1868

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

Years: 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 - 1868 - 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873

Events

• First edition of the World Almanac published.
• Académie Julian - a major art school established in Paris, France that admitted women.
• January 3 - "Meiji Restoration" fully established in Japan and the Shogunate is abolished.
• February 16 - In New York City the Jolly Gorks organization is renamed the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
• February 24 - The first parade to have floats occurs at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• Queen Isabella II of Spain derrocated.
• February 24 - After Andrew Johnson tried to dismiss United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, he becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. Johnson would later be acquitted by the United States Senate.
• March 5 - A court of impeachment is organized in the United States Senate to hear charges against President Andrew Johnson.
• March 23 - The University of California is founded in Oakland, California when the Organic Act is signed into California law.
• March 24 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is formed.
• May 16 - President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.
• May 30 - Memorial Day is observed in the United States for the first time (it was proclaimed on May 5 by General John Logan).
• July 25 - Wyoming becomes a United States territory.
• July 28 - The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is adopted guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.
• November - Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horatio Seymour in the U.S. presidential election
• November 27 - Indian Wars: Battle of the Washita River - In the early morning, United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living on reservation land with Chief Black Kettle, killing 103 Cheyenne (this was later regarded as the first substantial US victory in the war).
• German ophthalmologist August Rothmund defines Rothmund-Thompson's syndrome.
• December 25 - US President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War rebels.

Year in topic

• 1868 in literature
• 1868 in science

Births

• January 9 - S.P.L. Sørensen - Danish chemist
• February 23 - W.E.B. DuBois, civil rights leader (d. 1963)
• March 28 - Maxim Gorky, author (d. 1936)
• April 10 - George Arliss, actor
• May 6 - Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918)
• May 6 - Gaston Leroux, writer (d. 1927)
• May 29 - Abdul Mejid II, later last Caliph of the Ottoman Empire
• June 18 - Georges Lacombe - French artist
• July 14 - Gertrude Bell, archaeologist, writer, spy and administrator known as the "Uncrowned Queen of Iraq" (d. 1926)
• October 18 - Ernst Didring, Swedish writer (d. 1931)
• November 24 - Scott Joplin, musician and composer.

Deaths

• February 11 - Léon Foucault, astronomer
• March 4 - Jesse Chisholm, Old West pioneer
• March 28 - James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, British military leader
• April 3 - Franz Berwald, composer
• May 23 - Kit Carson, trapper, scout, Indian agent, soldier, legend
• June 1 - James Buchanan, U.S. President
• November 13 - Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer
• December 6 - August Schleicher, German linguist

Referenced By