1861  
Tsar Alexander II issues his proclamation emancipating Russia's serfs  •  Abraham Lincoln takes office as the President of the United States. He tries to reassure southern states, announcing that he does not intend to interfere, directly or indirectly, with the institution of slavery. But southern politicians have allowed themselves exaggerations and panic. Some southern states proclaim secession. Shooting erupts in the South over who will possess federal forts •   Whale oil has been the primary fuel for lamps. In Pennsylvania an oil well has begun producing more than 3,000 barrels per day, and oil refining has begun, producing an alternative fuel for lamps. In the US Civil War, the Union is using whaling ships for naval blockades, contributing to the decline in whaling  •  China's Manchu emperor, Xianfeng, has been weakened by debauchery and drugs and dies at the age of thirty. The son of his consort succeeds him. The former consort, Cixi, becomes the boy's regent and acquires the title Dowager Empress  •  Telegraphy connects the west coast of United States to the east coast. Telegraphy is detaching communication from its dependency on transportation. A communications revolution has been underway. It brings an end to the Pony Express  •  In Germany, workers making mirrors have lost all of their teeth. A professor of medicine discovers they are victims of mercury poisoning. His findings lead to government regulations requiring alternative mirror making processes  •  In Britain a government commission begins to investigate non-textile industries employing children. Occupational diseases among children are discovered

1862
In Prussia, the largest of the German states, a member of the landed aristocracy, Otto von Bismarck, becomes minister-president. Representing the king, he declares that his government is to rule without parliament  •  In the king's court in Siam, women being taught English by Christian missionaries are turned off by their sermons. Anna Leonowens arrives in Bangkok to teach English in their place. She is the English woman to be depicted in The King and I  •  The Frenchman Victor Hugo has his historical novel Les Misérables published. It's about the rebellion in Paris that began in 1830 against King Charles X. The book is serialized in ten installments and a best seller across Europe and North America. Police are called in to control impatient crowds at bookstores. Conservatives see it as a dangerous work. Some see it as a manual for insurgency. Hugo favors revolution, but contrary to Karl Marx he was trying to unite revolution and religion. And unlike Marx (now in exile in London) who wants and end to the ruling class (as a class), Hugo wants to inspire them to humanitarianism and wants freedom and justice for all  •  Miners have begun invading the Rocky Mountains and plains and clashing with Indians. The Lakota Sioux massacre or capture almost 1,000 people on the Minnesota frontier  •  In the United States the first paper money is issued   •  Victor Hugo (France) -  Les Misérables

1863  
Thirty-eight Lakota Sioux are hanged before a crowd of angry whites in the town of Mankato, Minnesota  •  President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation becomes law  •  Slavery ends in Dutch ruled Indonesia  •  Cambodia become a French protectorate, with the approval of its king, Norodom  •  In Britain, legislators respond to air pollution from the chemical industry by creating the Alkali Act for reducing hydrogen chloride emissions during alkali production  •  In London, the first underground (subway) passenger system opens  • 

The US civil war has cut Russia off from its primary source of cotton. Cotton growing in Central Asia has become of greater importance to the Russians, and Russia sends its military into Central Asia, where people are sparse, largely tribal, economically undeveloped, and Muslim  •  A devout Baptist, John D. Rockefeller, age 24, enters the oil refining business   •  Édouard Manet - Le déjeuner sur l'herbe ("The Luncheon on the Grass" or "The Picnic") 

1864  
The Dutch in Java and Sumatra experiment with rubber cultivation  •  An atronomer calculates the distance to the sun as 147 million kilometers – short 2.6 million kilometers  •  In China, the leader of the Taiping Rebellion, Hong Xiuchuan, proclaims that God will defend his city, Tianjin (southeast of Beijing). When government forces approach he swallows poison and dies. The monarchy re-establishes control over most areas of China. The Taiping rebellion is all but defeated  •  A few hand-cranked Gatling guns, designed by Richard Gatling in 1861, are in use in the US Civil War

1865  
Miners have been invading Colorado Territory, dislocating and angering Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. A Cheyenne-Arapaho war against whites has erupted. An Indian chief of a band of Cheyenne and Arapaho has chosen peace. They have settled temporarily at Sand Creek. A military commander, Colonel Chivington, is intent on killing Indians and leads 700 men in a massacre at Sand Creek that includes women and children  •  The US Civil War ends with General Robert E. Lee and his officers surrendering their swords. President Lincoln is assassinated  •  The Winnebago Indians have been removed from Iowa, Minnesota and that part of Dakota Territory that is to be South Dakota. They are placed a reservation in Nebraska  •  The Central Pacific Railroad Company hires Chinese to work on the transcontinental railroad  •   In what today is Uzbekistan, Russians capture the city of Tashkent, which is to become a Russian administrative center  •  Over-reaction in crushing a rebellion in Jamaica produces an investigation in England. The island's governor is widely condemned and called to London. Some demand that he be tried for murder. He is removed from office but a grand jury refuses to indict him

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