1862
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5 January 1862 Bedrich Smetana’s (37) symphonic poem Richard III is performed for the first time in its orchestrated setting, in Prague. See 24 April 1860.
Chilean authorities arrest Antoine Orllie de Tounens, a Frenchman who has proclaimed himself King Orllie-Antoine I of Araucania (present Chile south of the Bio-Bio River). This will lead to the incorporation of Araucania into Chile.
6 January 1862 British ships join French in the port of Veracruz. They plan to force President Juárez to resume payments owed to them by Mexico.
11 January 1862 Monsieur et Madame Denis, an opéra-comique by Jacques Offenbach (42) to words of Laurencin (pseud. of Chapelle) and Delaporte, is performed for the first time, at the Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris.
13 January 1862 Scenes from Goethe’s Faust for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra by Robert Schumann (†5) to words of Goethe is performed completely for the first time, in Cologne. See 29 August 1862.
14 January 1862 La Demoiselle de Nanterre, a vaudeville by Jacques Offenbach (42) to words of Grangé and Lambert-Thiboust, is performed for the first time, in the Palais-Royal, Paris.
17 January 1862 Concerto for piano and orchestra no.1 op.17 by Camille Saint-Saëns (26) is performed for the first time, in Salle Pleyel, Paris, the composer at the keyboard.
After reporting to the American Embassy in Havana, formally renouncing his allegiance to his home state of Louisiana and declaring his fidelity to the United States, Louis Moreau Gottschalk (32) boards ship for New York.
18 January 1862 Bishop Laurence of Tarbes, on authority of Pope Pius IX, proclaims that the visions recently reported by Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes were in fact the Virgin Mary.
26 January 1862 Jacques Offenbach (42) writes to the Duc de Morney that he is giving up management of the Bouffes-Parisiens.
28 January 1862 Die ersten Curen op.261, a waltz by Johann Strauss (36), is performed for the first time, in the Sophiensaal, Vienna.
29 January 1862 Fritz (Frederick) Theodor Albert Delius is born in Bradford, England, fourth of 14 children born to Julius Friedrich Wilhelm Delius, a wool merchant, and Elise Krönig, a descendant of Swedish royalty.
Concurrenzen op.267, a waltz by Johann Strauss (36), is performed for the first time, in the Sophiensaal, Vienna.
30 January 1862 The Federal ironclad USS Monitor is launched at Greenpoint, Long Island.
31 January 1862 The British government creates Lower Burma through the joining together of Arakan, Tenasserim and Pegu. It is subject to India.
Lens grinder and amateur astronomer Alvan Graham Clark of Cambridge, Massachusetts tests a new 46 cm lens by pointing it towards Sirius. He notices a tiny spot of light near Sirius and thus discovers a new class of heavenly body, the white dwarf.
1 February 1862 Johann Rudolf Thorbecke replaces Julius Philipp Jacob Adriaan, Count van Zuylen van Nijevelt as chief minister of the Netherlands.
Its autonomy terminated, Sicily is formally integrated into Italy.
4 February 1862 Colonnen op.262, a waltz by Johann Strauss (36), is performed for the first time, in the Sophiensaal, Vienna.
5 February 1862 Richard Wagner (48) reads Die Meistersinger to a large crowd in Mainz.
6 February 1862 Confederate forces surrender Fort Henry on the Tennessee River.
8 February 1862 Federal forces take Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
10 February 1862 Motoren op.265, a waltz by Johann Strauss (36), is performed for the first time, in the Sophiensaal, Vienna.
11 February 1862 On the ninth anniversary of his New York debut, Louis Moreau Gottschalk (32) gives his first public concert in the city in five years, at Niblo’s Saloon.
13 February 1862 The garrison at Nafplio revolts against King Othon of Greece. Loyal troops confine the revolt to the city.
15 February 1862 Barbu Catargiu replaces Alexandru Moruzi as Prime Minister of Romania.
16 February 1862 12,000 Confederates in Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River surrender after fighting which costs 4,300 total casualties. Federals now control significant portions of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.
18 February 1862 The First Congress of the Confederate States of America meets in Richmond.
19 February 1862 In the Soledad Agreement, signed today in Veracruz, France, Great Britain, and Spain agree to recognize the Mexican government of Benito Juárez, discuss debts owed to them by Mexico, and to limit their troops to Tehuacán, Córdoba, and Orizaba. France will fail to ratify the agreement.
21 February 1862 Minna Wagner shows up unexpectedly at Richard Wagner’s (48) residence in Biebrich. He describes what follows as “ten days in hell.” He wants a divorce but can not suggest it because of her bad health. They decide on a separation. She will move to Dresden.
22 February 1862 Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the permanent President of the Confederate States of America.
L’Union op.48, a fantasy on Yankee Doodle, Hail Columbia and The Star-Spangled Banner for piano by Louis Moreau Gottschalk (32), is performed for the first time, in New York by the composer. The work stirs the crowd into a patriotic frenzy.
23 February 1862 Franz Schubert’s (†33) String Quartet D.112 is performed for the first time, by the Vienna Musikverein, 48 years after it was composed.
24 February 1862 Studenten-Polka op.263 and the waltz Patronessen op.264 by Johann Strauss (36) are performed for the first time, in the Redoutensaal, Vienna.
25 February 1862 Federal troops occupy Nashville, Tennessee.
French troops begin moving inland from Veracruz.
26 February 1862 Lucifer-Polka op.266 by Johann Strauss (36) is performed for the first time, in the Dianabadsaal, Vienna.
28 February 1862 La reine de Saba, an opéra by Charles Gounod (43) to words of Barbier and Carré after Nerval, is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra before the Emperor and Empress. Initially successful with the audience, the work is attacked by the critics.
3 March 1862 Wiener Chronik op.268, a waltz by Johann Strauss (36), is performed for the first time, in the Dianabadsaal, Vienna.
4 March 1862 Urbano Rattazzi replaces Bettino Ricasoli, Count Brolio as Prime Minister of Italy.
Confederate forces occupy Santa Fe in the New Mexico Territory.
8 March 1862 The confederate ironclad CSS Virginia steams out of Hampton Roads, Virginia, sinks two Federal warships and runs three others aground.
Federal troops occupy Chatanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee as well as Leesburg, Virginia.
At Pea Ridge Arkansas, Federal troops defeat Confederates and Indians in the largest battle of the war west of the Mississippi River. 2,200 total casualties result and the rebels are forced to evacuate Arkansas.
Un ballo in maschera op.272, a quadrille by Johann Strauss (36), is performed for the first time, in Pavlovsk.
9 March 1862 The Confederate ironclad Virginia meets the Federal ironclad Monitor off Hampton Roads, Virginia. Neither gains an advantage but the Virginia is badly damaged and the face of naval warfare is changed forever.
10 March 1862 Great Britain and France recognize the independence of Zanzibar.
11 March 1862 France acquires the port of Obock (Djibouti) but will not occupy it until 1883.
14 March 1862 Federal troops take New Madrid, Missouri.
17 March 1862 Afternoon. Jacques-François-Fromental-Elie Halévy dies in Nice, aged 62 years, nine months and 18 days.
Anton Rubinstein (32) is named director of the new St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Adolf, Prince Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen replaces Karl Anton, Prince von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as Prime Minister of Prussia.
The faculty of Harvard University vote to hire John Knowles Paine (23) as organist and music instructor.
21 March 1862 James Bruce, Earl of Elgin replaces Charles John Canning, Earl Canning as Viceroy of India.
22 March 1862 Le voyage de MM. Dunanan père et fils, an opéra-bouffe by Jacques Offenbach (42) to words of Siraudin and Moinaux, is performed for the first time, at the Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris.
The Confederates’ Shenandoah Valley campaign begins with an attack on Kernstown, Virginia.
24 March 1862 A funeral procession in memory of Fromental Halévy travels from the Institute Palace to the Place de la Concorde to the cemetery of Montmartre. An estimated 15,000 people attended some part of the proceedings. Music includes the Marche funèbre from La Juive. There are eight funeral orations.
25 March 1862 Richard Wagner (48) in Biebrich writes a letter to King Johann of Saxony, pleading for amnesty on account of his need to have access to the Dresden theatre and because of the ill-health of his wife.
28 March 1862 Richard Wagner (48) is pardoned by King Johann of Saxony and allowed to reenter the country after an exile of 13 years.
30 March 1862 The Free School of Music opens in St. Petersburg in opposition to the official conservatory. Leaders are Director Gavril Lomakin and Assistant Director Mily Balakirev (25).
4 April 1862 Three songs by Johannes Brahms (28) are performed for the first time, in Hamburg: Vor dem Fenster op.14/1 and Ein Sonnett op.14/4, to anonymous words, and Keinen hat es noch gereut op.33/1 to words of Tieck.
5 April 1862 A performance of Arthur Sullivan’s (19) incidental music to The Tempest at the Crystal Palace wins universal approval and catapults Sullivan into the public consciousness. “It is no exaggeration to say that I woke up the next morning and found myself famous.” See 6 April 1861.
6 April 1862 Confederate forces attack Federals at Shiloh Church near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, 150 km east of Memphis, making modest gains, but their commander, Albert S. Johnston, is killed.
7 April 1862 Federal troops counterattack at Shiloh Church and the Confederates are forced to withdraw. The battle has cost 23,746 total casualties.
9 April 1862 The final conference of the occupying powers taking place at Orizaba concludes. Spain and Great Britain decide to end their intervention in Mexico. Only France remains.
11 April 1862 Union troops take Huntsville, Alabama.
12 April 1862 The post of permanent secretary at the Institute, made vacant by the death of Halévy last month, is granted to Charles-Ernest Beulé by a vote of 19-14 over Hector Berlioz (58).
Edvard Grieg (18) performs his final examination concert for Leipzig Conservatory at the Gewandhaus. Among other things, he plays three pieces from his op.1.
13 April 1862 When Giacomo Meyerbeer (70) hears from Arrigo Boito (20) that Giuseppe Verdi (48) will be traveling to London to produce his piece for the exhibition, he decides to do the same.
16 April 1862 US President Lincoln signs into law a bill outlawing slavery in the District of Columbia.
President Jefferson Davis signs a preliminary conscription law.
19 April 1862 While the laboratory in Pisa (where he is working) is closed for the Easter holidays, Alyeksandr Borodin (28) and his fiancee spend five days in Florence taking in art, theatre, and music.
20 April 1862 Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (18) graduates from the College of Naval Cadets, St. Petersburg with the rank of midshipman.
Giuseppe Verdi (48) arrives in London to produce Inno della nazioni at the London Exhibition.
Giacomo Meyerbeer (70) departs Berlin for London where he will produce his occasional work for the exhibition.
At a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences, Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard open jars of dog’s blood and urine they have kept sealed for 50 days at 30° C. They find no putrefaction or fermentation, thus proving that heating foods will destroy bacteria.
23 April 1862 Giacomo Meyerbeer (70) arrives in London from Berlin.
24 April 1862 In The Times of London an indignant letter from Giuseppe Verdi (48) appears. He complains that his Inno delle nazioni, composed on commission from the organizers of the London Exhibition, has been rejected for performance.
United States naval forces rush past the Confederate fortifications down river from New Orleans.
25 April 1862 As Federal ships anchor at New Orleans, the population sets the waterfront afire.
29 April 1862 Camille Saint-Saëns (26), Georges Schmitt, César Franck (39), Alexander Guilmant, and August Bazille inaugurate the new Cavaillé-Coll organ in St. Sulpice, France.
The city of New Orleans formally surrenders to United States troops.
1 May 1862 Anton Bruckner’s (37) cantata for the laying of the foundation stone for the new Linz Cathdedral, Preiset denn Herrn, to words of Pammesberger, is performed for the first time.
Fest-Ouvertüre im Marschstyl for orchestra by Giacomo Meyerbeer (70) is performed for the first time, at the opening of the London World Exhibition before Queen Victoria and other royals and notables.
2 May 1862 Bedrich Smetana (38) leaves Göteborg for the last time to settle permanently in Prague.
4 May 1862 Federal troops capture Yorktown, Virginia without a fight.
5 May 1862 Mexican forces defeat the French and Mexican conservative collaborationsists at Puebla. The day is celebrated as a national holiday (Cinco de Mayo).
Fighting at Williamsburg, Virginia results in greater losses for the Federals although Confederates are forced to retreat.
6 May 1862 Henry David Thoreau dies peacefully in Concord, Massachusetts at the age of 44.
8 May 1862 Confederate troops defeat Federals at McDowell, Virginia.
10 May 1862 United States troops occupy Norkolk and Portsmouth, Virginia.
11 May 1862 When Federal forces capture Norfolk, the base of CSS Virginia, the Confederates scuttle the ship.
12 May 1862 Union troops occupy Natchez, Mississippi.
The Crown Colony of British Honduras (Belize) is created.
13 May 1862 Charles Villiers Stanford (9) gives a solo piano and violin recital at Herbert Street, Dublin.
15 May 1862 In spite of official British neutrality, the confederate ship Alabama is launched from the Liverpool shipyard where it was built.
16 May 1862 General Benjamin Butler, the military commander of New Orleans, decrees that any woman acting disrespectfully towards the United States or its representatives “shall be regarded as a woman of the town plying her avocation.”
17 May 1862 Jules Massenet (20) and his competitors enter the cubicles for the Prix de Rome competition.
18 May 1862 The French and their conservative allies defeat Mexicans at Barranca Seca.
20 May 1862 President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act granting 65 hectares of free public land to anyone who works it for five years.
21 May 1862 Shortly after receiving his diploma from the Leipzig Conservatory, Edvard Grieg (18) gives his first public concert in Norway, at the Labor Union hall in Bergen. Among other things he plays three of his piano pieces op.1. His String Quartet in d minor is played for the first and last time. The response is good.
24 May 1862 After being refused a presentation at the Exhibition of 1862, Inno delle nazioni for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra by Giuseppe Verdi (48) to words of Boito (20), is performed for the first time, at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London.
28 May 1862 To commemorate the life of Fromental Halévy (†0), a gala performance of La Juive is given at the Paris Opéra. At the end of the second act, the curtain is raised revealing a bust of the composer donated by his wife. The five leads take laurels off their heads and place them on the bust, as others rain down on the stage. There follows a ten-minute standing ovation.
29 May 1862 Giacomo Meyerbeer (70) returns to Berlin from London.
30 May 1862 Federal forces occupy Corinth, Mississippi. 2,000 rebels are taken prisoner.
31 May 1862 Confederate forces attack Federals at Fair Oaks and Seven Pines on the south side of the Chickahominy River just east of Richmond. The two-day battle will end in a muddled draw with 11,165 total casualties.
5 June 1862 French naval forces compel the Emperor of Annam to cede three provinces to France and rights of passage on the River Mekong, in the Treaty of Saigon.
6 June 1862 Federal ironclads destroy seven of eight Confederate vessels at Memphis. At noon, the city surrenders.
7 June 1862 Gennaios Theodorou Kolokotronis replaces Athanasios Andreou Miaoulis as Prime Minister of Greece.
8 June 1862 Apostol Arsache replaces Barbu Catargiu as Prime Minister of Romania.
13 June 1862 A rehearsal of Béatrice et Bénédict at the apartment of Hector Berlioz (58) in Paris is interrupted by a telegram informing the composer that his wife, Marie-Genevieve Recio Berlioz, has suffered a heart attack while visiting friends in St.-Germain-en-Laye. He immediately leaves to attend her but by the time he arrives she is dead.
14 June 1862 Emperor Napoléon III signs a decree ordering a pension for the widow of Fromental Halévy (†0).
15 June 1862 At a public event in Belgrade, a Serbian youth is killed by a Turkish officer. Serbian police who intervene are shot and killed by Turkish soldiers. Massed Serbians thereupon attack Turkish troops and force them into the citadel.
16 June 1862 Turkish troops in the citadel of Belgrade open fire with artillery and bombard the city for five hours.
19 June 1862 President Lincoln signs a law prohibiting slavery in American territories.
24 June 1862 Nicolae Cretulescu replaces Apostol Arsache as Prime Minister of Romania.
Newly appointed Confederate commander Robert E. Lee initiates the Seven Days battle at Mechanicsville, Virginia just north of Richmond. They make little progress.
25 June 1862 Confederates resume the attack and break the Federal line at Mechanicsville but do not exploit the advantage. Union troops withdraw to the James River.
27 June 1862 Confederate forces break through the Union lines at Gaines’ Mills, Virginia, forcing the northerners back to Harrison’s Landing. The fighting results in 15,587 total casualties. The rebels relieve pressure on Richmond but can not exploit their advantage.
Union forces begin bombarding Vicksburg, Mississippi.
28 June 1862 Federal ships force their way past rebel shore batteries at Vicksburg.
29 June 1862 As southern forces attack across the Chickahominy River, Federal troops withdraw to safety leaving 2,500 sick and wounded behind.
30 June 1862 Federal troops defeat the Confederates at White Oak Swamp, allowing them to assume positions on Malvern Hill, north of the James River.
1 July 1862 The series of battles known as the Seven Days concludes as Confederates attack retreating Federals at Malvern Hill, southeast of Richmond. They are repulsed at murderous cost. The week has seen 5,212 people killed, 24,323 wounded, 6,928 missing.
President Lincoln signs into law a federal income tax. He also signs the Pacific Railway Act. It provides support from the federal government for the building of a transcontinental railroad.
4 July 1862 During a picnic along the Thames, Rev. Charles Dodgson first invents a story about a girl named Alice and her adventures down a rabbit hole, for three young girls accompanying him. He will later publish Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.
10 July 1862 The Central Pacific Railroad is begun moving eastward from California.
11 July 1862 Bavard et Bavarde (later called Les Bavards), an opéra-comique by Jacques Offenbach (42) to words of Nuitter after Cervantes, is performed for the first time, at Bad Ems.
12 July 1862 Edvard Grieg (19) petitions King Karl IV for a stipend to travel and study. It will be denied.
13 July 1862 Bedrich Smetana (38) conducts his first performance as chorus master of the Hlahol Choral Society, Prague.
16 July 1862 Today begins a two-day battle between 300 United States troops and 500 Apaches in Cochise County, Arizona. The Apaches withdraw after their leader is wounded.
21 July 1862 The first stone is laid for the new Paris Opéra.
27 July 1862 A Fugue in d minor for organ by Anton Bruckner (37) is performed for the first time, in Linz.
30 July 1862 Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme WWV 91 by Richard Wagner (49) to words of Mathilde Wesendonck are performed for the first time, at Laubenheim near Mainz. The songs were composed in 1857-1858 during Wagner’s liaison with Frau Wesendonck.
4 August 1862 Jules Massenet (20) receives an honorable mention in the Prix de Rome competition and a second prize in counterpoint.
5 August 1862 Confederate forces attack the Union positions at Baton Rouge but are repulsed.
9 August 1862 Béatrice et Bénédict, an opera comique by Hector Berlioz (58) to his own words after Shakespeare, is performed for the first time, in the New Theatre, Baden-Baden. Berlioz conducts in such pain that he can hardly stand.
A Federal attack at Cedar Mountain near Culpeper, Virginia is repulsed with 3,729 total casualties.
11 August 1862 Sarah Bernhardt makes her debut at the Comédie Française in Paris in Racine’s Iphegenie en Aulide.
13 August 1862 China agrees, in a treaty with Portugal signed in Tientsin, that Macao is Portuguese territory.
16 August 1862 Alyeksandr Borodin (28) and his fiancee arrive in Berlin on their way home.
18 August 1862 Dakota Indians begin a revolt, mostly in Redwood and Yellow Medicine Counties in Minnesota. 44 whites are killed.
19 August 1862 16 whites are killed in and around New Ulm, Minnesota.
20 August 1862 Dakota Indians attack Fort Ridgely, Minnesota today and tomorrow but the attack fails.
22 August 1862 0:30 Achille-Claude Debussy is born in St. Germain-en-Laye, first of five children born to Manuel-Achille Debussy, proprietor of a china shop and Victorine Joséphine Sophie Manoury, daughter of a wheelwright.
23 August 1862 Dakota Indians attack New Ulm, Minnesota again killing 34 whites and wounding 60. 40 Dakota are killed. Although most of the town is burned, it is successfully defended.
27 August 1862 08:00 Johann Strauss (36) marries Henriette Carolina Josepha Chalupetzky (Jetty Treffz), a singer and mistress to Baron Moritz Tedesco (and mother of the Baron’s two daughters), in St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna. The ceremony is witnessed only by the groom’s mother and his publisher, Carl Haslinger.
29 August 1862 After the Italian government secretly urged Garibaldi to raise an army and march on Rome, the Royal Italian Army finds the Garibaldists on Aspromonte in Calabria and fires on them. Twelve people die and Garibaldi is wounded twice.
Confederates destroy Federal supply lines at Manassas on the same battlefield as 1861.
30 August 1862 Union troops again attack at Manassas and again are repulsed. They retreat towards Washington. The last two days have seen 25,000 total casualties.
Confederate troops invade Kentucky, capturing Lexington.
2 September 1862 Alphons Johannes Maria Diepenbrock is born in Amsterdam.
4 September 1862 A conference in Constantinople decides that the Turks will evacuate all fortresses in Serbia except Belgrade and three other cities.
The Army of Northern Virginia crosses the Potomac River into Maryland.
The electoral college names Bartolomé Mitre as President of Argentina.
7 September 1862 Confederate troops occupy Frederick, Maryland.
Federal troops retake Clarksville, Tennessee.
8 September 1862 Johannes Brahms (29) leaves Hamburg for Vienna. Although unaware of it, he will never live in his native city again.
11 September 1862 Southern troops take Hagerstown, Maryland.
14 September 1862 In Namamugi village (Yokohama) one British subject is killed and two others seriously injured when they fail to show proper deference to the daimyo of Satsuma.
15 September 1862 The Federal garrison at Harper’s Ferry surrenders to the Confederates. 12,000 Union troops are captured.
17 September 1862 Federal forces attack Confederate positions along the Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland, 90 km northwest of Washington. “It was sheer concentrated violence, unleavened by generalship.” It is “the most murderous day of the...war.” 26,000 total casualties. Federals win the day but the Confederates are allowed to escape into Virginia.
18 September 1862 Confederate troops withdraw from Maryland.
20 September 1862 Imperial Chinese forces decisively defeat Taiping rebels at Tzeki (Cixi) near Ningpo (Ningbo).
The doors of St. Petersburg Conservatory open for business. The director is Anton Rubinstein (32). One of the new part-time students is a civil servant named Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (22).
22 September 1862 US President Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in territories currently in rebellion, to take effect 1 January.
23 September 1862 The last engagement of the Dakota uprising takes place in Wood Lake, Minnesota. In the month-long revolt, 42 Indians and 737 whites have been killed. 425 Sioux will be tried, 303 sentenced to death. President Lincoln will commute most of the sentences. While the battle goes on, anti-war Dakota take control of 269 white prisoners held near the Chippewa River.
24 September 1862 Giuseppe Verdi (48) and his wife arrive once again in St. Petersburg to produce La forza del destino.
King Wilhelm of Prussia names Otto von Bismarck-Schönhausen as chief minister in order to break the deadlock between king and lower house of Parliament over military spending.
26 September 1862 Dakota Indians release all whites captured during the recent uprising in Minnesota. United States troops enter the main Dakota camp and imprison 1,200 Indians.
28 September 1862 Over the next six weeks, 393 Dakota are tried for the recent uprising.
30 September 1862 Speaking to the Prussian Landtag, Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck regrets that they have not passed the military budget. He utters his most famous phrase, “Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided - that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849 - but by iron and blood.”
2 October 1862 Alyeksandr Borodin (28) and his fiancee cross the border into Russia at Verzhbolova.
3 October 1862 Confederate forces attack the Union positions at Corinth, Mississippi.
4 October 1862 Confederates are repulsed at Corinth. The two-day battle costs 6,700 total casualties.
5 October 1862 William Gladstone speaks in Newcastle advocating recognition of the Confederacy.
7 October 1862 Once again, the Prussian Landtag fails to pass a military budget. Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck adjourns them, and rules without a budget for four years.
8 October 1862 Fighting in Perryville, Kentucky forces the rebels to retreat. 1,355 people are killed, 5,486 wounded, 766 missing.
14 October 1862 Jacqueline, an operetta by Jacques Offenbach (43) to words of d’Archy (pseud. of Crémieux and Halévy), is performed for the first time, at the Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris.
16 October 1862 A revolt against King Othon of Greece begins in Vonitsa.
18 October 1862 Revolts against King Othon of Greece break out in Patras.
Confederate forces capture Lexington, Kentucky.
22 October 1862 While King Othon I of Greece is touring the Peloponnesus, a revolt led by Demitrios Voulgaris overthrows him.
23 October 1862 In the face of an uprising in Athens, King Othon I of Greece is forced to abdicate. A regency council is put in place until a new King can be found. Demetrios Georgiou Voulgaris replaces Gennaios Theodorou Kolokotronis as Prime Minister of Greece. The new government announces the convening of a national assembly to elect a new king and create a constitution. King Othon departs for Venice aboard a ship of the Royal Navy.
25 October 1862 Reverie suggested by Longfellow’s “Song of the Silent Land” for organ by John Knowles Paine (23) is performed for the first time, by the composer in West Church, Boston.
30 October 1862 The Théâtre-Lyrique opens its new home, on the Place de Châtelet, Paris.
1 November 1862 The Prelude to Die Meistersinger by Richard Wagner (49) is performed for the first time, in the Leipzig Gewandhaus conducted by the composer.
2 November 1862 Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (18) begins his first voyage as a naval officer on the clipper Almaz for a cruise of two-and-a-half years.
3 November 1862 The last 42 of 393 trials take place for the recent Dakota uprising. 323 of the trials result in conviction. 303 are sentenced to death by hanging.
4 November 1862 Richard Jordan Gatling receives a US patent for a “revolving gun battery” which shoots 350 rounds per minute. The United States Army will not accept the gun until 1866.
8 November 1862 Tsar Alyeksandr II confers the Cross of the Imperial and Royal Order of St. Stanislas on Giuseppe Verdi (49).
9 November 1862 Nachtigallen schwingen lustig op.6/6, a song by Johannes Brahms (29) to words of von Fallersleben, is performed for the first time.
Those Dakota condemned for the recent uprising are moved to Camp Lincoln, near Mankato. While passing through New Ulm, they are attacked by a mob. Some are killed, many injured.
10 November 1862 La forza del destino, an opera by Giuseppe Verdi (49) to words of Piave after Saavedra, is performed for the first time, at the Imperial Theatre, St. Petersburg. The work enjoys a good success.
14 November 1862 Richard Wagner (49) moves to Vienna once more, hoping to produce Tristan und Isolde there.
16 November 1862 Johannes Brahms (29) gives his first concert in Vienna, in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Vereinsaal. He plays the piano part in his Quartet for piano and strings no.1 op.25. It is a great popular and critical success, focusing attention on the newly arrived composer.
18 November 1862 The Prague Provisional Theatre opens with the expressed purpose of providing a stage for Czech art free of German domination. Among the orchestra members is a violist named Antonin Dvorák (21).
22 November 1862 Demolirer Polka op.269 and the waltz Carnevals-Botschafter op.270 by Johann Strauss (37) are performed for the first time, in the Sperl Ballroom, Vienna.
23 November 1862 Richard Wagner (49) reads his poem Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in the home of Dr. Josef Standhartner in Vienna.
Bluette op.271, a polka française by Johann Strauss (37), is performed for he first time, in the Redoutensaal, Vienna.
26 November 1862 US President Lincoln meets Harriet Beecher Stowe for the first time and remarks, “So this is the little lady who made the big war.”
29 November 1862 Quartet for piano and strings no.2 by Johannes Brahms (29) is performed for the first time, in the Musikvereinsaal, Vienna, the composer at the keyboard in his first solo concert in the city. The positive reviews create a reputation for Brahms in Vienna.
6 December 1862 US President Lincoln orders the execution of 39 Dakota out of the 303 recently sentenced to death for the Dakota Uprising. One will have his sentence commuted after new evidence casts doubt on his guilt.
9 December 1862 Luigi Carlo Farini replaces Urbano Rattazzi as Prime Minister of Italy.
12 December 1862 Eléonore Adélaide Royer de Marancour Massenet appears before authorities in Nice to plead that her youngest son not be taken for military service. Noting that young Jules (20) has three brothers already in service, they agree.
Arthur Sullivan (20) makes the last of several visits with Gioachino Rossini (70) which he has made over the last few days in Paris. They were recently introduced. Rossini presents Sullivan with an inscribed photograph of himself.
13 December 1862 Federal forces attack Confederates dug in on Marye’s Heights above Fredricksburg, Virginia, 80 km south of Washington. They are repulsed with heavy losses. The day leaves 18,030 total casualties.
17 December 1862 General Ulysses S. Grant issues Order no.11, which expels all Jews from territory under Union control in Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi. The order is carried out.
20 December 1862 Alyeksandr Borodin (29) is appointed to the post of adjunct professor in chemistry at the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg.
26 December 1862 Richard Wagner (49) conducts music from his unperformed music-dramas Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, and Die Meistersinger in Vienna in a concert attended by Empress Elizabeth of Austria.
38 Dakota warriors are hanged at Mankato, Minnesota for their part in the Dakota Uprising to the cheers of a local crowd.
30 December 1862 The Federal ironclad USS Monitor is lost in a storm off Cape Hatteras. 16 people are lost, 47 saved.
31 December 1862 Confederate troops attack Federals at Murfreesboro, Tennessee and gain the advantage. The day costs 23,000 total casualties.
©Paul Scharfenberger 2004-2012
12 July 2012
Last Updated (Thursday, 12 July 2012 04:51)