1861Oct, 17
Nineteen people are killed in the Cullin-la-ringo massacre, the deadliest massacre of Europeans by aborigines in Australian history.
The Cullin-la-ringo massacre, known historically as the Wills tragedy, was a massacre of white colonists by Indigenous people that occurred north of modern-day Springsure in Central Queensland, Australia on 17 October 1861. Nineteen men, women and children were killed in the attack, including Horatio Wills, owner of Cullin-la-ringo station. It is the single largest massacre of colonists by Aboriginal people in Australian history. In the weeks afterwards, police, native police and civilian posses carried out "one of the most lethal punitive expeditions in frontier history", hunting down and killing up to 370 members of the Gayiri Aboriginal tribe implicated in the massacre.
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Events on 1861
- 19Jan
Georgia (U.S. state)
American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in declaring secession from the United States. - 21Jan
Jefferson Davis
American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate. - 20Apr
Robert E. Lee
American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia. - 8May
Richmond, Virginia
American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America. - 6Sep
Ulysses S. Grant
American Civil War: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, Kentucky, giving the Union control of the Tennessee River's mouth.