U.S. Congress outlaws polygamy in the United States.
First printing of U.S. national fiat or paper money.
Homestead Act of 1862 transfered ownership of 270 million acres of public land (formerly Native American owned) to private farmers, an area equivalent to 10% of the U.S. Massive government giveaway program.
California imposes "police tax" of $2.50 a month on every Chinese; Chinese Consolidated Benevolant Association organized.
Russian Tsar Alexander II appoints M. Kh. Reutern to be Finance Minister.
Marcel Sembat is born.
Timeline
January 10: Leland Sanford is sworn in as Governor of California. His inaugural address is full of racist, anti-immigrant yellow peril: "Asia, with her numberless millions, sends to our shores the dregs of her population."
April: U.S. Congress abolishes chattel slavery in the District of Columbia, with financial compensation to slaveowners.
May 16: African American seaman Robert Smalls escapes slavery and the Confederacy by hijacking the C.S.S. Planter and affords the Union a miltiary intelligence coup.
June 2: Union Admiral Du Pont and Major General Hunter land two divisions on James Island, SC.
June 22: Henry Morton Stanley, former Confederate POW and newly enlisted Union private, deserts the Union Army.
July 16: Samuel Francis Du Pont is appointed Rear Admiral in recognition of his victory at Port Royal.
October 6: Royal mail steamship Australasian arrives in Liverpool which from New York with news that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
