# 1863 in Belgium

Events in the year 1863 in Belgium.

## Incumbents

    Monarch: Leopold I
    Head of government: Charles Rogier

## Events

* 9 April – Treaty of amity, commerce and navigation with the Kingdom of Italy signed in Turin.
* 12 May – Commercial treaty with the Netherlands, including Dutch agreement to perpetual abolition of tolls on the Scheldt river in return for a payment of 17 million guilders
* 20 May – Commercial treaty with the United States, bringing relations into line with the free trade agreements already signed with France (1861), the United Kingdom (1862) and the Netherlands (1863).
* 9 June – Partial legislative elections of 1863
* 16 July – Multilateral treaty for the redemption of the Scheldt tolls signed in Brussels
* 27 July – Commercial treaty with the Austrian Empire, bringing relations into line with the free trade agreements already signed with France (1861), the United Kingdom (1862) and the Netherlands (1863).
* 1 August – Clipper Marnix van Sinte-Aldegonde the first ship to sail toll-free from Antwerp to the mouth of the Scheldt.
* 11 August – State visit of Queen Victoria to Belgium.
* 18-22 August – First Catholic Congress in Mechelen.
** Guild of Saint Thomas and Saint Luke for the study and promotion of Christian art founded
* 19 September – Convention modifying the 1852 postal convention between Belgium and the Office of the Prince of Tour and Taxis signed in Brussels.
* 26 December – Solvay chemical company founded.

## Publications
### Periodicals

* Annuaire de l'Observatoire Royal de Bruxelles, vol. 31
* La Belgique horticole, edited by Édouard Morren
* Bulletin du Bibliophile Belge, vol. 19, edited by A. Scheler (Brussels, F. Heussner)
* Bulletins de l'Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, second series, vol. 15
* Collection de précis historiques, vol. 12, edited by Edouard Terwecoren S.J.
* Dubbele wegwyzer der stad Gent en der provincie Oost-Vlaenderen, vol. 1 (Ghent, Vanderhaeghen)
* Revue belge et étrangère, 15
* Revue Trimestrielle, vol. 38
* Le Timbre-Poste begins publication

### Studies and reports

* Prosper de Haulleville, Les Catholiques et les libertés constitutionnelles en Belgique
* Émile de Laveleye, Essai sur l'économie rurale de la Belgique

### Historical editions

* Louis Galesloot, Procès de François Anneessens: doyen du corps des métiers de Bruxelles, vol. 2 (Brussels and The Hague)
* Jehan le Bel, Les vrayes chroniques, edited by Lambert Polain, vol. 1

## Art and architecture
### Performances

* 3 January – First performance of Charles Hugo's stage adaptation of Les Misèrables, Théâtre Royal des Galeries, Brussels

## Births

* 10 January – Félix Wielemans, soldier (died 1917)
* 3 February – Charles Magnette, politician (died 1937)
* 8 March – Théophile Bovy, journalist (died 1937)
* 3 April – Henry van de Velde, painter (died 1957)
* 21 April – Paul Lebrun, composer (died 1920)
* 25 June – Émile Francqui, philanthropist (died 1935)
* 26 June
** Paul Pelseneer, biologist (died 1945)
** Henri Quersin, marksman (died 1944)
* 13 August – Pol Demade, writer (died 1936)
* 21 August – Jules Destrée, politician (died 1936)
* 1 September – Herman Baltia, soldier (died 1938)
* 14 November – Leo Baekeland, chemist (died 1944)
* 10 December – Maurice Hennequin, playwright (died 1926)

## Deaths

* 8 February – Martin Martens (born 1797), botanist and chemist
* 14 May – Emmanuel Noterman (born 1808), painter
* 18 July – Arnold Timothée de Lasaulx (born 1774), politician
* 19 July – André-Napoléon Fontainas (born 1807), politician
* 26 September – Jean Thienpont (born 1774), politician
* 31 October – Augustus Van Dievoet (born 1803), judge