| January 11, 1860 | Alabama Democratic Party adopts the Alabama Platform |
| February 27, 1860 | Abraham Lincoln addresses gathering at theCooper Union in New York City |
| March 6, 1860: | Lincoln gives speech in New Haven, Connecticut |
| April 23, 1860: | Democratic Convention opens in Charleston, South Carolina |
| May 3, 1860: | Democratic Convention adjourns after Deep South delegations withdraw over the slavery plank in the platform |
| May 9, 1860: | Constitutional Union Party nominates John Bell of Tennessee for the Presidency |
| May 18, 1860: | Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency |
| June 18, 1860: | Democrats reconvene in Baltimore, Maryland |
| June 22, 1860: | Deep South delegates again withdraw from the Democratic Convention |
| June 23, 1860: | "Regular" Democrats nominate Stephen A. Douglas; the "Southern" wing of the party nominates John C. Breckinridge |
| November 6, 1860 | Lincoln defeats Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell for the Presidency |
| November 14, 1860: | Alexander Stephens addresses the Georiga legislature on secession |
| November 30, 1860: | Mississippi legislature passes resolutions in favor of secession |
| December 18, 1860: | Crittenden Compromise introduced in Congress |
| December 20, 1860: | South Carolina convention passes ordinance of seccession |
| December 26, 1860: | Major Anderson moves Federal garrison in Charleston, South Carolina from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter |
| January 3, 1861: | Georgia seizes Fort Pulaski |
| January 4, 1861: | Alabama seizes U.S. arsenal at Mount Vernon |
| January 5, 1861: | Alabama seizes Forts Morgan and Gaines |
| January 6, 1861: | Florida seizes Apalachicola arsenal |
| January 7, 1861: | Florida seizes Fort Marion |
| January 8, 1861: | Floridians try to seize Fort Barrancas but are chased off |
| January 9, 1861: | Mississippi secedes. Star of the West fired on in Charleston Harbor |
| January 10, 1861: | Florida secedes. Louisiana seizes U.S. arsenal at Baton Rouge, as well as Forts Jackson and St. Philip |
| January 11, 1861: | Alabama secedes. Louisiana seizes U.S. Marine Hospital |
| January 14, 1861: | Louisiana seizes Fort Pike |
| January 19, 1861: | Georgia secedes |
| January 26, 1861: | Louisiana secedes |
| January 28, 1861: | Tennessee Resolutions in favor of Crittenden Compromise offered in Congress |
| February 1, 1861: | Texas secedes |
| February 8, 1861: | Provisional Constitution of the Confederacy adopted in Montgomery, Alabama Arkansas seizes U.S. Arsenal at Little Rock |
| February 12, 1861: | Arkansas seizes U.S. ordnance stores at Napoleon |
| February 18, 1861: | Jefferson Davis inaugurated as President of the Confederacy |
| March 4, 1861: | Abraham Lincoln inaugurated as 16th President of the United States |
| March 21, 1861: | "Cornerstone speech" delivered by Alexander Stephens |
| April 12, 1861: | Fort Sumter fired upon by Confederates |
Most of the items here can be found in E.B. Long's Civil War Day by Day (Doubleday, 1971), a standard and very valuable reference work.