WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO AUGUST 1862
Find out what all happened January to August 1862

Bucharest is proclaimed the capital of Romania. (24. January 1862)

The U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford. (19. June 1862)

American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass – in New Mexico, Union forces stop the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle began on March 26. (28. March 1862)

Cinco de Mayo: troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico. (5. May 1862)

American Civil War: The Battle of Yorktown begins. (5. April 1862)

Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861. (22. February 1862)

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law. (20. May 1862)

As the Treaty of Saigon is signed, ceding parts of southern Vietnam to France, the guerrilla leader Trương Định decides to defy Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam and fight on against the Europeans. (5. June 1862)

American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory. (21. February 1862)

American Civil War: The Union Army completes the Capture of New Orleans. (1. May 1862)

American Civil War: Battle of Shiloh ends – the Union Army under General Ulysses S. Grant defeats the Confederates near Shiloh, Tennessee. (7. April 1862)

American Civil War: The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia. (11. May 1862)

American Civil War: Union forces defeat Confederate troops at the Pea Ridge in northwestern Arkansas. (7. March 1862)

American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee. (16. February 1862)

The Russian State Library is founded. (1. July 1862)

Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels. (4. July 1862)

American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant attacks Fort Donelson, Tennessee. (15. February 1862)

Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment falsifying the theory of spontaneous generation. (20. April 1862)

American Civil War: Battle of Cross Keys – Confederate forces under General Stonewall Jackson save the Army of Northern Virginia from a Union assault on the James Peninsula led by General George B. McClellan. (8. June 1862)

American Civil War: The Battle of Shiloh begins – in Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston. (6. April 1862)