In the year 1863, Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, making the abolition of slavery an official war goal of the American Civil War (Jan 1), the first section of the London Underground opens officially (Jan 10), Adam Opel founds Opel AG (Jan 21), the foundation for the International Red Cross are laid in Geneva (Feb 9), Alanson Crane patents a fire extinguisher (Feb 10), Battle of Gettysburg begins, the Union winning it (Jul 1), the New Zealand Wars against the Maori people resume (Jul 17), Lincoln proclaims a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November (Oct 3), Lincoln delivers his famous Gettysburg Address (Nov 19), Gerard Heineken buys the Haystack brewery in Amsterdam (Dec 15), linoleum is patented in the United Kingdom, and association football is played for the first time (Dec 19), the American Civil War goes on - and all these fine people were born:

1863-0101 Pierre de Coubertin* educator/historian/founder of the International Olympic Committee  - Paris, France (1937/74) 1863-0107 John M. Evans* lawyer/politician/congressman - Sedalia, MO USA (1946/83) 1863-0107 Anna Murray Vail* botanist/first librarian of the New York Botanical Garden - New York City, NY USA (1955/92) 1863-0110 1863-0117 David Lloyd George* Welsh politician/PM - Manchester, England (1945/82) 1863-0117 Konstantin Stanislavski* actor/director/the father of method acting - Moscow, Russian Empire (1938/75) 1863-0124 Matti Kurikka* Finnish journalist/utopian socialist/to U.S. at age 37 - Tuutari, Inkerinmaa, Russian Empire (1915/52) 1863-0201 1863-0210 1863-0211 John F. Fitzgerald* politician/Mayor of Boston - Boston, MA USA (1959/87) 1863-0212 Edith Julia Griswold* patent attorney - Windsor, CT USA (1926/62) 1863-0220 1863-0227 Joaquín Sorolla* painter - Valencia, Spain (1923/60) 1863-0228 1863-0303 Arthur Machen* author/ mystic/actor - Caerleon, Monmouthshire, Wales (1947/84) 1863-0317 Olivia Shakespear* (b Tucker) novelist/ playwright - Isle of Wight, England (1938/75) 1863-0318 Charles Chaplin Sr.* music hall entertainer/ - Marylebone, London, England (1901/38) 1863-0322 G.R.S. Mead* historian/ writer/translator - Peckham, Surrey, England (1933/70) 1863-0324 William Sherman Jennings* politician/ Governor of Florida - Walnut Hill, IL USA (1920/56) 1863-0327 Henry Royce* co-founder of Rolls-Royce - Alwalton, Huntingdonshire, England (1933/70) 1863-0412 Simo Korpela* priest/hymn writer- Teuva, GD of Finland (1936/73) 1863-0415 Ida Freund* chemist/writer/ inventor - Vienna, Austria (1914/51) 1863-0429 William Randolph Hearst* San Fransisco, CA USA (1951/88) 1863-0510 Kaarle Krohn* linguist/ folklorist/reseacher - Helsinki, GD of Finland (1933/70) 1863-0511 Antoinette Flegenheim* (b Wendt) widow of a wealthy man/Titanic survivor - Himmelpfort, Kingdom of Prussia (1943/79) 1863-0520 1863-0521 Archduke Eugen of Austria* the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights from the Habsburg dynasty - Gross-Seelowitz, Moravia, Austrian Empire (1954/91) 1863-0524 George Grey Barnard* sculptor - Bellefonte, PA USA (1938/74) 1863-0606 Leo Dryden* music hall singer/vocal comic/married to Charlie Chaplin’s mother Hannah Chaplin - London, England (1939/75) 1863-0610 1863-0613 Lucy Duff-Gordon* (b Sutherland) leading fashion designer/Titanic survivor - London, England (1935/71) 1863-0619 William A. Brady* actor/producer/ sports promotor - New York, NY USA (1950/86) 1863-0621 Max Wolf* astronomer/astrophotographer - Heidelberg, Baden (1932/69) 1863-0712 Arthur Edward Tonks* grandson of the Wellington pioneer William Tonks - Wellington, New Zealand - Find A Grave 1863-0713 Margaret Murray* Anglo-Indian egyptologist/ anthropologist/ historian - Calcutta, British India (1963/100) 1863-0720 Jakob Sederholm* petrologist - Helsinki, GD of Finland (1934/70) 1863-0730 Henry Ford* captain of industry/founder of the Ford Motor Company/chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production - Greenfield Township, Michigan USA (1947/83) 1863-0731 Sidney Johnston Catts* politician/ Governor of Florida - Pleasant Hill, AL USA (1936/72) 1863-0803 Louis Sparre* Swedish painter/designer/brother-in-law of C.G.E. Mannerheim - Gravellona Lomellina, Kingdom of Italy (1964/101) 1863-0810 Emily Ryerson* (b Borie) mother of five/Titanic survivor - Philadelphia, PA USA (1939/76) 1863-0815 1863-0817 Gene Stratton-Porter* author/nature photographer - Lagro, IN USA (1924/61) 1863-0903 Hans Aanrud* author/ poet - Gausdal, Norway (1953/89) 1863-0913 Arthur Henderson* iron moulder/politician/N - Glasgow, Scotland (1935/72) 1863-0913 Franz von Hipper* admiral - Weilheim in Oberbayern, German Confederation (1932/68) 1863-0922 Alexandre Yersin* French physician/bacteriologist - Aubonne, Switzerland (1943/79) 1863-1001 Adolph Otto Niedner* gunsmith/did pioneering work with bullet cartridges - Philadelphia, PA USA (1954/91) 1863-1005 Ludwig Borchardt* Egyptologist/founder of a bust of Nefertiti at Amarna - Berlin, Prussia (1938/74) 1863-1010 1863-1016 Austen Chamberlain* politician/ statesman/N - Birmingham, Warwickshire, England (1937/73) 1863-1018 Marcia Pelham* Countess of Yarborough/politician - England (1926/63) 1863-1020 1863-1031 1863-1108 Eero Järnefelt* painter - Viipuri, GD of Finland (1937/74) 1863-1114 Leo Baekeland* chemist/inventor active in the U.S./“The Father of the Plastics Industry” - Ghent, Belgium (1944/80) 1863-1129 Anatole Deibler* lead executioner - Rennes, France (1939/75) 1863-1129 Aaron S. Watkins* lawyer/Methodist minister/presidential candidate - Rushsylvania, OH USA (1941/77) 1863-1130 Andrés Bonifacio* revolutionary leader - Manila, Captaincy General of the Philippines (1897/33) 1863-1201 1863-1206 Charles Martin Hall* chemist/inventor/businessman - Thompson, OH USA (1914/51) 1863-1207 Richard Warren Sears* businessman/ co-founder of Sears, Roebuck and Company - Stewartville, MN USA (1914/50) 1863-1211 Annie Jump Cannon* astronomer - Dover, DE USA (1941/77) 1863-1212 Edvard Munch* painter (The Scream) - Ådalsbruk, Löten, Norway (1944/80) 1863-1215 Arthur D. Little* chemist/chemical engineer/entrepreneur - Boston, MA USA (1935/71) 1863-0 1863-0 1863-0 Updated 2025-0414 Helsinki Search for another year here