1861 in Belgium

Events in the year 1861 in Belgium.

Incumbents

 * Monarchy of Belgium: Leopold I
 * Head of government: Charles Rogier

Events

 * January
 * 1 January – Franco-Belgian Tirailleurs renamed Papal Zouaves.


 * February
 * 7 February – François Robyn (Br Hugo in religion) sentenced to death at the Court of assizes in Mons for arson at Scourmont Priory the previous October.


 * May
 * 1 May – Commercial treaty with France modelled on the Anglo-French commercial treaty of 1860.
 * 19 May – Association "Vlamingen Vooruit!" organises mass meeting in Brussels
 * 27 May – Commercial treaty with France ratified.


 * June
 * 1 June – Commercial treaty with France comes into effect.
 * 11 June – Partial legislative elections of 1861


 * July
 * 20 July – Signing of Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation between Belgium and Mexico negotiated by Auguste t'Kint.


 * October
 * 1 October – Commercial treaty between Britain, France and Belgium comes into effect.
 * 10 October – Commercial treaty with the Ottoman Empire signed at Constantinople by Gaston Errembault de Dudzeele for Belgium and by Esad Safvet and Mohammed Djemil for the Sublime Porte.

Publications

 * Periodicals
 * Annuaire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 27
 * La Belgique Horticole, vol. 11.
 * Bulletin de la Fédération des Sociétés d'Horticulture
 * Bulletin Usuel des Lois et Arrêtés, 1539–1813 (Brussels)
 * Collection de précis historiques, vol. 10, edited by Edouard Terwecoren S.J.
 * La Tribune du peuple (Brussels) begins publication
 * Revue belge et étrangère, 12
 * Het Vlaemsch Verbond begins publication


 * Reports and pamphlets
 * Bulletin administratif du Ministère de l'Intérieur, series 1 (1830–1847), vol. 1 (1830-1831).
 * Recueil des lois et arrêtés royaux de Belgique, vol. 48 (Brussels, Imprimerie du Moniteur Belge)
 * Charles Le Hardy de Beaulieu, L'Espagne et son avenir commercial: Des relations à créer entre la Belgique et l'Espagne (Brussels: A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven et Cie.)


 * Literary and historical writing
 * Adolphe Borgnet, Histoire des Belges à la fin du XVIIIe siècle
 * Charles De Coster, Contes brabançons
 * Gustave Oppelt, Histoire générale et chronologique de la Belgique, de 1830 à 1860 (Brussels, M. Hayez)
 * Auguste Scheler, Trente années de la littérature belge (Brussels: Aug. Schnée)
 * William Henry James Weale, Notes sur Jean van Eyck (Brussels: A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven et Cie; London: Barthes & Lowell)


 * Music
 * Barthélemy-Antoine Bauwens, Le plain-chant mis à la portée de tout le monde (Paris and Brussels: Casterman)
 * Henri Vieuxtemps, Violin Concerto No. 5

Births

 * Elisabeth Wesmael, graphic artist (died 1953)
 * 6 January – Victor Horta, architect (died 1947)
 * 11 March – Francis Dhanis, colonial administrator (died 1909)
 * 2 April – Ernest van Dyck, singer (died 1923)
 * 20 April – Arthur Van Gehuchten, anatomist (died 1914)
 * 5 July – Fernand Cocq, politician (died 1940)
 * 12 July – Eugène Broerman, painter (died 1932)
 * 13 August – Fernand Brouez, magazine publisher (died 1900)
 * 16 August – Diana Coomans, painter (died 1952)
 * 27 August – Aloïs de Beule, sculptor (died 1935)
 * 1 September – Louis Bernheim, general (died 1931)
 * 3 September – Ursmer Berlière, historian (died 1932)
 * 9 October – Privat Livemont, artist (died 1936)
 * 21 October – Charles van Lerberghe, poet (died 1907)
 * 3 November – Louis Ruquoy, soldier (died 1937)
 * 6 November – Germain Morin, patrologist (died 1946)
 * 10 December – Guillaume Van Strydonck, painter (died 1937)

Deaths

 * 5 April – Ferdinand de Meeûs (born 1798), politician
 * 8 April – Édouard Wacken (born 1819), poet and dramatist
 * 24 September – Michael Joseph François Scheidweiler (born 1799), horticulturalist
 * 27 October – Marcellin Jobard (born 1792), photographer
 * 3 December – Henry Voordecker (born 1779), painter
 * 25 December – Jacobus Josephus Eeckhout (born 1793), painter