March 31 – Thomas Mundy Peterson is the first African-American to vote in an election.
April–Juneedit
April – The Chicago Base Ball Club, later to be known as the Chicago White Stockings, and ultimately the Chicago Cubs, play their first game against the St. Louis Unions of the National Association of Base Ball Players, an amateur league.
May 2 – William J. Seymour, one of the two Primary Founders of American Pentecostalism was born.
October 25 – Eutaw riot: A white mob attacks a group of black citizens, killing as many as four of them, in Eutaw, Alabama.
November 1 – The newly created Weather Bureau makes its first official meteorological forecast: "High winds at Chicago and Milwaukee... and along the Lakes".
December 12 – Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the second black U.S. congressman (following Hiram Rhodes Revels in February).
^"15th Amendment to the Constitution: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress)". www.loc.gov. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
^"A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875". memory.loc.gov. Retrieved February 2, 2016.