1860

Events from the year **1860 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Andrew B. Moore (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: Elias Nelson Conway (Democratic) (until November 16), Henry Massey Rector (Democratic) (starting November 16)
* Governor of California:
	+ until January 9: John B. Weller (Democratic)
	+ January 9-January 14: Milton Latham (Democratic)
	+ starting January 14: John G. Downey (Democratic)
* Governor of Connecticut: William A. Buckingham (Republican)
* Governor of Delaware: William Burton (Democratic)
* Governor of Florida: Madison S. Perry (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Joseph E. Brown (Democratic)
* Governor of Illinois: William Henry Bissell (Republican) (until March 18), John Wood (Republican) (starting March 18)
* Governor of Indiana: Ashbel P. Willard (Democratic) (until October 4), Abram A. Hammond (Democratic) (starting October 4)
* Governor of Iowa: Ralph P. Lowe (Republican) (until January 11), Samuel J. Kirkwood (Republican) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Kentucky: Beriah Magoffin (Democratic) (starting August 30)
* Governor of Louisiana: Robert C. Wickliffe (Democratic) (until January 23), Thomas Overton Moore (Democratic) (starting January 23)
* Governor of Maine: Lot M. Morrill (Democratic)
* Governor of Maryland: Thomas H. Hicks (Republican)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Nathaniel Prentice Banks (Republican)
* Governor of Michigan: Moses Wisner (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: Henry Hastings Sibley (Democratic) (until January 2), Alexander Ramsey (Republican) (starting January 2)
* Governor of Mississippi: John J. Pettus (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Robert Marcellus Stewart (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Ichabod Goodwin (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: William A. Newell (Republican) (until January 17), Charles Smith Olden (Republican) (starting January 17)
* Governor of New York: Edwin D. Morgan (Republican)
* Governor of North Carolina: John Willis Ellis (Democratic)
* Governor of Ohio: Salmon P. Chase (Republican) (until January 9), William Dennison Jr. (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Oregon: John Whiteaker (Democratic)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: William F. Packer (Democratic)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Thomas G. Turner (Republican) (until May 29), William Sprague IV (Republican) (starting May 29)
* Governor of South Carolina: William Henry Gist (Democratic) (until December 14), Francis Wilkinson Pickens (Democratic) (starting December 14)
* Governor of Tennessee: Isham G. Harris (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Sam Houston (Independent)
* Governor of Vermont: Hiland Hall (Republican) (until October 12), Erastus Fairbanks (Republican) (starting October 12)
* Governor of Virginia: Henry A. Wise (Democratic) (until January 1), John Letcher (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Alexander W. Randall (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of California:
	+ until January 9: John Walkup (Democratic)
	+ January 9-January 20: John Gately Downey (Democratic)
	+ starting January 20: Isaac N. Quinn (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Julius Catlin (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John Wood (Republican) (until March 20), vacant (starting March 20)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Abram A. Hammond (Democratic) (until October 3), vacant (starting October 3)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Oran Faville (Republican) (until January 11), Nicholas J. Rusch (Republican) (starting January 11)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: William F. Griffin (Democratic) (until January 23), Henry M. Hyams (Democratic) (starting January 23)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Eliphalet Trask (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Edmund B. Fairfield (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: William Holcombe (Democratic) (until January 2), Ignatius L. Donnelly (Republican) (starting January 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Hancock Lee Jackson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Robert Campbell (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Martin Welker (Democratic) (until January 9), Robert C. Kirk (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Isaac Saunders (political party unknown) (until May 29), J. Russell Bullock (political party unknown) (starting May 29)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: M. E. Carn (Democratic) (until December 14), W. W. Harllee (Democratic) (starting December 14)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Edward Clark (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Burnham Martin (Republican) (until October 12), Levi Underwood (Republican) (starting October 12)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: William Lowther Jackson (Democratic) (until January 1), Robert Latane Montague (no political party) (starting January 1)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Erasmus D. Campbell (Democratic) (until January 2), Butler G. Noble (Republican) (starting January 2)

## Events

### January - March

* January 10 – The Pemberton Mill collapses in Lawrence, Massachusetts, killing 145 workers.
* February 22 – The New England Shoemakers Strike of 1860 begins in Lynn, Massachusetts. The strike spreads throughout New England, and eventually involves 20,000 workers.
* February 26 – 1860 Wiyot Massacre: 80 to 250 Wiyot people are killed on Indian Island, near Eureka, California.
* February 27 – Abraham Lincoln gives his Cooper Union speech.
* March 6 – While campaigning for the presidency, Abraham Lincoln makes a speech defending the right to strike.
* March 9 – The first Japanese ambassadors to the United States arrive in San Francisco.

### April - June

* April 3 – The Pony Express begins its first run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California.
* May 1 – A Chondrite type meteorite falls to earth in Muskingum County, Ohio near the town of New Concord.
* May 6 – The Paiute War begins as Northern Paiutes raided Williams Station in Utah Territory.
* May 9 – The U.S. Constitutional Union Party holds its convention and nominates John Bell for President of the United States.
* May 12 – Paiute War: First Battle of Pyramid Lake: American vigilantes seek out the Paiutes and are soundly defeated. Disorganized and outnumbered, nearly all of the vigilantes are killed or wounded.
* May 18 – Abraham Lincoln is selected as the U.S. presidential candidate for the Republican Party.
* June 2 – Paiute War: Second Battle of Pyramid Lake begins: A well-organized force of militia and U.S. Army soldiers seek out the Paiutes and defeat them in the final battle of the war.
* June 4 – Paiute War: Second Battle of Pyramid Lake ends.

### July - September

* August 1 – The Paiute War ends with an informal ceasefire.
* August 25 – The Stone's Prairie Riot takes place in Payson and Plainville, Illinois between the Republican Wide Awakes and armed Democratic supporters of Stephen A. Douglas.
* September 7 – The *Lady Elgin* is accidentally rammed and sunk in Lake Michigan; more than 400 drown.

### October - December

* November 6 – U.S. presidential election: Abraham Lincoln beats Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge, and John Bell and is elected as the 16th President of the United States, the first Republican to hold that office.
* December 18
	+ Senator John J. Crittenden proposes the so-called Crittenden Compromise hoping to resolve the U.S. secession crisis.
	+ Texas Rangers defeat a band of Comanches at the Battle of Pease River; Cynthia Ann Parker is recaptured and returned to her family after 24 years.
* December 20 – South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the United States.
* December 24 – South Carolina issues the "Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union", analogous to the United States Declaration of Independence.

## Memoriam

* January 5 – John Neumann, first United States bishop to be canonized (aged 48; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* January 13 – William Mason, politician (aged 73; Norwich, NY, USA)
* January 18 – John Nelson, lawyer (aged 68; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* February 25 – Chauncey A. Goodrich, lexicographer (aged 69; New Haven, CT, USA)
* April 6 – James Kirke Paulding, writer and United States Secretary of the Navy (aged 81; Hyde Park, NY, USA)
* May 9 – Samuel Griswold Goodrich, children's author (aged 66; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 10 – Theodore Parker, preacher, Transcendentalist and abolitionist (aged 49; Florence, Italy)
* May 21 – Phineas Gage, improbable head injury survivor (aged 36; San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA)
* May 31 – Peter V. Daniel, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1841 to 1860 (aged 76; Richmond, VA, USA)
* June 6 – Henry P. Haun, U.S. Senator from California from 1859 to 1860 (aged 45; Marysville, CA, USA)
* July 1 – Charles Goodyear, inventor (aged 59; New York City, NY, USA)
* September 12 – William Walker, filibuster, briefly President of Nicaragua, executed (aged 36; Trujillo, Honduras)
* September 19 – Thomas D. Rice, actor and dancer (aged 52; Brooklyn, NY, USA)
* September 29 – Chapin A. Harris, physician and dentist (aged 54; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* October 3 – Rembrandt Peale, portrait painter and museum keeper (aged 82; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* October 25 – John "Grizzly" Adams, mountain man and bear trainer (aged 48; Boston, MA, USA)