Prime Minister: Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Liberal)
March 13
American Civil War: The U.S. federal government forbids all
Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively
annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and setting the stage for
the Emancipation Proclamation.
March 13
A smallpox epidemic in San Francisco spreads to British Columbia.[1]
15 March
Riots in Stalybridge resulting from the Lancashire Cotton Famine.