdinand Cohen-Blind makes a failed attempt to assassinate Otto von Bismarck in Unter den Linden in Berlin.

April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 271 days remain until the end of the year.

Alexander II was the Emperor of Russia from 2 March 1855 until his assassination on 13 March 1881. He was also the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Finland.

April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 267 days remain until the end of the year.

May 16: U.S. nickel coin approved. ShieldNickel.jpeg — May 16: U.S. nickel coin approved.

May 10 – London bank Overend, Gurney and Company collapses, precipitating Panic of 1866.
May 16 – The United States Congress approves the minting of a nickel 5-cent coin (nickel), eliminating its predecessor, the half dime.
May 24 – Battle of Tuyutí: 32,000 soldiers of the Triple Alliance defeat 24,000 Paraguayan soldiers few miles north of the Paraná, Argentina in the Paraguayan War, with 16,000 casualties.
May 26 – First production of the comic opera Cox and Box by F. C. Burnand and Arthur Sullivan at Moray Lodge, Kensington
June 2 – Fenian forces skirmish with Canadian militia at the battles of Ridgeway and Fort Erie.
June 5 – Calculations indicate Pluto (not known at this time) reaches its only aphelion (furthest point from the Sun) between 1618 and August 2113.
June 8 – The Parliament of Canada meets for the first time in Ottawa.
June 11 – The Agra High Court is established (later shifted to the Allahabad High Court).
June 14 – The Austro-Prussian War begins, when the Austrians and most of the medium German states declare war on Prussia.
June 20 – The Kingdom of Italy declares war on Austria.
June 22 – In Sweden, the Riksdag of the Estates votes to replace itself by an elected two-chamber Riksdag.
June 27 – 29 – Battle of Langensalza: The Prussians defeat the Hanoverian army.

May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 235 days remain until the end of the year.

Overend, Gurney & Company was a London wholesale discount bank, known as "the bankers' bank", which collapsed in 1866 owing about £11 million, equivalent to £1,001 million in 2018.

The Panic of 1866 was an international financial downturn that accompanied the failure of Overend, Gurney and Company in London, and the corso forzoso abandonment of the silver standard in Italy.

July–September

July 3 – Battle of Königgrätz: the Prussian army under King Wilhelm and Helmuth von Moltke defeats the Austrian army of Ludwig von Benedek, leading to a decisive Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War.
July 5 – Princess Helena, third daughter of Queen Victoria, marries Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein.
July 13 (July 1 Old Style) – The first Constitution of Romania is issued.
July 20 – Naval Battle of Lissa: The Austrian fleet under Wilhelm von Tegetthoff defeats the Italian fleet of Carlo di Persano.
July 24 – Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.
July 25 – The United States Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (now called "5-star general"); Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank.

July 27 – The SS Great Eastern successfully completes laying the transatlantic telegraph cable between Valentia Island, Ireland and Heart's Content, Newfoundland, permanently restoring a communications link.
July 28 – The Metric Act of 1866 becomes law and legalizes the standardization of weights and measures in the United States.
August 23 – The Treaty of Prague ends the Austro-Prussian War. The Duchy of Limburg leaves the German Confederation.
September – The Great Tea Race of 1866 ends in London, narrowly won by the clipper ship Taeping .
September 22 – Paraguay successfully defends Curupayty against the Triple Alliance in the Paraguayan War, killing more than 5,000 with just about 50 casualties.

October–December

Alfred Nobel invents dynamite in 1866 AlfredNobel2.jpg — Alfred Nobel invents dynamite in 1866

October 12 – The Treaty of Vienna ends the war between Austria and Italy; it formalizes the annexation of Venetia by Italy.
October 14 – French troops under the command of Rear Admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze land at Ganghwa Island, Korea as part of a punitive expedition against that kingdom for the execution of French Jesuit priests. It is the first military contact between Korea and a Western force.
October 22 – The office of State President of the South African Republic is created by constitutional amendment approved at a session of the Volksraad.^[3]
November 7 – The Ruse–Varna railway line (the first railway in Bulgaria) officially opens.
December 12– Oaks explosion: The worst mining disaster in England kills 383 miners and rescuers.
December 18 – The College of Wooster is founded in Ohio.^[4]

Date unknown

Federalist revolts occur in Argentina.
Alfred Nobel invents dynamite in Germany.
Foundation of the predecessors of Nestlé S.A., the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé.
The Minneapolis Milling Company, predecessor of General Mills, builds its own mills.
Marcus Jastrow arrives in the United States to become rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.
The recommendations of the state Girls' School Committee of 1866 result in a series of progressive reforms in women's rights in Sweden.
The Famine of 1866–68 begins in Finland.
Erasmus Jacobs discovers the 21.25 carats (4.250 g) Eureka Diamond near Hopetown on the banks of the Orange River in the Cape of Good Hope.