1861 in Canada

Events from the year 1861 in Canada.

← 1860 1859 1858 1861 in Canada → 1862 1863 1864
Decades:	1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s
See also:	History of Canada Timeline of Canadian history List of years in Canada

Incumbents

• Monarch — Victoria

Federal government

• Parliament — 6th then 7th

Governors

• Governor General of the Province of Canada — Edmund Walker Head
• Colonial Governor of Newfoundland — Alexander Bannerman
• Governor of New Brunswick — Arthur Charles Hamilton-Gordon
• Governor of Nova Scotia — George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby
• Governor of Prince Edward Island — Dominick Daly

Premiers

• Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada —
  • George-Étienne Cartier, Canada West Premier
  • Antoine-Aimé Dorion, Canada East Premier
• Premier of Newfoundland — Hugh Hoyles
• Premier of New Brunswick — Samuel Leonard Tilley
• Premier of Nova Scotia — James William Johnston
• Premier of Prince Edward Island — Edward Palmer

Events

• April 12 - American Civil War starts
• April 14 – A major flood hits Montreal
• April 15 – Nova Scotia: resolution for provincial union by Joseph Howe for referral to the other British North American provinces in July.
• May 13 – The UK declares its neutrality in American Civil War.
• June 1 – The UK bans naval craft or privateers of American belligerents from carrying prizes into British ports or territorial waters.
• November 8 – The Trent Affair: British packet steamer Trent stopped by United States warship in international waters. Two Confederate diplomats taken off and imprisoned in Boston.
• November 28 – Viscount Monck becomes Governor-General.
• December 3 – The UK sends reinforcements to British North America.
• December 23 – The UK demands release of Confederate diplomats taken from Trent.
• December 26 – Confederate diplomats taken from Trent released.

Full date unknown

• Joseph Howe became Premier of Nova Scotia
• Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott becomes the first Canadian-born Black to graduate from medical school.
• 1861 Newfoundland general election
• The Cariboo Gold Rush starts in British Columbia.

Births

January to June

Lomer Gouin

• January 15 – Joseph-Mathias Tellier, politician (died 1952)
• March 10 – Pauline Johnson, poet, writer and performer (died 1913)
• March 10 – Clifford Sifton, politician and Minister (died 1929)
• March 19 – Lomer Gouin, politician and 13th Premier of Quebec (died 1929)
• March 20 – Herménégilde Boulay, politician (died 1942)
• May 13 – Margaret Marshall Saunders, writer
• April 15 – Bliss Carman, poet (died 1929)
• June 7 – George Henry Murray, politician and Premier of Nova Scotia (died 1929)

July to December

• July 11 – John Best, politician (died 1923)
• September 5 – Tobias Norris, politician and 10th Premier of Manitoba (died 1936)
• September 18 – Ella Cora Hind, journalist and women's rights activist (died 1942)
• September 19 – Charles Ernest Gault, politician (died 1946)
• October 31 – James Bowman, politician (died 1940)
• November 4 – Raoul Dandurand, politician (died 1942)
• November 6 – James Naismith, sports coach and innovator, inventor of basketball (died 1939)
• November 17 – Archibald Lampman, poet (died 1899)
• November 26 – Laura Borden, wife of Robert Borden, 8th Prime Minister of Canada (died 1940)
• December 22 – Sara Jeannette Duncan, author and journalist (died 1922)

Deaths

• February 3 – Louis-Théodore Besserer, notary, soldier, politician, and businessman (born 1785)
• February 13 – Denis-Benjamin Viger, politician, businessman and politician (born 1774)
• November 9 – Howard Douglas, soldier, educator, author, inventor, and colonial administrator (born 1776)