Modern Era
Second Schleswig War (1864): Prussia and Austria vs Denmark
Danish defeat; by the Treaty of Vienna Denmark ceded Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg to Prussia and Austria.
Era · c. 1800 – 1945
Modern Era
Industry, science and global conflict: the century and a half that built the modern world.
Modern Era
Sand Creek Massacre (1864): Attack on the Cheyenne and Arapaho
Colorado volunteer troops destroyed a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camp; federal inquiries condemned the attack, but no one was punished.
Modern Era
Andersonville Prison (1864-1865): The Civil War's Deadliest Camp
Nearly 13,000 Union prisoners died; commandant Henry Wirz was convicted of war crimes and hanged in November 1865.
Modern Era
Paraguayan War (1864-1870): The War of the Triple Alliance
Allied victory; Paraguay was occupied, lost territory to Brazil and Argentina and suffered a catastrophic loss of population.
Modern Era
Sherman's March to the Sea (1864): From Atlanta to Savannah
Union success; Sherman's army crossed Georgia almost unopposed, destroyed railways and supplies and captured Savannah on 21 December 1864.
Modern Era
Clifton Suspension Bridge (1864): Brunel's Bridge Over the Avon
The bridge, begun in 1831 and abandoned in 1843, was completed by engineers of the Institution of Civil Engineers as a memorial to Brunel and opened in 1864.
Modern Era
Third Battle of Nanking (1864): The Fall of the Taiping Capital
Qing forces captured Nanjing on 19 July 1864, destroying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as a state; much of the city's population was killed and the city was plundered.
Modern Era
Thirteenth Amendment (1865): The Abolition of Slavery in the US
Slavery and involuntary servitude were abolished throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime, freeing the last enslaved people in states such as Kentucky and Delaware.
Modern Era
Surrender at Appomattox (1865): Lee Meets Grant to End the War
Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia; about 28,000 Confederate soldiers were paroled and allowed to go home, and the remaining Confederate forces surrendered over the following weeks.
Modern Era
Reconstruction Era (1865-1877): Rebuilding the United States
Slavery was abolished and the 14th and 15th Amendments wrote birthright citizenship, equal protection and Black male suffrage into the Constitution, but white Southern resistance and Northern retreat ended federal intervention in 1877.
Modern Era
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (1865) at Ford's Theatre
Lincoln died on the morning of 15 April 1865, Andrew Johnson became president, Booth was killed during the manhunt and four conspirators were hanged on 7 July 1865.
Modern Era
Maxwell's Equations (1865): Light as an Electromagnetic Wave
Maxwell's theory unified electricity, magnetism and light and predicted electromagnetic waves, confirmed by Heinrich Hertz in 1887–1888.