Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nathaniel P. Banks (American-Massachusetts) (until March 4), James Lawrence Orr (D-South Carolina) (starting December 7)
Congress: 34th (until March 4), 35th (starting March 4)
Governors and Lieutenant Governors
Governors[]
Governor of Alabama: John A. Winston (Democratic) (until December 1), Andrew B. Moore (Democratic) (starting December 1)
Governor of Arkansas: Elias Nelson Conway (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Nicholas Brown III (political party unknown) (until May 26), Thomas G. Turner (political party unknown) (starting May 26)
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Elisha W. McComas (political party unknown) (until December 7), William Lowther Jackson (Democratic) (starting December 7)
March 4: James Buchanan becomes the 15th U.S. President
John C. Breckinridge becomes the 14th U.S. Vice President
January 9 – The 7.9 MwFort Tejon earthquake affects Central and Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent).
February 3 – The National Deaf Mute College (later renamed Gallaudet University) is established in Washington, D.C., becoming the first school for the advanced education of the deaf.
March 4 – James Buchanan is sworn in as the 15th President of the United States, and John C. Breckinridge is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
March 6 – Dred Scott v. Sanford: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Blacks are not citizens and slaves can not sue for freedom, driving the country further towards the American Civil War (the ruling is not overturned until the 14th Amendment in 1868).
March 12 – Elizabeth Blackwell opens a hospital, the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children.
August 8 – Henry Fairfield Osborn, geologist, paleontologist and eugenist (died 1935)
September 13 – Milton S. Hershey, chocolate manufacturer (died 1945)
September 14 – Julia Platt, embryologist and politician (died 1935)
September 15 – William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States from 1909 t0 1913 and tenth Chief Justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930 (died 1930)
October 7 – George P. McLean, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1911 to 1923 (died 1932)
October 24 – Ned Williamson, baseball player (died 1894)
November 5 – Ida Tarbell, investigative journalist (died 1944)
December 1 – Samuel M. Ralston, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1923 to 1925 (died 1925)
December 2
J. Frank Allee, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1903 to 1907 (died 1938)
Charles E. Rushmore, businessman, attorney, namesake of Mount Rushmore (died 1931)
December 4 – Julia Evelyn Ditto Young, poet and novelist (died 1915)
Deaths[]
February 16 – Elisha Kane, Arctic explorer (born 1820)
May 1 – Stephen Adams, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1852 to 1857 (born 1807)
May 26 – James Bell, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from 1855 to 1857 (born 1804)
June 19 – Alexander Twilight, educator and minister, first African-American known to have earned a bachelor's degree from an American college or university (Middlebury College, 1823) (born 1795)
July 4 – William L. Marcy, 21st Secretary of State from 1853 to 1857 (born 1786)
September 15 – John Henderson, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1839 to 1845 (born 1797)
October 7 – Louis McLane, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1827 to 1829 (born 1786)
October 10 – Thomas Crawford, sculptor (born 1814)