On this date 150 years ago, at Little Rock, Arkansas, the state legislature voted 69-1 in favor of secession. Elsewhere, Tennessee voted to set a public referendum on secession; while the June 8th deadline for the election was one month away, the state legislature's 66-25 vote in favor of secession confirmed the direction that Tennessee would take in the upcoming conflict.

Jefferson Davis gave approval to the Confederate congressional bill declaring a state of war between the United States and the Confederate States.