1861 year

• January 8 - the first issue of Around the World magazine was published. This is the first in the Russian Empire and one of the first in the world magazine on cognitive topics.
• February 4 - Formation of the Confederate States of America .
• February 26 - The February patent was issued in the Austrian Empire , which strengthened central authority ^[1] .
• March 3 - in St. Petersburg, Emperor Alexander II signed the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom . Published March 5 ^[2] .
• March 17 - The new parliament proclaims the Italian kingdom , led by Victor Emmanuel II .
• April 12 - Battle of Fort Sumter , the start of the Civil War in the United States .
• June 26 - Croatian Law Party founded in Zagreb .
• July 21 - The first serious battle of the US Civil War took place in Virginia near the Manassas railway station, when poorly trained northerners crossed the Bull Run creek and attacked the southerners, but were forced to start a retreat that turned into an escape.
• September - October - David Livingston again visited the shores of Lake Nyasa ; he moved north along its western coast, while his brother Charles followed the boat along the coast. Far to the north they could not advance due to mistrust of local residents and storms that arose on the lake. Livingston compiled the first more or less reliable map of the lake.
• October 21 - US Civil War : Union troops under the command of General J. B. McClellan were defeated by southerners at Balls Bluff near the American capital.
• November 1 - 17 "initial" counties of the state of Colorado (USA) were formed.
• November 8 - US Civil War: during the naval blockade of the coast of the Confederation, the British steamer Trent was captured, on board of which there were emissaries of the southerners, which put the United States on the brink of war with Great Britain.
• December 8 - having landed troops in the port of Veracruz , the coalition of Spain, France and England launched an intervention in Mexico .
• The Ottoman Empire recognized the formation of Romania (from the united principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia), subject to the preservation of the protectorate over the new state.
• Grant Expedition Expedition to Central Africa. Travelers headed north-northwest to the state of Karagwe , and then to the state of Bugande ( Uganda ). On the way, the participants discovered the volcanic mountains of Mfumbiro ( Mufumbiro, Virunga ), which towered far in the west, in the territory of Rwanda . Here, British travelers discovered the Kagera River , the main tributary of Lake Victoria .
• In the second half of the year, Li Xucheng's Taiping army marched through Jiangxi to Hubei and from there returned to Zhejiang . Chen Yucheng’s army was not able to lift the siege of Anqing, and this main fortress, which covered Nanjing from the west, was taken in September by Zeng Guofang’s troops. This was the biggest success of the Qing troops: launching an attack on Nanjing, they captured one city after another, while Chen Yucheng’s army, retreating, lost territory north of Yangtze .
• Tikhon Zadonsky is numbered by the Russian Orthodox Church .

See also: Category: Born in 1861

• January 6 - Otto Leher - Austrian lawyer and politician; Member of the National Council of Austria .
• January 7 - Ivan Alexandrovich Schmidt von der Launitz , RIA Lieutenant General, inventor and teacher.
• February 27 - Steiner, Rudolph , German mystic philosopher, writer.
• April 23 - Edmund Henry Hinman Allenby (1st Viscount Allenby) , British Field Marshal , commander of British troops in France, Egypt and Palestine during the First World War , British High Commissioner in Egypt and Sudan in 1919 - 1925 (d. 1936 ) .
• June 11 - Sigismund Vladislavovich Zaremba , composer .
• August 26 - Blessed Seferino , patron of gypsies in Catholicism .
• October 10 - Fridtjof Nansen (d. 1930 ), Norwegian polar explorer, the first to cross Greenland on skis, winner of the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize.
• October 24 - Alexei Maksimovich Kaledin , Russian military leader, cavalry general, leader of the White movement (d. 1918 ).
• November 2 - Prince George Yevgenyevich Lvov , a Russian public and political figure, after the February Revolution, was chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire and the Provisional Government .
• November 16 - Arvid Järnefelt - Finnish writer.
• November 19 - Ernst Theodor Baash - German historian and publicist.
• November 22 - Sergius (Vasilkov) , Archbishop of Novosibirsk .
• December 5 - Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin , Russian artist (d. 1939 ).
• December 21 - Berend Pickk , German numismatist .

See also: Category: Deceased in 1861

• January 2 - Frederick William IV , Prussian king (since 1840 ) from the Hohenzollern dynasty.
• January 29 - Gore, Catherine Grace Francis (b. 1799 ), English writer.
• March 10 - Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko , Ukrainian poet (born 1814 ).
• April 23 - Alexey Petrovich Ermolov , Russian military leader and statesman.
• May 19 - Vera Silent , nun Syrkov of the Virgin’s Monastery , whom the legend of the Romanov dynasty identifies with Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna , wife of Alexander I.
• May 29 - Joachim Lelewel , Polish historian and politician (born 1786 ).
• June 6 - Camillo Benzo Cavour , one of the leaders of the Italian association , the first Prime Minister of Italy (born 1810 ).
• July 15 - Adam Czartoryski , Polish and Russian statesman (born 1770 ).
• September 22 - Ernst Friedrich Zwirner , German architect (born in 1802 ).
• October 28 - Ivan Savvich Nikitin , Russian poet (born 1824 ).
• November 29 - Nikolai Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov , Russian literary critic (born 1836 ).
• December 24 - Jean-Antoine-Simeon Fort , French artist.