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Events of the World: April 1864
Posted By Brian Tomlin on April 30, 2014
April 10. In the spring of 1864, writer Nathaniel Hawthorne’s health was failing. His publisher William Ticknor accompanied Hawthorne on a trip from Boston where they both lived to try to restore Hawthorne’s health. Ticknor caught what he assumed was a cold before leaving Boston and Hawthorne later wrote home that his friend had eaten bad oysters. By the time they reached New York, it was determined to be pneumonia. Ticknor was more concerned about Hawthorne, writing to Sophia, “You will be glad to hear that your patient continues to improve.” In Philadelphia, the duo visited Fairmount Park and Ticknor offered Hawthorne his jacket for warmth before they returned to the Continental Hotel. A physician offered various medicines but Ticknor died on the morning of April 10, 1864. The sudden loss of Ticknor was devastating to the already failing health of Hawthorne who would die barely more than a month later on May 19. His publishing company, Ticknor and Fields, published the works of Horatio Alger, Lydia Maria Child, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell,Harriet Beecher Stowe, Alfred Tennyson, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, and John Greenleaf Whittier. The firm was also the original publisher of the Atlantic Monthly.
April 10. Austrian Archduke Maximilian is offered the title Emperor of Mexico by a group of Mexican monarchists, aided by France, and was the only ruler of the Second Mexican Empire. Many nations, including 
the United States, did not recognize Maximilian. He reigned until 1867.
April 22. The U.S. passes the Coinage Act of 1864, which created a 2 cent coin, but its more lasting legacy was that it required the phrase “In God We Trust” to be imprinted on all U.S. Mint coins.
April 29. Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensseber Polytechnic Institute in Rochester, NY. More about the history of the founding of Theta Xi, from the fraternity website. One of the founders, Peter Fox, was from Harrisburg, PA.
April 30. New York becomes the first U.S. state to charge a hunting license fee.
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