National Peace Jubilee opens.

The first of a five-day series of concerts produced by Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore to mark the end of the Civil War, it is held in a temporary coliseum built on the site of today’s Copley Plaza Hotel. A 10,000-voice choir and 1,000-member orchestra, which includes 100 Boston firemen beating anvils, performs before a capacity crowd of 50,000 people, described by the New York Times as, “The largest, most eager throng that ever awaited admission to an American place of entertainment.” Attendees include President Ulysses S. Grant and Adm. David Farragut.